Will the Next Hempstead Supe Free Dogs From TOHAS Solitary Confinement?
The supervisor race will determine control of the notorious Town of Hempstead kill pound.
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.
Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
Update 03NOV25: Sources tell TSNY Buster Brown was released from TOHAS solitary confinement and placed with a rescue. We will follow up with more details if we get them.
Update 06NOV25: Buster Brown was taken in by Paws Unlimited in Kingston. Click to help the rescue cover his care.
It’s November 1, 2025. This is The Weekly Poop.
This week, we’re back in Town of Hempstead, where the kill pound has long served as a locus of cronyism and corruption for electeds and hangers-on who use and abuse the town’s homeless companion animals to satisfy their personal political ambitions.
With the town supervisor position up for grabs Tuesday, there’s much at stake for politicians, but the game is far more serious for Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter cruelty victims — including Buster Brown and other dogs sentenced by TOHAS to indefinite solitary confinement, just because.
Dogs sent to the hole at TOHAS are denied regular access to humans and other dogs. If they’re really feeling themselves, director Ashley Behrens and other “shelter” higher-ups may exterminate a confined dog for reacting naturally to prolonged abuse. Like Butchy, who entered TOHAS at eight months old and was killed just before he was to be saved by a rescue.
Systemically torture the animals, then blame them for their own exterminations: It’s what kill pounds and the pols who exploit them do, on both sides of the county line and both sides of the aisle. (Yes, Brannan, your ears are burning, but don’t fret. Though the damage you purposely inflicted will take years to remedy, in a year no one will remember your name.)
TOHAS was sufficiently corrupted by 2013 that TOH that year settled a lawsuit brought by citizens who were banned from the kill pound for questioning TOHAS abuse they were witness to, allegations undergirded by a then-recent audit by the state comptroller’s office.
Changes mandated by the settlement were later abandoned, plaintiff Diane Madden told TSNY, and TOHAS “once again became a taxpayer-funded employment agency for the politically connected and the unqualified.”
Among other misadventures, TOH and TOHAS officials have since tried and failed to farm out shelter operations to this creepy rando, shipped dogs to a sketchy Florida “trainer” with a history of abuse charges on his record, and again got themselves sued by TOHAS volunteers the town sought to ban from all public property under threat of criminal prosecution, for the offense of attempting to spare animals from TOHAS cruelty, up to and including discretionary killings.
Excepting a brief supe stint by replacement-level Democrat Laura Gillen, whose promised TOHAS reforms look to have been every bit as impactful as Gillen’s political career to date, since the turn of the century Town of Hempstead has been controlled by Republican supervisors and a majority-GOP town council. Bi-partisan exploitation is harmful enough, but as we’ve seen across the border, under one-party rule in particular, you don’t want to be the homeless companion animal between a member of the majority and the podium, no matter what color the majority happens to fly.
Enter John Ferretti, who dropped out during his fourth term as a Nassau County legislator to become TOH supervisor and, consequently, the official most responsible for TOHAS.
Ferretti’s ascension scheme is an all-timer, even for New York.
Last summer, Ferretti was appointed TOH supervisor by town council Republicans, behind closed doors and in a hurry, after the abrupt resignation of then-supervisor Don Clavin, who traded his post for the same salary ($179,000) and a no-show job at a town office that did not exist. [Whoo! My man Donny Clavin! YOLO, bay-bee! — Ed.] When the public learned what town officials were up to — in violation of state transparency laws — Clavin took the hit, retiring from “public service” with a no-doubt fat pension plus all the taxpayer-funded trimmings. [Playuh! — Ed. ]
Ferretti, meanwhile, came out smelling like a smirking corpse flower steeped in warm vomitus, an unelected incumbent poised to assume his first full term, having been handed the opportunity by colleagues who expect to have their own backs scratched in return. And they will be.
Above is a widely-circulated video, posted by Diane Madden, of Ferretti and accomplices, some if not all paid with public funds, abusing a terrified cat for a photo op. To be clear: Anyone who would participate in such a scene — no matter the person or party — is a full-stop piece of shit.
As a 501(c)(3), The Scoop New York does not endorse political candidates. Even if we could, we wouldn’t. As far as TSNY goes, the trolley problem with an elected in the mix would be more akin to the trolley solution.
Ferretti’s opponent is Joe Scianablo, a Democrat who has worked as a cop, soldier and prosecutor. Scianablo has promised TOHAS reforms, but like Ferretti did not respond to a short list of related questions developed by TSNY with the help of local advocates.
If Ferretti wins, past patterns suggest cats and dogs at TOHAS will continue to suffer at the hands of those paid by taxpayers to protect them. If it’s Scianablo, there is no guarantee his pledges will come to fruition and plenty of evidence indicating New York Ds and Rs are simpatico on the subject.
Exploiting homeless companion animals for political gain: It’s The One Thing They Agree On™️.
Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:
Outgoing temp mayor Chris Scanlon hired someone with a background in animal research labs to run Buffalo Animal Shelter.
You can love companion animals or you can love watching their adoptive families terrorized by the government, but not both.
Millionaires in Washington and Albany are set to cut off the food supply for 3,000,000 New Yorkers. When people go hungry, so do their pets.
Related: Experts say federal aid cuts will lead to more incidents of domestic violence, i.e. more assaults on women, children and pets.
It’s time for local and state cruelty charges for geniuses who refuse to vaccinate their pets on advice from Dr. Brain Worms.
Brooklyn boro president Antonio Reynoso declared NYC “animal-friendly,” instantly earning FRieNd oF thE aNImAls status for the career pol.
Scene: New Yorkers doing Risa Weinstock’s job for her. Again.
Mohawk Hudson Humane Society is partnering with the Albany County sheriff to allow inmates to train and care for homeless dogs.
Lollypop Farm and Humane Society of Greater Rochester are rolling out a mobile vet clinic.
Chautauqua County Humane Society is working with towns in the county to give local law enforcement direct access to chip info, which CCHS says will also simplify the dog-licensing process.
An NYPD officer adopted a kitten he saved from being inadvertently killed by a food truck driver.
Finally: Central Park birders somehow saved Mei Mei the pet parakeet before the Australian national froze to death in 50-degree weather.
This week on social media
Food recalls
U.S. FDA has announced no new pet recalls this week.
Check here for info on prior FDA-announced recalls, and here for details on FDA advisories and outbreaks.
