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Local resident urges Cranston to fund after-hours animal-control coverage
Summary
A Cranston resident told the council she has encountered injured and stray animals at night and urged the city to provide after-hours or on-call animal-control coverage, citing public safety and a Rhode Island statute assigning municipalities responsibility for impounding stray and dangerous animals.
At public comment during the Oct. 27 meeting, resident Laura Almagno of 289 Knollwood/Norwood Avenue asked the council to consider funding an after-hours or on-call animal-control officer. Almagno described multiple incidents in which she found injured or stray animals outside typical business hours and said police told her they were not permitted to transport animals and that the animal-control officer would not be on duty for many hours.
"It was 07:00 at night… the animal control officer would have been on duty 13 hours later," Almagno told the council. She said she had, on one occasion, taken an injured animal to a veterinary hospital herself after officers said they could not transport the animal. She also described an earlier episode in which a stray yellow Labrador wandered into her yard late at night; she said the police response at that time was to direct citizens to retrieve animals the next day if possible.
Almagno cited Rhode Island General Law 4-13-1 (statutory municipal responsibility to impound stray and dangerous animals) and asked the council to consider either adding a full-time third-shift animal-control officer or funding an on-call arrangement. She said Bristol has a 24/7 on-call arrangement and urged Cranston to consider a similar model as a cost-effective public-safety and humane measure.
Council leadership acknowledged the comment; the item was recorded in public comment and will be available to the appropriate departments for follow-up.
