NYC Shelter History continued…
The following is a chronological history of how New York City has cared for (or ignored) its homeless pet population over the years.
2000
In April, Councilwoman Kathryn Freed successfully secures passage of a city law requiring full service animal shelters be established in all five boroughs. (The Animal Shelters and Sterilization Act, Local Law 26, 17-801 – 1-808 to Title 17 of the New York City Administrative Code.) Monies are set aside to build full-service animal shelters in two of the City’s most populous and needy boroughs -- the Bronx and Queens -- which do not have shelters of their own. The DOH is required to enforce the legislation and to report annually to the City Council on its progress.
2002
In June, the new City Comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr., releases an 88-page audit which had been conducted during his predecessor's term, that concludes that the ACC "does not provide humane conditions for all of the animals in its shelters and has not made aggressive efforts to increase adoptions of homeless animals." The report finds that animals are subjected to abuse and neglect and that employees who mistreat animals are rarely dismissed. The report also notes that the ACC is notoriously hostile to volunteers.
Over the summer, the entire ACC Board of Directors is replaced. Dr. Thomas Frieden, the DOH Commissioner, is elected chairman of the ACC board and remains in that position until he leaves the DOH in 2009 to take a position as head of the federal Center for Disease Control..
Mayor Bloomberg cites financial difficulties following the 9/11 terrorist attacks to request an extension of the law requiring shelters in the Bronx and Queens. In July, Christine Quinn, head of the City Council’s Health Committee, brokers a deal with the Mayor’s Office to have the City Council amend the statute to give the DOH an extension of time until 2006 to create the missing shelters.
In September, Mayor Bloomberg announces budget cuts and slashes the ACC shelter hours by 50%.
In October the ACC Board fires Executive Director Haggerty-Blohm a week after she says that some animals have died because of the budget cuts. However, the rescue community applauds her departure. Click here to view a video of SRAC co-founder Gary Kaskel.
Julian Prager, General Counsel to the ACC, is appointed Interim Executive Director. He is a professional bulldog breeder. (Later, he is quietly promoted to Executive Director .) His 9-month tenure at the ACC is marked by continuing criticism and deterioration of shelter services and conditions.
In October Jane Hoffman, an attorney and founding member of the NYC Bar Association’s “Animals and the Law” Committee, approaches Mayor Bloomberg with a proposal: she will create a network of rescuers to pull animals from the ACC, and apply for a multi-million grant from “Maddie’s Fund” to achieve a “no kill” NYC. Hoffman receives Mayor Bloomberg’s blessing and names the organization “The Mayor’s Alliance,” even though all she asks (and receives) from the City is use of public parks for adoptions events, and reserved parking spaces in front of ACC shelter buildings. Hoffman signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the City that New York will become a “no kill” city by the year 2008 (which the Alliance subsequently extends 3 separate time, currently set for 2015).
On behalf of the ACC, now Executive Director Prager signs a Memorandum of Understanding allowing the Mayor's Alliance to help pull the ACC out of the hole the DOH has dug for the ACC.. In later years, Prager pads his resume to suggest that he was in large part responsible for the Mayor’s Alliance’s creation and its success in increasing the number of rescued animals.
The Mayor’s Alliance opens “New Hope” offices in each of the ACC’s three shelters. New Hope staff members coordinate with rescuers who pull animals from the ACC.
The Maddie’s Fund, a family foundation funded by Dave Duffield and his wife Cheryl, is named after the family’s beloved miniature Schnauzer who passed away in 1997. Maddie’s Fund’s purpose is to help create a “no-kill” nation where all healthy and treatable shelter dogs and cats are guaranteed a loving home.
2003 - 2004
The DOH hires Ed Boks to be the next ACC Executive Director. Boks initially agrees to a six-month term, and to work only part-time. Having previously managed the animal shelter system in Maricopa County in Arizona, and with twenty years in shelter management, Boks is the first ACC Executive Director with actual experience running an animal shelter.
In 2004, Boks agrees to sign on for a full two-year term, but his time at the ACC is marked by growing animosity between him and the DOH and with the ACC Board of Directors. He discovers falsification of safety inspections by DOH inspectors, misuse of statistics, and outright hostility and incompetence by DOH personnel. Boks attempts to institute reforms, which are opposed by the ACC board.
