South Orange & Maplewood are losing their contract with St. Hubert's

St. Hubert's will no longer contract with the 19 or so towns it currently covers.

That ends our ACO and sheltering arrangements with them by the end of 2022.

Why is that, I wonder?

DanDietrich said:

Why is that, I wonder?

I called to confirm when I heard about it. They will be working with shelter partners. When I first moved here from the city I went there to volunteer and foster. It never contracted with towns. 

A friend who followed up was told they were outbid by a large ACO group with no shelter and several towns took that option. Still makes no sense that they wouldn't hold onto the others but who knows.

And the usual social media complainers who had never been to any of the local pounds so maybe they just decided they didn't need the aggravation.

So lots of ACOs with resumes but we are back to needing a shelter.

Not good News. 

And with the state handing municipalities a 20% increase in employee health care costs I doubt any towns are in a position to hire new staff.

OK  I looked up the acronym ACO and found two and a half pages of meanings.  Now I don't care anymore, I'm  annoyed.  This was needless wasted time.  It's a puzzle why people do this.

ACO is animal control officer.

mrmaplewood said:

OK  I looked up the acronym ACO and found two and a half pages of meanings.  Now I don't care anymore, I'm  annoyed.  This was needless wasted time.  It's a puzzle why people do this.

Sorry! 

The closest buildings are

Associated Humane in Newark (we have history with them)

East Orange Pound (we really have history with them.)

West Orange Pound.

Montclair Animal Shelter

The gorgeous Mt. Pleasant Animal Shelter. Private.

And our own former very cute animal shelter poised gracefully along the walkway on the way to recycling.

You are really going to go back to that?  Can't we just solve the problem without rehashing everything?  Can these unemployed officers start a shelter and get contracts from towns? You said 19 towns used St Hubert's, and many need a new solution.  What are the towns?  What others may use the facility in the future?  Where is a central location?

DanDietrich said:

You are really going to go back to that?  Can't we just solve the problem without rehashing everything?  Can these unemployed officers start a shelter and get contracts from towns? You said 19 towns used St Hubert's, and many need a new solution.  What are the towns?  What others may use the facility in the future?  Where is a central location?

Below is the list of towns all far out of our area except for Irvington.

The facility, I assume you mean St. Hs will go back to being its own shelter, just like Mt. Pleasant.

They will do dog training, work with transporting animals from rescue partners so even if a town hires and ACO they will not be able to use St. Hs.

DanDietrich said:

You are really going to go back to that?  Can't we just solve the problem without rehashing everything?  Can these unemployed officers start a shelter and get contracts from towns? You said 19 towns used St Hubert's, and many need a new solution.  What are the towns?  What others may use the facility in the future?  Where is a central location?

 Back when JAC was around I worked with an ACO who predicted they would have groups like the one who is out of Flemington called Animal Control Solutions. Its been done and they just remove the animals. In very small towns they may bring them to a vet or a holding facility. Then the assurance is rescues, like my 501C3 will take them. But if you remember history, the ones that went to Dr. Kimani Griffith that Furry Hearts and I took out of one of the South Orange hoarding houses were put to sleep with no notice to either of our rescues. He claimed the former Health Officer OKd it and Griffith told his staff he was returning them to us.

In Milburn the guys took cats to Dr. Stack and my rescue took a few of those, but that ended when he sold. The Health Officer from Milburn also took care of Livingston. They have a garage with a few cages and runs. That garage was on the table when the shelter closed. I visited it as I knew the ACO a family friend, great guy now retired.

I've been in the shelters listed above, even the one in Elizabeth. Been at this for 25 years so I would be the first to point to a building that conformed.

If this was a 1940s musical I could shout "Hey let's do it in my garage and I'll sew all of the costumes and you can paint the sign!

Morganna said:

 Back when JAC was around I worked with an ACO who predicted they would have groups like the one who is out of Flemington called Animal Control Solutions. Its been done and they just remove the animals. In very small towns they may bring them to a vet or a holding facility. Then the assurance is rescues, like my 501C3 will take them. But if you remember history, the ones that went to Dr. Kimani Griffith that Furry Hearts and I took out of one of the South Orange hoarding houses were put to sleep with no notice to either of our rescues. He claimed the former Health Officer OKd it and Griffith told his staff he was returning them to us.

In Milburn the guys took cats to Dr. Stack and my rescue took a few of those, but that ended when he sold. The Health Officer from Milburn also took care of Livingston. They have a garage with a few cages and runs. That garage was on the table when the shelter closed. I visited it as I knew the ACO a family friend, great guy now retired.

