What Should Southbury Do with the Animal Control Facility?

When current Southbury First Selectman Ed Edelson visited the animal control facility in town for the first time, he said he was shocked.

Edelson acknowledged that it can be hard to bring shelters up to state standards. When he heard about a regional animal shelter, he knew he wanted more information on what that entailed.

Candidate for First Selectman John Monteleone agreed on the shelter’s condition.

“It’s terrible,” he said. “I don’t know how else to talk about it.”

Monteleone said he would rather not wait to take action because the location is not a friendly place for cats or dogs. He said the town could figure out potential regionalization later.

“I would not wait for a regional plan or a state plan or whatever kind of plan we’re coming up with,” he said. “There are animals there today that are in a terrible facility. It’s a disgrace to the town of Southbury to put up with it for as long as we have.”

The Southbury community weighed in on the topic of the animal facility in the comments section of this article.

Republican candidate for selectman, Jennifer O'Neill, cited the following issues in the comments section: no washer or dryer at the facility, an inadequate budget for vet bills and an old HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system.

“I am launching an independent taskforce to evaluate the shelter and make recommendations on needed improvements to the facility and its operations,” she wrote. “In the interim, I have asked the Board of Selectmen to pass an emergency appropriation to handle the immediate needs for the dogs at the shelter.”

What do you think the future of the facility should be? Do you support a regionalization of the animal shelter?

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