Rescuing Without Reporting: Why it Causes More Suffering than Ever

In an age where civil servants have been directed to avoid the wrath of "No Kill" advocates and keep cats out of shelters at any cost, New Jersey municipalities allow their animal control officers and HLEOs to break state law in favor of keeping numbers low and the public in the dark.

By refusing to intake or address cats, every animal control officer has become complicit in "cooking the books" when it comes to feline records.

Shelter employees and ACOs dodge requests for help and intake with the agility of gymnasts, armed with excuses such as "the town doesn't have a TNR program" or "we're full." They may hand you a list of full or defunct rescue groups and send you on your way.

If that doesn't work, they create waiting lists. Who doesn't have room to keep an unvetted, injured cat for an unknown number of days in their living room?

Found strays on your way to work? They'll charge you surrender fees despite that fact that NJ law requires animal control to seize and intake stray cats.

Family member left you 3 senior cats and you live out of state? Call a rescue, or enjoy your new cats.

These municipal employees are hoping:

• You take the cat(s) yourself.

• You find a rescue - or somebody, anybody to make the problem go away.

• You give an unfixed cat away to some family member.

• You leave a cat outside, suffering with injuries or creating generations of more cats to suffer.

Bottom line: You go away.

And there is no record of that cat's existence.

Thanks to these tactics, most cats don't even get logged in the system and go straight to rescues, circumventing the recordkeeping process. The lack of records send a message to every town administrator that there is no cat problem in New Jersey.

Dumpling needed an amputation after incredible suffering thanks to animal control ignoring a dire cat situation for over a year despite our rescue offering help to the town multiple times. If we do not report animal control and HLEOs, they will continue their refusal to resolve cat related complaints.

To maintain this illusion, NJ municipalities allow ACOs, HLEOs, and shelter employees to create their own interpretations of state law--with no one watching or questioning them. This is a huge difference from places like New York City, where the Comptroller requires lawful recordkeeping and compliance. Rescue pulls from the shelter are included in logs every month. You can view the City's latest audit reports here. If New Jersey has any such auditing in place, we cannot find it.

How do we ensure that the suffering of outdoor cats is not in vain? How do we stop animal control and municipalities from continuing to hold rescues at gunpoint for services they should be providing?

The answer is simple: Report ACOs and HLEOs who break the law by refusing to intake stray cats.

If the town's board of health ignores you, escalate the complaint to the county prosecutor, even and especially if you were turned away and were forced to adopt, hospitalize or rescue the cat yourself. An animal does not have to suffer and die to hold ACOs and HLEOs accountable. Unsure of what to write, who to call? Contact us!

Right now, we are pushing for mandatory animal control and sheltering elements and a chain of command to the state Board of Health. Read and tell your representatives to support Bill A4898/S3919 as we fight for this foundational bill to become law.

Don't know your representative? Find your district here and find links to email your representative!