Lynn Schulman and the NYC Council Have Solved the 30-Year ACC Crisis
Or they just altered the descriptor for their rescheduled ACC hearing to omit the word "crisis." One of the two.
Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
It’s August 16, 2024. This is The Weekly Poop.
This week, The Scoop New York learned that the New York City Council has, for the third time this year, scheduled an NYC ACC oversight hearing.
The hearing was scheduled, then rescheduled, last spring. It was later canceled, days after TSNY published an all-hands alert.
But it wasn’t the publicity, according to the office of Queens council rep Lynn Schulman.
Schulman chairs the council health committee, which is responsible for the city health department, which ostensibly (read: barely) governs ACC. Schulman’s office told TSNY council members didn’t want to be distracted by the city budget, and preferred a hearing later in the year, when they would “be able to dedicate the full time and attention NYC ACC deserve.”
The original hearing was headed “Animal Care Centers and the Shelter Capacity Crisis.” The hearing that as of today is scheduled for September 13 is titled “Oversight — The State of Animal Rescue in New York City.”
Though “crisis” was excised from the descriptor, best believe the state of NYC ACC remains (pardon the metaphor mixing) a four-alarm shit show.
In the first quarter of 2024, ACC’s average combined live release rate (the percentage of animals who make it out alive) for cats and dogs was a dismal 78 percent — same as the rate for all of 2023, though ACC is to this point taking in fewer cats and dogs, in an average month, than last year.
ACC killed 646 cats and dogs in the first three months of this year, a pace that extrapolated would just about equal total extermination figures for 2021, before those numbers rose in 2022 and 2023.
As they tremble with fear before being hauled off to slaughter, animals at ACC endure horrific conditions — including at the brand new Queens facility, a pit of suffering and death practically before the paint dried.
In delaying the hearing without consulting advocates, Schulman ensured that ACC watchers would be unable to submit testimony before the mayor and council hammered out the new budget. Lo and behold, ACC continues to plead poverty in spite of its five-year-old $1B+ contract with the city.
But you know what? We’ll give Schulman and the council the benefit of the doubt. Come September, how exciting it will be for the first time in ACC’s 30-year existence to see the City Council get moving on serious reforms (with advocate input!) to ensure that New Yorkers finally get what they have long been paying for: a functional shelter system that actually cares for 100 percent of the city’s homeless animals.
After all, anything less would make Council Member Schulman a liar.
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Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:
Public radio did a deep dive on the animal control mess in Rochester and Monroe County.
Related: A Rochester rescue is raising money to replace a van that was destroyed by a falling tree.
Adequate park space for people with dogs: another New York City failure.
An established Brooklyn rescue has closed to intakes due to vet bill debt.
Good news: A Buffalo-area senior dog sanctuary is set to open soon.
NYC state Assembly rep Tony Simone wants Albany to approve tougher penalties for reckless drivers who hit pets.
A woman who hoarded cats and dogs in Queens was charged with 88 counts of cruelty and other alleged offenses.
A dog died after she was left tied to the front door of the Herkimer County Humane Society overnight.
A Margaretville man pled guilty to aggravated cruelty for killing a dog with a knife in what the defendant claimed was an act of mercy.
The USDA and Erie County are dropping edible rabies vaccine packets over Buffalo and other areas of western New York.
Department of Who Knew: Unattended nets left in yards pose a danger to pets and wildlife.
Good news: Luca, the border collie pup severely injured by a Manhattan abuser, has recovered, survived his time at ASPCA, and was adopted. Also, his name is now Niko.
Declaring cities/counties/states/the country perpetually on the edge of no kill but never quite achieving it — while perverting the term itself? It’s how “Best Friends” stays in business.
New York adoptables
NYC ACC is holding mobile adoption fairs this weekend in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
News 12 has video of cats currently available from Nassau County SPCA.
Photos and descriptions of cats and dogs available at North Shore and other Long Island orgs are here.
Cats, dogs, chickens and cockatiels are waiting at Erie County SPCA.
Food recalls
The FDA issued no new pet food recalls this week. Check here for info on earlier recalls.