Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Companion Animal Care Act topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Local shelter warns new state animal‑care standards will force service cuts; Golisano grant funds renovations
Summary
Beverly's Animal Shelter warned supervisors that New York State’s Companion Animal Care Standards Act, effective Dec. 15, will sharply increase staffing, facility and paperwork requirements and could force the shelter to limit DCO coverage to Waterloo, Fayette and Seneca Falls.
Representatives from Beverly's Animal Shelter told the Seneca County Board of Supervisors on Nov. 13 they are racing to meet the state’s Companion Animal Care Standards Act, which takes effect Dec. 15. Shelter president Pat Morin and treasurer Mia Macheiser said the new law requires higher staffing ratios, facility upgrades and far more documentation, changes that may force the shelter to limit Dog Control Officer (DCO) service to nearby towns (Waterloo, Fayette and Seneca Falls) and decline calls from more distant parts of the county when they lack space or staff.
"Right now, we don't really know where we're at," Pat Morin said. She explained the new standard will require roughly one staff member for every five or six dogs at times, that intake can spike unpredictably and that the shelter is renovating to meet the space and enrichment requirements. Morin said some dogs who are classified as vicious may be impossible to adopt out and "we can't afford to take in a vicious dog ... we have to put it down or have it put down."
Mia Macheiser said the shelter received a $1 million Golisano grant paid in installments and is using those funds for building renovations, additional cages, specialized beds and emergency medical bills. She said the contractor expects renovations to be finished by Dec. 15 and that the state inspection is likely sometime between Dec. 15 and Jan. 1; she added the state has committed to working with the shelter during the first year.
Board members asked whether the shelter would take animals from other towns and whether volunteers and staff could meet the new paperwork and segregation requirements. Shelter staff said they likely will not expand DCO coverage beyond the three neighboring towns named earlier because of facility constraints and the complexity of new recordkeeping and space rules. The presenters asked the board to note the county-level implications if multiple rescues and shelters across the region face the same constraints.
What the shelter asked the board to note: potential reductions in the capacity to assist stray, injured or cruelty‑case animals from more remote parts of the county until renovation and staffing gaps are resolved.
