URGENT!

CAARA BILL COMING TO A VOTE:

 MEMBERS OF THE 

AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE NEED TO HEAR FROM NEW YORKERS.

ASK THEM TO VOTE “YES” ON CAARA.

Powerful interests – led by the ASPCA – are trying to bury the Companion Animal Access and Rescue Act (CAARA) bill.

We’ve just learned that CAARA will be voted on next week or the week after.

New Yorkers (and we’re talking only about New Yorkers) who care about animals must contact the Assembly’s Agriculture Committee Members and urge them to vote “YES” on CAARA.

We need a show of force.  Go to the following links to contact the Ag Members by email:

Alert #1 of 3: http://bit.ly/GJmNH9
Alert #2 of 3: http://bit.ly/GOUkwd
Alert #3 of 3: http://bit.ly/GHR7lW
To telephone the Ag Members, please go to this link and click on each member’s name to get his/her office numbers.  Then leave a polite message identifying yourself by name and address, and request the Assembly Member to vote “YES” on CAARA.

We’ve also learned that Bill Magee, head of the Agriculture Committee, is against CAARA.  Assembly Member Magee has always been a strong advocate for NYS farmers.  That’s all very nice and good – for farmers – but not for homeless dogs and cats.

We need to enlighten Assembly Member Magee and his colleagues on the Agriculture Committee that homeless animals deserve humane care in animal shelters.

                                 Don’t Let the ASPCA Bury CAARA

For almost two years the ASPCA has sidelined any action on CAARA.  This was to give Assembly Member Amy Paulin time to sponsor a competing — but inferior — bill drafted by the ASPCA and kill shelters.

Why “inferior”?  Because the Paulin-ASPCA bill allows badly run shelters — like NYC’s Animal Care & Control — to continue to neglect their animals.

For previous articles comparing CAARA to the Paulin/ASPCA Bill, go to:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Please, take a few minutes to contact the Agriculture Committee members and ask them to vote “YES” on CAARA.

And please pass this information on to other New Yorkers.

INTRODUCTION

Shelter Reform Action Committee is proud to publish a report by an ACC employee.

We cannot reveal the employee’s name, of course, because that would be the end of his/her employment at the ACC.

ACC Management will fire any employee with the temerity to break the code of silence that Julie Bank & Co. has imposed.

ACC supervisors warn their staff to keep silent, because speaking the truth will inevitably get someone in trouble.  No one wants to lose their job, beginning with ACC Management.

ACC Management’s goal isn’t to ensure that shelter animals are properly cared for, but rather to claim (falsely) that they are.

You be the judge whether the employee’s report (as well as all the reports by volunteers, fosters, and adopters that we’ve previously published) square with what ACC Management says are the ACC’s “values”:

We value the integrity of each employee, volunteer and partner contributing to the professional delivery of excellent customer service and the humane treatment of animals, in an atmosphere of open, honest communication, predicated on our trust and respect for each other.  http://www.nycacc.org/About.htm

NOTE:  We have changed some of the phraseology and idiomatic expressions in the original version of the employee’s report to make it even more difficult (hopefully impossible) for ACC Management to identify this courageous individual.  So much for the ACC’s ”open, honest communication, predicated on … trust and respect for each other.”

And with that introduction, we offer you the employee’s initial report.

A Culture of Apathy

May 2012

The employee culture at the Manhattan ACC shelter can be summed up in a single word: apathy.

“Apathy”: Lack of Interest, Emotion, Feeling.

Take the Shelter Manager.  She wears regular clothing, not the uniform required of all the other staff members at the shelter, a constant reminder that she rarely interacts with her staff or visits the animals in her shelter.

The Assistant Shelter Manager regularly walks by dirty kennels and crates, empty water bowls, and sick animals without concern. He, and the rest of the staff responsible for the cleaning and care of the animals, simply cannot keep up, and stopping to tend to everything that needs tending to would mean never getting to whatever task is at hand.

Cages and kennels are cleaned thoroughly once a day, but the intermediate checks throughout the rest of the 24-hour period between cleanings are infrequent and rarely thorough.  Some dogs may go for days without ever going outside, and their kennels need frequent attention.

Yet moments after a staff member has supposedly signed off on a chart saying s/he has done one of these intermediate checks to look for empty water dishes or dirty kennels, I have seen animals without water and with soiled kennels and linens. Management turns a blind eye to the extremely poor quality of life that the animals have, and shelter staff is completely overwhelmed with the number of animals in their care.

It is impossible to keep all the cages, crates, and kennels clean with the number of staff at the shelter.  As a result the staff detaches themselves from the animals and stop trying to do the impossible. I have watched new employees, disturbed by the living conditions of the animals, give 110%.  Of course they fail in their attempts to make the shelter a better place, are ridiculed behind their backs by the veteran employees, and their good intentions are discouraged by management and derailed by misguided “policy.” They soon give up, either quitting or joining the ranks of the other jaded and detached employees.

The lack of veterinary and medical personnel is equally disturbing, and injured and ill animals do not receive the care they require. For an organization that euthanizes animals for relatively minor and completely treatable medical issues, animals with painful injuries and serious illnesses suffer significantly from lack of medical care before they even make it to the euthanasia list.

This apathetic culture may partially be a result of lack of funding and staffing, but the foundation and encouragement for it comes from the top.  And because AC&C Management actively discourages any change to the status quo, the shelter animals suffer.  More staff and funding might bring partial relief from some of these issues, but as long as employees are discouraged from taking pride in their work and encouraged to keep their mouths shut about any shortcomings or problems within the organization, then these issues will persist.