Despite the 2002 amended City Council law, by the end of 2004 the DOH has failed to file plans for full-service shelters in the Bronx and in Queens. In fact, in 2004 the Bloomberg administration tries to change the law and get rid of the requirement for full-service shelters in the Bronx and Queens. But that change is never approved by the City Council.
2005
Through the work of the Mayor’s Alliance, ACC euthanasia rates (which were as high as 75-80% in 2002), steadily decline while rescue and adoptions numbers rise. Maddie’s Fund awards its first grant to the Mayor’s Alliance in January 2005, and anticipates spending a total of $24.4 million over seven years “to help the Mayor's Alliance end the killing of healthy and treatable shelter dogs and cats community-wide.” With monies in hand, the Mayor’s Alliance is able to pay its participating rescue members a flat amount for every homeless animal placed in a permanent home. The subsidy helps defray the rescuers' costs. The Alliance also embarks on various programs (e.g., low cost micro-chipping and spay/neuter, special grants to rescuers, major adoption events). Rescuers who are not Alliance members are ineligible for subsidies.
As the years pass, rescuers (and adopters) pay mounting medical fees to nurse animals back to health, animals made sick during their stay in the overcrowded ACC shelters. Moreover, the number of animals flowing into the shelters remains steady, fluctuating between 39,000 to 44,000. This steady flow of animals is channeled into already overcrowded shelters.
Various ACC rescuers and volunteers criticize how animals are selected to be euthanized for so-called “behavior” or “disease.” In almost all cases, the “disease” is an upper respiratory infection that animals catch at the ACC shelters, and the behavior "tests" leave much to be desired in how they are administered. The ACC also offers lack of "space" as a third reason for killing many of its animals.
2006
The DOH does not renew Boks’ contract, and Mary Martin is selected to succeed him. Martin’s background is in veterinary science (she had worked with Boks in the Maricopa County shelter in Arizona, but is not a veterinarian). She has no experience in managing an animal shelter. During her term as Executive Director, she neither offends nor challenges the DOH. She is politic, likeable, and hands-off. Her term is uneventful.
In June NYC’s Comptroller Thompson issues another audit of the ACC, this time conducted by his own staff. Compared to the previous audit (conducted by the previous Comptroller), Comptroller Thompson’s audit is far less scathing, but notes persistent problems: lack cleanliness, sick animals not segregated from healthy, dogs not exercised, ineffective use of volunteers.
Also in June the SRAC sues to remove the Mayor and three other city officials, including the Health Commissioner, from controlling the ACC Board of Directors, alleging conflict of interest and malfeasance of their fiduciary duty. (In October 2007, the complaint is dismissed on technical grounds, the judge ruling that the SRAC has no “standing” to seek (i.e., no legally recognizable interest in) seeking such relief from the DOH. Consequently, the SRAC defers to the Charities Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s office for enforcement. That Bureau does nothing, neither investigating nor responding to the SRAC's periodic requests on the status of its investigation.
In defiance of the the amended Shelters and Steriization law requiring shelters in the Bronx and Queens by 20015, those shelters remain non-existent.
2007
In April,Executive Director Martin leaves to take a job in Los Angeles running a free spay/neuter service. For the next several months, ACC board member Bruce Doniger, a successful businessman with no prior experience managing an animal shelter, serves as Interim Executive Director.
In October the ACC board hires Charlene Pedrolie as Executive Director. Her background is in restructuring troubled companies; she has no prior shelter management experience. During her two-year term, Pedrolie faces increasing controversy and vitriolic attacks. Yet, she initiates a number of innovations advocated by experienced volunteers, such as (1) a dog-walking program for non-adoptable shelter dogs (prior management did not believe that dogs not up for adoption need to be walked, no matter how long their stay in the shelter), (2) a Cruelty Seizure Committee to oversee the care, rehabilitation, and placement of animals removed from abusive or cruel circumstances, (3) a volunteer-based Compassion Program for dogs slated to be euthanized, and (4) enhanced information available to rescuers about ACC animals to be euthanized. Predrolie also requires that every dog be provided with a blanket and toy and arranges to have ACC animals regularly showcased on the NBC “Today Show.”
