NY Daily News, front page story, Monday, February 2, 1998
[front page photograph of sad dog behind CACC cage bars]
Outrage as pound charges nearly $300 to get dogs back - or else!PET RANSOMBite put on ownersFuror over pay-or-spay policyBy LISA REIN
Daily News Staff Writer
Pet owners are being socked with sky-high fees to recover lost cats and dogs at the city animal shelter-and if they can't pay, their animal is killed.
The owners are also penalized if they refuse to have their pets spayed or neutered -- a pay-or-spay system that lawyers and animal advocates have dubbed pet ransom.
The nonprofit Center for Animal Care and Control which handles the city's strays, charges owners nearly $300 to retrieve their lost pet if the shelter isn't given permission to spay the animal.
If the shelter spays, the cost of getting the faithful, four legged friend back alive plummets to $118.
If the dog or cat is already fixed, it's only $40 to free it.
But beware if you can't cough up the cash -- fast. If the fee is not paid in two days the animal is put to death, unless it's lucky enough to be adopted.
"If you're poor, your dog gets killed. If you're rich, you can afford to get it out of the pound," said Councilwoman Kathryn Freed (D-Manhattan).
Critics say the fees imposed by the CACC are not only punitive but illegal because they deny owners access to their property-even though there's no law on the books forcing owners to have their animals neutered.
"My dog was being held hostage for ransom," said 78-year old Howard Hedler.
His Rottweiler, Max, slipped through the fence of Hedler's Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, yard two weeks ago and was picked up by cops and taken to the shelter.
Hedler got his unneutered pooch back after his granddaughter, Robin Schulder, wrote a check for $275.50 to cover the $250 fine plus the cost of a license and a special microchip embedded under the animal's skin to identify it.
Schulder, who runs a stray rescue operation and opposes putting animals down, was so angry with the shelter's policy, she stopped payment on the check.
Tammy Cajigas of East New York, Brooklyn, couldn't pay to rescue Mama, the Rottweiler she had taken in as a stray two months before. Mama wasn't licensed or spayed.
The dog was taken to the CACC Manhattan shelter at 326 E. 110th St., where most lost animals wind up, in November after she broke free of her leash and, later, was captured by cops.
"I didn't expect it to be so much money," said Cajigas, who showed up with $30 in cash -- and offered to pay the rest over time.
The shelter, she said, refused to board the dog or accept payments. "For them to put her down that way was awful for my kids. At least they could have put her up for adoption," Cajigas said.
Animal advocates strongly support using spaying and neutering to control the huge population of stray dogs and cats. But advocates say forcing the operations -- and threatening death as an alternative to the high fees for those who resist -- is over the top.
"They're making a very good idea unpopular with the public by forcing them into it," said Jane Hoffman of the City Bar Association, chairwoman of a group of lawyers specializing in animal law issues.
The redemption fees were increased in October -- a boost in the previous $40, across-the-board cost of claiming a lost dog or cat.
The action is the latest in a string of controversies to engulf the sheller, created by the city three years ago to establish a more humane system of handling the estimated 60,000 plus stray animals found on the streets each year.
A City Council investigation last spring revealed an agency besieged by management problems, short on money, cramped for space and with enormous staff turnover.
Agency officials acknowledged destroying 80% of the animals taken to its five shelters, one in each borough. The shelters spend 67 cents per city resident for animal control, about half the $1.36 spent by the average municipal shelter.
The new fees work like this:
- If your dog or cat has been neutered, has a license and has had its rabies shots, it costs $40 to get it back.
- If you allow the shelter to neuter or spay it, the cost is $80, plus $15 for the special under-the-skin microchip. Add in shots and a license, and it will take $118 to get your animal home. Licenses are not required for cats
- To get an unfixed animal back, the charge is $250, plus the cost of the microchip, shots and license bringing the total to $291.50.
Freed's bill making spaying and neutering mandatory has languished amid opposition from breeders and city officials who say it's unenforceable.
A shelter spokeswoman defended the fees as a legitimate policy designed to reduce an overpopulation of dogs and cats, few of whom get adopted.
lt's not punitive," said Faith Elliott. "It's an empathic vote in favor of spaying and neutering."
Asked how the shelter decided on a charge of more than $250 for an un fixed animal, Elliott responded, "As a not-for-profit organization, the center has a right to deem fees as it deems proper.
Of the 22,000 dogs and cats with known owners that ended up in the shelter in 1996, th{QP3|êwhich statisx?¦ are available, 1,000 went home, Elliott said.
Luis Molina, a carousel builder from Brooklyn, had to hock a gold ring in October to retrieve his pit bull terrier, Ninja, from the city's Manhattan shelter after cops picked the dog up out side Molina's East New York apartment.
Ninja was leashed, but Molina said he was taken away when he could not produce his license.
"I was told I had 48 hours to come up with the money," Molina recalled. He did not want Ninja neutered because he was afraid the dog's personality might change -- but agreed to have him neutered because it was his least expensive option.
"Who are they to tell me what to do with my dog?" he asked. "They put me through hell."
[sidebar]
Cost to break your pet out of the shelter:
- If your pet has a license, is already fixed, and is current on all required shots, you can take it home for: $40
- If your pet is not fixed, but you allow the shelter to fix it, the cost is $80, plus $15 for a special mlcrochip embedded under the skin to identify the animal if it's lost again. Total ransom: $95
- Want your pet back with all parts intact? It'll cost you: $250
- Short on money? You'd better hurry. If you don't pay up within two days, your pet will be put to sleep.