Finance Committee - 07/10/2019 Page 3
seizure of personal property occurs, the Government Entity which seized the property must notify the owner of
the seizure and must provide some mechanism whereby the owner can at least attempt to retrieve their cat
from the Government. At minimum the lack of a licensing law for cats means the City has no way to identify the
cat that has been seized, so the City is unable to provide notice to the owner of the seizure and the opportunity
to recover the cat from the City.
Based on all of this | submit that the City’s action in impounding cats as strays or for running at large exceeds
and is beyond the City’s legal authority as provided by existing law. Such practice or conduct is also
unconstitutional or potentially so in my view because depriving the cat without a license fails to allow the City to
identify the owner and give that owner notice of the loss of their personal property. In fact RSA 466:13A
expressly provides that municipalities may license cats and if they do the same penalties can be applied to
cats as are applied to dogs. Such penalties would presumably include seizing and impounding a cat as a stray
or for running at large if the stray from their owner’s property. If the City wants to regulate cats as they do
dogs, then the City is free to create a program for licensing and to modify its animal control Ordinance to
include specific and expressed restrictions on licensing cats and for imposing penalties for violations of those
restrictions.
As l’ve said in my letters I’ve tried to fix this issue by meeting and speaking with the City at the time my cat was
seized and impounded in 2017. | had thought | had resolved this issue quietly and privately. At the time in
2017 | was assured by Corporate Counsel that it was not the practice of the Police to impound cats as strays
and that the situation involving my cat was an aberration. | was promised that the Police would never do this to
my cat again. | accepted those representations. | also convinced the City to change the then existing contract
with the Humane Society to remove language from the contract regarding impounding cats as strays at the
Humane Society. The revised contract without language about impounding cats and ferrets is dated
December 2017. The City agreed to and did in fact remove such language but inexplicably reinserted the
language into the contract wen the contract came up for July 2018. | have asked the Mayor and Corporate
Counsel for months now why the 2018 contract reverted to the old contract with the language. | have never
received answer Mr. Mayor and instead | feel | have been stonewalled by you Mr. Bolton.
| have come to the Finance Committee because you are the appropriations arm of City Government and must
approve the currently proposed contract with the Humane Society. Once again the Mayor has included
language in the proposed contract before you regarding impoundment of cats and ferrets as strays. As |
noted, impounding cats and ferrets as strays or for running at large under current State and City Laws is both
unconstitutional when applied. Since the City is not legally authorized to seize and impound cats as strays or
for running at large, the City may not enter into a contract with a third party to carry out such illegal or
unconstitutional purposes or actions. The Committee should therefore reject the current contract as structured
The contract could be approved by the Committee by simply removing or striking the language in Section 1 of
the proposed contract regarding impounding cats and ferrets and strays.
The Committee should also use its power to reject the contract as currently proposed as a check and balance
on the Mayor and his Administration. The Mayor and City, like every other person an entity in the state and in
this country are subject to the rule of law and are prohibited from engaging in illegal acts or unconstitutional
acts. There’s a typo here in my thing.
Please note, | am not asking the Committee or the City reduce or otherwise modify the compensation to be
paid to the Humane Society under the contract for any reason or in any amount. Thanks for your
consideration.
Dr. Stephanie Wolf Rosenblum
Thank you very much Mayor, Aldermen. My name is Dr. Stephanie Wolf Rosenblum and | reside at 47
Berkeley Street in Nashua. | am here as a member of the Board of Health. | am not in a position to speak to
the legal issues surrounding what the gentleman spoke to. | also am not familiar with what is on the web site
or what the communication is. However, as the Aldermen consider what is appropriate, | would bring to
attention several things. One is that cats do represent a mode of transmission of infections.
