Yesterday, the New Jersey Superior Court ordered the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to adopt procedures within 60 days for the evaluation of applications for county SPCA societies.  Applications have been pending for County Societies in Camden, Ocean and Mercer Counties for four years without the NJSPCA acting upon them or adopting procedures to review the applications.

State statute establishes the NJSPCA as a statewide entity and provides for the formation of County SPCA Chapters.  The statute provides that a County Society may be formed where there are at least ten interested individuals, but does not specify the process for the granting of the charter.  The statute further mandates that the NJSPCA “shall assist persons in counties without a chartered county society to obtain a charter.”

Plaintiff, Jane Donohue, a former NJSPCA law enforcement officer with ten years’ experience in the southern New Jersey region, said the NJSPCA never adopted a process and never provided any assistance as required by the statute: “Every time we asked about the status of the applications, we were told they were working on it.”  Last year, Plaintiffs gave up waiting for the NJSPCA, and filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court alleging the NJSPCA had violated the statute.  In court papers filed during the lawsuit, the NJSPCA argued that it needed time to come up with procedures to review applications. The matter was called for trial yesterday.  At the time of trial, the NJSPCA still had not adopted procedures.

The Court established strict time frames for the adoption of procedures and completion of the process.  From the bench the Judge stated, once the NJSPCA adopts procedures, Plaintiffs may file applications pursuant to the procedures adopted, and no later than 60 days after submission of an application, the NJSPCA shall act on the application.  The Court further ordered that if the NJSPCA denies an application, it shall set forth the reasons for the denial, and set forth what remedial steps, if any, would correct the deficiencies.

Plaintiff, John Micklewright, a certified Animal Cruelty Investigator active in Camden County with over fifteen years of experience in the animal field, said “It’s a travesty for animals and the public interest that the NJSPCA board introduced and approved county charters for friends at a single meeting in December 2007, but when individuals not hand-picked by them applied for charters in 2008, the NJSPCA board suddenly declared a need to form a committee to establish procedures to review charter applications, and four years later has not even adopted procedures to review these applications.”

Plaintiff, Kristine Schmidt, a member of Pet Rescue of Mercer for over ten years, said, “At least now we have a mandate that the NJSPCA take action, and do so by specified dates.  Three dozen people have been trying to volunteer to help animals; it’s high time the NJSPCA let them.”