Animal shelter questions must be e-mailed

Questions about the condition of animals at Hempstead's beleaguered shelter must now be made in electronic form, officials said.

Repeated phone calls from a handful of activists have distracted shelter workers from their duties, according to the town.

"It was a request from the shelter to find a better way to give accurate information," Cheryl Petri, executive assistant of the Department of General Services, said at the Hempstead Town Board meeting Tuesday.

But advocates said the new procedure impedes their efforts to help animals and rescue some adoptable dogs from impending death.

Speaking out against the new practice was the daughter of one of the rescuers banned from the shelter in October.

"These implemented policies prolong adoption opportunities," Danica Brugge, 32, of North Merrick, said at the meeting, with the support of a dozen animal-shelter protesters in the audience, including her mother, rescuer Diane Madden.

Under the new system put in place last Thursday, the shelter staff would no longer answer questions by phone "that would require detailed research," and instead would respond to e-mail inquiries sent to animalinfo@tohmail.org, said town spokesman Michael Deery. Those with no access to a computer can provide their contact information or write to the shelter, officials said.

Brugge said she doesn't call the shelter often and goes there twice a week to visit dogs. When she had called the shelter, she said, she submitted do-not-destroy requests so that specific dogs wouldn't be killed and instead could be placed in a foster home until they were adopted.

"I just found their decision to implement this e-mail system is going to cost animals lives," Brugge said. She added, "I should be able to go into my town shelter to get information about any of the dogs there."

But Petri said the shelter would no longer accept do-not-destroy requests because many dogs that were killed have been vicious, deemed unadoptable, or mandated by the court to be put down.

Brugge, however, contended many dogs can be saved if rescuers know of their situation.

"The town is basically saying they don't know how to deal with overpopulation than to kill for space," she said.