Abuse and Corruption at Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter
At TOHAS, rehoming animals takes a back seat to political subterfuge and legal threats against volunteers.
Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
It’s September 13, 2025. This is The Weekly Poop, Totally Definitely 100 Percent In It to Win It Edition.
With just under 800,000 people, the Town of Hempstead, in Nassau County, is the largest town in New York State. This week, TOH finds itself on the business end of three lawsuits filed by volunteers for the town kill pound — a.k.a. Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter — which area power-trippers have for years exploited as a locus of political skullduggery that locals say rewards cronyism and punishes dissent.
As we’ve seen in a nearby jurisdiction, when a “shelter” is foremost a political football, animals and the New Yorkers who care about them suffer as collateral damage. In the case of TOHAS, though, advocates are fighting back for the animals in court — and not for the first time.
