On September 16, 2014, the NJ Department of Health wrote a letter to the health officer for the city of Linden ordering her to “immediately” close the pound due to failed inspections in July and August. All the animals and records are to be transferred to another licensed shelter.
Among the most egregious violations found during the inspections at the Linden pound:
- Impounded animals were being sold or killed before their 7 day mandatory holding periods expired.
- Animals were not being scanned for microchips at time of impound, at time of sale, or before being killed.
- Ketamine and euthanasia solution showed evidence of being used but no records were kept regarding their usage.
- Animals were not being weighed before being killed (in order to determine appropriate drug dosages) and no records of animal weights or dosages of drugs used to kill them were maintained.
- A veterinarian had not established or maintained a disease control or health care program at the pound, as required by law.
- Housing for the animals was in severe disrepair.
It sounds as if the city was given an opportunity to correct problems noted in July but inspectors found conditions worsened when they returned in August. Linden Mayor Richard “A Total Lie and an Exaggeration” Gerbounka says the state health department is “overreacting” and as of today, the Linden pound remains open in defiance of the state order as far as I know.
(Thank you Robert Scutro for the FOIA’d documents.)
It always breaks my heart to hear about these things. The resources aren’t there so they can do their job correctly. I think animals just aren’t a priority to many people. Thank you for sharing and advocating! I am trying to figure out more ways I can help and any ideas and suggests would be great!
The report indicates the pound had a scale to weigh animals. They didn’t have it set up and kept it stored in a trailer. So in that case they had the appropriate resources needed to weigh animals, they just didn’t bother doing their jobs.
That’s sad. Poor animals. Thank you for being an advocate and sharing!
Did you see this?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/01/fbi-animal-cruelty-felony_n_5913364.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063
So…why hasn’t the health officer shut the place down? She has her order, if she needs police or whatever, she should do what it takes to close this hellhole of apathy down.
This order needs to be enforced now! Is this the same area where they want to prosecute people for feeding cats? Good Lord, shut them down and get some help for the poor animals who have the misfortune to end up there.
If this had been ANYONE in the private sector, they would have been raided, shut down, and animal cruelty charges filed, as well as vilification in media and huge fines assessed. Public sector gets a pass? Why?
No one is above the law. The NJ Health Department surely must have ways of getting the local health officer to shut down this place. It seems to me that the state attorney general could issue an arrest warrant for her and send in state troopers to get the others in city office to comply. Any private agency would be shut down immediately.
Part of the report says that animals are escaping. Remarkable that the escapees are documented, but not much else is documented.
“Escaping”. Yeah, right. May want to check Craigslist for them…