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Mayor's Alliance Reduces Subsidies To Its Members

As its Maddie's Fund grant monies wind down, the Mayor's Alliance has reduced its subsidies to
members. However, the Alliance recently notified its members that those subsidies will be further
reduced to offset cuts to the AC&C's budget. The Alliance's will apply these additional subsidy cuts
to allow the AC&C to co......ntinue to provide key services without charge to rescuers (microchips,
SNAP, heartworm tests). While the AC&C is in dire financial shape, let's not forget that rescuers
are also feeling the sting of the current economy. It has become more and more expensive for
them to nurse animals back to health after they've caught upper respiratory infections at the
AC&C. Rescuers are also slammed with expensive kenneling fees as their network of fosters and
adopters steadily dry up. While the Mayor's Alliance monies will help the AC&C's medical staff,
rescuers will nevertheless suffer.

This is the announcement:

Dear Maddie's Pet Partners.

The Alliance will be sending out the January/February 2010 Above Baseline
Adoption subsidies in the next few day.

At the beginning of the year I sent an email with reporting forms as well as
what we projected would be the subsidy amounts:

$195 for Above Baseline adoptions of AC&C dogs or cats

$39 for Above Baseline Adoptions of public dogs or cats

Maddie's' Fund only requires the Alliance to reimburse Maddie's Pet Partners
(MPPs) $147 for AC&C adoptions ( 60% of $245 that we are receiving in 2010).
Since 2005 the Alliance has always managed to work out a way to distribute
more funds than the Maddie's Fund grant provides for AC&C above baseline
adoptions to MPPs.

However, as you may know the AC&C is now facing budget cuts imposed by the
NYC Department of Health (DOH). Unless the AC&C budget cuts are restored by
the DOH which is unlikely, the AC&C will not be able to continue to provide
the additional services not required by law that they have been providing to
animals transferred to rescue groups and other shelters. These services
include: microchips, SNAP and heart worm tests.

In most if not all other shelters across the country these costs for these
types of services are typically passed onto the rescue groups to help offset
these expenses.

Therefore, Maddie's Fund subsidies were designed in part to reimburse rescue
groups taking transfers for payments made by the recue groups to animal
control agencies. These payments range anywhere from $25 to $75. This was
also designed to ensure that animal control agencies (that are only eligible
for the public subsidy amount) can maintain transfers to the rescue groups
by offsetting the expenses associated with the additional services provided
to animals transferred from AC&C to the rescue groups.

So to help offset the costs of these services provided by the AC&C the 2010
reimbursement will be $175 with the additional $20 redirected by the
Alliance directly to AC&C to help reimburse the AC&C for those services
which have up until this year been provided for free.

Rather than putting the administrative burden and cost on AC&C to collect
payments from rescue groups for transfers in 2010 of $20 per dog or cat and
on the challenge to rescue groups to come up with out of pocket funds at the
time of transfer, the Alliance will provide those funds to AC & C by
deducting $20 from the MPPs' Above Baseline Adoption subsidies that are
distributed every 2 months.

This will also have the advantage of reducing in advance the out of pocket
costs to rescue groups, since groups take out more than they adopt each
month and the costs of these services provided by AC&C would be considerably
higher outside of the AC&C.

If anyone has any questions, you can contact Jane Hoffman, President at
info@animalalliancenyc.org.

NEW AC&C EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JULIE BANK
HOSTS OPEN HOUSE FOR AC&C RESCUERS, VOLUNTEERS AND FRIENDS

On April 28, 2010, just three weeks after her arrival, AC&C Executive Director Julie Bank hosted
an open house at the Manhattan shelter for AC&C volunteers, rescuers, and friends. This was a
great way to introduce herself. The first hour was an informal meet ‘n greet, and Bank appeared
genuinely interested in speaking with the various attendees. She was friendly and accessible.

The second hour was reserved for a tour (conducted by Richard Gentles, AC&C Communications
Director) of the new HVAC system and shelter renovations. However, several attendees began to
pepper Bank and Gentles with questions and complaints: e.g., lack of funding, volunteers, kennel
staff, adoption staff and medical staff; quality of SAFER testing, and Feline Enrichment; policy of
giving away cats for free; rescuers’ medical costs to nurse AC&C animals back to health, etc.
Bank calmly responded that all are important issues -- but she needs to prioritize them. She said
that anyone wanting to voice complaints or recommendations should e-mail her (JBank@nycacc.
org ), though she couldn’t promise to be able to respond immediately.

One rescuer good-humoredly welcomed Bank, assured her that everyone present was pleased to
have her aboard, but warned that they couldn’t resist venting. Bank took it all in stride.
In response to funding complaints, Bank stated that the AC&C’s budget is nowhere near the
national average of $6 per capita as reported by the Humane Society of the U.S. Patrick Kwan of
the HSUS was present, and urged people to write their City Council representatives to ask for
AC&C funding.

