NYC ACC, DOH Disappear Bella and Thor, Abuse NYers for Caring
The dogs were last seen at ACC, which spent the week dodging questions about their whereabouts.
The Scoop New York is a newsletter covering the movement for a true no-kill New York State, 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.
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It’s June 6, 2025. This is The Weekly Poop.
This week, the contractor currently known as Animal Care Centers of New York City, and its minders at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, punished New Yorkers for caring about the treatment and ultimate fate of two dogs the agencies had placed at mortal risk.
In late May, 6-week-old pit mix Bella was accused by NYPD, the press, and electeds of killing an infant, Kiyanna Winfield, in their family’s apartment in Queens. Soon after, however, Bella was cleared by the medical examiner of responsibility for baby Kiyanna’s death, determined to have been caused by sudden infant death syndrome.
Bella’s people — who reportedly intended to have her trained as a service dog for Kiyanna’s older sibling — did not blame her for what happened to their baby, but said Bella was nonetheless “put down.”
The prospect of the city hastily exterminating a tiny puppy for something she didn’t do precipitated a brief burst of accountability-seeking from the media — to some extent, one imagines, because so many outlets that carried the story got it wrong the first time.
“The 6-week-old family dog, a pit bull mix puppy, was taken by the NYPD to an Animal Care Centers of NYC shelter Tuesday evening,” the Daily News reported. “The dog was put on a 10-day rabies observation hold.”
So did ACC and DOH exterminate Bella right away, as Kiyanna’s parents said, or was she instead sequestered, as the city claims?
Bella’s 10-day rabies window should be closed by now. Over the course of this week, ACC and DOH ignored multiple queries, prompted in part by notes from distressed TSNY readers, concerning her whereabouts and condition. When ACC claimed Bella was not dead, we asked for proof of life. Six times we asked for an update on Bella; six times the ACC and DOH press shops pretended not to hear. At this writing, Bella’s status remains unknown.
Though just under two years old, Thor has twice landed at NYC ACC, most recently when he was found abandoned in Upper Manhattan, tied to a pole. Young, healthy and well-mannered, with a history of living with adults, kids, other dogs, and cats, Thor could practically rehome himself. The rescue that saved him from ACC the first time even wants him back.
Why, then, did ACC put Thor on today’s execution calendar?
On Wednesday, The Scoop New York asked the DOH acting commissioner, Dr. Michelle Morse, if ACC had in fact ignored rescuers’ pleas to pull Thor, and if so, why. We asked Morse if she was aware how common it is for ACC to use New Yorkers’ compassion against them, punishing rescues and everyday citizens for trying to save animals from the kill pound system. We asked how shabby treatment of New Yorkers who advocate for companion animals aligns with ACC’s stated mission.
We also asked Morse how ACC's psychological abuse of New Yorkers who care about the city’s homeless animals, and DOH's tacit endorsement of that abuse, squares with DOH's “mental hygiene” remit.
Morse and DOH ignored that query as well.
Given ACC’s general ineptitude at and indifference toward placing animals, and ACC staff members’ ceaseless whining over New Yorkers’ insistence that the agency do the job New Yorkers pay it to do, you’d think CEO Risa Weinstock and company would welcome a rescue’s offer to find Thor a permanent home — particularly considering ACC’s longstanding exploitation of rescues. But for that to happen, helping homeless companion animals would have to be ACC’s raison d'être. Which: Don’t you believe it.
Since its inception 30 years ago, ACC has mainly served as a reputation-laundering operation for city- and state-level politicians. That ACC stinks at that, too, doesn't matter. Access media transcribe as fact whatever scat spokesperson Katy Hansen flings their way. With the public at large duly deceived, electeds are free to wallow in their own crapulence, secure in the knowledge that only a few thousand advocates are on to the grift.
Which is why, at publication time, New Yorkers were desperately trying to save 3-year-old Mongo and 2-year-old Chonkz from the ACC death chamber. Both dogs are currently recovering from alteration surgery, and both are scheduled to be put to death tomorrow — a common ACC practice advocates call “spay-neuter-kill.”
A recent spay-neuter-kill victim was Lavender, who arrived at ACC as a stray in early April. ACC sent Lavender to ASPCA to be spayed after a week, only to exterminate her less than two months later — yesterday. She was 2.
This is cruelty in plain sight. Not just ACC and DOH abuse of four-legged victims, who are subjected to what is effectively medical experimentation, but also the New Yorkers who internalize the animals’ pain and fear, who are forced to watch as their unthinkably terrifying last moments play out on social media. Thousands of times a year. Every year. Ad infinitum.
It’s the Hippocratic Oath, Dr. Morse. Not hypocritic.
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Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:
You can love companion animals or you can love watching their adoptive families torn apart by flea market Pol Pot, but not both.
New Yorkers who struggle to make rent are under attack from Republicans in Washington and whatever Eric Adams is.
NYC DOH had ordered Joseph Columbus to muzzle his poor dogs and walk them separately before they ganged up on chihuahua Penny on the UWS last month. Though city law prescribes civil and criminal penalties for disregarding such an order, NYPD did nothing. Maybe if the dogs were wanted by ICE …
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz is talking tough as she seeks a wrist tap (48 low-level misdemeanors adding up to one possible year in jail) for Isaac Yadgarov, the man whose apartment was allegedly filled with dozens of neglected Belgian Malinois and German shepherd mixes.
Electeds and law enforcement say they’re seeing a major increase in “ritual” animal abuse and torture in metro NYC.
Lollypop Farm in Rochester, which TSNY sources say kills dogs for behavior, got a $5M state grant to help fund an expansion that may or may not improve conditions for the animals.
Related: Rochester Animal Services will hold a 5K/10K/kids’ half-mile race and fundraiser next Saturday, June 14.
A Queens veterinarian started a program to encourage more diversity in the field.
Every day 5-yo Beasty remains at NYC ACC (for nearly five months now) could be his last. If you’re in a position to help, at this writing he is being held at ACC’s Queens death house.
Someone explain to little Julian that Best Friends Animal Society isn’t.
This Week on The Scoop New York
NYC ACC Killed 291 Cats and 390 Dogs in Q1 of 2025
The city kill pound system barely improved upon last year's live release rates — the worst since COVID.
Food recalls
The FDA announced no new pet food recalls this week.
Check here for info on earlier recalls.
Where is Thor? Last night the NYCAAC listed Thor on their outcomes page as reclaimed. But I don’t trust them. Networkers I know don’t seem to have been informed that Thor was reclaimed, which would have been standard. If Thor is euthanized tomorrow, we need to raise holy hell.
Thor was listed as reclaimed until today. Now he’s back, no doubt to be soon killed. They killed 14 last week. And already on the 1st day of this week, they’ve killed two. Quite an escalation.