Dog Impoundment Task Force

Monday, April 21, 2025 - 11:30 AM

James Monty - Chairman

Chairman Monty called this Dog Impoundment Task Force to order at 11:30 AM with the following in attendance: Clayton Barber, Steve McNally, Jim Monty, Cathy Reusser, Favor Smith, David Reynolds, Meg Wood, Jim Dougan, Janet Collier, and Wendy Tibbits. Matt Brassard and David Reynolds had been previously excused.

ALSO PRESENT: Deputy Long, Deputy Sherman and Dina Garvey

MONTY: So, last time we met we discussed a few things. I want to update people on somethings that are happening right now. Shaun, has a ordered and supposed to be delivered, sometime next month, a 3-unit dog facility like Jim had showed us. Shaun, is going to put it on town property, they’re going to maintain it and they’re going to offer towns contracts on using that for either dangerous dogs or to house a dog overnight, if you can’t get it to the shelter. So, that information will be coming out in the near future as they get it built. He’s having his people build it, right Jim?

DOUGAN: He’s having his people do pad underneath and get water and power to it, yup.

MONTY: And it’s a prefab?

DOUGAN: It is.

MONTY: It’s just like those picture that we showed and in conversation, that is wonderful, that’s one step closer. We also talked about the potential of getting three others for towns and my understanding and correct me, if I’m wrong, Deputy County Manager, Mike said the County might be able to help with the initial costs of the building.

DOUGAN: That was our thought process, that was the spot where the County could step in to assist the towns, is just, we were trying to cut a few different things. First of all, we wanted to have Anna and Community Resources see if they could help us apply for things. If the grant were opened back up again, is one, but otherwise the thought was that the County, through because of the short term rental money that is all of a sudden going to come in, if we can use some of those kind of things. Those are the things that we talked about was that. The County’s role in this was helping you get the infrastructure originally, so then the towns can operate it.

MONTY: Great, so to recap where we’ve been, we just started. We discussed the fact that the Town of Willsboro has a 3-unit coming to be delivered in May, then they’ll sign contracts with surrounding towns, anybody who wants to use for dangerous dogs and/or to hold a dog overnight if they can’t get to the shelter, if they don’t have a contract with you and stuff. That will be all done once, they’re going to get the shelter in place and they’ll contract out. I think he’s already started, surrounding towns to see who will be interested in doing that and I think he’s going to use kind of the same model that you did. If you drop a dog off, a dangerous dog, it’s going to be your responsibility completely, his person will handle it on a daily basis in town, that dog, until whatever is done, the court case of whatever.

TIBBITS: Who is his person, right now? His DCO?

MONTY: That I don’t know that.

COLLIER: John Mitchell.

TIBBITS: Okay

COLLIER: He’s a town highway department person. Is this going next to the highway department?

MONTY: I’m not sure.

DOUGAN: I don’t know that.

MONTY: I don’t know that either. I’m not exactly sure where, but it’s going to have water, heat, electric, it’s going to have mini-splits, basically in it for air conditioning and the heat.

DOUGAN: That unit there is what he was going off of, which that’s the outside and this was the inside floorplan with the option for the mini-splits for heat and connecting water and stuff like that to it, is my understanding. I shared all those same websites that I researched this with Shaun.

MONTY: And he did say, today, that they are coming, water, mini-splits for heat and air conditioning, so there will be climate control there for them, which is a good thing. I think it is a step in the right direction.

So, now we were just starting to get into, we would like to potentially three others in areas in the County for this and Jim and Mike, Shaun and myself are trying to work on, more them than me, potentially the County paying for the initial building and then the town would be responsible for anything after that.

DOUGAN: Shaun, budgeted for his.

MONTY: Yes, completely it and Anna’s been looking into some grant financing and you’re going to let us know when the new round opens up?

COLLIER: We will, they’re supposed to be announcing the grant recipients for the last round this week, as long as all goes well.

MONTY: Do you have any idea where they’re going to find the money?

COLLIER: For the next round?

MONTY: No for this round.

COLLIER: That money is already appropriate and there is my understanding.

MONTY: I don’t trust the State. They have been holding $150,000.00 of mine for almost 90-days that the Federal Government gave them, but anyway. So, that’s what we’re hoping to build those 3 other units. There’s been talk, Matt and Ed, they would like one in Moriah.

DOUGAN: Is that a large unit?

COLLIER: I thought that was your plan?

MONTY: That is where the larger one was thinking in going, but then in talking with Shaun, if we have 4 smaller units in the area, you may not need a larger one and stuff.

DOUGAN: Yup

MONTY: So, if we were to put one in Wilmington and that would cover Wilmington, Jay.

