KINGSTON – In the wake of last weekend’s arrest of a Gardiner
woman on charges of animal neglect, Ulster County Executive Michael Hein
has renewed his call for the county legislature to pass a responsible
breeders law. The county executive proposed the law last July, but was
bottled up in committee and prevented from making it to the floor for
a vote.
Hein said he is hopeful that current legislature Chairman Kenneth Ronk,
who sponsored last year’s proposed law, “will do everything
in his power to prevent yet another tragic case of avoidable abuse.”
Jill Hamilton, 63, is a registered AKC breeder of Shetland Sheepdogs.
What the Ulster County SPCA found were dogs in her home overrun with debris,
rotten garbage and waste, both human and canine.
The most recent case “clearly illustrates the foresight in Mike
Hein’s proposal last year suggesting inspections of registered breeders,”
said Ulster County SPCA Executive Director Adam Saunders. He said the
proposed legislation “would allow us to prevent animals from wallowing
in the misery displayed in the media with recent events.”
The breeders law was part of Hein’s comprehensive abuse prevention
initiative which also included creation of an anti-animal abuse task force,
an animal abuse registry, anti-tethering law, pet sheltering for victims
of domestic violence, humane feral cat program and the county-wide dog
park in New Paltz.
