Abject Cruelty and Legal Threats at Mike Spano's Yonkers Animal Shelter

Another cowardly do-nothing New York pol is threatening legal action over critiques of the kill pound he runs.

Nov 07, 2025

The Scoop New York is a website and newsletter covering the movement for a true no-kill New York State, from BUF to BK. NYC ACC KILLS, published by TSNY, enumerates and memorializes adoptable cats and dogs who were exterminated by Animal Care Centers of New York City.

Duke, who advocates say died “alone and in excruciating pain” at Yonkers Animal Shelter, and Mayor Mike Spano, who rather than do his job has threatened YAS watchers with legal action. Duke photo via Reform YAS. Video still: News 12. Photo illustration: The Scoop New York

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It’s November 7, 2025. This is The Weekly Poop.

This week, TSNY was contacted by advocates about conditions at Yonkers Animal Shelter. What they described left my jaw hanging open.

Nothing I might write would be any more powerful, or damning, than the email I received from Reform YAS Coalition. Also, as it happens, I have recently begun to privately encourage advocates, particularly those outside New York City, to consider contributing op-eds to TSNY. If you have something to say about your local shelter, or “shelter,” we extend that invitation to you: a thousand words or so is ideal; corresponding images or links to same are appreciated but not required.

Let’s call this TWP column a soft launch of our new op-ed section.

Below the house ad and between the dividers: What homeless cats and dogs, and the New Yorkers who care about them, are up against at Yonkers Animal Shelter, according to Reform YAS. Lightly edited for style.

We are a united coalition of YAS volunteers, devoted rescue partners, and generous donors who pour our hearts, time, and resources into the Yonkers Animal Shelter every day. We’ve witnessed healthy, adoptable dogs and cats arrive full of hope, only to deteriorate into shadows of themselves: ribs protruding from weight loss fueled by stress and depression, tails tucked in defeat, spirits shattered by isolation and filth. Dogs pace in endless despair, developing behaviors that label them “unadoptable.” Cats curl into silent balls of trauma, their curious natures erased by neglect. This isn’t occasional oversight — it’s daily horror, fueled by purposeful indifference from Commissioner Steven Sansone and Mayor Mike Spano.

On August 5, 2025, 30 dedicated stakeholders delivered an evidence-based petition to Mayor Spano, exposing the filth, fear, and fatalities at YAS. Their response? Rejection via Corporation Counsel — dismissing our truths as “nuisances” and threatening legal action for advocating for the animals we are responsible for. We’ve been pleading for nearly a year, met only with blocked programs, halted volunteer orientations, and threats of dismissal. A reliable insider reveals Commissioner Sansone is preparing a false “investigation” statement to dodge accountability, while rejecting meetings with active volunteers and YAS’s largest rescue partner (who has pulled over 180 dogs from the shelter since 2020).

Stakeholders delivered a petition to Mayor Spano, exposing the filth, fear, and fatalities at YAS. Their response? Dismissing our truths as “nuisances” and threatening legal action for advocating for the animals we are responsible for.

We had no choice but to bring our concerns to the public. We launched a change.org petition and, as of today, the petition has 1,611 signatures: 968 are Yonkers residents, 1,288 are from fellow New Yorkers spanning Westchester County, Orange County, Albany, Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island, and everywhere in between.

The toll is devastating: Delayed shelter openings or full closures have become a weekly occurrence due to understaffing. Two dogs lost to avoidable circumstances in the past four months. Dog adoption RETURNS are climbing again towards the shocking 63 percent rate that plagued YAS until June 2024. Cats go unnamed, unattended, untracked, and unposted for adoption. Infections fester, and common injuries like “happy tail” go unattended, leading to amputations. Overlooked, ignored, and subpar medical support due to understaffing which has even led to avoidable fatalities. Read about our poor Duke’s death at Reform YAS here.

Maddy was “confined nearly 24/7 with just three to four minutes of daily walk time” before YAS exterminated her.

Yonkers, the third-largest city in New York State, lags shamefully behind NYC and Westchester shelters that uphold humane standards. YAS should and could be doing far better by its shelter animal population. Our demands are not radical — they’re proven, low-cost or cost-neutral basics already saving lives in local NY shelters. Implementing them tomorrow could end the suffering, but Commissioner Sansone’s active blockades prioritize politics over paws. He spends more time and energy hindering/eradicating programs in our tax-funded facility than he does on championing systemic and proven solutions that would benefit our animals, increase successful adoption and foster rates, and support our city workers and volunteers. One longtime volunteer states, “I tear up every time I think about a prospective volunteer being sent out that door. The loneliest cats and dogs in the world watch a ‘never-to-be’ friend, advocate, and companion turned away when they are in such desperate need.”

See what I mean?

Find the rest of the Reform YAS letter to TSNY here. In case you missed it above, the YAS petition is here.

The Scoop New York will have more on Yonkers Animal Shelter and tough-guy kitten-killer Mike Spano in the near future.

Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:

ALERT: Town of Saugerties Animal Shelter is looking for the second of two dogs abandoned in an October rainstorm (the other dog, now called Hazel, suffered obvious neglect but is expected to recover).
The Zohran Mamdani DOH commissioner watch starts now.
Related: NYC Council members are jockeying to be the next speaker — the person who will decide if Lynn Schulman should be allowed to continue refusing to do her job when it comes to DOH and ACC oversight.
Related: [sound of hogs rooting at the trough]
“When it comes to caring for the animals rescued in abuse cases, local shelters can be quickly overwhelmed” — because Governor Kathy Hochul and state legislators have chosen not to reimburse shelters for doing the government’s job, leaving shelters and animals in the lurch. Again.
Related: “[R]ehoming requests, already rising as inflation accelerates, may keep rising as pet owners scramble to house and feed their families.”
Related: “Every town has the same issue. Some have the ability to send dogs to the Humane Society … but they are full as well. This is a problem, and this is just the dogs. There’s a ton of feral cats out there too.”
UPDATE: After our latest on corruption in Town of Hempstead and its “shelter,” TSNY learned that Buster Brown was finally released from TOHAS solitary confinement to go to a rescue. Godspeed, little guy.
Related: Voters gave open-air animal abuser John Ferretti a full term as TOH supervisor to exploit homeless cats and dogs at TOHAS to benefit himself and his horde of ethically-challenged cronies.
Dear Newsweek, if you’re going to profile dogs kill-listed by DOH/ACC — like 1-yo Aurora Mist [230952], currently on death row — either tell the whole story or don’t bother. Half-assing it only causes more harm.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg marked his reelection victory by ensuring the alleged creep who abducts NYC pigeons to be killed in Pennsylvania for sport gets away with it.
An NYPD officer shot and killed a dog who allegedly bit them on the leg. But NYPD got lies like the Beastie Boys got similes, and access media dutifully transcribe every word.
Finally: ASPCA, HSUS, PETA and friends: defrauding the public by endorsing suffering and death since the last century.