St. Lawrence County Animal Cruelty Coalition
This fall the Potsdam Humane Society approached the St. Lawrence County Legislature to request that they take action to address the issue of animal cruelty. As a humane society, that provides animal control and sheltering services for eleven municipalities in the County, our organization believes that our elected representatives have a responsibility to participate in addressing several problems that exist with the way animal cruelty cases are handled.
Over the years our organization has received hundreds of cruelty complaints and most recently we have begun receiving multiple repeat complaints for the same individuals. Unfortunately, when we looked into one of these cases further we discovered that an individual had been arrested three separate times, received multiple animal cruelty citations, and tragically over a year and a half later this person has still never been brought to court. These cases languish in the system while animals suffer. Until the compassionate people of St. Lawrence County get fed up with the broken system this is going to continue to happen.
The Legislature heard our request and agreed to support an Animal Cruelty Coalition which will be led by the Potsdam Humane Society with participation from community volunteers and County leaders that have critical roles and responsibilities in addressing animal cruelty. These leaders include the Sheriff’s Office that investigates animal cruelty complaints, the District Attorney’s office that prosecutes cruelty cases, and the legislature that sets policy for the County.
The intent of the Animal Cruelty Coalition is to bring together representatives from these agencies with the common goal of improving the process for addressing cruelty cases in St. Lawrence County. The Potsdam Humane Society has been the voice for those that have no voice and we cannot and will not accept a broken process that allows repeat animal cruelty offenders to go over a year without any court action.
We welcome participation from other animal oriented organizations, animal care professionals, the general public, and we sincerely hope that the legislature and our elected leaders involved in this process will also take an active role in the Animal Cruelty Coalition. Inquiries regarding participation on the Animal Cruelty Coalition should be addressed to moc.sppasyawduolc.3718793-407306-sserpdrow@retlehs
