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According to animal shelter staff member Kim Cannon, the costs of treating animals will rise greatly without a veterinary technician in-house. Photos by Kelly Carroll

Southampton - With an approximately $1 million operating budget, the Animal Shelter of the Town of Southampton will be seeing some serious cut-backs in 2009, including the loss of personnel, which has fueled anger from area veterinarians and shelter volunteers who attended Southampton's Town Board meeting to voice their dismay over the shelter's lay-offs.

"To make such radical changes in staffing is risky," asserted Sarah Davidson, executive director of the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons (ARF). "It would compromise the incredible progress that has been made."

Wendy Altieri, veterinary technician for the Southampton Town Animal Shelter, will be losing her position come 2009.

In the 2009 budget, adopted on Nov. 20, the animal shelter, which is located on Riverhead Road in Hampton Bays, will see the loss of three staffing positions - a part-time animal trainer, a kennel attendant and a veterinary technician - with new operational structures and procedures being developed to ensure that the shelter's overall operating expense, one of the largest in the township, can be reduced.

However, many on hand at the board meeting were outraged over the specific abolishment of the position of veterinary technician, currently held by Wendy Altieri. Veterinary technicians are trained in many tasks, such as collecting specimens and performing laboratory procedures, yet cannot diagnose illnesses, prescribe medications or perform surgery.

According to Kim Cannon, a member of the animal shelter's staff, costs to treat animals without a veterinary technician in-house would rise approximately 790 percent for cats (from $20.50 to $162.50) and approximately 1,300 percent for dogs (from $13.74 to $178.75), since these animals will have to be taken to local veterinary hospitals.

However, according to a budget resolution introduced by Town Councilwoman Anna Throne-Holst last week, as liaison to the animal shelter, the elimination of the three positions is estimated to increase animal shelter revenues by $12,500 and decrease expenses by approximately $121,000 - decreasing the town's General Fund property taxes by more than $133,000.

"The animal shelter is one of the most expensive departments," Throne-Holst asserted at the meeting. "We will not be able to sustain an animal shelter that costs over $1 million. This animal shelter is going to go bust, and it's my job to make sure that doesn't happen."

Under the proposed 2009 budget, the town board is also looking to assure that the animal shelter becomes more sustainable, bringing in more revenue and eventually turning it into a revenue generating enterprise fund. According to Town Supervisor Linda Kabot, it was always a goal to create more revenue generating services at the shelter to compensate for its $1 million budget.

Town Councilwoman Anna Throne-Holst, liaison to the shelter, said something needs to be done to counteract the shelter's $1 million operating budget, one of the largest in the town.

"[The shelter] cannot cost what it's costing the town," Throne-Holst added. "It stands in complete imbalance to what the rest of the town does."

Altieri, in attendance at the meeting, has been with the shelter for eight years, cultivating what she said were relationships with area veterinary hospitals that allow the animal shelter to forgo costly referrals the department is now going to have to pay for. With anywhere from 150 to 250 animals to care for, Altieri said her position is "more than a full-time job."

"It's vital that the animals' well-being be monitored since their health changes on a daily basis," Altieri explained. "I love my job, and I want to keep my job."

Pete Collins, president of the town's Civil Service Employees Union (CSEA) suggested the town and the animal shelter should come to some sort of compromise on this issue. He pointed out that no one from the town board consulted with the union before the cuts were made. According to Collins, without a veterinary technician, the quality of care for the animals will be reduced "with dire consequences. Three and a half years ago, I never thought I'd be coming before this board to remind them where 'Main Street' is," Collins asserted. "We shouldn't get rid of these people."

However, Councilwoman Throne-Holst, herself a pet-owner, emphasized that she was assured in her decision making that no animals would suffer as a result of the cutbacks, and although her decision might seem hasty to some, she said a more efficient way of operating the shelter has yet to be identified.

"I need the support of everyone," she noted. "We have to support the people that manage our departments. The changes we don't make today, we're going to have to make twice as hard tomorrow."

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