HAMDEN — Angry Legislative Council members Monday night grilled the police chief and animal control officers over what they believed was inhumane dumping of dead dogs at the dump.

The council confronted Police Chief Thomas J. Wydra and animal control officers Christopher Smith and Steve Gimler over why Smith and Gimler dumped the unclaimed, untagged dogs over a cliff at the Wintergreen Avenue landfill and transfer station, why they weren’t buried by transfer station employees and what Smith and Gimler did when they saw the dogs weren’t covered up.

Once the news hit that the dead animals were unburied at the landfill, the public became outraged. And Wydra on Monday afternoon said that once again, all domestic animals will be cremated instead of buried at the dump. He said he had hoped to save about $2,000 in cremation costs over the course of a year by dumping unclaimed animals at the already-closed landfill.

Councilwoman Betty Wetmore, R-at large, said she was appalled at the situation and said she got more phone calls on the issue than any other in the last eight years she’s been on the council.

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In response to a question from Wetmore, Smith said that the last time he brought dead dogs to the dump was Dec. 12. He said he noticed the dogs had not been buried when he went there last week with a small wild animal that needed to be buried.

“You’re a fall guy,” Wetmore said to Smith. “But I’m going to say I’m really disgusted in the administration and your boss. It’s something that didn’t have to happen.”

“We were appalled by it as well. We believe it was a miscommunication between departments,” Smith said.

Wydra said that he and Mayor Craig B. Henrici changed the policy of cremating all unclaimed dogs to burying unclaimed dogs in the dump in September. Council members were incredulous that the dead animals had to be transported from freezers at the North Haven animal shelter, where they were stored, and were trucked back to Hamden for burial, just to save a few dollars.

Hamden does not have an animal shelter and is spending about $4,000 a month to board animals at the North Haven shelter. Later in the meeting Monday night, a council committee told the mayor to apply for state funds for preconstruction surveys and engineering services for a shelter at Shepard Avenue and Rocky Top Road.

About 40 residents attended the meeting, upset after learning that the animals had been dumped. They held signs that said “Heartless Hamden.”

Later on in the agenda, when a public hearing was held on an ordinance regulating feral cats, speakers said it should be tabled because the public had not seen the ordinance and because the animal control officers shouldn’t have more responsibility when they are having difficulty now.

The ordinance was tabled and will be reviewed next week.

Wydra said that the policy to bury the animals started with “good intentions...clearly a mistake was made. That’s why we’re moving forward” with cremating the animals again.

Councilman Craig Cesare, R-at large, frustrated by the answers he was getting, asked Smith if Public Works was ever notified that the animals needed to be buried.

“When I enter the landfill I talk to the (employee) at the gate.”

“Who deposited them down the cliff?” Cesare asked, adding how could he expect them to be buried if the area in which they were disposed of was too deep. “Why there and not a holding area? This better start making sense. This is outrageous.”

“It’s not a steep cliff. It’s a 15-foot incline, a slope,” Smith said, explaining that he deposited the animals where wild animals such as deer had been brought in the past, and where he was told to dump them by transfer station employees.

Wydra denied he rescinded the dumping policy because of the outrage, but rather that the policy that had been established in September was not being followed.

Henrici said he received about 10 emails from people upset by the practice. “They’re saying they were horrified by the policy. I said I wasn’t aware they were uncovered and that as mayor, I had to take responsibility,” Henrici said.

Henrici said that he wasn’t aware that the dogs weren’t buried until last week. They were buried on Friday.

Gimler said that last week, when he asked whether the dogs would be buried, he was told no by transfer station employees. He said he reported to a police captain that the dogs hadn’t been buried, but Wydra said he didn’t know about it at the time.

The animal control officers said that in the last year, they only euthanized four dogs.

Councilman Curt Leng, D-6, said he thought there should be a policy that outlines a minimum amount of time that a dog can be held before it is euthanized.