Shelter’s Success Helps Out-Of-Town Dogs

Tristan was rescued from a Babylon shelter.

By Peter Sloggatt
psloggatt@longislandergroup.com

Doomed dogs from neighboring towns will have a second chance at life and adoption thanks to a policy recently put in place by the Huntington Animal Shelter.

On July 31, the Town of Huntington Animal Shelter accepted three pit bulls from the Babylon animal shelter. Tristan, Marble, and King “are great, adoptable dogs, they’ve just had a rough time,” said Huntington Supervisor Chad Lupinacci. “There are several measures the Huntington Animal Shelter has implemented to increase adoption rates over the past several years that have created a situation where we can now save more dogs’ lives and help get them ready for and find their forever homes.”

The Huntington Animal Shelter has a high adoption rate, so it often has vacancies in its 80 kennels, said town officials. As a result, shelter supervisor Jerry Mosca suggested to Lupinacci that the town start a rescue program, taking dogs from overcrowded shelters in neighboring towns to help those towns avoid euthanizing dogs simple due to a lack of kennel space.

“We never have more than 15-20 dogs in-house at the most and we often have as few as 6-8 dogs, so we have plenty of room to take in dogs from other municipalities dealing with overcrowding,” Mosca said.

When he approached Lupinacci with the idea, “he was in complete agreement with me that this was not only a great idea but a moral responsibility on our part to help out,” Mosca said.

Huntington shelter employees visited the Babylon shelter, which was filled to capacity, to assess suitable candidates for the adoption program. The three dogs chosen had “great adoption potential,” Mosca said. The dogs were put in the Huntington Animal Shelter’s training programs the next day, with the goal of having them responsibly adopted as soon as possible.

Once the dogs arrived at the Huntington Animal Shelter, they were assessed for personality traits and worked into the shelter’s training programs and dog socialization play groups. The dogs were given time to settle in and become comfortable and on Aug. 10, 10 days after the rescue, the shelter advertised the dogs as ready for adoption.

Town officials said the shelter will rescue dogs from other neighboring towns as well.

The new policy is among a number of inititatives that have earnerd the shelter supervisor praise. Under Mosca’s direction, the shelter has raised adoption rates.

Starting as the interim shelter supervisor in 2010, Mosca began requiring all employees, including animal control officers, to walk the dogs in their care. Until then, many dogs would sit in kennels most of the day.

After he was named the permanent shelter supervisor in 2013, Mosca started a series of initiatives, starting with the move to a digital shelter management system to track repeat offenders, and store owner records, veterinary and vaccine records.

The shelter also implemented staff training covering dog play style and identifying animal aggression which town officials said led to increased live release rates. By learning to identify true animal aggression (versus simple posturing behavior) and working with unwanted behaviors, adoption rates increased from approximately 85 percent to 95 percent.

Mosca also implemented dog socialization program and dog agility training, improving the animals’ health and well being.

Huntington Animal Shelter is located at 106 Deposit Road in East Northport. Residents can report lost or found animals on the shelter’s page on the Town’s website huntingtonny.gov/animal-shelter, or call 631) 754-8722.

Little Shelter Unites Dogs And Families

Pet-A-Palooza at Huntington’s Little Shelter united families with new pets.  Photo/Little Shelter

This year’s Pet-A-Palooza open house at Little Shelter saw close to 70 puppies, kittens, dogs and cats find homes. The two day adoption and fundraising event saw families waiting at the gate to be the first to adopt on both days, a Little Shelter spokesperson said.

Over half of the adoptions were puppies and dogs that had been rescued from Puerto Rico following last year’s hurricane.

Little Shelter staff members were literally moved to tears in the case of Scruffy, a senior Poodle mix who was reunited with a woman who had found him as a stray a few months back and cared for him.

Though she found his owner, he was later surrendered to a municipal shelter where Little Shelter stepped in to rescue him. The woman did not know Scruffy was at Little Shelter and was caught by surprise seeing the dog starring back at her from the kennels. “We didn’t know Scruffy’s story when we rescued him. We are so happy that they were able to find each other again and that Little Shelter could be the ones to reconnect them,” commented Little Shelter Director David Ceely.

While adoptions came to a close at 6 p.m. Sunday, the festivities were far from over as a Chinese Auction kicked off its live drawing at 7 p.m. Attendees stayed to see if they won any of the more than 300 prizes. By the end of the weekend the event raised thousands of dollars that will go directly to the animals’ care and to rescue efforts throughout the year.

Party-Line Battle Brewing Over Budget

Councilman Mark Cuthbertson, left, has called for more transparency as Supervisor Chad Lupinacci prepares next year's town budget.   

By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com

Two members of the Huntington Town Board are calling on Supervisor Chad Lupinacci to make the early stages of the town’s budget process open to the public.

Councilwoman Joan Cergol and Councilman Mark Cuthbertson, both Democrats, issued a joint press release Tuesday stating that Lupinacci’s administration invited them last week to participate in early budget meetings, but the invitation was later withdrawn.

“This administration invited us to be a part of the process and then rescinded the invitation,” Cuthbertson said, adding that the administration expressed concerns that attendance by three or more town board members would constitute a violation of New York’s Open Meetings Law.

Cergol said she suggested that the town make the budget meetings open to the public by providing notice of the meetings as a way to satisfy state law.

“The issue was that we would have to provide public notice in the chance that three or more board members show up,” Cergol said. “My response was ‘then just provide public notice.’”

In a response to Cergol and Cuthbertson’s joint statement, Lupinacci, a Republican, said yesterday that information such as staffing decisions and potential staff reductions are discussed during early budget meetings with department directors. He said matters regarding personnel are confidential and cannot be discussed in public meetings.

Lupinacci also stated that town code dictates that it is the supervisor’s job to create the initial tentative budget.

“It states that it is solely the Supervisor’s responsibility to present a budget to the Town Board and the Town Clerk by September 30,” Lupinacci said. “It is not the Town Board’s role – and frankly it would be improper - to participate in this governmental function that the law specifically mandates be the Supervisor’s responsibility.”

Cuthbertson argued that, although the Supervisor is ultimately responsible for the budget, “the council members have always had a seat at the table.” He linked the budget with a number of recent town hirings that were approved by the town board earlier this month along party lines.

“Given the secretive way that jobs have been created and filled by this administration and their significant impact on budget, now more than ever it is critical that we invite more scrutiny to our budget process,” Cuthbertson said.

Lupinacci said the town board does have a role in the budget process, but only “after the Supervisor presents a budget to the Town Board and Town Clerk as is required by statute.”

“We were told that we would get information later, but these are the meetings that I think are most important to hear from the department heads,” Cergol said.

Councilman Eugene Cook, an Independence Party member who caucuses with the Republicans, said he plans to send his legislative aid to “go through all of it and make notes,” a strategy he also employed under former Democratic Supervisor Frank Petrone. He said Cergol and Cuthbertson both know that they can do the same.

Cergol and Cuthbertson both called into question the Republican campaign promise to increase transparency in town hall.

“This administration did talk a lot about transparency, and now it’s time for them to demonstrate that they mean business about transparency,” Cergol said.

Lupinacci said his administration has made it a priority to listen to the concerns of residents.

He said, “We’ve made Town Board meetings more accessible to residents by adding evening meetings to the daytime meeting schedule, almost doubling the number of meetings the Town holds each year, and started live-streaming meetings.”

This year’s hearing on the supervisor’s preliminary budget is scheduled for 2 p.m., Nov. 8 at town hall.