Liberty Humane providing service to Bayonne; Beaches need more testing

(Jersey Journal file photo)

Here's how you can help animals in Bayonne

On Thursday, June 21st Liberty Humane Society will become the Animal Control and Sheltering provider for the City of Bayonne. This comes at a challenging time. Almost daily, our Animal Response Team (ART) is seeing reports of injured and sick animals in need of care, pleas for assistance with outdoor cat colonies, and reports of animal neglect and abuse. It has been three years since Liberty Humane Society last contracted with Bayonne for animal services, and it seems the need for such service has exponentially grown.

Liberty Humane Society is a non-profit animal welfare organization. We are not in the business of making money from municipal contracts. We are here providing service because we see the dire need Bayonne has for responsible, progressive animal control. And we need your help to make this a reality.

We're asking all residents concerned about Bayonne's animals to please visit our Animal Response Team (ART) website: www.libertyhumane.org/animal_response_team to learn about what services are provided under this Bayonne agreement, what you as residents can expect from the ART, and how to contact us for assistance. Please share this information with your friends and neighbors.

If you have been working independently to rescue animals or are willing to help us as we seek to do more for Bayonne's animals in need, we need to hear from you. Please reach out to us using our website contact form, or via Facebook message @libertyhumanesociety.

We are glad to be working with the City of Bayonne once more, but it will take all of us banding together in order to improve the lives of local animals in need. Please help us help them by being understanding during this transition. Let's move forward, together.

Irene Borngraeber, executive director, Liberty Humane Society

More water testing needed at beaches

It seems that every Tuesday there is another Jersey Shore beach that is unsafe to swim in. Last week there were 10 beaches at risk of closing. Now there are up to 47 beaches from Long Branch to Atlantic City that are at risk of closing because the level of bacteria from animal and human waste is so high. The DEP has been sending advisory after advisory that are beaches are unsafe, but they are not adequately testing as well or fixing their failed policies to prevent this chronic pollution from happening in the first place.

One of the problems is that there is a lot out there that we don't know could hurt us because the DEP only tests on Mondays. So if it rains on Friday, people could be swimming over the weekend in polluted water without even knowing it. What is even worse is that there are beaches they don't even test.

The DEP should be testing our ocean and bays more than once a week. They also need to test after each rain event with technology that gets results in hours because when it rains, it pours sewage and runoff. We need to fix our combined sewer overflow systems and stormwater systems down the shore because our children's health depends on it. The DEP needs to protect our water quality not only for tourism and our economy, but for the people of New Jersey who deserve a clean coast for to enjoy for future generations.

Jeff Tittel, Director, NJ Sierra Club

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