This culture of silence is the unwritten law at the AC&C.  Oh, sure, the AC&C Employee Handbook states that employees should go to their direct supervisors if they have questions or concerns, and even cites an “open door” policy.  But the reality is that AC&C supervisors and management at every level reprimand employees who come to them with concerns.

And in cases where an employee has a concern that needs to be addressed immediately, as often happens in animal welfare situations, it can be impossible to contact the supervisor who is supposed to be on-duty, leaving employees with no authority to act and no recourse.

Ultimately, the goal for most AC&C employees becomes staying under Management’s radar, and in the interest of self-preservation they are forced to do their best to ignore the blindingly obvious and systemic animal welfare issues that exist within the AC&C.

To our readers who are New York State residents, if you oppose the ASPCA/Paulin bill, please make your displeasure known to the NYS Assembly members whom Ms. Paulin has persuaded to sponsor her bill.  Just follow the instructions on the following link:

http://www.capwiz.com/thenokillnation/issues/alert/?alertid=61224421&type=CU

And also to our readers who are New York State residents, go to the following link to ask Speaker Sheldon Silver not to allow the ASPCA/Paulin bill to bypass the democratic process and go directly to a floor vote. 

http://www.capwiz.com/thenokillnation/issues/alert/?alertid=61009006&type=CU

SHELTER REFORM ACTION COMMITTEE

 www.shelterreform.org

info@shelterreform.org

April 24, 2012

To:  Assemblymember Amy Paulin, Mr. Edward Sayres, ASPCA Board

Cc:  Assemblymember Joseph Lentol, Speaker Sheldon Silver

Re: Please withdraw the ASPCA/Paulin Bill and Let REAL Reform Come to NYS Animal Shelters

Dear Assemblyperson Paulin and the ASPCA:

Neither of you have responded to our previous letter of two months ago.

Instead, all you’ve done is make a few cosmetic changes to your bill.

Why won’t you answer the following question we have previously posed to you?:

Why doesn’t your bill impose a strict standard of animal care on animal shelters?

Your bill says that shelters should “properly shelter and feed and provide water to” their animals.  However, without any definition or guidance as to what “properly” entails, that provision is toothless, meaningless, a joke.

New York City’s Animal Care & Control has always claimed it “properly” cares for its animals.

That claim is a lie.

While there’s no reason Assembly Member Paulin should be personally familiar with conditions inside the ACC, the ASPCA doesn’t have an excuse.  ASPCA employees are in and out of the ACC shelters every week and know how awful conditions are there.

As one commentator has noted, the ASPCA/Paulin bill imposes a strict standard of care on rescue groups that pull from shelters but NOT on shelters themselves:

To take New York City’s Animal Care and Control as an example, [under the Paulin/ASPCA bill shelters would] be able to inspect rescues and bar their access if the rescue did not provide “sanitary and adequate shelter”, “appropriate exercise”, “necessary veterinary care and treatment”, and a “safe environment” – none of which they themselves provide. This is grossly unacceptable.

Really, is it too much to require shelters to provide the following to their animals: nutritious food, fresh water, clean cages, cages large enough to house an animal, enrichment, exercise, and protection from disease?

If you demand that standard of care from rescue groups, why don’t you demand it of shelters as well?

Shelters as dysfunctional as the ACC require a law that lays out strict standards to be followed to ensure that animals receive basic care.

Do you understand how unfair this is?

So, Assemblymember Paulin and the ASPCA, we ask you again to answer our question:

Why doesn’t your bill impose a strict standard of animal care on animal shelters?

We would appreciate the courtesy of a response.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

SHELTER REFORM ACTION COMMITTEE

A few weeks ago Bruce visited New York City to address rescue group members of The Mayor’s Alliance.   He described how he turned the Calgary, Canada shelter system into an independently financed no-kill shelter.

When Bruce took over the Calgary municipal shelter system, he knew that he could not count on city funding.    Politicians are notoriously reluctant to spend money on animal welfare.  So, Bruce worked to make the Calgary shelter financially independent — no more reliance on taxpayer monies.  The entire Calgary Animal Services runs from animal related revenue – mostly licensing.  Key to Bruce’s success was earning the public’s support and cooperation in caring for their animals which includes spay/neuter and licensing.

During his visit, Bruce also met with members of the ACC Board and NYC Department of Health (DOH) officials.

Go ahead, GOOGLE the words “Bill Bruce and Calgary” and see the glowing news articles about Bruce and the many conferences at which he’s been a featured speaker.

Bruce is an extraordinary leader with a proven track record of success.

And then try to comprehend this news:

NYC passed up the opportunity to have Bill Bruce take over leadership of the ACC.

Yup, NYC’s DOH (which controls the ACC) and the ACC Directors (i.e., all rubberstamps for the DOH) opted to go another route.

They renewed Julie Bank’s contract as ACC Executive Director for another two years.

It’s not as though the DOH and the ACC Directors were unaware of Bill Bruce’s availability.  Third parties had told them that:

– Bill Bruce is a highly-respected expert in shelter reform with a proven record of success.

– He loves New York City.

– His contract with Calgary ends in early August[i] when he plans to take early retirement.

– The more dysfunctional a government agency is, the more of a challenge it presents to Bill Bruce … who loves challenges.

