AC&C Shelters are Vectors of Disease
Crowded, poorly-ventilated shelters, with inappropriately designed floor plans, are perfect
Petri dishes for breeding disease. The AC&C shelters are no exception. The primary
disease rampaging through the AC&C shelters is an upper respiratory infection (URI)
affecting both dogs and cats. The AC&C used to euthanize every animal that sneezed
(provided the animal’s hold period was up). That practice changed when Ed Boks became
the AC&C’s Executive Director. He instructed that animals with URI be held in sick wards
while attempts were made to have them rescued. (By DOH fiat, sick animals may not be
adopted directly from the shelter; only rescuers may pull them.) But any animal’s stay in the
sick ward is contingent on space being available. And space is always at a minimum. When
the sick wards fill up, sick animals are euthanized. This might explain why so many obviously
sick animals are allowed to remain among the healthy: staff are reticent to send them to sick
wards, placing the animals one step closer to being euthanized. (Audits of the AC&C note
the failure of the AC&C to properly isolate sick animals.)
At the October 9, 2009 board meeting of the AC&C, the AC&C’s new Medical Director, Dr.
Stephanie Janesczko, reported on a two year study of AC&C dogs by Cornell’s College of
Veterinary Medicine. (Cats were not studied.) Dr. Janesczko explained that approximately
40% of dogs were reported to have exhibited signs of URI within days 5-7 day after arrival.
(That number seems quite low to volunteers and rescuers familiar with the AC&C animals.
As the ASPCA reported in 2006 in connection with cats: “50% of the cats have an upper
respiratory infection when adopted from AC&C, and as many as 80% will develop one after
arriving at the ASPCA.” )
When the ASPCA pulls animals from the AC&C, it places them in isolation wards for ten
days, to prevent AC&C animals from spreading disease to the ASPCA’s other animals. The
ASPCA has the funding and space for isolation wards. In contrast, it is always difficult for
rescuers to find kennels, vet offices, or foster who will accept animals directly from the AC&C
for fear that AC&C animals will spread URI.
While AC&C animals suffer from URI, rescue groups are also feeling the impact of this
unchecked contagion. Beginning with the economic meltdown that started in August 2008,
rescuers are pulling fewer animals. Rescuers face a double whammy: mounting medical
costs to nurse their AC&C animals back to health and a decrease in the number of people
willing to adopt.
Overcrowding. Lack of space.
In response to the overcrowding in the AC&C’s three shelters (one in Manhattan, one in
Brooklyn, and a small building on Staten Island), the City Council passed a law in 2000,
ordering the DOH to create full service shelters in the Bronx and Queens by 2002. In 2002,
newly inaugurated Mayor Bloomberg persuaded the Council to amend that law to give the
DOH until 2006 to create the two additional shelters. (He explained that 9/11 left the City's
economy in precarious shape.)
The shelters were never created. In 2009, a rescue group successfully sued the DOH and
the City to create those shelters without delay.
The DOH and the City have filed an appeal.
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