The Jersey City Independent"

After last month’s embarrassing revelations about the city’s Animal Control officers, one City Council member is calling for increased oversight of the department.

As a result of the admission that officers Aaron Jordan and John Ross Jr. were dumping cats they’d collected into wild areas of Lincoln Park rather than taking them to the appropriate shelter or animal hospital, Ward E councilman Steven Fulop is calling for an independent commission “to develop and track measurable objectives to ensure a competent Animal Control program.” He is also proposing the creation of an Animal Control Ombudsman within the office of the Mayor’s Action Bureau.

“Whether it’s issues with the local SPCA, allegations of animal cruelty or a general lack of responsiveness, it is clear that something needs to be done with the animal control situation in Jersey City,” Fulop says.

But the city says that steps are already being implemented to rectify the problem in Animal Control. City spokesperson Jennifer Morrill says that Jordan and Ross were suspended for five days without pay, and that reforms are underway in the division, which is housed in the city’s Department of Health & Human Services.

Part of the problem, she explains, is that previously Animal Control officers only had to fill out paperwork if they brought an animal into a shelter or hospital. This apparently led these individuals to instead dump cats in the park, thereby avoiding the dreaded paperwork.

The department is now requiring that officers fill out paperwork at every stop they make, whether or not an animal is captured and taken in, and new software will be used to provide better tracking of complaints, Morrill says.

In addition, the Department of Health & Human Services reached out to the state’s Office of Animal Welfare, which has agreed to help review the case and set up additional precautionary procedures going forward.

“I am pleased your office has agreed to work with us to review the case,” Health & Human Services director Harry Melendez wrote in a letter to a state Animal Welfare representative. “Your assistance in reviewing the case, our records and making recommendations to improve our animal control activities will, hopefully, quiet the criticism and restore public confidence in our animal control functions.”

Most importantly, Morrill says, “a zero-tolerance policy will be instituted” in the department, which will result in the immediate firing of any officers found to be participating in this sort of behavior in the future.

But at least one animal advocate isn’t convinced that the city’s efforts will end in real reforms, echoing Fulop’s call for an independent oversight body.

“Somebody has to make sure that the people in charge are doing the right thing,” Companion Animal Trust president Carol McNichol says. “I always feel that there should be oversight provided.”

She adds that she’d like to see Animal Control officers kept up-to-date with the animal welfare industry’s best practices. Officers currently don’t have to renew their certification or undergo additional training, she notes. While there are a wealth of training opportunities available, such as workshops put on by the Animal Welfare Federation of New Jersey, McNichol says that Jersey City’s Animal Control officers never attend them or go for further training.

“They’re off the radar,” she says. “We need to really examine thoroughly what the office’s policies and procedures are.”