SMITH: Upper Jay, that way Keene could utilize it, as well.

MONTY: And Keene and stuff, so that would cover their area. North Elba primarily uses Saranac Lake.

COLLIER: I don’t see them changing.

MONTY: No, I don’t see them and St. Armand. They use that, so if we were to put one in Upper Jay, you’re covering Keene, Jay, Wilmington, so there’s three there. We could put the one in Moriah, which would cover Ti, Crown Point and Moriah. We might want to out a bigger one there.

LONG: That seems like where all of our dogs come from, a lot of them.

MONTY: Well, I know a lot of them have come from Crown Point over the years.

LONG: Yeah

MONTY: A ton of them.

COLLIER: Not so much the dog control, but the other seizures for other reasons.

MONTY: And Cathy, mentioned something about we possibly could put one here in Elizabethtown and I did talk to Chris and I said we could put it at your Highway Department, Chris and he goes, we don’t have water at our Highway Department.

DOUGAN: No, he does have potable water at his Highway Department.

COLLIER: That can be fixed, it doesn’t need to be for cleaning. You can bring in 5 gallons at a time for drinking water, I have other shelters that do that.

DOUGAN: That would be his choice.

MONTY: We would want to make it uniformed.

DOUGAN: He was interested and then realized he didn’t have potable water.

COLLIER: What about Schroon? Would they house it?

DOUGAN: I can’t speak for them.

MONTY: I mentioned it to Meg and she mentioned North Hudson and we went to Chris and I haven’t gotten back to Meg, yet, on that.

COLLIER: They already have an existing facility that could so easily be made into this.

LONG: In Schroon?

COLLIER: Yes, you know where their town hall is?

LONG: Yeah

COLLIER: There’s a little street on the corner of where the town hall is, where their old fire department is, they have a holding facility there, because it was a hire department is has vehicle bays. They use it currently for storage, of not much, as far as I can tell and so they rigged up, they got chain link kennel panels, and one of their town employees rigged this up, they accordion fold them up against the wall, they fold them out and there’s two kennels, right there when they need to be and there’s pins that, he drilled holes in the concrete flooring and with very little modification it can be a two kennel unit or they’re big kennels, it wouldn’t take that much to split them into three. Their dog control officer, who is, if she’s not 80 yet, she’s approaching 80. She only, was very adamant about it only being a holding facility. I don’t know if they would.

MONTY: Most of these, that’s all we’re talking is a holding facility. Dangerous dogs, obviously have to be held until the court appearance.

COLLIER: But, there’s a difference between a holding facility is only 24-hours or 48.

MONTY: If you remember, that is what we were talking about, because it would be a mutual contract with Wendy, that is somebody in Newcomb had a dog that they needed to get to the shelter, if they had a contract with Wendy, they could take it to the holding, I mean it worked out good for us, recently, because we got the dog, how long was that one dog, that one that escaped, day and a half?

TIBBITS: Yes

COLLIER: But, I thought the goal was so that these, if you needed to hold them for the 5-10 days they could hold them there longer or for even a month for dangerous dogs, because you’re setting them up to meet the full shelter standards. A holding facility has far less requirements than a shelter facility. That’s one of the reasons why they’re only limited to holding them overnight. A holding facility can even consist of a crate in a safe spot.

MONTY: So, technically we don’t know, we wouldn’t need these buildings for a holding facility, is what you’re telling me?

TIBBITS: I think what she’s saying is, after 48-hours if the shelter doesn’t have room, what are you guys going to do?

MONTY: Right, one problem at a time.

COLLIER: That’s is why I’m saying, because that may not always be an answer.

SMITH: So, essentially is that if the specifications that Shaun has just ordered for Willsboro, met the State specifications…

COLLIER: They’re all shelters, not holding places.

SMITH: It gives the towns and the county is going to help with the capital costs of that and then what happens is the town faces the issue of, we’ve got no place else to take the dog to, we’ve already met that threshold of it’s not a temporary holding facility for that 24 hour period, it’s an actual shelter that we can hold until we can figure out what happens or the judge shows up and things like that. That’s sort of been, in my look at this, there’s two things, one is, we don’t have any place to take the dogs safety. If they’re full and we have to drive around out of the county to find someplace and pay some extra money, that’s the one thing. The other thing, it seems like we’re heading in that direction, kind of reminding me of the EMS problem, we don’t have kind of, you know it’s like running out of the volunteers and then suddenly the questions becomes, who’s going to maintaining and carry for the dogs that they pick up in the meantime?

