'Animal
City funded unit accused of killing too many and not adopting enough
by
Graham Rayman and Josh Bernstein
Staff Writers
Widespread problems have turned the new city-funded agency that took over
animal control from the ASPCA into what one City
Council member is calling a "little animal
The charge comes despite promises by Martin Kurtz, director of the Center for Animal Care and Control, that he would preside over a kinder, gentler era in city-funded animal shelters.
"We're putting the care back into animal care and control," said Kurtz, a former city official in charge of veterinary public health services. "Our main emphasis is to adopt as many animals as possible."
But Kurtz's agency is already facing charges that it is killing far too many animals and finding homes for far too few.
"They've set aside no money to do spay-neuter and none to do
adoptions," said City Councilwoman Kathryn Freed (D-Manhattan). "You
have to assume that at this point, most animals that are brought in are on a
death sentence. It's a little animal
The Center for Animal Care and Control, recipient of $5.3 million from the city this year, will be the focus of Thursday's oversight hearing before the City Council's health committee.
Kurtz said he is looking forward to the hearing: "People were saying we were killing the animals, we weren't feeding the animals. These things are outrageous. We're not doing those things."
Despite Kurtz's claims, shelter employees and observers say that the agency's first month has been bumpy at best, chaotic at worst. Among the problems cited:
* A man accused of bestiality in the late 1980s at the ASPCA
was hired as an animal control specialist in the
* A healthy puppy was incorrectly placed in a cage in the
* Cats and dogs were being held in the same ward-sometimes in kennels adjacent to each other-whch veterinarians say emotionally stresses the animals.
* Injured animals brought in between 11 a.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Tuesday are sometimes left untended.
* In the
* There are structural problems such as poor drainage and ventilation at the
Brooklyn and
"Many of the problems at CACC were
foreshadowed in a Health Department commissioned 1994 consultant report
prepared by Carl Friedman, director of the
Friedman and White expressed "alarm" at structural flaws and
insect infestation at the
At the
Members of the Coalition for New York City Animals charged last week that city offficials ignored the recommendations.
"The fact that the department has had this extremely alarming report
for close to a year, without implementing its major recommendations, does not
inspire confidence," said Sandy Lewis,
Kurtz said this week he was willing to work with outside groups. "Anybody with any constructive comments, any way they can help us, we're more than happy to have them."