Residents ask that dog pound be moved from Sharon Station

SHARON — A group of residents presented the Board of Selectmen with a petition at the monthly meeting last week, asking the town not to build a new dog pound on Sharon Station Road.

The pound is currently located in the town garage building at 29 Sharon Station Road. In May, voters at a town meeting approved the town’s five-year capital improvement plan, which allocated $235,000 for the construction of a new pound.

Twenty residents signed the petition, which cites potential safety issues because Veterans Field is nearby, as well as noise issues.

First Selectman Malcolm Brown said the solution to the safety issues would be to double up on fences surrounding the new facility.

“The outside dog runs would have a chain link fence surrounding them but then you would have another chain link fence four feet around the perimeter, all the way around the structure,� Brown said. “That way you cannot put your hand through the fence and possibly reach a dog.�

Building Inspector Stanley MacMillan said sound-deadening insulation would be placed in the building’s ceilings and walls in order to contain barking sounds.

Resident Margaret Keilty asked why the town needed a dog pound and if it would be better to send the dogs to a pound in a different town.

Brown said that, before the request for funding was put in the capital improvement plan, he considered the idea of sharing a pound with Salisbury.

“However, I thought it was better for Sharon to have its own dog pound because Sharon is so big, it’s 60 square miles,� Brown said. “If [animal control officer] Marsha [Hassig] gets two pickups at night it will be a lot of driving for her if she has to get them to Salisbury.�

As for the site, Brown said he looked at other pieces of land the town owns, but found them either too small or too impractical.

“I couldn’t find anyplace else that looked like a good location for a dog pound,� Brown said. “But we will take what [residents] have to say into consideration.�

The town has not put the project out to bid nor does it have a final design for the project.

Hassig estimates that around 20 to 25 dogs go through the pound each year. She said she does not put down any dogs, and tries to find the original owner before putting an animal up for adoption.

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