Animal Cruelty Is on the Ballot in Buffalo and Rochester
"Shelter" reform is a hot topic in two of NY's biggest cities, even if candidates would rather it not be.
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.
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Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
It’s June 14, 2025. This is The Weekly Poop, Early Voting Edition.
As of today, residents of Buffalo and Rochester, the state’s second- and fourth-largest cities, respectively, will begin selecting their next mayor. In each city, years of neglecting the local homeless cat and dog populations, citizen protestations be damned, have culminated in municipal elections where “shelter” reform is very much an issue, whether or not the candidates acknowledge it as such.
Last fall, Buffalonians were enraged by a local TV news exposé on the City of Buffalo Animal Shelter, a story so affecting the reporter felt it necessary to warn viewers of “graphic and unsettling” images.
That the “shelter” had only weeks prior passed a single-page, true/false “inspection” by the state agriculture department was not the winning rebuttal then-mayor Byron Brown’s administration likely imagined it would be — and Brown likely could not have cared less.
Having served as mayor since 2006, no one was more responsible for conditions at the City of Buffalo Animal Shelter than Byron Brown. But he had one foot out the door last fall, when he vacated his position mid-term for a state job that also involves animal abuse and pays a lot more for it.
Brown was succeeded by Common Council President Chris Scanlon, who had served on the council since 2012 and is now competing for a full term as mayor. Scanlon’s top challenger in the Democratic primary is state senator and erstwhile Assembly member Sean Ryan. Also on the ballot are Anthony Tyson-Thompson, Garnell Whitfield, and Rasheed N.C. Wyatt. The winner of the primary will run against Republican James Gardner in November.
Though Scanlon and Ryan have been in office more than a decade apiece, it seems the tribulations faced by Buffalo’s homeless companion animals became a concern for them mainly after Buffalonians’ living rooms were illuminated by news video of dogs living in shit. Now each of the leading candidates in the mayor’s race is trying to outdo the other in promising to make things right for cats and dogs in the city’s care. Voters will over the next 10 days weigh in on who they think is most likely to make that happen.
None of the Democrats running for mayor of Buffalo responded to a TSNY query concerning their plans for the city animal shelter.
A few miles east, Rochester incumbent mayor Malik Evans has been busy ignoring companion animal advocates for much of his first term. That stands to reason. If I was the person most responsible for what goes down at Rochester Animal Services, I wouldn’t want to be reminded of it either.
RAS is understaffed, meaning personnel are burned out and animals don’t get the attention they need to remain sane — much less happy, or even comfortable — in a hostile foreign environment. The agency has not had a full-time veterinarian on staff for over a year, meaning animals are imperiled by substandard health care.
Advocates say animals are offered for adoption from RAS intact, meaning Rochester is willfully contributing to its own spay-neuter crisis.
Staffers and volunteers who raise concerns about RAS are reportedly shown the door. When a new director — the first in 25 years — was hired by the Evans administration, one of her first official acts was to declare that festering RAS problems are actually just misunderstandings. Like all those times Mr. Roper took Jack and Chrissy out of context, but with desperate yelping and moaning in place of canned laughter.
A brand new RAS director immediately deflating any hope of long-awaited reforms is consistent with Evans’ policy of talking at advocates, rather than to or with them. And it aligns with the mayor’s insistence that nothing amiss at RAS can’t be fixed with a dab of fresh paint and a ton of happy talk.
There are no Republican candidates for mayor of Rochester this cycle. The Scoop New York queried the campaigns of Malik Evans and his Democratic challengers Mary Lupien and Shashi Sinha concerning their plans for Rochester Animal Services. None responded.
New Yorkers go to the polls on June 24.
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Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:
Today: Help Rochester’s homeless companion animals at the Fast and the Furriest festival at Brown Square Park. Details here and here.
For the first time since the disgraced former governor entered the race, a poll showed someone other than Andrew Cuomo winning the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City.
Related: During a debate, Cuomo tried to ding fellow aspirant Brad Lander, who is currently NYC comptroller, for a lawsuit filed against the city by pet store owners over a prohibition on selling intact male dogs.
Manhattan City Council Member Keith Powers is drafting legislation that would legalize bodega cats.
Joseph Columbus, whose “pit bulls” attacked chihuahua Penny on the UWS in May, was ordered by a judge to surrender his dogs to NYPD.
A man was jailed in Montgomery County after he allegedly shot and killed a 5-year-old dog he was supposedly watching for an acquaintance.
A woman apparently remains at large after she was repeatedly caught on camera stealing from the Compassionate Animal Rescue Efforts thrift store in Dutchess County.
Attacks on Long Island mail carriers accounted for more than a fourth of all dog bites reported in New York last year.
Humane Society of Wayne County, in suburban Rochester, has broken ground on a new facility, with funding for the project split between the county and Western New York philanthropist Tom Golisano.
And finally, “[W]hy are our elected officials ignoring the 71% of voters who … oppose the horse-drawn carriage trade?”
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Food recalls
The FDA announced no new pet food recalls this week.
Check here for info on earlier recalls.