The stars and planets were all in alignment.  The DOH was being handed a gift — the perfect opportunity to grab a top leader in shelter reform.

But no one from the DOH or the ACC Board showed the slightest interest in approaching Bruce about the position of Executive Director.[ii]

The DOH’s Comfort Zone

Why did the DOH and the ACC Board opt for mediocrity and failure instead of Bill Bruce?

The answer is simple: the DOH (headed by Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley) and the ACC Board of Directors (headed by the same Dr. Farley, serving as ACC chairman) want to stay within their comfort zone. (Read about the ACC Board Of Directors.)

And they are all very comfortable with Julie Bank.  She has proven herself to be a good lieutenant: following their orders without challenge or complaint, and massaging ACC numbers and information to present a cheery (but false) picture of the ACC.

Because of Dr. Farley and his group of merry men on the ACC Board, shelter animals will have to suffer two more years of the Bank & Co. mis-management team.

Let’s make the next two years very uncomfortable for these men inside their “comfort zone” by exposing the secrets and lies about the ACC.

By “it” we mean the neglect and institutionalized cruelty at New York City’s Animal Care & Control.  (P.S.: The “it” happens to ACC cats, too.)

Here’s the latest installment by a new ACC dog volunteer of his/her experiences in the Manhattan shelter. 

Report No. 3 by a new ACC Volunteer:

The Manhattan shelter is nestled in East Harlem on 110^th Street between 1^st and 2^nd Avenues.  The building’s plain façade does a great job of concealing the sadness and chaos within.  Upon entering the shelter, one is hit with a suffocating stench of urine and feces.  It’s a smell that — even after being there several times — I still can’t get used to.  The smell is the reason why one of my co-volunteers decided never to return.  It was simply too unbearable, she said.

For those of you who have followed my previous reports, you may remember that I had to jump through several hoops to become an ACC volunteer.  I had to attend a volunteer orientation, be interviewed by an office volunteer at the ACC’s executive suite; watch a series of ACC “webinars” classes, take simple-minded web-tests on those classes, and finally, have a one-on-one session with my assigned ”team leader” at the shelter.

The team leader must have given me a passing grade, because now I’m allowed to go to the shelter by myself.   As I’ll explain a little later, I’m almost always by myself (just where ARE all those hundreds of volunteers that the ACC boasts it has?).

It’s strange to me how I have been volunteering for only a few weeks, but it feels so much longer.  Every shift starts with the same routine.  I go to the computer to log in.  With leash in hand I look at the kennel cards to see which dogs haven’t been walked in awhile.  As a new volunteer, I’m allowed only to walk dogs in adoptions.  On average, I would estimate about 95% of cages in adoptions are filthy when I arrive (I go on weekdays).  Most are soaked with urine or have feces (hence the horrible smell).  Dogs are not walked consistently.

Some dogs, more than others, leave an indelible mark on your memory.  For me, it was a petite brindle pit bull named Paula. She was a little over 30 lbs and approximately only a year old – still a puppy.  She had scored all 1’s (the best grade) on her SAFER with the exception of dog to dog interaction, and that was a 4.

I remember coming up to her cage and saw that her blanket was soaked with urine.  There was a pile of feces, and also more disturbingly her blanket was covered with blood stains.   Paula had something we call a “cage nose”:  a wound to the nose caused by rubbing her nose too often against the cage bars while trying to get the attention of every passer-by.

Paula was otherwise a healthy puppy, and I was saddened to learn that not long after our walk together she was euthanized.  For space?  I’ll never know.  She didn’t have a heart-wrenching story of being a cruelty-seizure.  That would’ve attracted media attention for her.  Nor did she have some extreme medical ailment warranting immediate medical attention so that the ACC would have made a plea to rescue groups to save her.

Nope, she was “just a stray,” quiet, a little shy, and unremarkable in both appearance and temperament.

The Attitude of ACC Management and Shelter Staff

I’ve previously written about the shelter’s filthy conditions when I was there for my in-shelter training session with my “team leader.”   But equally disturbing to me is the staff’s attitude to their jobs and the animals.  I will never figure out how/where ACC Management find the majority of the people working at the shelter.  Few of them seem to exhibit any common sense.  I’m even more amazed by their apathy and lack of compassion for the animals.

Example #1:  How to Make Adopting an Animal an Impossible Quest:  One day I was upstairs in the adoptions ward when a member of the public asked me if I could help her.  The woman wanted to adopt a small dog she’d seen on the ACC’s website.  I remembered seeing that dog a few days earlier in the small dog adoptions room.  But the dog was now downstairs in holding … away from public view.  I told the woman I’d check to see if the dog had been pulled by a rescue group.

I went downstairs and asked a staff member about the dog.  The employee acted like I had asked her to hand over a thousand dollars.   After giving me a nasty look, she then proceeded to (a) totally brush me off, saying she didn’t have access to the ACC’s internal software to look up the information (even though I knew she did have access), and  (b) ask me rather nastily, “Why do you even care and want to know anyway?”

I explained there was someone upstairs who wanted to adopt the dog which was still listed as available for adoption on the ACC’s website.  What I was really thinking was: “It’s your job to help get these animals placed and answer questions.  Why are you acting like you are doing me a favor?”

I asked the staff member if she knew why the dog was in holding rather than in adoptions.  Her answer: Tell the lady to fill out an application to adopt the dog, and then she can stand on line at the front desk and ask them about the dog’s status.

