SARA: Thousands of Lives Hang in the Balance as Legislators Eye Capitol Exits
SARA: Thousands of Lives Hang in the Balance as Legislators Eye Capitol Exits
Electeds don’t so much need the courage to do the right thing as the wherewithal to take credit for it.
There are just a handful of days left in this year’s state legislative session, and what happens in Albany between now and June 6, when lawmakers are scheduled to head home for the summer, is a matter of life and death for thousands of New York companion animals.
The Shelter Animal Rescue Act, which has bipartisan support but is nonetheless stalled in committee, would require animal control facilities in New York to release companion animals to qualified rescues, rather than kill them. SARA would be budget neutral, meaning its implementation wouldn’t cost New York taxpayers anything.
Though it sounds like a victory just waiting for a legislator to come along and claim, SARA needs help. It has no primary sponsor in the Assembly or the Senate, and is being held up in each chamber’s agriculture committee. Those committees are chaired by Binghamton Assembly Member Donna Lupardo and State Senator Michelle Hinchey of Kingston, both Democrats.
Given its innocuous nature – who doesn’t want to save kittens and puppies from the needle? – why has getting SARA adopted proven to be a years-long slog?
Because SARA is opposed by big name non-profits including the ASPCA and the Humane Society of the United States – groups that raise millions off the very companion animals they lobby the government to have killed.
Another obstacle is the New York State Animal Protection Federation, a lobbying group for many of New York’s municipal shelters. The APF bills its members as “no kill” when they in fact openly and routinely kill healthy and adoptable animals, kittens and puppies included. The APF has its own political action committee, allowing it to distribute money to, and bend the ears of, powerful politicians, including Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.
Using data from NYC animal control, we can get some idea of how many lives are at stake. According to its own data, the first three months of 2024 at NYC ACC look a lot like the most recent four years, when the live release rate stagnated as intakes dropped sharply.
Through the first quarter of the year, intakes at ACC are trending downward while the combined live release rate hovers at around 81 percent. Based on average intakes and killings through March, ACC will put to death over 2,500 cats and dogs in 2024. It may be too late to save many of those cats and dogs from NYC animal control, but with SARA in place, the killing of adoptable companion animals should decline dramatically statewide.
Electeds don’t so much need the courage to do the right thing as the wherewithal to take credit for it.
Who wants to be the hero?