Bank also warned that only a portion of the recent $1 million grant from the ASPCA to the Mayor’s
Alliance will actually go to the AC&C, as the Mayor’s Alliance also subsidizes activities outside of
the AC&C.   She noted that by next year, the AC&C will be operating on a reduced budget of $7
million. [NOTE: $7 million translates into an 83 cents per capita funding, far from the $6 per capita
national average.] Bank said she had asked Gentles to be in charge of Development (i.e.,
Fundraising). [SRAC notes that fundraising is of vital importance for the AC&C, requiring
expertise and innovative ideas.]

In response to questions about the Medical Department, Bank explained that Medical Director Dr.
Stephanie Janeczko will be wearing a new hat for the next few weeks. Dr. Janezcko will review the
AC&C’s operations and suggest ways to cut down on the spread of disease. Bank said that once
Dr. Janeczko had issued her recommendations, she would resume her duties as Medical Director
and (budget providing) an Operations Manager would be hired.
When describing the new HVAC system at the Manhattan Shelter, Gentles explained how air
quality would be greatly improved. [NOTE: The HVAC project at the Manhattan Shelter, a former
factory, was years delayed in starting, and the actual construction is currently 5 months
overschedule. ] The first floor is still under construction, so the meeting was held on the second
floor. The obvious renovations to that floor, in addition to new air vents, were the newly painted
walls. Gentles pointed out that the floors need to be refinished to provide a surface that can be
properly cleaned to prevent the spread of disease. He said a donor had promised to pay for the
$40,000 cost for the floors, but withdrew the offer because of the economy.

When Gentles and Bank were asked if the planned renovations had provided for separate
walkways and exercise areas for sick dogs to prevent the spread of disease, Bank responded that
the Manhattan shelter manager was working on a plan.

The tour ended in the temporary Adoptions Area (a garage converted to hold adoptable animals
when the HVAC project began in December 2008).   Gentles said that once construction is
completed in the main building, the garage would no longer be used to house animals.

Other meet 'n greets were held at the two other shelters. In the future Julie Banks plans to
schedule separate meeting – one for rescuers and another for volunteers.

SHELTER REFORM'S JANUARY 28, 2010 MEETING OF
RESCUERS, AC&C MANAGEMENT, AND THE
MAYOR'S ALLIANCE.
click here for meeting's discussion of AC&C and Rescuer issues
click here to read what New York Tails reported about the meeting

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH APPOINTS NEW
AC&C EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JULIE BANK

For the 8th time in as many years, the DOH has announced yet another Executive
Director for the AC&C.
Her name is Julie Bank.
Unlike all but one of her predecessors, Julie Bank is unusual in that she’s had actual
shelter management experience. She also comes with the support of both the
ASPCA (one of her former employers) and the Mayor’s Alliance. Bank nevertheless
faces formidable obstacles, not the least of which are the severe restrictions the DOH
imposes (limited power and an insufficient budget).
Click here to read about the obstacles

Animal Care & Control (AC&C) is in crisis caused by drastic
budget cuts imposed by the Dept of Health (DOH).
Don’t let the DOH off the hook! Insist that you get value for your donations: a
working, decent, effective shelter system, no longer strangled by the DOH.
To learn more, please click here.

The AC&C Directors held a board meeting on June 23, 2010. To their surprise, it was
standing room only for members of the public attending the meeting.
Read More....

Julie Bank is the new AC&C Executive Director (she’s the 8th in as many years).
We’ve already written about the abysmal shelters conditions that greeted her
when she arrived in early April 2010. Read how she cannot succeed in
transforming the AC&C … without the help of people like you.
Read More

2010

Shelter Reform Action Committee (SRAC)
ShelterReform.org: Everything you ever wanted to know about the AC&C, but were afraid to ask.

The AC&C Directors held a board meeting on September 28, 2010. Read about the
Board’s new steps to limit public debate and coverage of their meetings, and how they
continue to ignore their fiduciary duty to the AC&C and its animals. In addition, read a
synopsis of Julie Bank’s description of what she views as the progress and challenges
during her first 5 months as the AC&C’s Executive Director. Read More

"Aid for city strays goes to the dogs as budget cuts hurt wayward pooches, cats"
Click here to read the Daily News article

The Latest AC&C Service Reductions and
How They Affect the City’s Homeless Animals. Read More

2011

AC&C Volunteer Program: Seven months after the AC&C closed its shelter doors to new
volunteers, some “newbies” are just now recently sighted, but not in all 3 shelters.
Click Here.

