duly 9, 2019
VIA ELECTRONIC DELIVERY ONLY
Members of the Finance Committee
City of Nashua
229 Main Street
Nashua NH 03061
Upcoming Renewal of Contract Between City of Nashua and the Humane Society
for Greater Nashua — Finance Committee Meeting to be Held July 10, 2019
Dear Members of the Finance Committee:
This letter follows up my prior correspondence to ail of the Nashua alderman dated May 17,
2019 regarding the upcoming renewal of the contract between the City of Nashua the (City”) and the
Humane Society for Greater Nashua (the “HS”). Reference is made to my prior correspondence of
5/17/19 and the attachments thereto. The renewal contract between the City and the HS as sought by
the Mayor to be approved at the July 10, 2019 Finance Committee meeting should not be approved by
the Finance Committee for the following reasons:
A copy of the first page of the contract sought to be renewed is attached to this letter.
The fast 2 sentences of Section 1 on page 1 of the proposed contract call for the HS to
impound “stray” cats and ferrets at the HS facility on behalf of the City.
No legal authority exists providing that the City may impound a cat (or a ferret) because
such animal is a “stray” or is “running at large.” Instead, NRO Article 93 only authorizes the
seizure and detention (impounding) of dogs and chickens as “strays” or for “running at
large”. See NRO 93-2, 93-5, and 93-6 (4) and (G).
Likewise, State law only authorizes impounding of dogs as strays. See RSA 466:30-a (see
copy attached). RSA 466:30-a makes no mention of impounding cats as strays.
The City has most recently claimed that it may seize and detain (impound) cats because
they are a “nuisance.” No municipal ordinance of the City expressly authorizes the
impounding of cats or ferrets because that animal is a “nuisance”. NH law authorizes
impounding dogs as nuisances. See RSA 466:31 (see copy attached). But that statute does
not provide that cats or ferrets may be impounded as nuisances, and in fact makes no
mention of cats or ferrets.
The City lacks a licensing law for cats or ferrets though per RSA 466:13-a it may enact one.
As such, there is no mechanism by which the City may notify an owner of a cat or ferret that
such animal has been seized and impounded by the City, including because the City has no
record of the animal’s owner. This prevents the owner of the cat or ferret from recovering
their animal. Absent a licensing law for cats or ferrets in Nashua, the City may not seize or
impound a cat or ferret because the animal is a “stray”, a “nuisance” or is “running at large.”
