Does anyone really understand how bad of an idea this is? The Cranbury Board of Health wants the township to grant the animal control officer the right to kill “menacing dogs” or those that “pose a threat ‘of bodily injury or death to a human being.'”
The proposal said that if a dog is caught walking freely in the township without its owner, it could be “impounded or killed” by an animal control officer or dogcatcher.
The Township Committee wisely refused to introduce it last last month but the health board plans to bring it back — a foolish move.
The best explanation of why comes from resident Robert Bartoletti in a letter to the editor in the Press:
I agree that dogs need to be leashed. The current ordinance addresses that issue. Should pet owners choose to ignore the ordinance, which is designed to protect the public as well as the pet, then the pet owner should be held accountable. However, to allow the animal control office to discharge a fire arm to kill a dog just does not seem reasonable.
There are times when even the most conscientious pet owner’s dog gets loose and frantic pet owners begin to search for them. It would be disturbing to me to see an animal harmed by an overzealous animal control officer who makes a decision to use a firearm against a pet. When one thinks of the lengths that animal lovers around the nation go to protect wild life and pets alike through the use of tranquilizers to subdue wild animals, why in the world would we consider an ordinance that provides for the use of deadly force to subdue a pet?
Furthermore, the absurdity of the proposed resolution was out-matched by the comment made by a resident who happens to live in the zone she called “the pound” — Petty Road, Nicola Court and Lenape Court. Her comments were as far from reality as one could imagine. True, there are many pets living in the area. However, their owners are responsible for them and attend to their needs. To my knowledge they do not allow their pets to bark to the point of disturbance.
I have lived in the area for almost nine years. However, on occasion we do hear a barking dog, just as we hear cars, trucks, airplanes, helicopters, honking geese, quacking ducks, hooting owls, snorting deer, laughing children and many other sounds of life which any reasonable person might expect to hear in a community such as ours. (We even see a partridge in a pear tree!) All of which are sounds and sites of our community.
I urge our neighbors of Petty Road, Lenape Court and Nicola Court to be heard on this subject. I do not believe the citizen who referred to her life in the “pound” speaks for the residents of our neighborhood.
Well said, Mr. Bartoletti.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Hank Kalet 