What is required to make NYC a true “no kill” community
Read this update

DOH’s censorship of the AC&C: While animal advocates complain
about the AC&C's restrictions on what its volunteers may say, the AC&C is, in
turn, censored by the DOH. Click Here

Read about the Jan. 2011 AC&C Annual Board Meeting, and these seven men who serve
the Dept of Health and Mayor Bloomberg. Also view the videos of the meeting.
Click here

Please read Shelter Reform’s open letter to the DOH and the AC&C about the sudden
reduction of the AC&C's Field Operations (picking up stray and abandoned animals). To
deal with its ever shrinking budget, the AC&C is leaving all stray and abandoned cats
(once people’s pets) to fend for themselves on the City streets..
Read More

April 12, 2011: A One Year Anniversary
Read about the Jan. 2011 AC&C Annual Board Meeting, and these seven men who serve
the Dept of Health and Mayor Bloomberg. Also view the videos of the meeting.
Click here

Read about the Jan. 2011 AC&C Annual Board Meeting, and these seven men who serve
the Dept of Health and Mayor Bloomberg. Also view the videos of the meeting.
Click here

Read about the Dec. 17th Health Committee Meeting
The Department of Health is now in charge of the newly created "Animal Population
Control Fund." Read how the Fund is guaranteed to be mismanaged as long as
the DOH is involved.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has a record of insensitivity, indifference, or
often hostility to issues involving our City’s animals. Here’s a letter we recently sent
to Speaker Quinn, in response to a message she sent to members of the animal
advocacy movement who have contacted her.
Click Here

It’s been over two months since the AC&C announced some new programs. We
thought it would be helpful to check back and see how 3 of those programs are
faring . Click Here

                                                    THE NEW UNTOUCHABLES

The City’s Department of Health (DOH) and Mayor Bloomberg are no doubt rejoicing. A mid-level
appeals court has just issued a ruling, overturning a trial judge's decision. The new decision effectively
protects the DOH and Bloomberg from being sued for violating the law.

The law we're discussing is the Shelters & Sterilization Act of 2000, in which the City Council required
the DOH to create full service shelters in all 5 boroughs by 2002 (the so-called Shelters Law). In 2002,
Mayor Bloomberg got his pal, Christine Quinn, to quietly pass an amendment to the law, giving the DOH
an extension until 2006 to create those shelters.

The year 2006 came and went, and those shelters still don't exist. No one from the City Council has
ever complained.

In 2009, an animal rescue group (Stray From the Heart) sued the DOH for violating the Shelters Law.
The trial court ruled in SFTH’s favor. The DOH appealed.

In a decision dated April 19, 2011, a mid-level appeals court overturned a trial court's ruling on a
narrow, technical ground: the appeals court said that SFTH doesn’t have “standing” to sue. Even though
the DOH refuses to create those much needed shelters (in the Bronx and Queens), even though the City
streets are filled with abandoned animals -- left to suffer and add to the ranks of homeless animals by
reproducing, even though AC&C animals suffer in over-crowded and disease ridden shelters, and even
though rescue groups incur huge expenses trying to nurse AC&C animals back to health, the appeals
court says that no rescue group has standing to protest the absence of the ordered shelters.

SFTH has advised us that it does not intend to give up and is currently reviewing their options.

We believe this awful court decision should be turned into something positive. It should rally the entire
NYC Animal Advocacy community to protest the DOH’s continuing control and mismanagement of the
AC&C.

Oh, by the way, we know that this court decision makes the DOH Commissioner very happy. His name
is Dr. Thomas Farley. But does this decision make the AC&C happy? And guess who is the highest
person in power at the AC&C? The same Dr. Farley, who is Chairman of the AC&C Board.

Really. Enough is enough.
Read SFTH's response and the documents associated with the lawsuit

It’s been over two months since the AC&C announced some new programs. We
thought it would be helpful to check back and see how 3 of those programs are
faring . Click Here

April 12, 2011: A One Year Anniversary
T he Missing AC&C Volunteers
ASPCA creates much needed stationary spay/neuter clinics

It’s been over two months since the AC&C announced some new programs. We
thought it would be helpful to check back and see how 3 of those programs are
faring . Click Here

When your Landlord threatens you with eviction because of your pet.
Read what you can do according to the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals

Read the Department of Health's contract with Animal Care and Control
Click Here

NEW START TIME FOR ACC BOARD MEETING, TUESDAY, JUNE 21st, at 3 PM
The date's the same (June 21st). The place is also the same: 125 Worth Street, 3rd Floor.
But the ACC Board now says the meeting will start at 3 PM. That's 3 PM. Please arrive
early (and with a PHOTO ID) as you must go through security. Read more

NYC's "MATRIX" is Not a Movie, but it is the Key to "No-Kill Read more.

