Does Mamdani Care That NYC DOH ACC Impoverishes NYers?
For his DOH commish reveal, Mayor Zohran Mamdani chose erasure for New Yorkers who do ACC's job at personal expense.
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.
Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
It’s February 7, 2026. This is The Weekly Poop.
As this column went to press last weekend, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani finally announced his choice to lead his health department.
Though loath to acknowledge its poor relation, in addition to duties that are more than glancingly related to public health, DOH is responsible for the dirty business going down 24/7/365 at the mayor’s kill pound, farmed out for three decades — and counting — to the contractor currently known as Animal Care Centers of New York City [sic].
As feared by Eric Adams-era DOH higher-ups, Mamdani chose against promoting temp health commissioner Michelle Morse in favor of Alister Martin, an “unexpected pick” from, of all places, the fackin’ Bay State.
Martin of course brings a hefty CV: ER MD at Massachusetts General; assistant professor at Harvard (Mass General is a Harvard teaching hospital); and CEO of A Healthier Democracy, a non-profit based at Northeastern University described by City Hall as a “healthcare organizing incubator.” Martin also served as an advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“As Commissioner of DOHMH,” reads Mamdani’s press release announcing Martin and other cabinet picks, “Dr. Martin will help oversee the city's public health apparatus; monitor and manage disease outbreaks; and advance the Mamdani Administration's vision for a city where every New Yorker can find affordable, accessible, world-class healthcare.”
Best believe that, like his new boss, Dr. Martin takes the “A” train — or, more accurately, like his new boss, claims to.
From The City:
In his remarks at Saturday’s news conference, Martin said he no longer wanted to see health care become such a financial burden to patients.
“We are going to make sure that when a family walks into a health center, they can walk out not just healthier, but more financially stable,” he said. “We’re going to prove that public health is not just about disease. It’s about dignity, about stability, about making sure that no one gets left behind.”
Martin’s appointment may have been a surprise to the press corps and other City Hall knowers, but the reveal and attendant coverage were as predictable as DOH/ACC kill quota extermination rates, bogus and IRL.
About those New Yorkers who have carried ACC on their backs for as long as there has been an ACC — New Yorkers who sacrifice their own time and their own money, to the point that, for some, the possibility of losing their own homes is very real — the “affordability” mayor and his new DOH chief said nothing. Just as every news outlet that covered Mamdani’s multi-agency announcement — that’d be all of them, give or take — said nothing.
Pop quiz: When is a rogue de facto New York City government agency with a 30+ year, $1B+ no-bid contract, rammed through in darkness by the mayor in collusion with the City Council, not a story?
About those New Yorkers who sacrifice their own time and their own money, to the point that, for some, the possibility of losing their own homes is very real, the “affordability” mayor and his new DOH chief said nothing.
¡Claro!: A lawless city agency whose incompetence and corruption is rivaled only by its contempt for the public isn’t a story when endangered cats and dogs, and the New Yorkers who pay through the nose trying to keep them alive, are that lawless agency’s victims.
Reporters and editors ignore ACC and its decades of malfeasance because they don’t consider state-sponsored torture or kill quotas to be newsworthy, they believe the subject matter beneath them, or both — the occasional tragedy porn piece, always good for clicks, excepted.
During Dr. Martin’s first week on the job, he and Mayor Mamdani stood by as DOH and ACC continued to terrorize New Yorkers they promised to help.
From New Yorkers who could only watch in horror as DOH and ACC slaughtered another family pet, though she had a new home waiting …
… to New Yorkers whose pets were (1) evicted from NYCHA housing and (2) exterminated, rather than rehomed, by DOH and ACC.
The Scoop New York queried Martin and, for the third time, Mamdani concerning DOH, ACC, and the burden the agencies place upon everyday New Yorkers, every day. There was no reply.
Imagine that. Same as it ever was.
Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:
You can love companion animals or you can love watching their adoptive families terrorized by the government, but not both.
New York Democrats are convention-ing this weekend in Syracuse, where they will try to present a united front led by incumbent Governor Kathy “Show Me the Money!” Hochul, who has an Antonio Delgado problem she’d just as soon not call attention to.
Related: Ahead of the convention and well before the June primary, Zohran Mamdani endorsed Hochul, who you may recall weathervaned for three months last year before indicating support for her party’s nominee to lead the country’s largest city.
Related: A short distance and worlds away from the convention site, a full-blown crisis has erupted at Central New York SPCA, where the entire board resigned after shelter staff and advocates complained about poor leadership. (TSNY will have full coverage of the CNY SPCA shake-up in the coming weeks.)
The indefatigable Shelter Reform Action Committee posted its report on last month’s NYC ACC board meeting: “[T]here's no surer way to be kicked off the Board than to challenge the DOH.”
As the city braces for another bout of lethally cold weather, NYC has five boroughs and three city homeless shelters that allow pets.
State officials reported five cases of bird flu, which can sicken and kill pets, in Suffolk County.
Three years later, Rochester Mayor Malik Evans still can’t find a competent veterinarian willing to work for his janky-ass kill pound.
A Cheektowaga rescue is shutting its mall storefront because it can no longer afford to keep it. Thanks, Kathy!
As part of a wrist-tap arrangement with the defendant, Westchester County DA Susan Cacace is set to drop all charges against a Bedford rescue operator accused of multiple instances of animal cruelty.
This is terrible. Ditto this.
A dangerously ignorant “journalist” (“Should pit bulls even be allowed to be pets?”) interviewed a NY “dog bite attorney” who should know better (“There are certain breeds of dogs with different levels of aggression.”) for what scans as sponsored content but was not labeled as such.
Finally: Dunno which NYC ACC this reporter visited for this feel-good story, but she should try stopping by when shit gets real.
Food recalls
FDA announced no pet food recalls this week.
Check here for more info on FDA-announced recalls, and here for details on prior FDA advisories and outbreaks.