I trudged back upstairs and relayed the message.  The woman went downstairs, filled out an application, and 3 HOURS LATER was given the dog’s status: it was sick, a rescue group had agreed to pull it, and the dog was awaiting transport.

But the lady was so relieved the dog would be saved that she told me she wanted to make a donation to the group that pulled the dog.  I went back again to ask if she could make that donation (even though I feared getting my head chopped off for committing the sin of asking an appropriate question).  The employee spotted me coming towards her and avoided looking at me.  When I told her that the woman wanted to make a donation to the rescue group that had pulled the dog, she said that information was confidential, and she couldn’t release it (totally understandable, but why the freaking attitude!?!?).

Example #2:  How the ACC Doesn’t Care About Sanitation:

I mentioned in an earlier report that I had to watch a long and totally ridiculous webinar on Health/Medical.  But when you actually go to the shelter, you discover that the staff systematically/routinely avoids any of the “safe” practices preached in the webinar.

Take the example of the small dog that had been moved from adoptions to the holding area.  Remember, it was sick.  But it wasn’t placed in the sick ward.  Instead, staff had placed the dog in Holding, so that it could expose every new arrival to the same upper respiratory infection it had come down with.

What was insane was I returned the next day the small dog was STILL THERE  … and still in holding hours later when I left.  Meaning, that sick dog spent at least 2 days in an open holding area, sick/coughing near every new animal coming into the facility.

Example #3:  Why the ACC Sucks at Fundraising

If you want to have some idea why the ACC does such a lousy job at fundraising, look at how they treat people who are trying to HELP THEM help the animals.  Never mind how the ACC treats volunteers (like untouchables), but when I see how they interact with the public, it’s pure insanity. There is only ONE DESK that is responsible for all the incoming and outgoing traffic: owner surrenders, people bringing in strays, cops bringing in strays, people waiting to adopt animals, people waiting to pick up their adopted animals, and people waiting to reclaim their pets.

At most, there are only two people staffing the front desk at any one time.  There’s one clipboard for everyone to sign.  You sign your name on the clipboard and wait for them to call your name.

And you wait for hours.  It’s totally ineffecient for people to wait HOURS to find out if the animal they want to adopt is even available .  (Oftentimes the animal is no longer available, leaving the person very angry and frustrated at having wasted all that time waiting … while inhaling the stench.)

Common sense would dictate that the ACC assign a dedicated volunteer or staff member to sit at a computer, field questions from members of the public about an animal’s status or whereabouts, and quickly pull up the needed info.  It would take less than a minute to tell somebody an animal’s status, and that would free up the front desk to deal with other matters.

I assume the ACC never again wants volunteers to have access to the ACC’s internal data.  So, they’d have to assign an employee.  But they won’t and they don’t.  And so, you have long lines at the Front Desk.

From a public relations perspective, I don’t understand how the ACC thinks it’s good customer service to make someone wait hours just to get a simple answer.  If  I were that person, I’d never leave the ACC with a feeling of wanting to tell friends and family about what an awesome experience I had and how they should go.  And I would never in a million years leave the building thinking “I want to send money to this shelter because they do such great work!”

Example #4:  Where are all the people the ACC promised would help members of the public select an animal?

There frequently seems to be a volunteer in the cat and rabbit room, but this is never the case for the dogs. There is NO ONE ever there to help answer questions upstairs, give feedback to people visiting about the personalities of certain dogs, and also do any type of screening.  And on the other hand, I’m shocked at how few questions are asked of potential adopters, and what very little is even required to obtain an animal.  All the ACC requires is an ID and a credit card.  Why don’t they think it’s important to know about a person’s history of pet ownership, their activity level, etc. in determining the right fit?

Also because there is lack of staff in the upstairs adoptions area, twice I’ve seen a dog running around loose on the 2^nd floor because a member of the public wanted to play with it.  The cages are supposed to be kept locked, but sometimes I guess mistakes are made, and frequently there’s no one around to supervise the public.

Example #5:  What Exactly are the Kennel Staff Supposed to be Doing? 

Whenever I’m at the shelter, it’s rare to see a staff member cleaning cages. It’s ALWAYS a volunteer taking soiled lines to the washer and doing loads of laundry, cleaning cages, and walking dogs.  Is there no staff devoted to doing laundry and cleaning in general?  Are they there just to feed the dogs and move them from one floor to another?

–  I’ve seen staff members totally ignore piles of feces and urine in a cage and simply slide food in a door and walk on countless of times.

–  I’ve watch staff members drag trash bags through puddles of urine on the floor, either ignoring the urine or oblivious to it, but the result is that the urine is spread all through the hallways.

–  I watched a staff member place a large dog in a small dog cage.  The dog didn’t have room to stand up fully, and after it spilled its water bowl everywhere and was banging around shredding its bedding … only THEN was the dog moved to a larger cage. This happened only after a volunteer implored a staff member to move the dog to a more appropriate cage. Where is the common sense, or caring??

Example #6:  The ACC won’t admit there’s a problem.

The ACC is hurting badly. Lack of funds coupled with a lack of appropriate staff is a deadly combination.  But if you talk to the ACC Volunteer Coordinator, you’d think there’s nothing wrong and that that compared to other shelters in the U.S., the ACC is “GREAT!”

