Spanish is now a choice at animal shelter

More than five years after a language barrier mishap led to the unintended euthanizing of two pit bulls by the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter in Wantagh, the shelter’s paperwork is now available in English and Spanish.

At a news conference last week, Town Clerk Sylvia Cabana and Councilwoman Erin King Sweeney, a Republican from Wantagh, announced that adoption forms and other paperwork at the shelter had been translated into Spanish, which will make it easier for all residents to adopt a pet or reclaim a lost one, they said.

“Nearly 20 percent of Town of Hempstead residents identify themselves as Spanish,” Cabana said. “It’s so important that we do everything we can to ensure that this population is offered the same opportunities as those who speak English.”

Joining Cabana and King Sweeney were council members Dorothy Goosby, Dennis Dunne and Anthony D’Esposito; Receiver of Taxes Don Clavin; and several animal rights advocates who volunteer to walk dogs and play with cats at the shelter.

One of the advocates, Lucille DeFina, said she hoped the translations would keep a tragedy like the one that occurred in 2013 from happening again.

That February, the town’s Animal Control staff picked up two dogs that had gotten loose in a Uniondale neighborhood. They took them to the shelter, and the dogs were euthanized the next day. The Funez family, of Uniondale, which owned the animals, named Yankee and CC, apparently did not speak or read English, and inadvertently signed forms that released the dogs to the shelter’s custody. When family members went to the shelter the following day to reclaim the dogs, they were told that they had been put down.

The family sued the animal shelter for monetary damages, and in the hope of pressuring town officials to offer the forms in Spanish.

Because the litigation is ongoing, town officials would not comment on the case, or say whether it was the impetus for the translation of forms.

What Cabana did say was that she did most of the translation of the forms, helped by other Spanish-speaking employees in her office and her mother, who is from Cuba.

Cabana said that about a fifth of the 880,000 residents of Hempstead, the largest township in America, were of Hispanic descent. A former immigration attorney, Cabana said her clients had no idea that adoption, lost-and-found and other shelter services existed, and that this would give them an opportunity to adopt and give homes to dogs and cats being held there.

“We want to make the shelter services as accessible as possible,” she said.

Cabana added that she recently adopted two kittens from the shelter, and saw many Spanish-speaking families there, also looking to adopt pets. That, she said, was another good reason to translate the forms.

King Sweeney, who lives just a half-mile from the shelter, on Beltagh Avenue, said she hoped to encourage more adoptions by reaching out to more Spanish-speaking people. “We need to embrace this population,” she said.

“Those who speak Spanish may have been hesitant to go and adopt a pet from the shelter previously,” King Sweeney added, “but now, with language barriers torn down, they may be more likely to come and adopt a new member of the family.”

“What a wonderful opportunity to enhance access to government,” Clavin said.

Also at the lectern was animal activist Diane Madden, a longtime critic of operations at the shelter who is currently suing the town over what she has called its negligent care of animals. Madden said she was delighted by the translation effort, which she said would help the shelter staff. She also urged residents to adopt pets from the shelter and give them loving homes.

All of the officials remarked that they were proud they could work together, across the political lines. Cabana and Goosby are Democrats, and the others are Republicans. “This is a great example of how government should work, in a bipartisan fashion,” Cabana said.

“Cats and dogs aren’t registered Republicans or Democrats,” said D’Esposito, adding that his mother came to the U.S. from Puerto Rico. “They’re just here to provide companionship. Those coming here in 2018 will have an easier time adopting pets.”

Cabana said she has also worked with Clavin to translate tax-exemption documents into Spanish, and last month, she and King Sweeney rolled out a bilingual reading program that they are bringing to local libraries, schools and camps.