What They're Up Against
Only everyone and everything, pretty much.
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.
The Scoop New York — the website, the newsletter, the non-profit — is my career-long ambition.
I got into journalism in the 1990s as a freelance music writer, mostly for what used to be called “alternative weeklies.” That term doesn’t mean as much today, not only because news travels instantly on paperless devices we carry in our pockets, but because in many cases the weeklies that managed to stay alive as the internet ate their ad revenue are no longer an “alternative” to anything, since the news outlets they historically competed with have gone extinct, or are on life support and will cease to be the minute the capital ghouls suck the bones dry.
Sometime during college, which I completed as a young adult and finished paying for in middle age, I turned to news reporting. My first full-time journalism job was for an established weekly in a southern college town made famous by football and the local music scene, maybe or maybe not in that order, depending on who’s doing the telling.
As a news reporter and editor at an alternative weekly at the turn of the millennium, I was obligated to throw stones at the local Legitimate Newspaper, which upon my arrival was still printing two daily editions (!) for a town of about 100,000 people. Even so, the daily was owned by a corporation in another city, and its button-down access-addled editors were out of touch with much of the town’s populace of students and professors.
I had a popular editorial column, and I pummeled the daily relentlessly. In the process the weekly helped get a bunch of municipal candidates elected — people the daily did not endorse, including a new mayor. But the joke was on me. What I didn’t know yet was that once a person gets elected, they officially become a politician. And once on the inside, party notwithstanding, their top concern is remaining there, regardless of what they promised before getting their hands on the keys. In 20+ years covering politics and politicians, I have encountered but one exception: an elected who unfailingly did exactly what he said he would do, then noped out after one or two terms (I forget which), just as he said he would. And no, though he lived in New York City for a time, that person is unfortunately not in New York. (Hi Carl.)
I had only been at the weekly a short while before the daily I would later pummel offered me a job. I was invited to their palatial downtown offices, with conference rooms and unsoiled carpet and everything, for an interview, where it was made clear a reporter position was mine for the asking.
By the time I left that southern college town for NYC years later, I had internalized some lessons. One was to never trust a practicing or would-be politician (hence: no more endorsements). Another was that I was good enough at my job to go “legit” should I so choose.
I never went legit. After my spouse and I and our four cats (Zoe, Pig, Isadore and Beans) landed in Manhattan, not knowing a soul, I quickly picked up freelance work. This led to a connection at the Village Voice, the legendary model for alt-weeklies coast to coast, where I contributed a lengthy feature that hit the streets just as the Voice’s then-owners “laid off” much of the editorial staff. (Fun fact: One of my primary sources for that Voice piece? Brad Lander, when he worked for Pratt Institute. Who knew?) Thus ended my relationship with the Voice.
For the next 11 years I worked as an editor and reporter for Streetsblog, a non-profit site that soon became (and still is, I guess) the most widely-read urban planning news source in the country. During that time, I never forgot about one college town weekly piece that I never pursued. It was to be about dogs being bred for “instructional purposes” by the university — puppies systematically tortured and killed. It took some doing for my sources to convince me this was really happening (I was still that naive), and once convinced, I ran away. I was afraid the story would kill me, and I didn’t do it.
Which brings us, mercifully, to The Scoop New York. When I left Streetsblog and, not long after, NYC (my wife got a job offer in another part of the state), the only thing I wanted to write about was companion animal welfare. I have a lot of making up to do, and I mean to do it until I’m no longer capable.
But I need help. In a little over 1.5 years doing this site, I have been awed by the generosity of advocates who burn their precious time to patiently field my questions, no matter how daft. Since I began the non-profit conversion, I have been aided by volunteer board members who didn’t hesitate to sign up (the board will be expanding, slowly and surely; details TK).
Coming from the world of free weeklies and non-profit publications (with no paywalls, in my case), I am also humbled that anyone would pay to read my words. Even after a year, however, I am still paying to do this job.
I don’t mean I pay TSNY expenses from my TSNY salary; I mean expenses eat up everything TSNY brings in, and then some. Regardless of my intention to stay on this beat ‘til death do we part, this is only sustainable for so long.
