from the WABC-TV website, June 18, 2002
(as seen on the 5 o'clock broadcast)
Activists Demand City Do More For Stray
Animals
Following Comptroller Scathing Report
(New York-WABC, June 18, 2002) - They are lost and alone, and to make matters worse only about a quarter of the city's stray animals will get new homes. The others will be euthanized. Some animal rights groups demanded the city do more to save strays and abandoned pets Tuesday, but the mayor says there may be little the city can do at this time. To illustrate the plight of the animals, an employee of the city's Center for Animal Care and Control gave us a chilling look at what dogs and cats face. Stacey Sager reports.
Are the animals even given a chance at the city's shelters? That's what critics are asking. first there was a scathing audit from the city comptroller's office a week and a half ago, and on Tuesday we spoke with shelter employees, rescuers and even celebrities, who are all demanding that the city do more.
Those who work at the city's animal shelters have always said it is a difficult balance, between protecting the public and protecting the animals.
But recently, workers, both current and former, tell us the city's Center for Animal Care and Control is out of control.
One kennel worker we talked to was afraid to reveal his face and his voice, but he did want us to understand why he thinks the shelter system is actually inhibiting adoptions.
Kennel Worker, Center For Animal Care And Control: "A lot of organizations don't come to the shelter anymore, because they're being charged."
Animal rescuers, like Jane Kleinsinger, are charged $25 per pick-up. But what she says is even more frustrating is what happened to her last week when she asked the Manhattan shelter to hold a Basset Hound she wanted to save.
Jane Kleinsinger, Tri-State Basset Rescue: "It would have been as simple as, the next morning I would have been there to get the dog."
Stacey Sager, Eyewitness News: "Only they had killed it?"
Kleinsinger: "They had already killed it, yes."
Eyewitness News was permitted to take a closer look inside a cleanly kept kennel at Manhattan's shelter. What we weren't shown was a freezer room nearby. It was videotaped just a few days earlier, by a shelter employee.
The video shows dead animals in bins, some stored in bags and some not.
The kennel worker we spoke with says that sometimes animals are euthanized to save space, before they've even been evaluated for adoption.
Sager: "What happens if an animal is not evaluated, because the evaluation only comes once a week?"
Kennel Worker: "Well the animal stays in the kennels, until, I guess, management decides it's time is up. Because we only hold a stray animal for 48 hours, that's the policy."
Sager: "What if it's a puppy?"
Kennel Worker: "Regardless what it is."
The Center For Animal Care and Control did not respond to our repeated requests for an interview. And as animal rights activists pleaded with the mayor to do more Tuesday, he would only say that solutions seem costly.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City (R): "We're cutting the hours back when you can bring pets, strays, into the shelters. Running them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is just not a luxury we have in this city."
Rue McClanahan, Actress: "Of course, we don't want to have to keep them open extra hours, but we don't have to. I gave awards in the west coast to shelters that had totally eliminated euthanasia, that no longer had a surplus, because they were spaying and neutering out in the community."
It's programs like that that animal rights activists say are lacking here in New York. In his recent audit, the city comptroller agreed. The CACC receives about $8 million a year in funding from the city. The terms of their contract set to be renegotiated next month.