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Institutionalized Animal Hoarding (long..but interesting)
TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD ANIMAL SHELTER MEETS CRITERIA OF AN
INSTITUTIONAL HOARDER
Desperation Looms for the Shelter’s Companion Animal Inmates as
Town and Shelter Officials Continue to Shut out the Public and Reputable Rescue Organizations
May 23, 2011 – WANTAGH , NY – A recent examination of the policies and practices put in place at the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter (TOHAS) over the past seven months proves that the Shelter has rightfully earned the designation of an institutional hoarder.
Although similar in characteristic conditions of individual hoarders, institutional animal hoarding is more severe and difficult to expose because the Shelter’s administration and employees all contribute to the secrecy and pretense needed to protect the hoarding entity.
The Animal Law Coalition in conjunction with the Humane Society, Shelter Medicine and the ASPCA has set forth criteria to identify institutional animal hoarding, all of which the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter meets and in some instances, exceeds. The criteria include:
1. Focus on acquisition of animals and make little or no effort to place animals in homes or with rescue
organizations.
2. Continue to take in animals even when it is clear that the care is deteriorating.
3. Have too few or inconsistent numbers of staff.
4. Refuse to disclose the actual number of animals.
5. Refuse to allow visitors into some or all of the areas where animals are kept.
6. Make unsupported claims of excellent lifetime care.
7. Fail to provide humane care and cause the animals to suffer from malnutrition, starvation, illness,
disease, untreated injuries, poor sanitation, overcrowding, inadequate shelter from the weather and intensive confinement.
8. Refuse to acknowledge the deteriorating conditions and neglectful and abusive treatment of the animals.
Since the banning of rescuers Diane Madden and Lucille DeFina in October 2010, TOHAS has continued to shut out other willing reputable rescue groups by creating deterrents such as mandating what animals rescue can
take and allocating only one hour per day for rescue to visit the non-public back areas of the Shelter where the most in-need animals are kept. In April, TOHAS refused to give Forgotten Friends of Long Island Animal Rescue, an approved 501c3 organization, kittens requiring bottle feeding and puppies who, by hoarding these animals, the Shelter put at risk for contracting illness and disease in its confined, overcrowded setting.
“It is unconscionable that a Shelter would mandate what animals rescue can help. If we contact the Shelter and say we have room for kittens, how can the Shelter refuse to give them to us by mandating we must take an adult
animal as well,” said Loretta Rinaldo, president of Forgotten Friends of Long Island Animal Rescue. “When we have capacity for adult and senior animals, we take them. In fact, before the ban on Diane and Lucille we
were regularly contacted by each of them to rescue the most sick and in-need cats and dogs because the Shelter was not capable of caring for them. Since the ban, the Shelter has not only ceased outreach but has turned us
away. TOHAS has put in place policies that have crippled us from being able to help the animals trapped in that facility,” Rinaldo added.
As a result of its hoarding, TOHAS is also killing healthy animals behind closed doors. One example is Isla, a vibrant, two-year-old German shepherd whose life ended after months of torturous imprisonment at TOHAS. The behaviorist evaluation of Isla lauded her energetic, friendly attributes, but after months of being caged and neglected, Isla, like most TOHAS animals became emotionally and physically broken. Despite repeated pleas by animal advocates for the dog to be posted on the Shelter’s Petfinder site and outreach to be made to breed-
specific rescue, the Shelter chose to instead kill Isla.
TOHAS is even turning away approved adopters. Betsy Golden was approved to adopt a rottweiler/chow mix by TOHAS adoption coordinator Shari Polen. After waiting more than a month for the dog to be spayed and after numerous unreturned phone calls to Ms. Polen, Golden went to the Shelter on May 14th and was told the dog was adopted. “I was shocked and heartbroken,” said Golden. “When I asked how this happened, Ms. Polen told me point blank that she had never spoken to me or reviewed my application! My application was retrieved within seconds by Shelter clerical staff and Ms. Polen looked at me like a child caught in a lie.”
At last count of the public areas of the Shelter, there were 130 dogs and 13 cats. Basic shelter guidelines are not being followed. In just one example, dogs are housed with cats breaking a cardinal rule of animal shelter structure. According to Shelter Medicine this environment increases stress and compromises animal health.
The overcrowded conditions demonstrate managerial incompetence. “There is more concern for protecting patronage jobs than for the animals at TOHAS. TOHAS is an institutional hoarder because it is afraid of Community oversight and accountability and hoards under the pretense of being a safe-haven, when in reality it is a death-row prison ward for animals,” said Derek Donnelly, director of Hope for Hempstead Shelter.
Since volunteers are not allowed, there is growing concern over the number and conditions of the animals kept hidden in the back room and garage of the Shelter. “The public wants transparency and accountability,” said
banned rescuer Lucille DeFina. “With an almost $7 million budget, those animals should have it all, but instead, they have deplorable, overcrowded conditions.”
The 2011 budget for the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter is $6.5 million. “Guess what we’re getting for all that money?” asks Donnelly. “If the Shelter closed today and the Town didn’t have one, the only difference
residents would notice is lower taxes.”
After seven months, TOHAS still has NO: volunteers, foster care, air conditioning/ventilation system, canine corral area, full-time veterinary services (8:45 a.m. – 4:45 p.m.), Trap-Neuter-Return program, collaboration
with rescue organizations, community outreach, promotion of adoptable animals and most critically, a progressive-minded director.
Hope for Hempstead Shelter, a shelter reform advocacy group, will hold a Candlelight Vigil in memory of Isla and the many other senseless deaths at TOHAS. The Vigil will be held on Friday, June 3, 2011 at 8 p.m. in front of the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter located at 3320 Beltagh Avenue, Wantagh, NY 11793. Visit www.hopeforhempsteadshelter.com and Facebook Hope for Hempstead Shelter, for more information.
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