Nearly four-dozen cats and one dog led not only to an arrest, but also a lawsuit resulting in a settlement and a promise to address animal control needs.
The Schenectady County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals filed a lawsuit in the county Supreme Court on Friday, Oct. 7, against the county Sheriff’s Department, alleging a violation of the state Agricultural and Markets Law mandating the department must take custody of any animal belonging to someone arrested by the SPCA.
The lawsuit was settled out of court, and Schenectady County SPCA Chief Matthew Tully described it as a fair one.
“This isn’t the perfect situation, but I think it is the best situation for everybody involved,” Tully said. “We could have fought this and litigated it and we could have probably got a lot more than we did, but it probably wouldn’t be the right thing to do for the taxpayers of Schenectady County.”
County Spokesman Joe McQueen said county officials are withholding any comment on the agreement until all parties discuss and are briefed on details of the settlement. Specific details of the agreement were not released before The Spotlight went to print, but Tully said the deal would be explained at a joint press conference later in the week. McQueen expected the announcement to occur by the end of the week, too.
The lawsuit stemmed from the arrest of Michelle Regels, 39, of Suffolk Avenue, Rotterdam, on one count of animal neglect, a misdemeanor. After the arrest was made, on Thursday, Oct. 6, the SPCA had 44 cats and one dog needing either medical attention or a temporary home before adoption.
The possibility of such a dire situation pushing resources to the limits was on Tully’s mind before the recent situation, but he said his concerns were never addressed.
“This case was something that we knew was going to happen and we had been working with the county attorney for three years to plan for this,” Tully said. “The SPCA’s job is to protect animals and we take it very seriously. We believe that we have taken a very aggressive stance to protecting animals.”
Regels was cooperative with police officers, Tully said, and 12 cats were removed the night before she was arrested through friends and neighbors adopting the felines. The dog was put down due to serious neglect, Tully said, along with eight cats that were also euthanized upon a veterinarian’s recommendation. There are 15 more cats under veterinarian care to determine if they should be adopted or destroyed, he said.
“It is probably one of the worst cases in the greater Capital Region in some time,” Tully said. “I have been doing this for 20 years, and this is bad, but it does not rank up in my top five worst. On at least five separate occasions in 20 years I had to call the fire department to use oxygen tanks.”
Despite the scene not ranking as Tully’s worst, he described the seriousness of the situation.
“The smell was absolutely horrendous in there and the floor was caked with feces and urine,” Tully said. “I was able to make it in five to 10 feet before I had to put some Vicks vapor rub up my nose.”
Using the rub is an old trick, he said, to overwhelm an unpleasant smell, but he said the smell still came through.
According to the SPCA, the organization has reached its breaking point.
“This has been a three-year fight to get them to listen,” said Randy Simons, spokesman for the SPCA. “It has been building up and this Rotterdam case was the last straw. It got to the point that enough is enough and we need a decision for future cases.”
According to the lawsuit, the SPCA faxed a written request to the county Sheriff’s Department asking the department to assume control of the animals on Thursday Oct. 6, prior to the arrest. The request also said the organization would seek a court order if there wasn’t action taken by the department.
After receiving the request the Sheriff’s Office called Tully the same day and allegedly left a voicemail on his phone stating the Sheriff would not assume custody of the animals.
Tully said funding would be an element of the settlement between his organization and the county. The SPCA is a volunteer organization and doesn’t receive taxpayer funding. The final plan, he said, would include revenue generation, so the tax base isn’t raised.
“All I can say right now is that when the terms of this settlement are enacted, we intend to have much more positive results in the future when dealing with deplorable cases like the one we witnessed in Rotterdam,” Tully said in a prepared statement.
