Will Mamdani's Animal Welfare Office Promote Animal Welfare?
Two months in, the mayor has signaled no interest in DOH/ACC reforms, or relieving New Yorkers who do the city's job.
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 is the only news outlet to consider newsworthy taxpayer-funded cruelty toward homeless companion animals, as well as decades of officials’ deliberate abuse — psychological, physical and financial — of the New Yorkers who care about them.
Tax-deductible donations and paid subscriptions make it possible for The Scoop New York to investigate and expose kill-pound corruption statewide. Tap or click here to donate or subscribe. Thank you.
Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
It’s February 28, 2026. This is The Weekly Poop.
This week, in a story about the Flatbush Cats/Voters For Animal Rights proposal for NYC-subsidized vet care and pet food pantries, The City’s Katie Honan dropped a nugget that must’ve pricked the ears of companion animal advocates across the boros.
Meant to get the attention of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the Flatbush Cats/VFAR platform calls for new leadership at the Mayor’s Office of Animal Welfare, which Honan reports “has been without a leader — or anyone else working in its tiny office — since the beginning of the year.”
For real? How could you tell?
The current incarnation of City Hall’s animal welfare office, of course, is the product of a 2019 bait-and-switch engineered by former mayor Bill de Blasio in cahoots with former City Council member Justin Brannan. Before the backroom switcheroo, electeds had New Yorkers believing their years of advocacy had given rise to a fully-funded and -staffed animal welfare department that would finally impose order upon the bloody chaotic grotesquerie that is Animal Care Centers of New York City [sic].
Instead, the MOAW enshrined into law by de Blasio and his council co-conspirators turned out to be nothing more than an outpost for the city kill pound public misinformation office, staffed by a single former ACC flack to sock-puppet DOH/ACC propaganda for access reporters who don’t know any better because they don’t care to.
Mamdani has an opportunity to change that. But during his first two months in office, the self-styled people’s mayor has AFAIK not once publicly acknowledged ACC’s existence, much less signaled interest in relieving New Yorkers of the unrelenting physical, financial and psychological burden of managing the city’s homeless cat population, a core responsibility ACC has somehow been allowed to shirk since Mayor 41 Shots brought the de facto agency into being 31 years ago.
It’s been said in this space before, but Mamdani doesn’t have to care about the endangered animals he crassly exploited to get himself elected. He just has to live up to his own hype.
Unless, like every mayor this century, he considers certain New Yorkers, and their struggle on his behalf, unworthy of his time.
You tell me.
Preparing for this column, The Scoop New York asked Mamdani’s press office about his plans for MOAW, if he is satisfied with what passes for leadership at DOH and ACC, and whether he has assessed conditions faced by homeless companion animals at his health department’s medical torture complex.
As with ever prior TSNY attempt to prod Mamdani to say something, anything about the family pet carcass factory he’s now responsible for, there was no reply. Which at this stage — in my experience covering politics and politicians, anyway — pretty much says it all.
Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:
You can love companion animals or you can love watching their adoptive families terrorized by the government, but not both.
City & State has a rundown of Albany electeds who are purportedly hopping off the merry-go-round. No takebacks, now.
Mamdani’s nascent NYCHA reforms don’t appear to include changes to Draconian pet policies that have led to an untold number of exterminations at the city “keEPiNg fAmiLIES ToGEtHeR” kill pound. An oversight to be remedied toot suite, surely.
An animal rights lawyer joined Rochesterians in demanding local authorities enforce cruelty laws that are on the books, prosecute cruelty cases and get endangered animals to safety.
Residents of Syracuse want action from Mayor Sharon Owens after officials failed for a year to develop a plan for a city dog shelter.
Saratoga County’s animal abuser registry is live; now area state Senator Jim Tedisco says he wants one for New York State.
Town of Hempstead officials adopted a law meant to regulate unlicensed “backyard breeding” by limiting the number of litters allowed annually, among other measures.
NYC Council Member Chi Ossé thinks dogs should be seized from owners who don’t pick up their pets’ poop. Also: Note Gothamist casually propagandizing for ACC (again) re purported “record overcrowding”, which according to published ACC data is not a thing.
Speaking of unvetted ACC horse shit: “The staff at the Animal Care Centers of NYC (ACC) love every single cat they look after at the shelter.”
Finally: What Sarah McLachlan hath wrought.
The Scoop New York is now on Cash App
Food recalls
FDA recently announced two pet food recalls:
Quest Cat Food Chicken Recipe Freeze Dried Nuggets [“May contain low levels of thiamine (Vitamin B1)”]
Elite Treats Chicken dog treats [salmonella]
Check here for more info on FDA-announced recalls, and here for details on prior FDA advisories and outbreaks.