While euthanasia numbers continue to decrease, the ACC is unable to stem the epidemic of respiratory infection (URI) afflicting its animals.
2008
In November, the DOH green-lights the start of the long-delayed installation of a new HVAC (heating/ventilation/air condition) system in the Manhattan shelter. The DOH claims the new system will reduce the amount of the cold/flu virus in that shelter. For the two years the project is expected to last, the Manhattan shelter is a noisy, dusty, and dangerous construction site, with adoptable animals housed in a long-abandoned garage and the balance squeezed in the building that is under construction. Critics challenge the DOH’s decision to spend time and money trying to renovate a building whose very footprint and age make it eminently unsuitable for an animal shelter. HVAC or not, the cold/flu virus will continue at the shelter.
The DOH acquires a former Bronx library, projected to be the long-ordered Bronx animal shelter. The neighboring community brings their NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) protests and the DOH backs off.
In June the rescue group Stray From the Heart (SFTH) sues the DOH for violating the law requiring full- service shelters in the Bronx and Queens. In September, the trial judge rules in favor of SFTH and orders the shelters to be created.
2009
In January SFTH amends its complaint against the City to allege that by failing to create those missing shelters, the City ensures that ACC animals fall ill from diseases that rampage through the overcrowded shelters, thereby imposing extraordinary costs on rescue groups that try to save these animals. The City's defense is twofold: that it has substantially complied with the law and that no rescue group has stand to sue.
In August Dr. Thomas Farley succeeds Dr. Thomas Frieden who has taken a job to head the U.S. Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. The ACC board unanimously elects Farley to succeed Frieden as ACC Chairman. Dr. Stephanie Janezcko agrees to come on board as the ACC's Medical Director. The ASPCA sweetens her employment package by supplementing her salary. Janezcko had previously been employed by Cornell Veterinary School and overseen a 2008-2009 study of disease in ACC dogs.
September: The SFTH trial judge rules that the City has violated the 2000 Shelters Law and that SFTH has standing to sue. Farley orders the DOH to appeal from the SFTH decision.
The DOH does not renew Executive Director Pedrolie’s contract and appoints corporate attorney Risa Weinstock as “Interim” Executive Director. Weinstock has no prior experience managing an animal shelter. She previously served as the ACC's General Counsel for 1-1/2 years.
October: One of Weinstock’s first duties is to “negotiate” a new 5-year contract with the DOH. As with all prior service contracts, the “negotiations” are non-existent because the ACC has no bargaining power. Weinstock immediately is apprised of the DOH’s announcement of the first of a series dramatic cuts to the ACC’s historically inadequate budget. Weinstock responds by cutting key services and employees.
Tensions between staff and volunteers grow and volunteers are increasingly dispirited. A group of ACC volunteers, rescuers, donors, and adopters petition Dr. Farley to (1) select an experienced, proven, independent, and innovative Executive Director for the ACC, (2) abandon its appeal of the Stray From the Heart ruling and create shelters in the Bronx and Queens, (3) replace the current ACC directors with true animal advocates who owe no allegiance to the DOH or to the Mayor, (4) increase ACC funding, and (5) publicly acknowledge the crisis confronting the ACC.
Dr. Farley responds that all is well at the ACC and great progress is being made.
November: New York State Assemblymember Micah Kellner introduces a bill named “Oreo’s Law” which the ASPCA fiercely opposes. The bill is named after a cruelty seizure dog the ASPCA killed despite wide protests. Oreo’s Law would impose a clear standard of animal care on shelters while opening up shelters to responsible rescue groups.
The number of abandoned and owner-surrendered pets increases daily due to a poisonous confluence of factors:
The worsening economy (as people lose their jobs and homes, their pets end up on the streets or at the ACC,
A New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) rule limiting ownership of animals in public housing to one pet per household and banning certain dogs by weight and breed, and
Decades-long failure by the City to provide massive and free or low-cost spay/neuter services.