Plainsboro is seeking an animal control alternative after the Helmetta Regional Animal Shelter was raided and quarantined by the Middlesex County Department of Health and the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NJSPCA). Helmetta provides the township with an animal control officer and a venue to shelter animals.
“We are concerned with the situation and we are anxious to move,” township administrator Bob Sheehan says. “We are working very hard and quickly to change venues for animal control services.”
Sheehan says that with the closing of the shelter, animals from Plainsboro will be housed at the Monmouth SPCA facility.
Before being quarantined, 21 municipalities had contracted with Helmetta. Plainsboro switched its animal control services in 2010 for cost savings reasons. The township previously paid more than $60,000 a year for shared services with West Windsor. The township has this year paid Helmetta more than $8,900, last year paying $17,000.