I've been in the shelters listed above, even the one in Elizabeth. Been at this for 25 years so I would be the first to point to a building that conformed.

If this was a 1940s musical I could shout "Hey let's do it in my garage and I'll sew all of the costumes and you can paint the sign!

your garage is big enough!

So I guess my suggestion of having the ACOs band together and start a new facility is dismissed.

Jaytee said:

your garage is big enough!

It's a bit overbooked in the winter.

The beer garden opens November 2, and they did a beautiful job saving that building.  Emphasize the positive.

This is a very short period of time to find a shelter and I hope people take this seriously. I admit to being pretty discouraged by the options.

This has been the worst year for adoptions. Rescues are full and the requests to save kittens, injured and surrendered animals are non-stop. I thought it was the summer, with the pandemic slowing down, and people wanting to travel again and that in the fall things would be back to normal but it isn't.

Rescues, TNR groups and pet owners struggle to get spay and neuter appointments. And now with St. Hubert's ending so many contracts, many homeless animals will not make it.

The actual shelters are pleading with rescues to pull some of their cats and dogs. Without adopters things have ground to a halt.

The picture of turkeys in the snow might throw some off as to the seriousness of the issue so here is our old shelter.

If you want good things to happen get your head out of the past.  Or do you really want to start from a negative position of mismanagement?  

If by some miracle, South Orange could be persuaded to relinquish the offices now housed in the shelter, there is no reason to suppose that the new shelter going into that building would be anything like the old shelter.  The personnel involved would be completely different.  As for a band of dispatchers and ACOs teaming up and finding themselves a building -- sure, and why shouldn't it be the old MapSO shelter, whose construction was funded, at least in part, by people who believed that our two towns should have a shelter.  

Elle_Cee said:

If by some miracle, South Orange could be persuaded to relinquish the offices now housed in the shelter, there is no reason to suppose that the new shelter going into that building would be anything like the old shelter.  The personnel involved would be completely different.  As for a band of dispatchers and ACOs teaming up and finding themselves a building -- sure, and why shouldn't it be the old MapSO shelter, whose construction was funded, at least in part, by people who believed that our two towns should have a shelter.  

Better worded than the response that I was about to post. If anyone is on Facebook and wants to send me a friend request just message me.

Elle_Cee said:

If by some miracle, South Orange could be persuaded to relinquish the offices now housed in the shelter, there is no reason to suppose that the new shelter going into that building would be anything like the old shelter.  The personnel involved would be completely different.  As for a band of dispatchers and ACOs teaming up and finding themselves a building -- sure, and why shouldn't it be the old MapSO shelter, whose construction was funded, at least in part, by people who believed that our two towns should have a shelter.  

Perfectly said  I don’t believe the town will use the building as a shelter again, but it is wrong to assume another group will not do a better job than the first one. 

To be fair, I'm totally objective about our 2 towns options, which they may chose separately.

I was quick to support St. Hubert's as the best choice for that moment. As a 501C3 cat rescue, I've had relationships with most or all of the shelters and pounds in the area over 25 years.

Having been physically inside these buildings I can share that there are few choices available that conform to the requirements of an operating shelter. First it is important to understand that some operate with shelter hours as did St. Hubert's and some are merely holding facilities, which most of us refer to as pounds. Those do not have operating hours. They are not open to the public, accept by appointment, which severely limits the dog or cat's exposure. Some have cages facing walls with no windows and little contact with people. If they are lucky there will be a volunteer group trying to promote them and if they are very lucky some approved rescue will be able to take them out of there and try to get them adopted which this year has been difficult

When the shelter closed many on MOL suggested that St. Hubert's or Mt. Pleasant would take over. That did not happen. People for Animals offered to be a 7 day hold and then transfer to rescue. They also offered to run a spay and neuter clinic. That did not happen.

So here we are and neither town is at fault for the predicament that they find themselves in but we are in it as residents and I'm hoping this discussion will be a courteous one.

Anyone considering assistance will need a record of how many dogs and cats were taken from each town. I'm certain our shared Health Officer will be working on that.

As 19 towns have lost St. Hubert's service starting 2023, time is of the essence as shelter space is limited.

https://www.nj.com/news/2022/10/nj-animal-shelter-st-huberts-will-soon-end-its-animal-control-services-in-19-municipalities.html

This is current coverage to give an opinion other than my own.