MONTY: I agree with you 100%, I think that would come with the fact that if I put one in Upper Jay, Elizabethtown and stuff, they would have to come up, with we’re going to be a shelter, it’s going to have to come up with, if it’s in Upper Jay, it’s your responsibility.

COLLIER: To send their dog control officer.

MONTY: If that’s in Upper Jay, I am going to say it’s his DCO, unless they work out an agreement that whoever and that will all be in a contract between Jay, Keene, Wilmington.

SMITH: We’re going to get a chance to see how this works, because Shaun is so much further ahead of us right now.

MONTY: Right, right.

SMITH: So, once he’ll know that the cost of it is in Willsboro. I can only see Essex and a few of those others, Westport, maybe heading out towards Willsboro to use that.

MONTY: We’ve got a great relationship with Wendy, so as long as we can, so long as we don’t have a dangerous dog situation.

SMITH: Then Willsboro will be able to sort of calculate, how much should they be charging the other towns for use of that and calculate that.

MONTY: And well that’s the thing, we’ve got to figure that out and we don’t want to get into a situation where, the shelter got, where they were being held hostage.

SMITH: Exactly

MONTY: Because they town refused to pay and they got 28 dogs dumped.

TIBBITS: 29

REUSSER: Not that she’s counting.

LONG: So, segue into that, because that’s my call, Sheriff’s Office seizes 29 dogs with Parvo, is that now the Sheriff’s Office responsibility or would that be Crown Point’s?

MONTY: The way I would like to set it up, is it is each town’s responsibility.

LONG: Even if we do a seizure.

MONTY: Even though you do a seizure, it’s still that town’s. They should go to the nearest, what I envision, it should go to the nearest shelter that we have established.

REUSSER: The towns are required under New York State Agriculture and Markets to have a DCO or some kind of contractual relationship.

LONG: Right

MONTY: But, there’s no penalty if they don’t.

LONG: I know that is the law, but we run into some trouble with that sometimes.

REUSSER: Oh, I understand, so you’re law enforcement, but it doesn’t relieve the town of their ultimate responsibility.

LONG: Okay

TIBBITS: So, say she has a situation with Parvo and calls Willsboro, hey, I’ve got 29 dogs in your town exposed to Parvo, what are you going to do with them?

COLLIER: The other problem is there is nothing specific in the law, you’re required to have shelter for dog control dogs, not cruelty seizures, not DUI with a dog in the car, but they can’t, the law enforcement can’t legal leave the animals unattended with nobody to care for them when then incarcerate or hospitalize the people involved. So, that leaves a big hole in the safety net and there’s in the law that says that the municipality is responsible for that nor that the dog control officer is responsible for it and unless your contract with your private shelter facility or your municipal facility has something in it that addresses those other Article 26 seizures.

TIBBITS: We have Article 7, right now.

MONTY: So, what does Ag and Markets suggest? They’re the governing body.

COLLIER: As I said, it’s a hole in the law. There is no law.

BARBER: So, my question that I have is how long is the Town responsible to keep a dog? If I take a dog in and bring it to a pound or bring it to Willsboro, how long am I responsible to keep that dog in that pen, if the owner never shows up to claim the dog, so what happens?

COLLIER: Which type of seizure?

BARBER: Say I just pick up a dog on the road and there’s no tags.

COLLIER: That’s a dog control dog, that’s very clear. That’s going to be somewhere between 5 days and unless 10 days, as long as it’s not a dangerous dog.

LONG: So, what happens if a guy has a DUI and there’s two dogs in the car, what does the Sheriff’s Office do? Just go off the relationships that we have with the people?

COLLIER: Those are Article 26.

MONTY: And what I want to see in it is then if you pick them up in Lewis, that’s my responsibility which we have the $350.00 a day for Article 7s, so that is now the Town’s responsibility to pick that up. If you pick one up in Elizabethtown, you picked one up in Upper Jay.

TIBBITS: So here is one of the problems, I’ll just use an example of what Janet is talking about. The State Police got someone in Port Henry for a DWI, the dog is in the car, the guy is going to be incarcerated, maybe incarcerated for months.

COLLIER: He doesn’t want to lose title to his dog.

TIBBITS: No, so you have to hold that dog.

REUSSER: But, then he’s financially responsibility, too.

TIBBITS: Yeah, financially responsibility for his DWI fines, too.

COLLIER: The problem is, because dogs or cats are personnel property there is no definitive period of time that their personal property, unless it was gained through illegal means, whereby they lose title to that. For cruelty seizure there are procedures in place, where is you arrest them, because they’ve been mistreating or not taking care of the animals, there is a bond application process, whereby if the owner cannot come up with the money to fund the care of those animals for the specified period of time, they lose title to them. Then you can disperse them or euthanize them, whatever the case may be. You’re still stuck with the animals then, but at least you don’t have to hold them indefinitely. The arrest scenario is different.

