January 1, 1900

By Brian J. McIntyre

Individuals often think that they have a right to protect their home, property and family. For the most part that assumption is correct. If an unwelcome and unwanted stranger enters your property and threatens your family, you may react with force. The same is true for animals. However, two proposed bills supported by New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are pending before the New Jersey Legislature which would limit your rights to protect yourself. If the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is successful in having the proposed legislation passed, you will not be able to protect your property and family from unwanted dogs or cats.

Currently, you have the right to humanely trap dogs or cats that invade your property. You may enter into an agreement with an independent contractor, such a pest control company, to help in the removal process. Ordinarily this would include placing baited traps on ones property and then delivering the captured animal to a local animal shelter.

However, a bill to restrict who may capture cats and dogs was recently introduced into the legislature. Senate bill number 365 and Assembly bill number 2615, which are sponsored by Assemblyman Michael J. Panter, Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, Senator Ellen Karcher, and Senator Shirley Turner will prevent individuals from trapping dogs or cats. The two bills are identical and would make it illegal to intentionally take “a domestic dog or cat by means of a trap.” The bills specifically exempt animal control officers, representatives of the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and volunteers of the Trap-Neuter-Return program. A fine of one-thousand dollars shall be imposed per violation of the proposed bill.

An initial review of the bills may leave you with the impression that they are reasonable and not an attack upon your rights to control and protect your propery. How­ever, the bills do not provide the full picture surrounding the trapping of dogs and cats. For instance, the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals advocates the use of a Trap-Neuter-Return program. The argument being that, if you neuter the dogs or cats, over time the population will dwindle. This of course does nothing to resolve the potential health and physical danger that the animals pose. This is especially true in light of the potential for cats to carry the Avian/Bird Flu and dogs to attack humans. Moreover, animal control officers are not always willing to come out and trap large populations of feral animals, which are domesticated animals that have returned to an untamed state. These entities are also limited by the amount of shelter space they may have at their disposal.

The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals may also have an ulterior motive for supporting this legislation. When a feral cat or dog is captured and delivered to a shelter, it will be kept alive for no less than seven days. Ordinarily, feral animals are not adopted and are eventually euthanized under state guidelines. Currently, the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals does not possess means to prevent the capture and delivery of animals to these shelters. With passage of this legislation it will be easier for the Society to force the implementation of Trap-Neuter-Return programs. If this is the case, the legislation can be viewed as an attempt to force individuals to imple­ment these programs without ever having a public debate on the issue.

Brian J. McIntyre is an associate in the General Litigation and Community Association Law Practice Groups