Politics & Government

Union: Rejecting 'The Deal' is Doom For Large Animals

Those who work with both the prison population and large animals are hoping a deal will save a beloved program.

Niantic - Linus the horse was taken into York Correctional Institute’s Second Chance Animal Shelter dangerously underweight, malnourished and depressed. Linus, like all animals at the facility, was seized from her owner by state animal control officers.

For several months, professionals at the facility, along with countless prisoners, helped restore Linus’s health. They fed her, brushed her and cared for her. Now, she is a healthy horse again and is about to go to a “forever” home.

Success stories like hers may not be repeated, however, if unions reject a concession deal offered by the Malloy administration. If the deal fails, the shelter will be closed and all employees related to the program will be laid off.

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“I’m not worried about me. I’ll find something,” said Animal Control Officer Todd Curry, who works at the facility and stands to be laid off if the deal is not reached. “What I’m worried about is the barn shutting down.”

Along with saving the lives of animals, the program also changes the lives of prisoners, Correction Supervisor Robert Rutchik said. The prisoners, many of whom have never dealt with an animal before, learn something and it gives them a purpose, he said.

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“It’s a win-win situation as far as the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Correction is concerned,” Rutchik said. “We provide inmate labor, but also the inmates learn valuable skills that they might be able to use on the outside.”

If the shelter is closed, no program will replace it, Rutchik said. The simple solution is for the unions to vote yes on the concessions, said union leaders, the prison warden and employees Monday afternoon.

“It's about looking at the overall climate here,” said Roland Bishop, who teaches in the prison and also stands to lose his job if the deal is rejected. “Everyone can feel the economic climate right now.”

Effect On Towns

The shelter is the lone such facility in the state, Animal Control Officer Raymond Connors said. If it is lost, the burden of taking care of these animals will fall on municipalities, he said.

“I worry about the municipalities, as they are completely unprepared to handle this,” Connors said. “I’m not sure what they would do with them.”

Many of the animals would probably be euthanized, and even if they were kept, it would take intensive care to help them alive, veterinarian Thor Hyppa said. Of the 180 horses brought into the second chance shelter when it opened in 2003, only “two or three” had to be euthanized, Hyppa said. Without intensive medical treatment, they all would have died, he said.

Waterford First Selectman Dan Steward agreed. Towns are completely unequipped to handle large animals, he said.

“There is no way in the world we could fit them in our (animal) shelter,” Steward said, who guessed he would probably find farms that would want to adopt them. “We have no procedures on how to handle them.”

Currently, 16 horses and two goats are in the second chance shelter. Eight of the animals have found homes, although the remaining eight and both goats do not yet have one, Connors said.

The Vote

The press event was organized by the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC), a coalition with over 45,000 employees in Connecticut. SEBAC spokesman Matt O’Connor and correctional officer and union leader Chuck Lemelin both pushed for the unions to approve the concessions in the vote later this week.

If it fails, 21 correctional officers at York will lose their jobs, Lemelin said. Additionally, the staff that operates the shelter (one full-time animal control officer and two part-time animal handlers) will all lose their jobs as well.

“We want to get this done,” O’Connor said. “I hope the employees agree and we can avoid all layoffs.”

The Malloy administration agreed. All program cuts, including the one to the second chance shelter are painful, Colleen Flanagan, an administration spokeswoman, said.

“The truth is we are in dire straits… facing a $1.6 billion — with a b —budget gap,” she said. “Our hope is to get this passed and avoid these cuts all-together.”

Even the local prisoners agree. One, who gave his name as Don and who helps with the horses, hopes he can continue to work at the animal shelter.

“I like it,” he said. “It’s rewarding.”


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