Controversy surrounds the Firing of Emily Tanen Read more
For a radio broadcast, featuring Ms. Tanen and Assemblyman Micah Kellner,
click here

Demand That the ACC Stop Its Euthanasia "Mistakes " Read how

		With the departure of Dr. Stephanie Janezcko, the ACC is without a
		Director of Operations as well as a Medical Director. Read more

ACC's Volunteer Program Continues to Disintegrate. Read More

COMPANION ANIMAL ACCESS AND RESCUE BILL (CAARA) Read more

		Let's be Smart about How We Challenge the DOH and the ACC. Read
		more

		A Detailed Synopsis of the June 21st ACC Board Meeting by clicking
		here Videos from the June 21, 2011 ACC Board Meeting View videos

		ACC Exec. Director Julie Bank offers a lame response to Manhattan Borough
		President Scott Stringer’s complaint that the DOH violated the Open Meetings Law.. Read more

		Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer filed a brief in support of the motion
		by the rescue group STRAY FROM THE HEART to appeal from a mid-level court's ruling that rescue groups may not sue the City for violating the so-called Shelters Law. As MBP Stringer points out, if a rescue group does not have "standing" to compel the City to obey that law and build animal shelters in the Bronx and Queens, then no one does. While Mayor Bloomberg and the Department of Health would be pleased with having a law that cannot be enforced, our City's taxpayers, voters, and animal lovers should not. Thumbs up for Scott Stringer Read the Press Release

		DOH Commissioner Denies Entry to an Overflow Crowd at June 21st Board
		Meeting

IMPORTANT TAX RELIEF FOR ANIMAL RESCUE VOLUNTEERS Read the article

Money infusion promised for ACC to restore some, but not all, of key shelter services
eliminated because of DOH's cruel budget cuts. Read More

Bloomberg, Quinn and others announce a deal to increase ACC funding, while ignoring the
core reason for the ACC's continuing failure: the Department of Health. Also, the Council
secretly amends the law, no longer requiring the City to build shelters in the Bronx and
Queens . Read the press release

Examining What's Described as "Great" about This Proposed Agreement
Whenever someone says there’s “great” or “good” news about the ACC, always take a good
hard look at the facts behind that news. Read SRAC's analysis and SFTH's press release

We’re honored to display a sampling of extraordinary animal portraits by Mark
Ross when he volunteered at NYC’s AC&C. Click here to see for yourself.

Shelter Reform is pleased that Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has joined us in
advocating for a top-to-bottom restructuring of Animal Care & Control and the continuing need
for shelters in the Bronx and Queens. Please read what MBP Stringer says, and sign and
share his on-line petition. Let's send a message to the powers-that-be that it's time for a
change.

Why can't the City and the ASPCA be honest about the ACC? As MBP Scott Stringer urges,
the time for change is now. Read how the DOH and ASPCA's Ed Sayres defend the status
quo.

Here's an open letter from Shelter Reform to those City Council members who have
sponsored a controversial bill affecting the ACC. .

September 15, 2011: We've just learned that the New York City Council is indeed going to fast-
track a bill that would throw some money at a dysfunctional Animal Care & Control in
exchange for relieving the Department of Health of its obligation to build animal shelters in the
Bronx and Queens. Despite the controversy surrounding the bill, its sponsors will not
consider any amendments.

Why the rush? Clearly, the Council wants to avoid a ruling by New York State's highest court
that would require the DOH to build those shelters.

Observe for yourself what supporters and critics have to say about the proposed legislation.
We offer video highlights from last week's Council Health Committee hearing on the bill.

We urge you to contact your council representatives and the members of the Health
committee and tell them to vote “no.” The bill must be amended to address the problems at
the ACC's core and to ensure that every borough has an animal shelter. Click here for contact
information.

Best Friends comments on how animals are paying the price for the City's cruel cuts to the AC&C's budget.
Read the article
and read
Francis Battista 's blog

Throwing Money at a Failed System. A Case in Point -- the ACC's Volunteer Program.

Here's our synopsis of the City Council's hearing on a bill to trade extra money for the ACC in
exchange for the City’s no longer having to build shelters in the Bronx and Queens. However, a
new ruling by NYS’ highest court has changed the political landscape.

For a report on the September 21st City Council meeting which fast-tracked Int. No. 655, click
here.

As the City Council fast-tracks the new ACC bill, Shelter Reform reviews the issues at stake and
how animal advocates can hold the sponsors and advocates of this bill accountable for what
happens to ACC animals. Read more

Animal "receiving centers" are NO substitutes for full service animal shelters. But that doesn't
stop the Dept of Health from claiming otherwise. Read More

Just imagine an ACC without the DOH. Read more
Thumbs up for MBP Stringer and Assemblymembers Rosenthal and Kellner: Dare we hope that
change is in the air? Read the press release

NY1 Report on the press conference Click here

Read how Animal Care & Control lied and obstructed the City Comptroller's Audit. The Audit
needs to be reopened so that the Comptroller can have access to key documents and witnesses.
Read Shelter Reform's proposal to ensure that the Comptroller's Office has all the key information
necessary for an audit.