In that fight, the state SPCA calls some of the county volunteers "wannabe cops." And it points to a report from the State
Commission of Investigation released in 2000 that knocked the Middlesex County SPCA for arranging for a National Guard helicopter
to perform surveillance in a cockfighting investigation and having its own drug dog. The Middlesex County chapter says the
state group's actions are nothing but a power grab.
The statewide SPCA's threat comes on the heels of just such a move against the Bergen County SPCA earlier this month. Superior
Court Judge Travis L. Francis, sitting in New Brunswick, ordered the Bergen County unit's charter revoked after that unit
fought the statewide organization's authority to do so.
A stay was issued yesterday, and the Bergen County SPCA was granted permission to appeal, said Bob Nesoff, president of
the unit.
Yesterday, state SPCA president Stuart Rhodes, who was elected about two months ago, slammed the Middlesex County chapter.
"They are not responding to cases and not giving us the information that the state is requiring us" to collect, Rhodes
said. "They've been a little bit too gung-ho -- the police wannabe kind of thing."
If they fail to work with the state SPCA in ironing out problems, Rhodes said, he will pull the charter the state group
issued to the chapter about 50 years ago and take it over.
Rhodes added that information obtained during a legal battle -- one that pitted the state SPCA against all county branches
that is now stalled except for the case against the Bergen County chapter -- shows that the Middlesex County SPCA failed to
respond to nearly 19 percent of its calls.
But Walter Mychalchyk, president of the Middlesex County SPCA, flatly denied Rhodes' allegations.
"We answer all our calls," Mychalchyk said. The only calls they've had problems with were the ones the state SPCA passed
along to them that contained inaccurate information, he said.
Mychalchyk said Middlesex County has 50 volunteers. Only 10 are officers who are police-academy trained and carry firearms.
None are paid, he said. The state SPCA officers receive $14 an hour, which comes from fines and donations, Rhodes said.
"We're out here to help animals," Mychalchyk said, directing his comments to the state SPCA. "These people are on some
kind of power trip."
The turf war comes as a state study commission debates the fate of the SPCA in New Jersey on the whole. The commission,
the 30-member Animal Welfare Task Force formed two years ago by Gov. James E. McGreevey, has discussed stripping the SPCA
of its enforcement authority, suggesting that animal-cruelty cases now be handled by police and sheriff's officers, according
to the commission's draft report.
That study commission resulted from the December 2000 report from the SCI, which rapped the county and state SPCAs for
being "gun clubs" that are "personality-driven as opposed to law-driven."
The state SPCA's drive to corral county SPCAs stemmed from the details of that investigation, Rhodes said. The effort to
revoke the county charters -- 12 including Bergen -- has been held up, but Rhodes, whose position was strengthened by the
court victory over Bergen County, is threatening to go after Middlesex and other county SPCAs with renewed vigor.
The state group, formed in 1868 and now based in New Brunswick, conducts investigations in the rest of New Jersey's counties.
The December 2000 SCI report referred to the Middlesex County SPCA as a "highly-structured, paramilitary organization,"
citing the tightly governed conduct of members and the strict chain of command. But it also cast doubts on some of the practices
of the group, including having the helicopter surveillance in Monroe -- no arrests resulted -- and owning the drug dog.
The Middlesex County SPCA also talked of purchasing night scopes for investigations, wanted to buy jackets bearing the
words "SPCA POLICE" to be used during raids and requested confidential motor-vehicle license plates for its officers assigned
to stakeouts. It also sought "undercover money" from the government to conduct cockfighting investigations and wanted to establish
a "warrant execution squad," according to the SCI.
Mychalchyk acknowledged and defended all of it.
The drug dog was approved by the state Attorney General's Office and is used during drug investigations by local municipalities
who can't afford them, he said. He also brings it along to DARE events at which he discusses animal cruelty.
Many of the other measures are necessary for the county SPCA's 10 uniformed officers to carry out their duties, he said.
Responding to his allegations of a power play, Rhodes said, "What power is it that I need to grab? I'm asking all of these
people to work with me to combat and to deal with the complaints that the SCI had."
Ken Serrano: (732) 565-7212; kserrano@thnt.com
