How NYC Council Member Lynn Schulman's Canceled ACC Hearing Will Endanger Homeless Cats and Dogs for the Next Year
How NYC Council Member Lynn Schulman's Canceled ACC Hearing Will Endanger Homeless Cats and Dogs for the Next Year
By calling off the hearing, Schulman ensured council members would not hear from ACC watchers before the city budget is adopted.
Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
It’s Friday, June 7, 2024. This is The Weekly Poop.
This week, the expression “shit the bed” is on the brain thanks to two events: Governor Kathy Hochul blowing up the legislature (if not her political career) in the waning days of the session, and the New York City Council health committee, chaired by Queens rep Lynn Schulman, canceling its scheduled NYC ACC oversight hearing.
Yes, that hearing was the subject of the two most recent Poops, but since last week, new poop has come to light.
To catch up: the council scheduled, then rescheduled, a hearing to address an ACC “capacity crisis.” Schulman’s committee then after canceled it, as if the crisis had either fixed itself or was no longer a council concern.
But no, Schulman’s office said. The committee was merely putting off the meeting until council members could get past the city budget rigamarole (the budget is due this month), leaving them to give ACC their undivided attention.
Now, there are a couple things about that explanation that don’t scan. Number one is that, given the council’s near 30-year history of caring little to nothing about what goes on at ACC, the claim that council members are suddenly eager to (sometime after June 2024) drop everything and roll up their sleeves for homeless cats and dogs does not pass the Pinocchio test.
The second thing is that by canceling the hearing, Schulman has ensured that advocates and everyday New Yorkers will not be able to provide testimony regarding ACC until after the city budget has passed.
“That’s a problem,” says this week’s newsletter from the non-profit Shelter Reform Action Committee. “Now animal advocates won't have an opportunity to stop the DOH from shortchanging the ACC's operational budget.”
Recall that ACC in 2019 signed a fat, long-term contract with the city. Yet five years later, the pound is in constant crisis mode. Something does not add up.
The city health department is supposed to oversee (that word again) ACC, but since the unofficial health department position is that companion animals are diseased vermin to be eradicated, well…
Which leaves it to the City Council to oversee the overseers. If you’re suddenly thinking of foxes and henhouses, you get the picture.
“The health committee has ignored ACC for far too long,” says SRAC.
With electeds and bureaucrats first and foremost covering each other’s poop chutes, it’s hard to interpret that neglect as anything other than willful.
The Scoop New York will (again) cover the council’s ACC hearing, when and if it is re-re-rescheduled.
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Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:
The state legislature had time for Flaco (which, good!) but no time for anonymous cats and dogs determined to have limited political value.
The homeless cat population in Sullivan County is “out of control” due in part to evictions and the short-term rental epidemic.
Here’s a primer on what New York SPCAs do (minus the killing).
A rescue operator says many won’t survive new state standards set to take effect next year.
A woman was arrested in Greene County for allegedly neglecting more than a dozen horses. Two arrests were made in Ontario County for equine abuse, with one case involving deaths.
A Massena man was charged for allegedly killing someone else’s three cats with a hammer.
A quite large and extremely photogenic boa constrictor was removed from an apartment building on the Upper West Side.
Memo to the NY Post: Retirement is when you stop working — not when you are uprooted from a literal sanctuary to police Times Square.
Good news: Lady Cinnamon was rescued from NYC ACC.
Good news: Tabby Max was adopted after his “forever” family ditched him for a puppy (these people should be legally barred from having pets).
And finally, NYC ACC is hiring in Queens. Check your soul at the door.
This week on The Scoop New York
SARA Will Live to See Another Day. Countless Homeless Cats and Dogs Won’t.
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TYSM.
Food recalls
The FDA issued no new pet food recalls this week.