Rochester Has Spoken. Is Mayor Malik Evans Listening?
Locals turned out this week to demand changes at Rochester Animal Services after years of neglect.
Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
It’s October 25, 2024. This is The Weekly Poop.
This week, the people of Rochester spoke.
On Tuesday, weeks after a whistleblower video revealed dogs living in their own waste at Rochester Animal Services, locals staged a rally outside City Hall to demand improvements for animals at the city-operated kill pound.
The people turned out. As did the press.
“The person who released the video was brave enough to do it to show the point is, it was nothing against the people who worked there, but to show that, like, that day was a Monday, they had at least 60 dogs in different kennels, two people cleaning,” Voiceless of Verona Street co-founder Maggie Cain told WROC TV. “I mean, that’s an impossible job.”
For years, advocates in Rochester have lobbied the city to invest in staffing and upkeep at RAS, to make the best of what is a traumatic experience for the cats, dogs and other anxious companion animals in the facility’s care.
In response to the public, the city paid for multiple audits by independent consultants — in 2013, 2017 and 2023 — all of whom found untenable conditions for animals at RAS. In response to the consultants, the city did little to nothing. As a result, the cycle has repeated itself every few years.
This is what’s known as a political football. The game is to not be caught with the ball when the shit finally hits the fan, as it always, always does. As sure as writers mix metaphors.
Unfortunately for Mayor Malik Evans, the fan hitting occurred toward the end of his first term, to which he was elected with the help of some of the same advocates he has since tried to ignore. That’s the thing with elections, though. For professional pols, there’s always another one around the corner.
It is established that the governor of New York does not care about cats and dogs and other companion animals suffering on her watch. Nor does her agriculture commissioner. Ditto the state legislature.
Malik Evans has demonstrated he doesn’t much care either. But his constituents do. Probably more people and more care than he counted on. Rochester is about to see how seriously Mayor Evans takes his office, and the people who put him there.
Evans’ office did not respond to a request for comment on this week’s City Hall protest. Multiple prior TSNY messages to Evans concerning Rochester Animal Services also went unreturned.
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Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:
Lollypop Farm, a private, well-funded animal control facility in Rochester, needs fosters for cats and kittens.
Buffalo officials are still talking about bringing city animal control into the current century, so that’s good.
Manhattan City Council Member Shaun Abreu is more thoughtful about pets and public health than the city’s backwater health department.
Related: Go ahead, try to find word one about companion animals in the latest departed health commissioner’s exit interview.
"Most [NYPD] officers are not even sure of the proper steps that need to be taken in animal cruelty cases." And NYPD fecklessness, plus the department’s customary dash of bad faith, leads to nightmare scenarios like this one.
The “Bed-Stuy Aquarium” (trigger warning: unfathomable stupidity) was a noxious child’s stunt that predictably ended with a bunch of dead fish — and the (presumably grown) people behind it have pledged to do it again.
Here are a bunch of obviously loved and extremely patient NYC dogs dressed in costume.
Best Friends is setting up shop in Nassau County. The more you know …
Cortland County SPCA, which was set to shut down completely next year, will instead “reorganize.”
Sky Walker Stables, a horse rescue in Jamestown, is raising funds to accommodate pending arrivals.
Akron senior dog sanctuary White Whiskers is putting on a dog parade and party tomorrow.
Finally, grab the tissue box before you press play on this documentary short from The New Yorker.
New York adoptables
NYC ACC will hold three adoption events in Manhattan and Queens this weekend.
Rochester Animal Services is waiving fees at a Sunday Halloween-themed dog adoption party.
Here are eight dogs who have been at the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter for way too long. (Update: Jeremy was adopted!)
Brookhaven is hosting a Halloween dog parade on Sunday, and is waiving fees from Sunday through October 31.
Find a New York adoptable near you on Petfinder.
Food recalls
The FDA issued no new pet food recalls this week. Check here for info on earlier recalls.