Changes are underway at the controversial Riverhead Town Animal Shelter.
The town is looking into hiring a shelter director to oversee the Youngs Avenue facility and the care of the dogs sheltered there, according to Councilman James Wooten, Town Board liaison to the shelter.
"The current system, where the shelter is run by an animal control officer, just doesn't work," Wooten said.
The town has twice solicited proposals to contract out the operation of its shelter to a private organization. Both times only RSVP Inc. has responded to the town's RFP with a proposal. And both times the Town Board has not acted on the proposal. Wooten has said he could not support turning the shelter over to the group.
In seeking alternatives, Wooten said he discovered it would be possible to put a town-employed shelter director in place without having to hire new personnel at an additional expense. A current town employee took the Civil Service test for animal shelter director a few years ago, Wooten said. That employee could be transferred to the shelter as its director, and would report directly to the supervisor rather than to the Chief of Police. The vacancy created by the move would not be filled, Wooten said.
The town would still need an animal control officer, Wooten said. The ACO would continue to report to the police chief, he said.
But whether the current ACO remains in that position is up in the air, according to Wooten.
The councilman said he's lost faith in ACO Lou Coronesi's ability to effectively manage the shelter and interact with shelter volunteers.
His loss of faith stems from what Wooten calls a misrepresentation by Coronesi of the circumstances of a bite incident involving a pit bull mix named Bruno. The misrepresentation resulted in Supervisor Sean Walter signing an order to euthanize the dog, according to Wooten.
Walter, who publicly stated at a recent Town Board meeting that Bruno "bit a child," told RiverheadLOCAL he learned afterwards the statement wasn't accurate.
According to town records, the "dog bit the owner's son." But the owner's son was a 22-year-old man, and he was bitten while trying to break up a fight between two dogs, according to a county heath department report. He received superficial cuts to his hand in the incident.
The day before he signed a report stating Bruno was aggressive and must be put down, Coronesi wrote a report stating the dog was improving and becoming socialized, according to town records.
"What changed in one day?" Wooten asked.
"We will get to the bottom of this, I promise you that," Walter said in an interview. He has in the past stated he supported Coronesi "100 percent" in the ACO position.
Shelter volunteers spoke last night in favor of hiring a shelter director.
"But the operative word is good," said RSVP member Sue Hansen of Rocky Point. "We need a good shelter director."
CSEA unit president Matt Hattorff came to the defense of town employees working at the facility.
"How many times has the dog pound, or the animal shelter, or whatever you want to call it, been violated by the state," Hattorff asked.
"Never," the supervisor replied. "According to the state we run a good operation."
Over jeers from the audience, Hattorff complained, "All they do is bad mouth the people that work there. If they were that bad you would have gotten rid of them a long time ago."
"State standards are the bare minimum," Hansen responded.
"We have been trying to change procedures [at the Riverhead shelter] that were inhumane," RSVP president Frank Mosca told the board. "We've made a small amount of progress, but there is one individual who simply refuses to cooperate in implementing humane procedures which are in place in all the rest of the surrounding towns," Mosca said.
The volunteers and ACO Coronesi have a long, contentious history and they have repeatedly demanded his dismissal. At the Jan. 5 Town Board meeting, animal rights activist Gail Waller of Glen Cove renewed the demand because of Coronesi's 2003 conviction in Arizona on unlawful possession of wildlife charges. (See prior story.)
Police Chief David Hegermiller, Coronesi's supervisor, continues to support the ACO, who has been doing the best he can under the circumstances, according to the chief. The police department isn't equipped to run an animal shelter focused on adoptions, according to the chief. Its mission is public safety and the control of animals at large, he said. Even so, Riverhead has an extremely low incidence of euthanasia, Hegermiller said.
"We euthanized 2.8 percent of 209 dogs last year," Hegermiller said after last night's meeting.
Relations with shelter volunteers must improve, Wooten said, because a strong volunteer staff is essential to the proper operation of a shelter, Wooten said.
"They walk the dogs, interact with them, play with them, socialize with them. The town doesn't have enough paid staff to do these things, so without the volunteers, the dogs are locked in a cell all the time. They go stir-crazy. So even dogs that are adoptable when they come into the shelter can become hostile and aggressive," Wooten said. "We need a shelter director who can deal with people and cultivate a strong volunteer staff."
Mosca urged board members to "look to other towns [and] see how easily a rational solution was found." The RSVP president said he is encouraged by signs of "good will and rationality" in the current administration.
"We are hoping good will and rationality will prevail, but we are not endlessly patient. We will be vigilant. We will be watching," Mosca said.
Routine veterinary care to begin at shelter
The supervisor said he is arranging to have routine veterinary care for dogs at the town shelter. He said he was flabbergasted to learn such care is not provided.
"It is inexcusable we have dogs at the shelter who have parasites or heartworms or other preventable illnesses," Walter said at Wednesday night's Town Board meeting, at which shelter volunteers affiliated with RSVP Inc. again demanded changes at the shelter.