I recognize the demands on most everyone right now are unrelenting. I myself wince at the thought of yet another goddamn monthly charge. The thing is, no one else does what The Scoop New York does. It is the only publication of its kind in the state, if not the nation. The idea is to consolidate the efforts of New Yorkers who value the safety and happiness of the cats, dogs and other animals with whom we share our lives, whether we are personally acquainted with those animals or not. To harness the collective energy and righteous rage of advocates and everyday New Yorkers who want elected officials (and ergo the bureaucrats they supervise) to once and for all stop playing political games with the health and safety of these animals even as they publicly pat themselves on the back for doing jack shit.
It’s working. There are kill pound personnel who right now fear for their government paychecks. They are terrified not so much by what The Scoop New York has done so far, but what we might expose next. They’ve been cosseted all this time and now face a news outlet whose mission is 100 percent demanding accountability from them on behalf of the public. They see TSNY around every corner, whether it’s there or not. But they’re not afraid of me. They’re afraid of you.
There are kill pound personnel who right now fear for their government paychecks. They see TSNY around every corner. But they’re not afraid of me. They’re afraid of you.
Screaming at kill pound staff on social media is cathartic, but also largely futile, as electeds set up the “shelter” lie to withstand an enormous amount of blowback. It helps that people don’t want to believe what happens at NYC ACC, for instance, even when shown data released by ACC itself. It’s too terrible to contemplate, so they turn away. I can relate. Again, it’s why The Scoop New York exists.
Reporters are not immune to the bullshit. To the contrary, most pass along whatever they hear, word for word, from subjects they should be interrogating. Some of those reporters are more gullible than anything — I can relate — but the rest know exactly what they’re doing. If you want the Dr. Michelle Morses of the world to take your calls, you can’t go around telling the truth on the government agencies they’re in charge of.
Naturally, the kill pounds, whose primary function is insulating politicians from fed-up proles (as they order more trash bags), have the politicians on their side. Access “journalists” who command huge audiences are the politicians’, and the kill pounds’, willing propagandists.
There are plenty of reporters and editors whose work I admire who don’t necessarily rely on access but apparently consider the well-being of cats and dogs an unserious topic, save for an occasional drive-by tsk-tsk piece that is forgotten until the next one, months or years later. Worse, when presented with a thoroughly reported story, no matter how damning — 34,000 exterminated adoptable cats and dogs, for instance — well, far as I can tell, it just doesn’t matter that much to them. Not enough to take up the story themselves. Not even enough to pass along links to their readers.
Ask me how I know.
Better yet, don’t.
Mayors, city council members, comptrollers, borough presidents, public advocates, agency heads, state legislators, the governor, the press. If they were doing their jobs, I wouldn’t have mine.
Don’t misunderstand: I’d prefer there’d be no need for these stories. My ultimate aim is to put The Scoop New York out of business by achieving a true no-kill New York State, like the tagline says. Still, I have no illusions about this happening any time soon. TSNY began with me, but I’m doing everything I can to see that it ends not with my retirement (still many years away, if it ever comes) or my death (definitely coming), but continues until the job is done.
Additional reporters to break more stories in more New York towns and cities, legal counsel to pry open kill pound records and kill data now hidden behind weak-by-design freedom of information laws, a full-time Albany beat, the obligatory podcast. There are plans for this and more.
I get a lot of emails from a lot of publications, many of them asking for money. I hate asking for money, but I have no choice.
And I’ve said enough. If you’re reading this, you already value what we — myself, the TSNY board, our core advocate intel panel — are doing here, and what we plan to do. You know the players and the stakes. You get it.
I don’t want to paywall the site. The whole point of TSNY is to get these stories to as many New Yorkers as possible. If you will, please figure out what it would take for you — you — to upgrade to a paid TSNY subscription or make a donation to keep us on this beat. If you can make it work, please do.
“Every little bit helps” is a cliche because every little bit helps. It’s the reason you’re reading a fundraising appeal rather than The Weekly Poop, which, hand to the god of your choice, returns next week.
Until then, don’t be me. Don’t turn away.
Come on people. We need transparency. Please support Brad’s wonderful work. The latest ACC Bd Mtg was the usual travesty. Everyone doing a fabulous job. Chairman Patrick admonishing the few members of the public to be civil or be ejected. Just sickening.