11/30/2025
As families gather in warm homes this holiday season, please take a moment to think about the lost, frightened and abandoned pets wandering through Salem County right now with nowhere safe to go.
A dog on was crying for help at 3:30 a.m. A resident called the police and Animal Control and waited for hours. The dog was finally picked up, but by evening he was back outside again - alone, afraid and still with no shelter anywhere in Salem City or Salem County. This is the heartbreaking reality residents have been reporting for over an entire year.
Under New Jersey law N.J.S.A. 4:19-15.16 and N.J.A.C. 8:23A municipalities must impound stray animals and must have a licensed facility or contract with one. In the Mahwah case, the Appellate Division reaffirmed this obligation. Yet community members continue to report there is no functioning impoundment facility and that they are told to manage situations on their own or call outside shelters.
Lost and stray pets have no safe place to be scanned, documented or reunited. Sick or injured animals have nowhere to go after receiving urgent care. Dogs involved in bite cases cannot be quarantined when the owner is unknown. Animals from cruelty cases have no reliable safe haven. OPRA requests for contracts or agreements for a shelter have come back nonresponsive which indicates none exist.
During this season of gratitude, please remember the animals outside tonight, confused, cold and depending solely on strangers to survive. This has gone on for over an entire year. It cannot continue.
It is time for state intervention. Please call and text today.
Governor Phil Murphy
☎️609 292 6000
📲Text 732 605 5455
Attorney General Matthew J Platkin
☎️609 292 4925
NJ Department of Health
Acting Commissioner Jeffrey A Brown
☎️609 292 7837
☎️1 800 367 6543
🐾Every call matters. Every message matters. Every voice matters. The animals of Salem County need help now.