I’m not saying that all we should do is focus on the negative (because that would make coming to work at the shelter everyday feel like entering a gulag).  But the ACC encourages a pathological/bizarre non-acceptance of the truth/facts:

–   I’m talking about the apathetic staff where I have only seen ONE staff member actually seem to really care about the animals.

–   I’m talking about how the powers-that-be talk about “the truth” like it’s a negotiable commodity.

–  Bizarre super happy talk devoid of all reality when I bring up a serious issue that I feel needs to be addressed.

You can’t change anything if you don’t first acknowledge that something’s wrong.   Instead, the ACC encourages this bizarre culture of defensiveness when anything is brought up in a constructive or healthy way.  When they invariably act with defensiveness, well that’s a giant flag of mediocrity and at worst (in the ACC’s case) of total incompetence.   Willingness to change takes honesty and humility, two traits that are not readily apparent in ACC Management.

I will continue on as a volunteer (that is unless or until ACC Management discovers my identity and then I’ll be quickly shown the door).  And I’ll continue reporting what I see.

But what’s clear is that ACC Management isn’t concerned about the alarming conditions that I and others have reported.  What ACC Management objects to is that anyone has the audacity to publicly report those conditions.

There have been days I have just left the shelter incredibly sad, and equally angry.  I know no one in that godforsaken place probably even remembers little Paula, but I do.  And although I feel helpless to create big change, at least I can go home some nights knowing that a dog like Paula is sleeping in a clean cage with soft bedding, got petted, received affection, and got to breathe in some fresh air on a walk because of me. That is why I will continue to keep going back.

New York City’s Department of Health (DOH) is required to protect the health and safety of the pubic.

One way is by protecting people from food-borne diseases.  In July 2010 NYC’s Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley unveiled the DOH’s new restaurant sanitation grading system.  If an DOH Inspector finds that a restaurant poses a serious health hazard or if the restaurant persistently refuses to correct unsanitary conditions, the DOH will close it down.  Restaurants that are allowed to operate receive an A, B, or C rating grade.

Yet, even restaurants earning an “A” rating are unhappy because they’re subject to repeated inspections and fines in order to receive or maintain a good rating.  In contrast, Mayor Bloomberg and the Health Commissioner Farley are happy because the new rating system brings in big bucks for the DOH.

Another way the DOH is supposed to protect the public health is by inspecting pet shops to ensure that sick or diseased animals aren’t sold, because sick animals might spread disease.  Pet stores that harbor sick animals are subject to DOH fines and repeated inspections.[i]  That’s what happened to the Petsmart store at East 116^th in Manhattan.   In 2010 Petsmart agreed to house and adopt out cats from New York City’s Animal Care & Control (ACC).

The problem was that – although the cats appeared to be healthy when the ACC delivered them to Petsmart – within a short time many of them fell ill … from diseases (usually cold viruses) they had been contracted at the ACC.  One cat died.

When DOH Inspectors spotted the sick cats, they fined Petsmart and stepped up the number of inspections.  Every time they visited Petsmart and found more sick cats, they kept piling on the fines.

Petsmart finally had enough of the bad press and the fines. Petsmart terminated its adoption arrangement with the ACC. Many ACC cats lost a chance to find a new home, but no one could blame Petsmart: they had been placed in an impossible position.

While the ACC/Petsmart cat adoption gig lasted, the DOH made a good chunk of money from the fines it imposed on Petsmart.

Why don’t DOH Inspectors go to ACC shelters and check out the conditions there?  DOH Inspectors would be sure to find a host of unsanitary conditions and sick animals.  Then the DOH could issue  thousands of dollars of fines against the ACC … or maybe even close down the shelter.

Oh, we forgot.  The DOH controls the ACC, and its Inspectors are always in and out of ACC shelters.  But never once during the ACC’s 17-year history has a DOH Inspector ever given the ACC less than an “A” rating for sanitary conditions.

How can this be?  Anyone who’s ever visited an ACC shelter knows how filthy and unsanitary it is.

If the DOH fined the ACC for maintaining unsanitary shelters, the DOH would effectively be fining itself.

So, it’ll be a cold day in hell before a DOH Inspector ever gives the ACC a failing grade.

Let’s do the DOH Inspectors’ Job for Them

Every animal entering an ACC shelter will come down with one or more diseases that fill the filthy buildings. While the DOH refuses to do anything about that, you can.

Print out a copy of the “F” Sanitary Inspection Grade (below) for the ACC. The next time you visit an ACC shelter, bring a copy of this “F” Grade aloing with some adhesive tape.  If you see unhealthy conditions and/or sick animals, then paste the “F” grade right on the ACC’s front door.

Also, let Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley know what you think of his DOH Inspectors and the quality of “sanitation” at the ACC: TFarley@health.nyc.gov

Isn’t it ironic that that New York City’s Department of Health is so UNhealthy for NYC’s shelter animals?

It’s Kitten Season Again,

but Where, oh Where,

have the TNR Monies Gone?

New York City’s Animal Care & Control shelters are already filling up with mama cats and their kittens because of the unseasonably early Spring.  So our thoughts turn to feral cat rescue groups that practice trap/neuter/return (TNR).

By law, the City’s Department of Health (DOH) is required to issue regulations for “the registration of people and groups conducting TNR and establishing criteria for that registration.”  (See article by The Mayor’s Alliance.)  These new regulations are supposed to aid TNR groups and the cat colonies they protect.

The TNR regulations were due by March 1st.