TIBBITS: So, the one case with just say, picking up the dog by the State Police and bringing them to the shelter, you know, days later, when no other family has come forward to take that dog, we’ll reach back out to, say the State Trooper or the DCO and say, hey, can you talk this guy in jail? Will he surrender? Oh, we don’t talk to them once we have arrested them and they’re in jail. Okay, so, we’ve got the dog for the next four months.

MONTY: And then who’s responsibility to pay is it?

COLLIER: It doesn’t say anywhere.

MONTY: Ag and Markets made all these rules that they don’t enforce, that they don’t want to fund it and I mean, I’m sorry, if you’ve got rules, enforce them.

TIBBITS: Well, I’m sorry, local laws with the dogs and stuff need to be enforced as well.

MONT: Absolutely, I don’t disagree, I don’t disagree at all.

DOUGAN: So, there are lot of what ifs, here. So, what we’re proposing to do right now is going to make 27. If 5 towns got 3 beds and 1 got 12, that makes 27 more kennel locations than there was before. That’s not going to solve the 29, that’s not going to solve everything here.

MONTY: Right

COLLIER: But, you’re a lot further ahead.

DOUGAN: So, all I’m asking is that we stay a little bit focused, okay? I heard the following; there’s going to be one in Upper Jay that’s going to handle three towns. I heard that Shaun’s going to do one. I heard that Moriah is going to do something, is that committed?

MONTY: Matt, said he would do whatever we needed him to do.

TIBBITS: There’s got to be commitment from the DCOs, too. That’s a big one.

MONTY: Absolutely

DOUGAN: And Etown/Lewis, there’s going to be one here. So, that’s 5 out of what I thought was going to be 6 locations. We still need to find a 6^th location.

MONTY: Still need to find 1 down south.

DOUGAN: Right and then the other, I just want to be focused.

MONTY: I agree

DOUGAN: So, we still need to find that, the other thing is, Shaun, once he gets his built, it needs to be on your list as a designated shelter to help us the next time this funding comes out to actually be something we can say, we already have one and that we’re moving forward. The County, you know, Mike has said, our goal is to help the towns, but wouldn’t we all like to do it with a grant; right? So, not to belabor all the other what ifs and a lot of this still comes back to the Towns individually and the DCOs.

LONG: My concern though, is there going to be a MOU for the Sheriff’s Office for the DUI ones that don’t fall under your guy’s laws, are we going to be protected so we don’t get jammed up with these dogs.

MONTY: So, my thinking, as long the same lines as Jim, that’s what you guys put together.

LONG: Okay

MONTY: You guys put together an MOU of how you want to see it perceived, so that when we get this all put together, we can present it to the Board, this is out there, this is what’s going to happen. I don’t know, maybe we should have a State Police representative, here, although they’ll sign on to a lot of things, but they won’t follow through.

TIBBITS: We definitely should.

REUSSER: And I think you’re going to find two things; these are exceptional case, thank god and let’s hope we proceed, going forward with the same kind of occasion thing, but I think also for your protection, I know if you called Jim or I up and said, hey, we just had a DWI arrest, we got this dog, I am going to be saying, come over to whatever our location is and I would be glad to help you out.

LONG: But, sometimes it’s really hard in our shoes, sometimes it’s not that easy, so I just want to make sure the Sheriff’s Office is protected in general, because sometimes it’s really, really hard to find places.

REUSSER: And I think if you encounter that, we can deal with uncooperative people at a different time.

LONG: Yes

REUSSER: But, if you had an in the moment thing and there was available space, I think you would find that the majority of us would be very receptive to wherever you were to help you remedy your problem.

LONG: Okay

MONTY: And I have a meeting, next week, with the new Capital that took Pat Ryan’s place, maybe I can get him to send somebody down to tell them what we’re looking for, because in the end it helps them, instead of just calling Dave and saying, send out your dog people, we got one here in the car. So, maybe coming up with some guidelines that we’re going to have for the towns that have these, you know, okay, we’re going to have a contract between Lewis and Willsboro and this will come from Shaun, obviously, I am going to see if Shaun will start driving that aspect of it, so what are you expecting from each town, if we bring a dog there? I know we’ve talked about it, but I would like to see it in writing. Who’s responsibility, he already said that it would be his people, but there’s going to be a fee, obviously.

