"Graphic" Images From Buffalo "Shelter" Just Inspected by New York State
The City of Buffalo Animal Shelter is abusing the animals in its care, with the approval of its overseers at the state agriculture department.
Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
It’s October 11, 2024. This is The Weekly Poop.
This week the ABC affiliate in Buffalo, WKBW, aired an exposé on the City of Buffalo Animal Shelter.
The city says the facility, managed by the public works department, gives “injured, abused, lost, and abandoned animals food, care, shelter, and comfort before finding loving and responsible homes for them.” Wherever that shelter is, it does not resemble the one toured by reporter Ed Drantch.
To the contrary, conditions at Buffalo animal control are so hellish that Drantch warned viewers of “graphic and unsettling” images.
“There really wasn’t much of a bright side” to interviews with advocates and officials, Drantch said, “and one went as far as calling conditions ‘abusive.’”
If what Drantch saw at Buffalo animal control doesn’t rate as abuse, there is no such thing. Shit and piss on floors and beds. A dog turning and turning in his or her kennel, smearing feces on the floor. Sick dogs housed with healthy dogs. The requisite cacophonous noise.
“It’s disgusting,” said Jake Jablonski, who corrals strays from the streets and takes them to Buffalo animal control with the goal of getting them into homes. “All the kennels are filthy at all times of day.”
“It is too overfull,” Jablonski continues. “It's dirty and the volunteers are the only people who really maintain the place.”
In response to the WKBW story, Buffalo public works chief Nate Marton excused himself and his department from responsibility by noting that the “shelter” recently passed an inspection by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, which oversees animal control facilities.
Marton says he walked the facility with the state inspector.
Here is the state’s Buffalo animal control inspection report, in its entirety:
According to the report, Wilmer Olivencia, identified as the Buffalo streets and sanitation director on the city’s web site, was also there.
The state inspection occurred about two weeks before the WKBW visit. The report was written and approved by two inspectors, whose boss is Richard Ball. Ball has held the ag commissioner position since 2014.
The Scoop New York asked Ball’s department for details on its inspections of animal control facilities, but much of what we need to know is on that form, which one could easily complete in the time it takes to get a Frosty and fries at the Wendy’s drive-thru.
The sum of the state of New York’s oversight of the treatment of homeless and abandoned companion animals is 19 yes or no questions.
Conditions at the shelter have the attention of Council Member Mitch Nowakowski, who has a pending (i.e. not yet approved) resolution calling on animal control to “immediately address any or all the shelter's most urgent structural, health and safety deficiencies,” according to WKBW.
"I'm going to take responsibility to make sure something happens here," said Nowakowski, who also said he wants an update from animal control by month’s end.
Political resolutions on the whole tend to be weak sauce. Declaring outrage in the face of public outcry is standard politician behavior, particularly when TV cameras are involved. But a city council member has taken a public position on a longstanding City Hall problem, and that is not nothing.
Byron Brown has been the mayor of Buffalo for 18 years, so while not mentioned in the story save for a camera shot of his name, he definitely deserves some of the disinfecting sunshine spread by the WKBW report.
TSNY will update this story if we hear back from the state agriculture department, and will follow the situation in Buffalo as it develops.
"Your entire job is to care for these animals,” Jablonski told Drantch, “and they're just not being cared for.”
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Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:
Lollypop Farms — a private, well-funded Rochester animal control facility — is embarking (no pun intended; really) upon a massive capital expansion.
Queens City Council Member Joann Ariola marshaled food and supply donations for local rescues.
A Long Island cat rescuer made the trip to Manhattan to save a kitten from the engine bay of a USPS delivery truck. As the tabloids say: SEE IT.
An Uber driver in NYC refused a ride to a customer with a service dog, then threatened to kill that customer when they reported him to Uber.
Oh for a public dog park with private dog park amenities.
A play will be performed in DUMBO tonight and Saturday to raise funds for an animal rescue in Palestine.
Dozens of dogs were seized from a home in Albany after some of the dogs attacked and killed a man in the yard next door.
For fans of the “why where you live sucks” clickbait genre: a study says New York is one of the worst states to have a dog. Thank god for Utah and Alabama!
Cruelty case update
Samuel Stanford of Monticello pled guilty last November to one count of aggravated cruelty to animals for abusing Zola in the spring of 2023.
Zola was exterminated for behavior issues earlier this year, after rescuers tried to give her a good life.
Aggravated cruelty is a class E felony, New York’s least severe felony category, with penalties ranging from four years to no penalty at all.
Officials told TSNY Stanford is being held without bail. He is due in court for sentencing on October 31.
New York adoptables
NYC ACC will hold adoption events in Manhattan and Brooklyn this weekend. Tomorrow’s Manhattan event will be at ACC Manhattan at 328 E. 109th Street. Some dogs will have a $20 adoption fee.
North Shore Animal League is waiving cat and kitten adoption fees through Monday to make room for rescues from areas affected by the recent hurricanes.
Joy and Envy (!), pictured above, are two of the many felines now available in Smithtown. They are litter mates who have always been together, meaning a normal human would not even think to separate them.
And if you’re in NYC, head over to Newark to see Ike, a beautiful boy who has been at the facility for nearly two years.
Food recalls
The FDA issued no new pet food recalls this week. Check here for info on earlier recalls.
Note: Days after this story was published, Byron Brown left his position after 18 years as the mayor of Buffalo for a job in equine abuse. He was succeeded by Buffalo Common Council President Chris Scanlon, who is to serve as acting mayor through 2025.