March 1st came and went without the DOH issuing those regulations.

To add to the TNR groups’ confusion, a few days ago the Mayor’s Alliance came out with a bombshell announcement: Maddie’s Fund monies for New York City TNR and Spay/Neuter services will end on March 31st. (See footnote.)

Meaning: There will be no more money to subsidize private vets who provide free S/N services to our City’s rescue groups, including TNR groups that have an outsized need for S/N services.  Now that the Maddie’s grant has ended, the ASPCA’s small Spay/Neuter shop in Queens will effectively be the only game in town to provide S/N for TNR groups.  The ASPCA’s S/N shop is located far from most TNR groups and can handle only a small portion of the TNR groups’ needs.

 Is Maddie’s Fund Giving up on New York City?

We hope that the Alliance or some other organization or individual(s) will come up with the needed S/N funding, and/or that many private vets will offer their S/N services for free or at cost to rescue and TNR groups.

FOOTNOTE: This is the Alliance’s announcement to its members:

From: Evon <evonhandras@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 3:00 PM
Subject: [NYCferalcats] Important Notice Regarding the Maddie’s Spay/Neuter Projects in NYC
To: NYCferalcats@yahoogroups.com

REPORT:

March 2012

I volunteer for a rescue group, picking up animals from New York City’s Animal Care & Control and driving them to the vet, to a foster, or wherever else I’m asked to transport them.

Recently one morning I was on assignment at the Brooklyn ACC.  As it happened the branch manager was holding a staff meeting right behind the front desk in the lobby.  The manager was telling her staff that she wants them to start listening to the messages left on their phones.

She was angry because she was “tired of taking sh*t.”  And then she told a story of a cat who was spoken for and had a home to go to, and a message was left on one of the phones, but because nobody at the shelter listened to that message — or if they did, they didn’t make a note of it — the cat was killed.

And now people are complaining, the manager said.  That appeared to be the part she was tired of.

I know what she said because I was standing ten feet away from that meeting.  I felt like I was a part of it.  Want to know the security code for the building?  I can tell you that. (Hint!  It’s a small furry animal.).  Need to know other codes, like the code to turn off the fire alarm?  I can tell you that, too (small furry animal again).  Want to know some of the things volunteers have been doing wrong at the shelter?  Ask me.  There’s a list.

—————

I was at the Brooklyn ACC to pick up a dog named Buddy who was slated to go to a couple who lived on a hobby farm with a stream, woods, rolling fields and plenty of animals.  By any standard, Buddy’s new home would be a paradise. I was looking forward to meeting the lucky dog and to the transport ahead.

As it happened, though, I would wait two hours to meet Buddy because nobody from New Hope (New Hope employees are the people who coordinate with rescue groups that pull ACC animals) had come for their shift that morning and wouldn’t until 11 o’clock.  And during that time — the first twenty minutes of which I spent standing ten feet from the staff meeting as not one single person looked up, got up, said hello or asked me to wait, as I listened to the world-weary complaints of the shelter manager and the ringing of a phone that went unanswered — I learned some things about Brooklyn shelter and the ACC in general.

One of those things was that, despite the explicit provisions of The Maddie’s Fund, Brooklyn kills their animals for “space.”[i]   I know this now, because the man sitting at the front desk helpfully told the following to callers to the shelter: “We kill sick dogs, dangerous dogs, and for space.”  He said this to three separate callers.  He said this in full earshot of people in the lobby.  One of those people was a 70-year-old woman who had recently been evicted from her home and was surrendering her small blind dog.  The owner began to cry.

————-

The Brooklyn shelter that morning was its usual tragic parade: besides the homeless woman and her blind dog, one man surrendered a stray cat he found with a dart lodged in its back.   One man left two lovely, serene pit-bull mix dogs in the back of his car for an hour and a half while he waited out the process of surrendering them to the shelter.  (A half hour into sitting in silence on the bench, he asked me if I was in line, because nobody had bothered to say to him, “May I help you?”)  Two groups were turned away because they had come in at the wrong time for adoptions.  Employees wandered lethargically around, or lounged in groups of two or three behind the counter in swivel chairs.  A lone volunteer walked pit bulls in the parking lot.

———

At eleven o’clock, two hours after I arrived at Brooklyn ACC, the New Hope employee arrived.  Twenty minutes later, she brought out Buddy.

The dog at the end of the leash was a medium sized mix.  He looked older than seven years; he stood very still, making eye contact with me but barely moving, not wagging his tail.  “Here”, said the New Hope employee, handing me the end of the leash and a Ziploc bag of papers and the dog’s kennel cough antibiotics.  Buddy lapsed into spasms of coughing.

———

Even before I got back to my home, I’d already decided to take Buddy to the vet.  I had to lift him into the car at the ACC; he barely stopped coughing on the hour-long drive to the vet.  He had brown discharge outside his nose, and was bleeding from the rectum.  Most concerning to me was the way he held himself perfectly still, in a way that you do when you are experiencing pain you have dealt with over a long period of time. I’d brought some turkey for the ride, and a bowl of water.  He hadn’t touched either.

His intake sheet and medical history while at the ACC showed that they had diagnosed him with kennel cough eight days earlier, and had started him on antibiotics.  I wonder if they had noticed that despite eight days of antibiotics, what they called kennel cough had not cleared up?

I also noted the reason for surrender: “Cost”.

