Mamdani and Menin in Sync on Ignoring NYC DOH ACC Killing Spike
Democratic socialists and centrists agree: Burn baby burn.
The Scoop New York is a non-profit website and newsletter covering the movement for a true no-kill New York, from Buffalo to Brooklyn. NYC ACC KILLS, published by TSNY, enumerates and memorializes adoptable cats and dogs who were exterminated by Animal Care Centers of New York City.
The Scoop New York is the only news outlet to consider newsworthy taxpayer-funded cruelty to homeless companion animals, as well as decades of officials’ deliberate abuse — psychological, financial and physical — of the New Yorkers who care for and about them.
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Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
It’s July 18, 2026. This is The Weekly Poop.
This week, Animal Care Centers of New York City [sic] is in the throes of its annual summer meltdown, when everyday ACC malfeasance breaks containment and forces the agency to reckon with its chronic incompetence in front of G-d and everybody.
ACC meltdowns normally occur due to overcrowding, itself precipitated by decades of poor to non-existent planning on the part of the “shelter” and its overseers at the city health department, which after 31 years still — still — hasn’t (a) sited an animal control facility in each borough; (b) constructed a facility that actually meets staffing or capacity needs, or; (c) instituted a program to manage the homeless cat population of the richest city in the richest country in human history.
Meltdowns traditionally take the form of shutting the doors to public intakes, contrary to ACC’s remit as open admission, i.e. no animal turned away. Last year ACC was closed to intakes for a full third of the summer — a bleak spectacle that marked at least the second shutdown of 2025.
While other news outlets parachuted in to make things worse by credulously regurgitating ACC lies and propaganda, same as always, The Scoop New York covered last summer’s shutdown shit show from start to finish. Far as we know it hasn’t happened since.
Also new: uniform state shelter standards, enforced — on paper, at least — by inspectors who have the authority to pull licenses.
Whatever the reason, this year the Greatest Kill Pound in the World is taking a different tack.
An ACC public appeal in a time of crisis is not new. Considered in isolation, there’s nothing wrong with it. You might even call it prudent. In isolation.
IYK, however, YK.
“At an open-intake, no-kill shelter that would be a heartfelt appeal,” one longtime ACC watcher and advocate told TSNY. “At NYC’s high-kill pound, it is a deadly threat.”
And how.
As it became evident earlier this month that [yet] a[nother] disaster was at hand, ACC set a deadline for dozens of animals, housed in now-illegal pop-up crates, to clear the system. They didn’t say those left behind would be exterminated and dumped like garbage, of course. They didn’t have to.
As mentioned in its Thursday press release, ACC is discounting adoption fees. In addition, rescues were offered $1,000 stipends to handle even more ACC overflow than they already take on.
Regardless, ACC designated liar Katy Hansen said yesterday there were more than 60 dogs still in pop-ups, “lining the hallways and in offices.”
Hansen didn’t mention the shower.
Baxter made it out alive, at least for now. Eleven other dogs this week — that we know of — weren’t as lucky. At least one of those 11, Mr. Rocky, went from crate to kill command and received no last-minute reprieve. Instead Katy Hansen and her oh-so compassionate colleagues poisoned him to death.
Guess Mr. Rocky didn’t land in a “lifesaving space.” Wherever those are.
As reported on NYC ACC KILLS yesterday, as of April exterminations at ACC remained higher than the number of killings through the first third of 2025 — 8 percent above last year, when the city pound snuffed out an average of one cat or dog every three hours.
Even as his kill pound flops and flails for all to see, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has yet to publicly acknowledge his responsibility to the city’s homeless companion animals. He doesn’t have to, since on this issue the mayor and City Council Speaker Julie Menin are in sync. Centrists and socialists hand in hand ‘round the ash heap. The One Thing They Agree On.
The Scoop New York queried the offices of Zohran Mamdani and Julie Menin regarding the NYC DOH ACC 2026 Summer Meltdown.
All together now: There were no replies.
OFFICIALS RESPONSIBLE FOR NYC ACC OVERSIGHT
NYS Ag Commissioner Richard Ball: 518-457-2771; Email
Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Contact form
City Council Speaker Julie Menin: 212-788-7210; Email
Council health chair Lynn Schulman: 212-788-6981; Email
Comptroller Mark Levine: 212-669-3916; Contact forms
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams: 212-669-7250; Email
City Council members: Lookup
Borough presidents: BX; BK; MN; SI; QS
NYC DOH Commissioner Alister Martin: 311; Contact form
NYC DOH ACC minder Corinne Schiff: 646-632-6496; Email
CHIEF NYC ACC VETERINARIAN
Robin Brennen, DVM: Email 1, 2
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.
Speaker Menin is on board with ending the horse carriage trade, which makes council passage of “Romanch’s Law” all but certain. A potential snag, though, is Mayor Mamdani’s prioritization of a union endorsement above public (and equine) safety.
Related: City & State has a timeline of NYC’s two-century “war on horses.”
Related: The Saratoga Springs Public Library was bullied by
dogfightingcockfightinghorse-racing creeps into canceling a talk by a prominent industry critic, because “no free society can have strong points of view presented in a library, of all places.”The City Reporter has advice on dealing with our new wildfire-smoke-clouded reality, including tips for keeping pets safe.
Leonidas the police dog died in a hot patrol car because dogs are not allowed inside the Schenectady County Sheriff’s Office.
Rochester is essentially eliminating adoption fees for dogs through July 26 as Rochester Animal Services undergoes renovation work.
Rescue Big Apple Cats saved Thai from her Upper Manhattan home [SEE IT] after both her humans died within days of one another and NYPD just … left her there. The rescue says Thai’s two dog siblings were “taken by animal control” and “found a foster home and potential adopters very quickly,” which sounds highly uncharacteristic of the NYC animal control operation we know.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is making more New Yorkers ill.
Finally: “If you hear meowing near a car or suspect an animal may be hiding in an engine compartment, avoid starting the vehicle right away.” Just please never ask me how I know.
From NYC ACC KILLS
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.