Hope for Hempstead Shelter Group Swarms Franklin Avenue Intersection
Written by Rachelle Blidner Friday, 15 July 2011 00:00
Hope for Hempstead Shelter refuses to take a catnap when it comes to expressing their concerns about the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter. The group held a rally Saturday, June 25 at the intersection of Franklin Avenue and Hempstead Turnpike in Franklin Square.
About 40 protesters, including Democratic candidate for Town Supervisor Gary Port, gathered with signs and fliers to rally against what they say are wrongdoings at the shelter in Wantagh.
“We organized this because we want to get the word out about the animal abuse and the taxpayer abuse that’s going on at the Town of Hempstead animal shelter,” said Derek Donnelly, spokesperson for Hope for Hempstead and organizer of the rally.
Protesters complained that the shelter, which runs on a $7.1 million annual budget, paid nine of its employees $100,000 or more in 2010. They also said the shelter mistreats the animals by cleaning their cages with bleach while the animals were inside; also not walking the animals and that animals were euthanized without a reason.
In March, a 17-year-old video surfaced on YouTube showing past employees and the shelter director (then kennel supervisor at the time), Pat Horan, watching a kitten allegedly being prepared to be euthanized while yelling “kill the kitty, kill the kitty.” The Town of Hempstead reassigned Horan after the video was posted.
Three volunteers who have been banned from the shelter, Lucille DeFina, Diane Madden and Frances Lucivero-Pelletier filed a lawsuit in December 2010 against the Town of Hempstead and eight of its employees saying that the town banned them without providing an official explanation. DeFina said they were banned because they “knew too much and spoke out.”
The shelter no longer accepts services from any volunteers, protesters said. A call to the animal shelter verified that there are currently no volunteers working at the shelter, but the shelter employee said that volunteer programs are in the process of being set up.
Town of Hempstead Spokesman Mike Deery said he thinks that some of the protest was driven by the political motivations of Democrats during campaign season. Reforms have been made at the improved shelter, including the creation of a committee to review policy and a committee to find the next shelter director, he said.
“The shelter was good before, and we’ve made it even better,” Deery said.
The shelter also just received approval from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to create woodland walking trails for the dogs, Deery said, which the town will begin working on soon. He said he encourages anyone with questions to visit the shelter and see it for themselves.
In addition to holding up signs and passing out fliers to passersby and those in stopped cars, protestors voiced accounts of what they said were abuses witnessed at the shelter. Carol Ludwig said the shelter called the police on her after she asked about the fees for surrendering an animal, which she said are not posted anywhere in the shelter or online. Ludwig, who was not arrested, said the shelter told her that she would have to file a Freedom of Information Act to find out the fees.
“This is not a homeland security issue; it is a cat fee,” Ludwig, a retired teacher, wrote in a letter to Town Supervisor Kate Murray. She passed out this letter at the rally.
Other protesters said they had also been told to leave the shelter for unfair reasons, and that the shelter needed a full-time veterinarian.
Deery said that the shelter employs two veterinarians who together cover the shelter for the number of hours a full-time veterinarian would.
One of the protesters, Maria Schulz, a 71-year-old retired teacher from Baldwin, said, “I don’t have pets, but when I see a $7 million shelter mistreat animals, that’s why I’m here. It’s a matter of being compassionate towards living things.”
