A Travesty And An Opportunity

To the Editor:

As a mostly “retired” animal rescuer and trapper, I immediately feared for the homeless feline population in Newtown when I heard about the firing of Carolee Mason. Under first Gerri Breyan’s and then Carolee’s stewardship, Newtown Animal Control successfully made the transition from old-style dog-catching, fine-slapping, rabies-controlling wardens to humane, caring officers who responded to all suffering animals in Newtown. The irony is that the nonprofit organization that came into existence to facilitate the pound’s transition to a no-kill facility, ensuring that dogs in the pound would have enough time to be rehabilitated and rehomed, is now standing in the way of the broader humane mission of animal control, which includes intervening in cases of injury, neglect and abuse of all domestic animals.

If Carolee was indeed fired because this organization did not like her extending services to cats, then do they want to return to a narrow definition of animal control? That would mean responding to injured wildlife calls with a shotgun and leaving injured and homeless cats to uncertain fates. In fact, if this canine group wants a retrograde style of animal control, that would also mean holding dogs for no more than the required seven days before killing them.

The blatant railroading of Carolee and the resulting negative impact on Newtown’s animals raises important questions. Why does this canine organization have such undue influence on pound policies and personnel when that organization deals with only a minority of the town’s homeless animal population? And who should be defining the mission of our tax-funded animal control agency?

There are three nonprofit animal welfare groups in Newtown. The Animal Center and Spay and Neuter Association have been the primary source of help to Carolee with the cats she’s rescued. The third, despite claiming in its current capital fundraising campaign that it will help all animals, is singularly focused on dogs and even more so on bricks and mortar for the five to ten dogs that might be in the pound at any one time. The fact is that there is not a homeless dog problem in Newtown, but there is a real need to assist homeless cats here. Animal control around the state has changed to reflect the realities of the 21st Century. You can’t do animal control anymore and not deal with cats (humanely). And while animal control is part of the police department and the chief animal control officer is supervised by the first selectperson, that doesn’t qualify Chief Kehoe and Mr Borst to determine the future of animal control without input from the appropriate nonprofits in town.

While Carolee’s firing is a travesty, it presents an opportunity. If it is resolved with a reinstatement of Carolee to a position she has performed with honor and diligence, a recommitment to making animal control truly a humane part of Newtown’s services, and the forging of a collaborative relationship among the community’s animal welfare groups, then we will have come out ahead.

Karlyn Sturmer

22 Old Green Road, Sandy Hook                                                                     April 8, 2009