DOUGAN: Yeah, I would think that, especially if the County is going to assist with the initial capital money to get this going, I would think one of the things, when I say the County, it’s all the Supervisors, collectively is the County; right? But, I would think you would, right off the bat say, if the County has paid for this initial structure that even if the one in Upper Jay is full, okay, another one gets picked up, up there, it gets to go to one of these other facilities.

MONTY: Absolutely

DOUGAN: That only makes sense to me, that that is always part of the by-laws of this overall system is that, so there are 27 or however we end up here that are always available to be shared throughout the County. I think some of those rules, otherwise, I’m not sure why the County should be involved.

MONTY: No, agree.

DOUGAN: But, come up with that and if you’re going to buy in, especially if the County, if we get a grant or not is going to do, invest this much, that means that every one of those is always going on a list as one that’s available. You know one of the things you described to me, Jim, is that we’ve been talking about all the really bad situations, the really hard ones, but an awful lot of what Glen, picks up in your town is sometimes it’s before he gets out of the truck, he knows where it goes.

MONTY: Or I’ve picked it up already. But, what we’re finding a lot of times is we’re getting dumps off the interstate. People just pop in a rest area and dump the dog. But, you’re not wrong, Jim, at all.

So, I think for tasks for us, for the next meeting; I will get ahold of State Police and see if they’ll send a representative here and explain it to them what we’re trying to do and stuff and would it be possible, Wendy, for you or Janet or both, to come up with some parameters, you know, in your case for if that dog is held in Elizabethtown for 7 days and stuff, obviously, I think we should put it also in our bylaws, that it’s the town that responsible for veterinary activities that may happen, because some of those dogs may need to be seen by a vet.

TIBBITS: Well, with some of the new regs, they’re going to have to be seen by a vet in the short term.

COLLIER: Article 7 ones, but yes, you’re right, because it also includes cats, you’re right, it’s not going to matter the reason that they’re coming in.

REUSSER: So, just a general wellness.

MONTY: But, we’re not dealing with cats, we’re dealing with dogs.

COLLIER: The State Sheltering Law does, so that’s for her, but she made a good point that my brain took a second to process. It will include those Article 26 animals.

MONTY: So, if you guys could bring some of that information here, so that we can start compiling it, so we know how many days, because I don’t know how many days a dog can stay in a sheltered environment and if it’s not claimed after X number of days.

TIBBITS: I mean the new regulations are going to be new for all of us. So, I would suggest that everybody read it.

MONTY: Okay

TIBBITS: You know, not taking me out of the mix, but

COLLIER: It’s also going to be very situational depending why it was brought in to bring with.

REUSSER: You’re knowledge and frequency of using those regulations, obviously, is going to be greater than us.

TIBBITS: And I am learning more as that time is approaching, because we’re changing a lot of things.

COLLIER: It’s not, we’re anticipating at least a 2-year, getting into the new system. That is, I guess the history, yes, it goes into effect December 15^th. We know full well that the vast majority are not going to be ready on December 16^th.

MONTY: Right and again, we’re just trying to alleviate the immediate need. I think this is going to be an ever evolving project and stuff and discussion. I think we’re further ahead in some ways than we were a year ago.

SMITH: Completely, I mean the idea is we have no place to place the animal.

COLLIER: I see a lot of progress.

MONTY: And there’s a lot more training that’s being offered and being done and I think that’s huge and the hardest problem, again, too, at times is finding the individuals that are willing to act in that capacity, that are willing to respond to calls, that are willing to go out in the vested interest of the animal.

TIBBITS: So, what I can say of this past year of doing all of this and it’s been a year since we got on that first Zoom call, I think the education part of it is big. You know, I think a lot more Town Supervisors know what we’re dealing with now. I mean there’s some and some DCOs that don’t even know what their own local law reads and so I think they’re really looking at that stuff and start looking at the regulations, so we know what we’re talking about.

MONTY: And the hardest part, too, on top of this all is educating your judges in the County.

SMITH: It’s all going to go professional, I’m sorry. You know the idea that we have local magistrates, local dog control officers, local code enforcement officers, local assessors, you know that’s a throwback from years ago when we could actually manage our local affairs, but now everything is regulations and professionalization.

MONTY: And nobody lives in the area.

REUSSER: We’ve got to live through EMS first, Favor.

SMITH: So, we’ll get the minutes out from this meeting and plan on meeting again, in a month. We will try and have these plans that we want to see in our dream here of what it is. Thank you, we are adjourned.

AS THERE WAS NO FURTHER BUSINESS TO COME BEFORE THIS SUBCOMMITTEE, IT WAS ADJOURNED AT 12:06 PM.

Respectively Submitted,

Dina L. Garvey, Deputy Clerk

Board of Supervisors