UPDATE: From Trenton Animals rock as of 5:16 Pm Monday . We are aware now that several people have called the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and have been told that they did not reject our contract. At this point we have no idea what has happened. We received that email this morning with no warning, after being instructed to continue to operate as if the proposal submitted had been approved. We did just that. We are NOT abandoning animals and are in constant contact with the animal control officers to assist them because they – admittedly – cannot do what we’ve been doing. Please go easy on us – and them. They don’t know what is going on either. We just know we were asked to hand in our keys. The Humane Society is working on our behalf as well to try to ensure there is a stay so that no animals can be euthanized. We are moving dogs in to foster homes and working with our shelter partners. Continue to ignore the lies and hate on other sites. We stand by our budget proposal 100% and are proud to want to pay people a living wage for services and not to overwork them in a devastatingly difficult field. We will continue to do what we can to get the animals into foster, other shelters and rescues and will keep on fighting to continue all the great work we have started. It cannot go back to the way it was. Thank you all for the support.
Trenton Animals rock posted this alerting message to the Facebook page Monday morning.
This morning the Executive Director of Trenton Animals Rock was informed by Arch Liston, Chief of Staff for the City of Trenton, that our proposal to operate Animal Welfare Services for the City of Trenton had been rejected by the NJ Department of Community Affairs due to excessive costs. While we have requested more details on this matter, we were instructed by Mr. Liston to file an OPRA request to obtain that.
We do not know when this decision was made by the DCA and were not given any indication that this was a possibility prior to being notified by email this morning. Further, we have not been given any information as to a workaround to allow us to continue offering animal welfare services.
Since January 1, 2022 we have been operating on good faith, without a contract, but given this new information, we cannot continue. Therefore, effective immediately, all animal welfare services that were being provided by Trenton Animals Rock have been stopped.
This includes:
-Animal Welfare Services including feeding, spot cleaning, assessments, vaccinations, socialization, training, medication
-Administrative services: answering phones, emails, community concerns related to vaccinations, medical, behavioral and other animal needs
-Intake; including vaccinating, recording, monitoring all animals that enter the shelter both as strays and surrenders
-Volunteer management; including recruiting, training, management, scheduling and the operation of extended hours
-Placement; including foster and adoptive services for all animals in shelter
-Medical; including spay/neuter, 4DX, microchipping
-Purchasing and inventory; including ordering food, medicine, vaccine and supplies and inventory management
-Rabies clinic on Jan 30 cancelled
-Promotion of animals in shelter for foster/adoption
-Database management
-Veterinary oversight
-Maintenance; including cleaning, dishes, laundry, common areas.
Monday afternoon Trenton’s animals rock were instructed to turn in keys. Trenton Animal rock continue to remain in contact with animal control and the team there that they have worked so closely with. Trenton’s animals rock also stated “”We are NOT abandoning those animals or our staff that we also care deeply about, or the residents of this city we have been helping.”
If you are interested in fostering a dog, please apply immediately at tarnj.org/foster. Emails can be sent to [email protected]. Please note many of these dogs need to be kept separate from other animals, so homes with no other pets are needed most.