——–

The vet at the emergency hospital put a stethoscope to Buddy’s side and told us that, at the least, he had pneumonia.  Buddy was severely dehydrated and bleeding; the vet would have to take an X-ray, and do blood work, because cancer was a real possibility.  She leaned into Buddy and checked his mouth, whispering to him, “It’s okay.  You didn’t do anything wrong.”

And ten minutes later, the end of Buddy’s story was in sight.  The vet told us that Buddy was riddled with chest cancer, that he was hemorrhaging, and that his pneumonia, kennel cough and dehydration were the least of his problems.  He was incurable and end-stage.  We said good-bye to Buddy then, in tears and apologies.

———

In the scheme of things, I am a lowly rescue transporter and I know that there are people who work far more for homeless animals than I do.  Buddy was a dog that the world probably won’t miss much.  But together, we were going to make this small and wonderful thing happen: windows down on an early spring day, Buddy riding shotgun and eating handfuls of Boar’s Head turkey until we got to his little farm at the edge of a sweet stream in the country.

That didn’t happen, and I am not for a minute suggesting that, given the circumstances of Buddy’s life at the end, it could have happened.  But I know now a basic level of human compassion and comfort for him at the very end were very nearly impossible, courtesy of the fundamentally dysfunctional components of a group ironically named New York Animal Care and Control.   Vets that can’t use a stethoscope.  Staff that can’t pick up a phone.  Staff meetings held within earshot of the lobby, exposing building security information and the gross incompetence of its employees.  Laziness, indifference, rudeness, callousness, lateness.  A branch manager tired of taking “sh*t”.

And I know this is but one in a long, long line of such stories of tragic incompetence, in the way Buddy is a drop in the bucket of New York’s homeless and forgotten pets.  But the voice is rising to a scream, and I don’t know how much longer that animal lovers in New York City will accept the status quo from Animal Care and Control, a sad joke of a name for an institution which offers neither.

By the way, that little blind little dog came home with me.  His name is Freddy and he’s looking for a home.  He’s cheerful, cheeky, confident, and capable.  He’s a survivor, and he’s awesome!

 ______________

Don’t waste your money.

As long as the ASPCA allows cruelty and neglect to continue in New York City’s Animal Care & Control (ACC), the ASPCA has no standing to speak for any animal  — most specifically defenseless ACC animals.   And it’s not as though the ASPCA is unaware of what’s going on at the ACC.  ASPCA headquarters are just 18 blocks away from the ACC’s Manhattan shelter, and ASPCA employees are  frequently in and out of the ACC shelters. 

The ASPCA’s Latest Insult to ACC animals

Surely one thing that all New York animal advocates can agree on is that it’s high time our State passed a law setting clear standards of care that shelters must provide their animals.

Assemblyman Micah Kellner proposed such a law back in 2010 and resubmitted it in 2011 under a new name: CAARA, short for “The Companion Animal Access and Rescue Act” Bill (A07312A).

But the ASPCA is having none of that.  Secretly working with the Mayor’s Alliance and various kill shelters like the ACC, the ASPCA drafted a rival bill and persuaded Assemblymember Amy Paulin to sponsor it.  The ASPCA Bill quickly earned the soubriquet “The Quick Kill” Bill because (among its many faults) it had a provision allowing shelters to kill on arrival any animal they labeled as being in “psychological pain.” 

Even though the ASPCA recently amended its bill to delete that laughably outrageous provision, it has left the rest of its defective bill intact.  And the ASPCA is unleashing its mighty PR power to get that bill voted into law. [i]  

Clearly, the ASPCA has lost its moral compass.

The law that shelter animals need and deserve is CAARA.  As we explain below, the ASPCA Bill panders to the interests of the dysfuctional ACC shelter while ignoring the needs of shelter animals.

The ASPCA Opposes any Bill that Sets Specific Care Requirements.

It seems beyond dispute that every animal shelter should — at a minimum — follow these basic requirements:

• Provide daily exercise for its shelter animals;
• Provide fresh food and fresh water daily;
• Keep cages and shelter buildings clean and hygienic; and
• Provide socialization and enrichment to shelter animals.

Any shelter that cannot or will not provide such basic care shouldn’t be allowed to operate as a shelter. 

The ACC does not offer such basic care.  

CAARA lays out in detail the types of care (both physical and medical) that every shelter must provide.

But the ASPCA refuses to incorporate specific standards into its Bill because — heaven forefend — a shelter like the ACC wouldn’t meet those standards.  Instead, the ASPCA Bill deals in vague generalities.

For example, the ASPCA Bill says that a shelter should “properly shelter, feed and provide water to” its animals.  Well, what the hell does “properly” mean?  The ASPCA Bill makes no attempt to define “properly.”  And that omission is purposeful because the ASPCA doesn’t want to create a yardstick by which the ACC’s performance can be measured.

For its entire existence, the ACC has claimed it “properly” cares for its animals.  Under the ASPCA bill, the ACC can continue making that false claim.

“The ACC is a hell on earth for its animals.”

A member of the ACC Medical staff recently made that statement to Shelter Reform Action Committee.  What a stark admission of the ACC’s failure.

But anyone who’s ever set foot inside an ACC shelter knows it’s true.  ACC shelters are filthy and chaotic places where negligence and institutionalized cruelty reign.

The ACC is run by executives whose primary goal is to keep their jobs.  To keep their jobs they must please their master, the City’s Department of Health (DOH).  And to please the DOH, ACC Executives are expected to cover up the misery inside ACC shelters. 

