Hempstead plan aims to improve animal shelter

Hempstead Town Monday announced measures to improve animal care at the town shelter - an agency that is the focus of two ongoing probes, one internal and one being conducted by the Nassau County district attorney's office.

The town plans to hire a full-time veterinarian, an animal behaviorist and a liaison with the local animal rescue community as part of the effort. The town has also begun a study of other municipal shelters to develop its own "best practices."

Supervisor Kate Murray said again Monday that the investigations under way address administrative matters, not mistreatment of animals. But she said the probes, and recent allegations of animal abuse made by rescuers, led her to think improvements could be made. "These are . . . super-important changes to the way we handle the animal shelter," she said. "And I think they will make it the premier animal shelter on Long Island."

Murray said the measures, which she hopes to enact swiftly, won't require increases to the shelter's $6.5 million budget for 2011.

In late October, the town barred several volunteer rescuers from the shelter and brought findings from an internal investigation to the district attorney. The shelter's acting director Charles Milone and adoption coordinator Regina Thorne were transferred from their posts.

Pending the resolution of the investigations, Milone and Thorne continue to collect annual salaries of $122,559 and $83,612, respectively.

Town officials and the district attorney's office have declined to detail their inquiries into the shelter, which has a budget of $7.1 million in 2010 and has brought in about 3,140 animals this year.

Elizabeth Stein, a private attorney who is advising the rescuers barred from the shelter, welcomed the town's announcement, though she said what's essential is to have an outside review of the agency.