NYC ACC Board Chair Patrick Nolan: 12 Years, 40,000 Dead
Imperious, snide, and indifferent to animal and human suffering, Nolan is more DOH troll than ACC leading light.
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.
Note: The Scoop New York will return to our regular publishing schedule after Labor Day. In the meantime, keep up with day-to-day New York no-kill movement happenings by following TSNY and NYC ACC KILLS on social media. наслаждайтесь работой, товарищи. — BA
Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
It’s August 26, 2025. This is The Weekly Poop, Everything Ends Edition.
Last week, Sisyphus got some love.
On Wednesday, August 20, the non-profit contractor currently known as Animal Care Centers of New York City announced it was again accepting public intakes, after 33 days of slamming the door in New Yorkers’ faces — a dirt-common scenario in spite of its $1.4B deal with the city as an open admission “shelter.” And there was more.
Weeks after Mayor Eric Adams stopped by to drop a Dave & Buster’s token in the donation pail, ACC overseers at the city health department revised adoption hours to something closer to what they were before the pandemic. Though instead of easy peasy “10 to 6 seven days a week,” as it used to be, New Yorkers still need to check the fine print for when and where and how long they may be permitted to engage the city’s animal control apparatus, depending on what they need from it.
Big news, all things considered, but still not the lede.
Last week, AFAIK for the first time ever, DOH had ACC inform New Yorkers the system had reopened to intakes:
Now, one can easily imagine how appointment-only surrenders might allow for all grades of DOH/ACC chicanery: “Sure, you could bring us the beloved pet you can no longer care for [likely as not thanks at least in part to 30 years of DOH/ACC failing to establish, or even advocate, a viable social safety net for New Yorkers with pets], but did you know there are 200 acres of natural forestland right here in Manhattan?” Sound far-fetched? How about now?
Another question is whether DOH and ACC intend to make appointment-only intakes the new norm. Since City Hall and the City Council have never done ACC oversight, there is no need to formalize a revised intake protocol. No unpleasant public hearings to convene or nettlesome council votes to hold. Instead, all DOH need do is have ACC screw over New Yorkers long enough that they by and large forget they’re getting screwed, a tactic applied by DOH to great effect when normalizing, post-COVID, abbreviated adoption hours and the extant 50-percent intake reduction.
Here I will note that the first DOH/ACC reopening announcement possibly ever was preceded by the first sustained campaign by a news outlet to make those announcements happen. But Sisyphus isn’t at TSNY HQ. For the purposes of this trite yet sadly apt metaphor, our hero would be the members of the Shelter Reform Action Committee.
SRAC has been watchdogging DOH and ACC on the public’s behalf for about as long as there has been an ACC. They had been at it nearly 20 years by the time Patrick Nolan was elected ACC board chair in 2013.
Nolan, 57, is an executive at Penguin Books, where according to his company bio he has worked since 2000. It’s impossible to know just what motivates him to stay on after 12 years as ACC board chair. Based on his record, though, two potential incentives — public service and love of companion animals — may reasonably be excised from the list.
Let’s take love of animals first.
According to system data, from 2015 through 2024 DOH/ACC put to death 34,287 cats and dogs. Add 6,846 killed by ACC in 2014, subtract 1 percent to account for legitimate euthanizations to relieve irremediable pain, and we see that during an 11-year stretch of his chairmanship Patrick Nolan proudly presided over the extermination of more than 40,000 healthy and adoptable cats and dogs. Whatever that’s about, it isn’t love for cats and dogs.
Now about that public service ...
The ACC board has so far convened two meetings in 2025 — meetings that, despite when (2025) and where (biggest city in the wealthiest country in history) they took place, were not live-streamed. There is no good explanation for this, and not much of a bad one.
Asked last year about DOH/ACC’s failure to stream board meetings, ACC spox Katy Hansen told me, “We prefer to hold the meeting in person.” Which didn’t answer the question and also made me wonder if the ACC communications director comprehends “online” as a concept.
DOH as a rule doesn’t post ACC board meeting videos until weeks or months after the fact. When a video is finally uploaded, it is buried on the DOH YouTube page, which appears to have no ACC playlist.
Those who uncover an ACC board video, deliberately or accidentally, will likely find no accompanying description other than the month and year of the meeting. There is no attendant board agenda, minutes, or presentation deck. Nor are there links to any of it. There is a transcript, but only because YouTube provides it.
New Yorkers determined to hold DOH/ACC accountable for doing their jobs once in a while are forced to deal with that obfuscatory bullshit and then some. Board meeting dates are random and subject to change at any time. Locations vary as well, though DOH/ACC can be counted on to make access as inconvenient as they can get by with.
The most recent ACC board meeting was held in July. As of this writing the most recent board meeting video to be posted online was from February, when New Yorkers were stuffed into an ACC Queens meeting room like dogs in an ACC hallway.
At the top of the February meeting, Nolan explained that, since DOH sited the $75M Queens facility in a transit desert (my descriptor), traveling by bike, as he does, is the easiest way to reach the newest DOH kill pound. Nolan went on to “sorry not sorry” the pound’s standing-room-only accommodations.
“We really wanted to meet here in person today,” said Nolan. [Again with “in person”? — Ed.] “We’ll see how it goes. I think it can work, but it’s a little tight. So hopefully everyone’s comfortable.” [Definite “What is it that we can do? I don’t know!” vibes here, innit? — Ed.]
Nolan noted that the layout of the room positioned board members with their backs to the crowd, then absolved himself for it. “It is a board meeting,” he concluded, “and that’s the most important thing.”
