Jorge González Otero, mayor of Jayuya and president of the Association of Mayors, said on Friday, November 13, that the fiscal oversight board (JSF) has not responded to the plan mayors submitted to it in September for managing homeless animals, following the case of animals found dead in Ponce. "So far nothing has been said," González Otero said in an interview with Normando en la Mañana.
"We are here passing the hot potato from hand to hand," he said.
He said the issue was one of his concerns as association president and that he brought it to the group of 41 mayors, who approved presenting a plan with short-, medium- and long-term solutions. "They claim that in the towns we have to form consortiums, that we have to join together to solve problems, but when the moment of truth comes, we have no result," he said of the board.
He said 14 towns joined the effort and that Ponce, whose shelter is "extremely full," made its facilities available. He said work should start with dogs, which he considers the most serious problem, then add solutions for other animals. "We are here passing the hot potato from hand to hand," he said.
He said the animals tear open garbage bags and form packs that sometimes attack people, and that children have been attacked at schools. He added that in Jayuya pigs have reached the town center. Asked whether the board works, he said: "I think it doesn’t."
He said that in his view it creates more problems than it solves. "I think we have the capacity to administer our budget," he said, proposing that laws be applied to those irresponsible with funds. "I think it is in our hands to solve our problems," he concluded.