To the editor:

For many months now, the Westport Board of Health has responded to our calls for the development of an animal site registry with the same answer: Once the Board of Selectmen agree to reassign the Animal Control Officer to the Department of Health, then and only then will they institute a registry. They have justified this stance by stating that their department does not have the necessary staff to monitor a registry, but that the transfer of the ACO, along with the addition of two new part-time support positions, would provide the resources required to implement an effective registry.

They have repeatedly told us that a new part-time clerk would support record keeping aspects of animal inspections and maintenance of the registry, and that the new part-time field agent would serve as “back up” to the ACO. At video-recorded meetings they have asked us to publicly support them with this comprehensive plan, which we have done wholeheartedly and in good faith.

We were taken aback when, at the February 26 Finance Committee meeting, BOH Chairman Bill Harkins and Department of Health Director Matt Armendo made their request for FinCom’s support of the two new part-time positions without mentioning the registry. The omission was so glaring that two FinCom members prodded them to link the requested positions directly to the site registry for more convincing justification. Instead, Armendo and Harkins maintained that their hiring request was not tied to the registry and, furthermore, that one might never be developed. Harkins then stated that he needed more time to do additional research on a registry.

Really?! Over the past two and a half years, members of our group have conducted months of research on the many animal site registries already operating in towns across Massachusetts. All this information, including specific guidelines and forms, was provided to the BOH well over a year ago. Harkins has stated on several occasions that he has spoken with the Massachusetts Department of Animal Resources about animal registries in Massachusetts. BOH member Phil Weinberg has already written a comprehensive draft of a proposed “Keeping of Animals” regulation, which at its core is an animal site registry. How much more research is required?

Yes, it has been almost three years and we are still begging for the adoption of a site registry and writing about the awful tragedy of the Medeiros tenant farm. Why? Because after all this time and trouble the most the BOH has been able to manage is the passage of a Tenant Farm regulation that they have admitted will affect only four people.

There is no group wearier of this fight than we. So to the entire Westport BOH we say: Please get this done! There are so many other important issues to work on for a better, healthier Westport.

Kathy Feininger,

For Stop the Insanity, Westport!

Westport