Will Caldwell Keep Contract With Accused Animal Control Officer?

Now that Bloomfield’s decided to dump the Bergen County Protection and Rescue Shelter as its animal control provider, will Caldwell be following suit?

On Monday, Bloomfield township officials have announced that the municipality will be severing ties with its animal control service following accusations that its director and ACO committed 14 counts of animal cruelty, including slitting the throat of a baby deer.

The accused animal control officer is also the head of the Bergen County Protection and Rescue Shelter in Cliffside Park, which provides animal control services to Caldwell.

During the Bloomfield Township Council meeting on Monday, Mayor Michael Venezia stated that he was “deeply shocked and saddened” by the accusations.

“We have already gotten permission from the state to enter into an emergency agreement with another organization,” Venezia said. “We are acting as swiftly as possible, but we currently do not have a replacement.”

THE CHARGES

According to the New Jersey SPCA, Vincent Ascolese, 48, of Edgewater, euthanized an injured fawn by cutting its throat, “needlessly killing a living animal and “failing to provide necessary care.”

Exsanguination - or blood draining - is not an approved method of animal euthanasia in New Jersey, the NJSPCA stated.

Ascolese was also charged with several counts of cruelty to animals at the North Jersey Humane Society Shelter in Bloomfield for failing to provide proper shelter, food and necessary care, the NJSPCA said.

Ascolese is the Director and Supervising Animal Control Officer for North Jersey Humane Society Shelter in Bloomfield. He also serves as Director at the Bergen County Protection and Rescue Shelter in Cliffside Park.

Ascolese left his job as a Jersey City schoolteacher in 2007 and worked briefly as an insurance investigator before brother-in-law - the animal control officer for Hudson County - sponsored him at the police academy in 2009, the Hudson Reporter stated.

Ascolese launched Bergen County Protection and Rescue the next year.