Will Albany Lawmakers Show Up for Cats and Dogs in '25?
After batting .000 last year, state legislators and Governor Hochul are sitting on a host of animal-centric bills.
Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
It’s April 11, 2025. This is The Weekly Poop.
This week, state legislators remained at odds with Governor Kathy Hochul over the governor’s poison-pilled budget proposal.
The $200B+ spending plan is more than a week late, and Hochul’s insistence on shoehorning in unrelated measures like a mask ban and changes to discovery laws is grating on legislators’ nerves. When the Democratic Assembly speaker feels it necessary to assure the public he doesn’t want “war” with the Democratic chief executive, it’s not going well.
Meanwhile, after batting .000 last year, state Senate and Assembly members are sitting on a host of bills that would make New York safer for companion animals and, in some cases, safer for the New Yorkers who love them.
Eleven of those bills, several of which are holdovers from prior sessions, are summarized below, where you’ll also find the current status of each bill.
Couple things: In addition to official sources, info on bills comes from the New York State Humane Association and the NYS Animal Protection Federation. Follow the links for additional details on these and other animal-related bills. And: Assembly versions of each bill (when available) are linked from their respective twin Senate bill pages on the state legislation index.
The legislative session ends in June, giving lawmakers a dwindling number of weeks to act, or not.
Without further ado …
S.364 (Michael Gianaris)/A.893 (Linda Rosenthal): Bars insurance companies from discriminating against renters with pets, aligning with state code that protects homeowners from such chicanery. A version of this bill passed the Senate last session but died in the Assembly.
Current status: Passed Senate; in Assembly committee
S.3026 (Gianaris): Bans devocalization surgeries on cats and dogs with exceptions for medical necessity. This bill also cleared the Senate last year but was killed in the Assembly, where it does not appear to have a current number or sponsor.
Current status: Passed Senate; Assembly status unknown
S.1784 (Michelle Hinchey)/A.5505 (Donna Lupardo): Requires landlords to inspect properties for abandoned animals within three days of a property being vacated. As chairs of their respective houses' agriculture committees, bill sponsors Hinchey and Lupardo have successfully prevented the Shelter Animal Rescue Act, which would save thousands of lives a year, from becoming law — making it more likely that animals rescued from vacated homes would later be exterminated at a New York kill pound.
Current status: Passed Senate; in Assembly committee
S.703 (Liz Krueger)/A.2019 (Rosenthal): Strengthens the aggravated animal cruelty statute by removing the word “serious” from “serious physical injury” in state code, which currently applies only in cases when a perpetrator causes permanent physical injury.
Current status: Passed Senate; in Assembly committee
S.197 (Monica Martinez)/A.3050 (Jen Lunsford): “Tucker’s Law” increases the maximum penalty for aggravated animal cruelty from two to four years, as prescribed for other Class E felonies. Class E is New York’s least severe felony category.
Current status: Passed Senate; in Assembly committee
S.3158 (James Skoufis)/A.1816 (Rosenthal): Establishes animal fighting as a “designated criminal act” in state code, with more serious penalties for some related offenses. The Senate passed this bill last year, but it was killed in the Assembly codes committee, which is chaired by Bronx rep Jeffrey Dinowitz.
Current status: Passed Senate; in Assembly committee
S.3073 (Gianaris)/A.2555 (John McDonald): Establishes a civil, as opposed to criminal, process for law enforcement to initiate animal forfeiture, as in cases when mental or physical illness affects the ability to care for an animal. This bill is endorsed by law enforcement.
Current status: Agriculture committees of both houses
S.1664 (Peter Harckham)/A.1196 (Rosenthal): Gives SPCA cruelty investigators access to live scan fingerprinting tech, allowing them to make arrests independently of other law enforcement. State senators passed this bill in 2024 but it too died in Dinowitz’s Assembly codes committee.
Current status: Senate floor calendar; Assembly codes committee
S.2603 (Joseph Addabbo)/A.3297 (McDonald): Enhances penalties for harming companion animals with a deadly weapon or “dangerous instrument” with intent to cause serious physical injury.
Current status: Agriculture committees of both houses
S.6380 (Jabari Brisport)/A.165 (Rosenthal): Enacts civil penalties for tethering dogs outside in inhumane conditions, including severe weather.
Current status: Agriculture committees of both houses
S.252 (Martinez)/A.1804 (Rosenthal): Expands the extant ban on the sale or possession of certain “wild animals” to include “marsupials, sloths, anteaters, hyenas, bearcats, and zebras, among others.”
Current status: Passed Senate; in Assembly committee
The Scoop New York will have more on this year’s state legislative action and inaction — including a Peanut’s Law update — in the coming weeks.
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Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:
Related ^: Long Island state Senator Anthony Palumbo intro’d a bill to create a fund for shelters caring for abused animals as attendant court cases play out.
Update from Rochester: As advocates continue to apply pressure, Mayor Malik Evans made a showy election-year announcement about updating Rochester Animal Services’ 100-yo building, but he still refuses to address citizen claims of mismanagement and inhumane treatment of animals at his kill pound.
A report from the watchdogs at Reinvent Albany (which, full disclosure, I did some work for in the 10s) calls out NYC agencies for handling freedom of information requests however they please, laws be damned.
Investigators say the fire that killed a Long Island cat rescue founder and more than 100 cats was not “suspicious.” After volunteers stepped up to find them in the ruins, some of the surviving cats are now up for adoption.
Lollypop Farm and other Rochester orgs are hosting free cat and dog vaccine clinics from May until October.
As of April 5, NYC ACC was still in possession of “Hudson,” the Maltese NYPD rescued from the East River. With potential adopters lined up to take him, here’s hoping he made/makes it out.
Frontier Airlines apologized after refusing to let a 9/11 widow board with her 24-year-old parrot, which had not been an issue on an earlier flight with the same airline.
Know who else wants New York never to adopt the aforementioned Shelter Animal Rescue Act? These resource-grubbing serial killers.
And finally: Godspeed, Choco.
Adoptables
NYC ACC will host mobile adoption events in Queens and Brooklyn this weekend.
Adele, “young” but otherwise age unknown, and her bonded sister Ariana were left homeless when their person died. You can take them home from Tabby Town-Friends for Felines in Blasdell, in Erie County.
3.5-year-old pit mix Bella is described as a “long-timer” by Jefferson County SPCA in Watertown, where you can make her yours.
Karl the mini mule and Chenchito the Vietnamese potbelly pig are seeking new, permanent people in their lives. Find them and many other farmed animal friends at Lollypop Farm in Rochester.
Find New York adoptables near you on Dogs in Danger and Adopt a Pet.
The Scoop New York attempts to confirm that animals are still available before we feature them in The Weekly Poop. If an animal you see here has already found a home, consider asking about other available adoptables.
Food recalls
The FDA announced one pet food recall this week:
Blue Ridge Beef Puppy Mix and Kitten Mix (salmonella, listeria)
Check here for info on earlier pet food recalls.