Pizza Roll, 1, Exterminated at ACC's Brand New Queens "Shelter"
Hours after opening, ACC Queens began filling trash bags.
Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
It’s August 9, 2024. This is The Weekly Poop.
This week, we learned that Pizza Roll was already dead.
Hours after NYC ACC opened its new location in Ridgewood, Queens, the killings began. In fact, by the time I published last Friday’s column on the grand opening — “[H]ow long before the shine wears off and the Queens location becomes another ACC death house?” — Pizza Roll, a year-old puppy found on the street, was in a trash bag bound for Long Island.
Here’s what a volunteer said of Pizza Roll before he was put to death:
“Once we have him out in the yard, he is all about playtime and fun; he does not want to miss a beat. He shows us his best manners for a sit, tongue lolling out the side of his face as if it has a mind of its own.”
In other words, Pizza Roll was adoptable; ACC killed him anyway.
“For their first execution at the new Queens pound, they selected the most innocent and lovable of all the puppies on the kill list,” said NYC no kill advocate Andrew Weprin, “just to let us know nothing has changed!”
ACC has declared a number of “capacity” crises post-COVID, though the system’s own data show intakes fell nearly 40 percent from 2019 to 2020, and declined by more than half from 2014 to 2023.
While ACC is taking in fewer animals, it is killing a higher percentage of them. Despite the fanfare over the long-awaited Queens pound, its 182 additional cat and dog beds isn’t going to change that.
“‘Pizza Roll’ was the first in what promises to be an unending and heartbreaking parade of adoptable dogs and cats dragged off to the kill room in the Queens shelter,” said longtime ACC watcher Zelda Penzel, via email. “New shelter, same stale leadership and visionless future for so many of those animals unfortunate enough to wind up in the clutches of the failed NYC ACC taxpayer-supported animal shelter system. We can and must do better!”
The Scoop New York has asked ACC for the names of personnel involved in the killing of Pizza Roll. We will update this post if we hear back.
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Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:
Two dogs killed a 3-month-old boy in Rochester.
Hempstead will host a free rabies vaccination clinic later this month after a homeless cat there tested positive.
Gothamist has a thorough and thoroughly creepy story on booming tick populations in NYC and NYS.
Nyla and her person were separated at the scene of a NYC car crash. They were reunited when Nyla turned up in New Jersey.
This year’s Broadway Barks was rained out.
A bill to add wildlife crossings to New York roadways passed the state legislature and now awaits Governor Hochul’s signature.
Police found and charged the person who left Mastiff Roxi tied to a pole next to a Long Island highway.
The Susquehanna SPCA is marking three years in its upgraded facility.
Pity the poor snake who ended up at NYC ACC.
New York adoptables
Through this weekend, North Shore Animal League is waiving adoption fees for cats and dogs four months and older.
Photos and descriptions of cats and dogs currently available at North Shore and other Long Island orgs are here.
And in Akron, just north of Buffalo, senior dog sanctuary White Whiskers is holding an open house tomorrow and Sunday.
Food recalls
The FDA issued no new pet food recalls this week. Check here for info on earlier recalls.