Bill Text: NJ A5145 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Appropriates $150,000 to Department of Community Affairs for Atlantic County Animal Shelter one-year cat spay-and-neuter clinic.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-12-16 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Commerce, Economic Development and Agriculture Committee [A5145 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A5145-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman DONALD A. GUARDIAN
District 2 (Atlantic)
SYNOPSIS
Appropriates $150,000 to Department of Community Affairs for Atlantic County Animal Shelter one-year cat spay-and-neuter clinic.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
A Supplement to the annual appropriations act for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, P.L.2024, c.22.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. In addition to the amounts appropriated under P.L.2024, c.22, the annual appropriations act for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, there is appropriated from the General Fund the following amount for the purpose specified:
22 DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
70 Government Direction, Management, and Control
75 State Subsidies and Financial Aid
STATE AID
04-8030 Local Government Services ................................... $150,000
Total General Fund appropriation,
State Subsidies and Financial Aid....................... $150,000
State Aid:
04 Atlantic County Animal Shelter.............. ($150,000)
Notwithstanding the provisions of any law or regulation to the contrary, the amount hereinabove appropriated for the Atlantic County Animal Shelter's spay-and-neuter clinic shall be made available to implement a one-year pilot clinic, with participants provided free spay, neuter, and vaccination services.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill appropriates an additional $150,000 to the Department of Community Affairs to be provided to the Atlantic County Animal Shelter for a one-year, free spay-and-neuter clinic to contain the county's cat population and protect public health.
Feral cats proliferate in New Jersey due to a lack of effective spaying and neutering management. Cats are often abandoned, stray from their owners, or roam unsupervised, reproducing and contributing to undomesticated colonies.
The Office of Veterinary Public Health in the Department of Health reported that cats accounted for more than half of the animals impounded and nearly 80 percent of the animals that were euthanized in the State's animal shelters in 2017.
Spaying and neutering pets are proven ways to reduce pet overpopulation and euthanasia rates. For every dollar spent on spaying and neutering, $13 are saved in future control, shelter, vet, adoption, and euthanasia costs - a more than tenfold cost savings. Spaying and neutering is a preventative, cost-effective, and humane approach to animal care and control, reducing costs to county governments and nonprofit organizations for impounding and euthanizing animals.
This supplemental appropriation for the Atlantic County Animal Shelter for a one-year clinic would facilitate the county's health and animal population control measures.
