Overworked Hartford Animal Control Cop Will Get More Help

I don’t totally blame Tom Fuller, because it’s the city’s responsibility, and the city’s management has failed these animals.

— Thom Page, animal-rights lawyer

In recent months, dog-rights advocates have flooded social media with complaints against the way they say Hartford, and its lone animal control officer, treats lost dogs.

Officer Tom Fuller, left alone on the job after another ACO was sidelined by an injury, has been accused of not responding to calls and failing to advertise dogs seized by Hartford police, in violation of state law.

But a Courant investigation dispelled some of those claims. Instead, state records paint the picture of an officer fighting alone to overcome a workload initially handled by four people. Help, however, is on the way: Sherry DeGenova, a much-loved ACO laid off in 2016, was offered her job back in September and has tentatively accepted the offer.
Still, some animal rescuers, such as Nancy Austin, have expressed frustration with the adoption process in Hartford.
“The remaining animal control officer is definitely overwhelmed,” Austin said. “We’re putting him out to try to get these dogs saved, that’s the impression that I’m getting.”
It took Austin, a retired nurse, a week to get her Pomeranian and chihuaha mix from the city’s pound in Bloomfield.
She had a difficult time getting the dog, placing multiple calls to Fuller to make an appointment, waiting two hours for the officer once that appointment was made.
To hear Austin tell it, DeGenova should have never left, and Fuller should never have had to cover an entire city by himself.
“It’s politics, and to me, it should only be about the dogs,” she said. “The animals can’t speak for themselves, and I have never had a problem opening my mouth for someone who cant speak for themselves.”

Nancy Austin holds the Pomeranian-Chihuahua mix that she rescued him from the Hartford pound. (Lauren Schneiderman / Hartford Courant)
Despite the public complaints against the city, a review of records from the New England Veterinary Center and Cancer Care over a three-month period beginning in June – when the department was reduced to having only Fuller on the job – showed that of 28 dogs euthanized in that time, each one had been advertised in the newspaper as required by state statute. Hartford contracts with NEVCC for all of its emergency veterinarian work, including euthanizations.
The animals were also kept alive much longer than the city’s minimum requirement of eight days, with the majority being held three to four weeks, according to police records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. One dog was held for six weeks before being euthanized.
Mayor Luke Bronin said that DeGenova and another ACO, Carmelo Mercado, were not intentionally targeted by the layoffs built into his first budget. They were merely casualties of a larger municipal issue.
“In the spring of 2016, when we got a chance to get under the hood and see how big this fiscal crisis was, it was clear that we had to make some dramatic changes and make every reduction that we felt we could responsibly make,” Bronin said. “That included nearly 100 position eliminations, dozens of which were layoffs. Those reductions affected every department in the city.”

Sherry DeGenova, seen here in 2015, was laid off from her position as animal control officer as a result of municipal belt-tightening. She recently was hired back by Mayor Luke Bronin. (Brad Horrigan / Brad Horrigan)

Sherry DeGenova, seen here in 2015, was laid off from her position as animal control officer as a result of municipal belt-tightening. She recently was hired back by Mayor Luke Bronin. (Brad Horrigan / Brad Horrigan)
Bronin said the animal control layoffs came out of discussions with police Chief James Rovella. Together, Bronin said, they decided the city could operate with two ACOs, Fuller and Officer Gerald Cloutier, the two most senior in that unit.

“We made that decision knowing that there would be an impact on customer service, but also knowing that according to the leadership of our police department, two ACOs would be enough to meet all of our statutory requirements and deliver a minimum necessary level of service to our community,” Bronin said.
He said the decision to hire back DeGenova came after Cloutier was injured on the job in June and went out on “long-term medical leave.”
Her return is “consistent” with the original decision to reduce the unit to two active officers, he said.
“I’ve often reminded people that these are real cuts with real consequences,” Bronin said. “And that’s true across the board with every department where we’ve had to reduce our level of staffing.”
That explanation doesn’t sit well with Thom Page, a Hartford-based lawyer who has made a name for himself in the realm of animal-rights litigation.

I don’t totally blame Tom Fuller, because it’s the city’s responsibility, and the city’s management has failed these animals.

— Thom Page, animal-rights lawyer

Page has taken Bronin to task on numerous occasions for laying off DeGenova.
“I don’t totally blame Tom Fuller, because it’s the city’s responsibility, and the city’s management has failed these animals,” Page said. “This is a mismanagement of the public safety response in this town.”Page has written letters to New England Veterinary Center and Cancer Care on behalf of would-be adopters seeking dogs, people he says are frustrated by the lack of response from Fuller.But the data bears out, despite a lack of resources, Fuller is following the letter of the law. According to police department officials, Fuller responded to 148 calls for service in August, in addition to scheduling appointments and returning calls and emails about the impounded dogs, which they said numbered as high as 70 a day.
“We’d love to go back up to four [ACOs],” said Deputy Chief Brian Foley, the department spokesman. “We’d love to have six more and 100 cops.”
Lisa Agresti, executive director at the Simon Foundation, which leases 25 runs to the Hartford Police Department, said that she was aware that DeGenova was returning to her work as an ACO.
“I think she did a lot of good,” Agresti said. “She had a lot of people in the community who rallied for her.”
Agresti took a different view of Hartford Animal Control in general and Fuller in particular, saying that neither gets the appreciation they deserve.
“Officer Tom Fuller has taken an impossible situation and gone above and beyond to do his best to fulfill the needs of the animals of Hartford, and the community’s concerns,” she said. “This gentleman always shows up for work, surrounded by public battery and negativity and still does what he can for the animals in his charge.”
– Courant staff writer Lynne Maston contributed to this story.