Local towns assess need for shelter

UPPER FREEHOLD - Monmouth County is in the process of determining whether to build its own animal shelter.

The township's Board of Health discussed the idea of participating in the Animal Share Program's feasibility study for the creation of a county shelter at its Jan. 8 meeting.

Margaret Jahn, the Freehold Area Health Department officer, said each municipality that participates would pay $500 toward the cost of the study. Among the communities already planning to join, she said, are Freehold Township, Freehold Borough, Hazlet, Aberdeen, Manalapan and Colts Neck.

Jahn said the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' (MCSPCA) shelter in Eatontown is a privately funded, no-kill shelter that currently does not have enough room for all of the animals that contracted municipalities bring to it. She also called the MCSPCA's fees for municipal strays "astronomical."

Animal Control Officer Mary Klink said that she takes most animals from Upper Freehold and towns that it has animal service contracts with to the Associated Humane Society in Lacey Township.

D

r. Kathy Stryeski, vice chairwoman

of the board and a veterinarian who operates the Cream Ridge Animal Hospital, said Upper Freehold had tried to build its own animal shelter but "didn't get very far."

- Jane Meggitt