Why The New Approach?

To the Editor:

We need a new approach to staffing [at the animal shelter]. Why is that? It sounds like the shell game to me and perhaps I’ll see letters from other supporters who think this call for staff changes means some outside players don’t want the status quo. If things are going well now, why shouldn’t the staff enjoy the new building. They are the ones who have had to work in the unpleasant to say the least, environment that no other town employees face every day. They should be the ones deciding what is best for the animals and how to meet their needs.

[Carolee Mason] should be applauded for even wanting this job and working under some very unpleasant conditions in environment and supervision. I think that many people turned out to support Ms Mason’s handling of the animals that were brought to the shelter and their care and adoption. Now it sounds like her supervisors believe differently. It isn’t clear that she will continue in that capacity from the sound of the article in The Bee [“With The New Dog Pound Comes A New Approach To Staffing,” 4/27/11].

I have this uncomfortable feeling that perhaps this is the opportunity for those who felt she wasn’t the right person for the job to now seek to “promote” her by handing out a fancy title when all she wants to do is be the animal control officer and care for animals until she and the other staff find good homes for them.

I’d like to hear exactly who is behind this decision to change things just because the new shelter is under way. I’d also like to hear from her supporters who feel she should continue and don’t understand why the new approach is even needed unless it’s not her supporters who want a new approach but her supervisors. As to that new shelter, not much information is being provided to those people and businesses who donated time and money for it to be built. Perhaps we need to be asking what its status is and who can best decide how to have it run efficiently — the police, the supervisors with what, if any, animal control experience exactly, the fundraisers or the day-to-day staff who do the work and according to The Bee article, are “putting forth a lot of effort and responding very well to mentorship.”

Barbara Field

Serenity Lane, Sandy Hook                                               May 4, 2011