Trenton’s animal shelter, presently run by Trenton Animals Rock, a non-profit worked with by the city to produce a no-kill shelter.
(Rich Hundley III/For The Trentonian)
TRENTON – According to several Trenton Animal Shelter (TAS) volunteers, 4 dogs were euthanized last weekend and they state Mayor Reed Gusciora prepares to eliminate 5 more dogs weekly.
The volunteers have actually non-stop gotten the word out and questioned the Mayor’s thinking after formerly signing a regulation specifying TAS is a “No-Kill” Shelter.
But it didn’t stop there.
Volunteers continued to question why the City hasn’t invested ARP (American Rescue Plan) funds to broaden the shelter, why the 2 trailers bought to help in overcrowding are still uninhabited, and how the City hasn’t invested extra funds consisting of money from the Department of Community Affairs and Dog Trust Fund.
Wednesday afternoon Mayor Gusciora used some clearness to these reports in an email reaction to among the volunteers.
Gusciora acknowledged the finalizing of the regulation however, highlighted the target positioning rate of 90%. It likewise specifies an exception for “animals with severe or untreatable illnesses or behavior issues.” The 90% criteria is how animal rescue groups like the ASPCA specify no-kill shelters.
“The four (4) dogs that have been recently euthanized do not amount to 10% of the total population managed by the City and each of those was assessed to have unresolvable behavioral issues,” Mayor Gusciora said in his email. “Further, I in no way have given ‘a directive to kill 5 dogs a week.’”
While the Mayor did not deal with the money offered by the DCA or the DTF, he did deal with the ARP funds.
“Nowhere has Council authorized spending $4 million in ARP dollars to expand the current animal shelter. It is a proposal. By me. It’s up to Council to agree. The previous Council was hostile to any such proposal,” the Mayor said. “Nonetheless, we have selected two sites to build a new animal shelter. But this will take time and is not going to happen overnight. In this regard, we will utilize all existing funding to expand the shelter to meet our future needs.”
In concerns to the unused trailers, Gusciora explained that $200,000 was put to the side to include electrical energy and water to the trailers, however if the place of the shelter is to alter these funds may not be of good usage.
At completion of his email, the Mayor straight resolved the volunteer, “What you have failed to acknowledge or recognize is that our current shelter has the capacity for 20 dogs. We have 41. That’s not all. We also have 66 dogs at a kennel in Bucks County through a vendor contract. The current rate at the kennel is $30 a day per dog. That’s $13,800 per week ($700,000+ per year). That is not fiscally sustainable.”
He continued, “It is indeed unfortunate that the time it took to draft your email, you could have put your car keys in the ignition and driven over to the shelter to adopt out a dog. It’s very easy, as your Facebook page indicates that you are ‘not a rescue.’ In other words, you do not walk the walk, you just talk. You also can’t set aside your differences with other animal advocates so that the shelter can run with the many volunteers that come into the shelter. Again, if you want to help, adopt out a dog.”
