Can NYC Become a No Kill City? YES Read How |
| Shelter Reform Action Committee (SRAC) ShelterReform.org: Everything you ever wanted to know about the AC&C, but were afraid to ask. |
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A Thumbnail History of the NYC Shelter System For the first time in its history, in 1977 the ASPCA turned to the City to fund it for caring for the City’s homeless and abandoned animals. It was a pact made with the Devil. The Mayor appointed the Department of Health (DOH) to set the ASPCA’s annual budget. The DOH did so, without regard to what was actually needed. From that point forward, the DOH has always cynically under funded animal shelter services. In 1995, the ASPCA walked away from its contract with the City. To ensure that no other organization could leave the City in the lurch again, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s office formed “The Center for Animal Care and Control” (CACC, later shortened to AC&C) to take over the City’s animal shelter system. The template for dysfunction was set. The DOH continued its disgraceful stewardship of the AC&C, even though the DOH’s mandate (to ensure people’s health) is in direct conflict with that of an animal shelter (to ensure companion animals’ health). Instead of appointing experienced professionals, city officials with no experience or knowledge in animal care were appointed to run these shelters. The Village Voice called AC&C "The cruelest animal rescue system in the country.” That same year, the SRAC was created to serve as watchdog over the DOH’s domination of the AC&C and to advocate for a total reform of the City’s animal shelter system. FOR THE FULL HISTORY OF THE NYC SHELTER SYSTEM, CLICK HERE. What SRAC has accomplished and what still needs to be done We have opened up the AC&C records and Board meetings, secured vital legislation, and ushered the exit of various incompetents from the AC&C Board and AC&C management. But major obstacles remain: (1) We need to change the laws, starting with an 1894 NY State Law giving New York City’s Mayor the exclusive power over the life and death of the City’s pet population. Read more about why SRAC argues that the Mayor and the DOH must be removed from control of the NYC shelter system. We also need to expand the City’s housing laws to protect a tenant’s right to keep a companion animal. (2) Once the Mayor no longer controls animal services (and by extension, neither does the DOH), we need to oversee the creation of an organization that truly has the care of companion animals as its primary goal, and can demand and receive appropriate funding from the City, and to create full service/and well designed shelters in all 5 boroughs, including the Bronx and Queens. (3) We must attract public and private monies to (a) create ample low cost spay/neuter facilities in neighborhoods where the majority of homeless pets come from, and (b) make low cost veterinary care also available to people who otherwise could not afford medical care for their pets. (4) We need to ensure that the Board of Education enforces a legislative mandate requiring that animal care and compassion be taught in our public schools. What is happening now at the AC&C
Problems that still persist: Without proper funding and buildings, the AC&C is unable to provide Professional Behavior Evaluations and Disease Control. Read more about what is happening at the AC&C: Get the latest news |
Animal Care & Control (AC&C) is in crisis caused by drastic budget cuts imposed by the Dept of Health (DOH). Because the DOH refuses to do the right thing, please consider making a donation directly to the AC&C: Click here to go to the AC&C website to donate. 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. |
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 |
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