Hello concerned Westporter,

Thank you for your correspondence regarding the ongoing situation at the tenant farm on American Legion Highway. Your expressed concerns about the proper treatment of animals, albeit coarsely stated, are  very much aligned with the plan and timetable that the Board of Selectman are pursuing. You may be unfamiliar with the specifics of this plan so I will take this opportunity to share some detail with you.  

Shorty after our members were able to visit the site and receive the initial briefings in July, we embarked on a five point plan to rectify the situation.  The elements of this plan are as follows:

1. Immediate Actions Required to address the initial emergency and crime scene.  This included soliciting assistance from outside agencies for the care and shelter of over 1000 animals, securing the crime scene and developing a comprehensive report and inventory of evidence for the Attorney Generals Office, finding a suitable plot of land and executing a lease of same to the ASPCA where a temporary rescue farm was built and to where all of the animals were relocated, and finally, provide round the clock security for the rescue farm.

2. Determine the scope of this issue to insure that there are no other sites in town with similar conditions.  In this case our office assembled and worked with a multi-disciplined ad hoc committee to review past complaints and identify sites that may have been suspect.  A total of 6 locations were identified and visited by a qualified animal inspector and our Animal Control Office.  We found satisfactory conditions at all six.

As an extension of this effort, the BOS sought and received authority to nominate Animal Inspectors to the State Department of Agricultural Resources.  Further, we have made some personnel and procedural changes with regard to animal inspections.  These changes have already yielded results in that more than 20 new sites with farm animals have been identified and added to our annual census/inspection list to date. We expect that this number will increase before our annual census is complete.  The good news is that of these new sites, only one was found to have practices in need of review and that site has been properly referred to the appropriate authorities for follow up.  Further, our annual animal census and inspection is on schedule to be completed prior to the end of the year.  A big improvement over years past.

3. Monitor the original 177 site and prevent re-emergence of the problem before  criminal and civil actions and resolution of the current situation can be completed.  The BOS has initiated legal action to prevent the owner of the 177 farm from housing animals on the property until the case can be settled and proper oversight can be instituted, unsafe structures can be demolished and the site cleaned up.  This is an ongoing situation for which you can view the details on our website.

4. Review the performance of Town departments and employees involved in the oversight of animal health and welfare.   This also is an ongoing situation being performed on a timetable not fully controlled by the BOS.

Since these are largely human resource related actions, they are being conducted in non public forums.  Where we find deficiencies we will be taking appropriate disciplinary and/or re-training actions.  This phase is also intended to provide fact finding background for #5 below.  We have already determined that the performance of the ACO throughout the period leading up to the discovery of issues this past summer has been excellent.

However, we find that the mission of the ACO would better aligned with that of the BOS or BOH.  So for now we have moved the ACO from the Police Department to the BOS.

5. Determine what actions are required on the part of the Town to improve our oversight of animal health and welfare and implement same.  You no doubt understand that we just formalized our intentions here by forming a multi-disciplined committee to review our current regulatory powers and procedures and determine what changes or additional powers might be necessary.  This process will now run parallel with other efforts mentioned above and will take some time to produce thoughtful, comprehensive results.

While it may be frustrating to view this process from the outside and it is upsetting to suffer temporary setbacks such as the introduction of some animals back to the farm, rest assured that the BOS intends to rectify this problem and put measures in place to prevent a third instance from occurring.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact our office on this important issue.

Westport Board of Selectmen