OP-ED: An Animal Shelter Alliance Will Help Animals AND The Township
This op-ed article was submitted by Sandra Reynolds, an attorney and founder of the Animal Law Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Foundation.
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It was announced today that Glen Ridge has decided to cancel its animal control contract with Montclair and is considering signing on with Bloomfield. According to the article in the Montclair Times, Township Manager Marc Dashield is taking the position that Montclair will engage in further discussions with Glen Ridge and put together a counterproposal with the goal of keeping the contract.
OK, so how about if we stop competing to help animals and just work together? By joining forces, Montclair and Bloomfield can cooperate to handle animal control and sheltering for both our towns plus Glen Ridge. There is much to be gained by an alliance of the two shelters:
1. Maddie's Fund, a charitable organization dedicated to saving the lives of homeless dogs and cats, has already given out grants totaling over $92 million. In Fiscal Year 2009-2010, Maddie's Fund awarded $11.4 million through 156 grants in 42 states and the District of Columbia.
To be eligible for a Community Collaborative grant, the population served must be a minimum of 100,000. If Montclair, Bloomfield, and Glen Ridge joined together, that number would probably be met. If not, the addition of Nutley or Verona could be considered. Why not????
Please visit the Maddie's Fund website and read more about the work that the grants are supporting. For communities who make the commitment to saving lives, Maddie's Fund is helping to make that happen. We should be part of this.
2. If we devote the Montclair facility to cats and the Bloomfield facility to dogs, we could have savings just by the easier administration. PLUS, imagine how wonderful those facilities could be!!! There would be a lot of excitement created and these facilities would draw volunteers and community support. They could become the "go to" places for adoptions for miles around.
If you like this idea, please contact the Mayor, your council person, and the Township Manager. Ask them to seriously consider this instead of just competing to see who can do the job for less. We can do better than that for our animals.
Karen Banda
12:54 pm on Monday, September 12, 2011
First you need people in charge of both facilities who truly give a damn about animals and want to have a true shelter vs a "pound". I can't speak for Montclair, but I can tell you that right now Bloomfield does not have any one in charge who truly cares about animals or doing what's right, much less making advances toward the goal of running a real shelter for animals in every sense of that word. It seems every time we take a step forward, as we did in October 2007, someone in charge takes us backward two steps. Unless the attitude and philosophy changes at the top, we will not move forward. Humans will always be the reason animals continue to suffer.