The head of the township health department and a former animal control official yesterday were charged in connection with the killing of 20 cats in their care at the Ingham Avenue animal shelter in October.
The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals filed 20 counts of "procuring the needless killing of an animal" against township Health Officer Albert Leff and 20 counts each of "needlessly killing an animal" and "abusing a living animal" against David E. Smith of 7th Street, a retired animal control officer brought in by the township when its regular officer refused to do the killing.
Leff and Smith were scheduled to appear in Municipal Court May 19. But the matter is expected to be transferred because of conflict of interest concerns because the killings happened in the township's name.
Leff's office referred calls to Business Administrator Fred Walters, who refused to comment on the SPCA's allegations in detail.
"If this is under the guise of a possibly criminal type action or something, then I can't speak to that," he said.
Walters said it was too early to know whether the township would cover fines against the two men if they are convicted.
Smith said the SPCA was getting bad information on how the cats were killed. "They're unjust charges," he said.
Stuart Goldman, the SPCA agent who brought the charges, refused to identify the sources of information he used in the investigation.
Should Leff and Smith be convicted, each count against them could carry a fine from $250 to $1,000 and up to 30 days community service, Goldman said.
Extreme cases of animal cruelty can result in six-month jail terms, but that will not apply in this case, he said.
The state Heath Department has fined the township $1,300 in connection with the problems at the shelter, primarily the cat killings. It determined they were killed with an improper injection method and without being held the required seven days.
Goldman said Smith jammed a needle directly into cats' hearts rather than finding a vein.
"They killed them needlessly and they also abused them by the way they killed," Goldman said.
Smith denied the abuse allegation, saying he injected drugs into the veins of the cats he killed. He also took issue with the number of counts brought against him, saying he only euthanized a dozen cats, not 20.
Smith said he had been told in the 1990s that it was allowable to kill feral cats without a waiting period, but state Department of Health spokeswoman Jennifer Sciortino said the only exception to the seven-day rule is when a veterinarian determines euthanasia is medically necessary.
Until two weeks ago, Smith was still doing occasional animal control work for the township, though he said he had not euthanized any animals since October. "I told them I wouldn't do it anymore," he said. "It's not worth the aggravation."
Goldman said Leff and Smith knowingly ignored state laws. He said some of the killed cats were spayed or neutered, which should have made it clear they were pets.
"They knew what they were supposed to do," Goldman said. "They knew there were people coming for these animals. And they didn't care."
When Smith was asked to hand over his drugs to township officials last year, he gave some with expiration dates as far back as 1986.
Smith said yesterday he had not used expired drugs on the cats, but did have them in his possession and regrets turning them in.
Goldman said some shelter workers who opposed what was going on hid cats to save them. Otherwise, he said, more would have died. References« Back to Search Results
|