During an 11-year stretch of his chairmanship Patrick Nolan proudly presided over the extermination of more than 40,000 healthy and adoptable cats and dogs. Whatever that’s about, it isn’t love for cats and dogs.
If New Yorkers who’d trekked to the February ACC board meeting weren’t convinced that their presence was somewhere between afterthought and annoyance, Nolan reiterated during the Q&A.
Given her few seconds at the mic, Esther Koslow, Shelter Reform Action Committee president, asked Corinne Schiff, city health department deputy commissioner and designated ACC hearing seat-filler, why it is that DOH should be in charge of ACC at all. (Spoiler: DOH should not be in charge of ACC. At all.) Koslow also asked Chief Extermination Officer Risa Weinstock why there was a spay-neuter “logjam” for cats and dogs at ACC and what she was doing to resolve it, as it was making it more difficult for overworked rescues to take up Weinstock’s/Nolan’s/Schiff’s slack (my descriptor).
Good Cop Schiff’s airway was barely relieved of the resulting happy talk sputum before Bad Cop Nolan opened his face hole.
To one of the countless New Yorkers who devotes their existence on this plane to cleaning up after DOH and ACC, Patrick Nolan had this to say:
I've known you for a long time, and you do like to sort of vilify the department of health and at times even the board members. You accuse us somehow of allowing the DOH to sort of boss us around. And the partnership that we have is really vital and important. And when I look out into the world, I don’t see how we can have any of this without their help. And I think all of us, including the great partners we have at DOH, would like more. More funding. More everything. It’s a thing we press for, in a very difficult fiscal environment, here in the city. And it’s across the country — it’s not just here in New York City, these environments. So, I do think you make, often — and I do this out of respect — but I do think you often overstate that there’s this built-in conflict, or lack of attention, or care. And I think that it's evident in our presentations, but really what's evident is just in the way that we're able to work so well with that agency. So I'm deeply grateful to have Corinne representing DOH on our board and everything she brings to this organization, without any qualification.
So, to summarize: Say what you want about NYC ACC board chair Patrick Nolan. He can take the slings and arrows. But stop slandering poor, defenseless Corinne Schiff and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Good night, and G-d bless.
I have attempted to contact Nolan several times since launching TSNY in early 2024. For some reason he seems uninterested in talking. To prep for this column, I emailed duplicate queries to potential Nolan addresses that I either tracked down or received from sources. This time I also CCd the press shops at ACC and DOH, to ensure that, if Nolan didn’t get my questions, it would be because DOH/ACC didn’t want him to see them.
Keep in mind: This is what it takes for a reporter doing actual journalism to merely get in touch with the board chair of an org funded with $1B+ from New York City taxpayers. That’s how much Nolan appreciates New Yorkers who dare demand accountability from him and his DOH handlers.
Seeing how Nolan and company abuse grown-ass New York taxpayers in public, what are they doing to defenseless animals when no one can see?
Above are 20 still-unanswered questions for Patrick Nolan. While we abate respiration in lieu of his response, it seems only right to give the last word to SRAC, which sent TSNY a statement:
Thirty years ago the ACC was created out of whole cloth by then New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his Department of Health. From day one, both the City and the ACC described the animal shelter system as an "independent" charity.
Nothing could be further from the truth. ACC remains an extension, or more accurately, an ignored stepchild of the DOH.
In response to relentless shaming by Shelter Reform Action Committee, the DOH has allowed cosmetic changes to the ACC board of directors. While continuing to reserve three seats for government officials, the DOH has allowed the addition of more "independent" directors to the board. Nevertheless, any "independent" board member who challenges the DOH will be summarily removed.
That Damocles sword also hangs over every ACC executive. As long as ACC cannot go toe to toe with the City when negotiating for funding, services and buildings, it will remain subject to the whims of City Hall.
But in the end it's New York City's homeless animals who will pay the price for the DOH's indifference.
[Not to overstate it. — Ed.]
Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:
The Eric Adams administration is so outlandishly, hilariously, creatively corrupt no network or streamer would buy the pitch. Eh, maybe Netflix.
In other countdown-to-buh-bye-Mayor-Adams news: “Monthly evictions in New York City reach highest rate since 2018.”
Related: Stopped clocks, etc.
“Peanut’s Law” offers a workable response to the NYS DEC Peanut backlash, so Gothamist didn’t mention it in their NYS DEC Peanut backlash story.
New York electeds and wannabe electeds: still cowards.
Whatever’s happening with the Long Island rescue food supply situation, the grown-ups need to get it handled.
Newsday ran a feature on Long Island rescues that take in dogs from parts of the country that treat homeless companion animals even worse than New York does.
Kent Animal Shelter in Calverton is open for business after a decades-long renovation project.
Lewis County Humane Society in Glenfield is pausing intakes as it readies its facility to meet new state requirements that take effect in December.
Elmira lost Albany’s homeless cat and dog hunger games. Better luck next time, puppies and kittens who manage to live another fiscal year!
And finally: Godspeed, Phil and friends.
Food recalls
The FDA has posted one recent pet food recall:
Viva Raw Ground Beef for Dogs and Ground Chicken for Dogs and Cats (salmonella, listeria)
Check the FDA recalls page for details.
Thank you for speaking Truth to Power... Now how the hell do we get rid of Patrick Nolan‼ What recourse do we have here as the Public? WE have to demand major reform as a democracy that elects people to represent the Public, not the the vile determinations of Risa Weinstock and Patrick Nolan...they must be accountable or forced OUT the Door...never to be near a defenseless dog or cat again.