CAARA, not the ASPCA Bill, Is the Way to Reform of the ACC

If CAARA were to become law, the DOH would have only 2 options: either to (1) ensure that the ACC comply with CAARA; or (2) hand control of the ACC over to people who can and will follow CAARA.

Thus, CAARA is the first step to reforming the ACC. 

In contrast, the ASPCA Bill will simply serve to perpetuate the ACC’s dysfunction. 

If ASPCA President Ed Sayres and the ASPCA Board are serious about preventing cruelty to animals, then they should address cruelty in their own backyard — at NYC’s Animal Care & Control.

They should abandon the ASPCA Bill and put their support behind CAARA.

March 4, 2012

For its rescue group members, last week The Mayor’s Alliance hosted a presentation by Bill Bruce who heads the Animal Shelter in Calgary, Canada.

Shelter Reform has been a Bill Bruce admirer for some time now, so we were delighted for the opportunity to hear him speak.

We’ve written about Bruce’s multi-pronged approach that made Calgary a true no-kill community.  In fact, he’s been so successful that Calgary often finds itself with a shortage of shelter cats for adoption, and so takes in cats from other nearby shelters.

Some skeptics might say that what Bruce did for Calgary cannot happen here in NYC.  Not true.  Admittedly, there are obvious differences between the two cities, such as :

• Calgary is a much smaller city, 1.1 million inhabitants versusu NYC’s 8.2 million residents.
• Calgary’s economy is centered on the oil and gas industry.
• Calgary is bi-lingual: French and English

But those differences are meaningless when it comes to no-kill.  As Bruce has explained:

The model can work anywhere as long as we understand there are two components: the “what” questions and the “how” questions.

The important “what” questions are building responsible pet ownership and supporting the community on the four principle of responsible pet ownership: public education, building a partnering animal community with the public, spay and neuter, building good license compliance and building strong voluntary compliance to the legislation.  These are the foundations and apply to all jurisdictions seeking a successful program. The “how” questions are about demographics, cultural barriers, size or finance sources

What most people don’t realize about Bruce is that he achieved no-kill in his position as a government employee.

Bruce is no naïf about how government works.  After all, he successfully managed Calgary’s Traffic Division for years.  Having solved that department’s problems, he was offered his pick of a new City assignment, and he opted for the most dysfunctional city agency: Animal Law and ByLaw Services.

It didn’t hurt that Bruce loves animals as well as challenges.  The Calgary Animal Division was a failure: a high kill shelter with little or no support from the government and the public.  The Animal Division was low-man-on-the- totem pole when it came to City funding.  Sure, Calgary would fund its animal shelter services … but only with scraps left after the City had shelled out money for the important stuff: e.g., police, hospitals, emergency services, food banks, roads, highways, buildings, etc.

So, Calgary and NYC politics are the same when it comes to animal welfare: it’s an afterthought.

Bruce quickly figured out that his job wasn’t to change animal behavior, but people behavior.  He often says: “We don’t have a pet problem. We have a people problem.”

Bruce was able to achieve no-kill … without doing any of the following: demonizing pet owners or by imposing kneejerk and ineffective legislation (e.g., breed-specific bans, mandatory spay/neuter, and arbitrary limits set on the number of animals in a household).

Rather, Bruce’s focus was on the QUALITY of pet guardianship … to engage the public to be good pet guardians.

He proceeded by asking the right questions about the concerns and interests of Calgary residents and pet “guardians” (a term he prefers over “owners”).  Then he came up with practical and effective solutions while gaining the allegiance of politicians and pet guardians alike.

Calgary now has a 95% dog licensing compliance rate and a 50%+ licensing rate for cats.  (Yes, Bruce successfully convinced cat owners and politicians that licensing cats is the right thing to do.)

His shelter takes not one penny from government money.  Operating funds come from licensing fees.  Using those monies, Calgary has built a state of the art shelter and veterinary clinic (Calgary vet specialists donate their services for special-needs animals), provides no-cost spay/neuter services for low-income residents, and has professional educators who teach humane education curricula in the public schools.  Moreover, Calgary pet guardiams who license their animals receive a variety of discounts and services with a long list of participating merchants (including restaurants).  If the Calgary shelter picks up a stray (but licensed) dog or cat, that animal is immediately driven home and reunited with its guardian.

Feral cats aren’t neglected, either. The Calgary shelter partners with an organization called The Meow Foundation.  If a feral cat ends up at the Calgary shelter, it is immediately transferred to the protection of the Meow Foundation.

We hope that Mr. Bruce will visit NYC again … and soon … and that the next visit will provide him a venue to speak to a large group of people, including ACC employees, volunteers and rescuers, City officials, police officers, breeders, animal advocacy groups and the general public.

In the meantime, we’ve provided links to various articles about Mr. Bruce and his Calgary Model:

Presentation at a 2010 Best Friends Conference: http://network.bestfriends.org/groups/conferences/news/archive/2008/10/31/municipal-animal-programs-that-work.aspx

Save our Dogs website (2009) The Calgary Model for Success.  http://saveourdogs.net/2009/08/09/the-calgary-model-for-success/ 

Toronto news article, Sept. 2011: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1053251–what-cowtown-s-pound-can-teach-hogtown

Our thanks to The Mayor’s Alliance for bringing Mr. Bruce to NYC, and we hope to see him here again in the very near future.