FULTON – To help the Fulton Police Department handle animal control calls, the city is now working with a local volunteer-run non-profit and contracted trappers in a new animal control program, which launched last month.
Deputy Chief Michael Curtis, who was integral in the creation of the new program, said when the police department looked at its statistics for animal control calls, they saw that during the time they had a full-time animal control officer, police officers were still handling around 67% of the calls. And when the animal control officer retired and returned to work part-time during the warmer months, that number went up to 88% of the calls.
“That’s when we realized it’s a really inefficient system we’re running when the police officers are handling most of the animal control calls anyway, and anything that involved more in-depth investigation automatically went to the police department anyways, even if the animal control officer was working,” Curtis said.
Curtis said they then began looking at different ways to handle the problem and create a more efficient system with the money available in the budget. He said with budget constraints, it would be difficult to bring on another full-time animal control officer.
The city has not had a designated animal control officer, full-time or part-time, since 2019.
“We did not put on a new animal control officer because we had a dire need, I believe, for someone that specialized in cats,” Avery said. “We have a huge homeless cat issue and feral cat issue in the city.”
The 2021 budget was approved with $30,000 designated for an animal control officer’s salary.
Instead, the city will be using $5,000 of that budget to allocate to the Oswego County SPCA (OCAWL) to handle calls for cats, and the rest will be put to other use according to Common Council President Audrey Avery.
“We’re going to try as hard as we can not to dip into that as much as we can,” Oswego County SPCA President Tanya Semchenko said. “Right now there is an overwhelming cat problem in the city of Fulton… We really can’t adopt our way out of it. The best thing you can do is spay and neuter your animals.”
To make a call about a concerning cat, call the Oswego County SPCA, and if no one is available to answer, call the police department as they are able to contact volunteers outside of office hours.
Semchenko said the protocol for stray cats is to pick it up and find a foster home for it and hold it for five days in case it belongs to someone, or if all the foster homes are completely filled they can bring it to the Oswego Animal Shelter. If no one claims the cat, it is vaccinated, spayed/neutered and put up for adoption.
With calls for sick or injured cats, they will bring the cat to the vet.
The police department will continue handling dog calls and animal-related criminal investigations. When there is a dog call, a police officer brings it back to the station and holds it in the kennel while they try to find its owner.
Within a certain amount of time if the dog is not claimed, it will go to the Oswego Animal Shelter. If the dog is claimed, it must first be licensed and get vaccinated if it is not already before being returned to its owner.
Nuisance animal trapping calls may be directed to the city clerk’s office to make arrangements with a trapper contracted with the city.
Curtis said a resident is allowed up to two trapping calls for no more than four days before needing to make their own arrangements. For the first two calls, the clerk’s office will be billed directly.
“We’re hoping to encourage people to take care of the problem that’s causing the nuisance animal issues,” Curtis said. “In most of these cases, it’s either they are feeding cats outside, they are not taking care of garbage, or maybe a neighbor is doing that.”
Looking forward, Avery, Curtis and Semchenko said they hope to incorporate education programs for city residents and to organize vaccination and spay/neuter clinics in the city if there is enough in the budget to do so.
“There’s a lot of people who just can’t afford to spay or neuter their animals,” Avery said. “We’re going to sit down and see what we can possibly do for the residents of the city who are not able to afford the spaying or neutering or the rabies shots.”
To contact the Oswego County SPCA, click here. To help support them, click here, and their events page can be found here.
To contact the Fulton Police Department, call the non-emergency number 315-598-2007.
To contact the city clerk’s office, call 315-592-5390.
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