The Latest AC&C Service Reductions and
How They Affect the City’s Homeless Animals
November 2010: The AC&C announced the latest round of service reductions. We previously reported how the
City’s Department of Health (DOH) imposed disastrous budget cuts on the AC&C (those cuts coming on top of
years of underfunding). In response to its shrinking budget, the AC&C cut its employee numbers and shelter
services. Read more about the budget problems
The DOH effectively controls every aspect of the AC&C’s operations pursuant to an “animal care and control”
contract it has with the AC&C. Read the Daily News Article The reality is that the DOH dictates the terms of the
contract. As the DOH cuts the AC&C’s budget, it reduces the necessary services the AC&C must perform.
People have asked what the most recent service reductions mean and how they will affect the City’s homeless
pets. Here is our analysis:
- (1) The AC&C announced that it would reduce its Field Operations – i.e., services performed by AC&C
Animal Control Officers (ACOs). ACOs drive the city streets, picking up stray animals and responding to
emergency calls. Effective November 1, the ACOs’ hours were cut: they will no longer work evenings and
weekends. They will operate Mondays-Fridays, 9 to 5. As a consequence, the AC&C immediately reduced
the number of ACO’s on its payroll.
What are the direct effects of these service reductions? While it appears that ACOs will continue to pick up
stray dogs, stray cats will be left to fend for themselves. ACOs will pick up ONLY cats that are injured,
involved with cruelty situations, or have bitten or scratched someone. Good Samaritans may, of course, take
it upon themselves to pick up stray dogs and cats, but they may not bring these animals to the AC&C except
during “normal business hours.”
Stray animals living on the streets are now at greater risk from the elements (freezing cold, wilting heat, rain),
as well as of starvation, of being hit by a car or being tortured. (P.S.: The public shouldn’t expect to reach
the AC&C to report animals in distress. As a cost saving measure, the AC&C has shut down its call center,
and will direct most calls to a general “311” telephone number maintained by the City.)
(2) Staff shortages have also forced the AC&C to abandon its “Lost and Found” (L&F) reporting system. Up
until now, pet owners could contact the AC&C to report a missing pet. As an added safeguard, before
euthanizing a stray, the AC&C would conduct L&F searches to see if the animal matched an outstanding L&F
report. Beginning December 1, L&F searches will no longer be conducted . . . because there won’t be any
L&F reports to search and no staff to conduct the searches. Instead, owners with access to computers can
check the AC&C’s website to see if their pet’s photo is posted. “Anyone who has lost a pet should check the
[AC&C] website regularly to review the photographs of animals that have arrived at the shelters, and above
all they should come to the shelters regularly to walk through and look for their pets,” quoting an AC&C
memo. It should be noted that for owners who lost their animals in Queens or the Bronx, they’ll have to
“regularly walk through” AC&C shelters in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Queens and the Bronx have never had
animal shelters because the DOH refuses to create them.
higher now, as many more strays may never survive to make it to the AC&C. Because the DOH has stated it will
continue cutting the AC&C’s budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, what’s certain is that even
more services will be reduced. The DOH has even threatened to reduce the AC&C’s hours of operations.
Read the Hearing on the Mayor’s Fiscal Year 2011 Preliminary Budget
| Shelter Reform Action Committee (SRAC) ShelterReform.org: Everything you ever wanted to know about the AC&C, but were afraid to ask. |