The following are the complete texts of the press releases issued by the S.R.A.C.
SAD TAILS OF THE CITY:
VOLUNTEERS BARRED FROM HELPING
N.Y.C.'S CAGED POUND PUPS
Fired for blowing the whiste on inhumane treatment
October 24, l 996 -- Reeling from recent press exposes highly critical of its management, officials at The Center For Animal Care and Control (CACC) have punished whistleblowers by firing the people who volunteered their time, money and services helping the animals confined to the NYC Shelters.
The volunteers were the only conduit to fresh air, sunshine and touch for the caged animals languishing in shelters eyewitnesses call inhumane and unsanitary. Medium-size and large dogs now sit imprisoned, some in 3x3 foot cages, without being walked for indefinite periods. The law requires adequate food, water and exercise for all shelter animals. CACC officials admit they cannot comply.
For over a year and a half these individuals have been traveling to the East Harlem Shelter to volunteer in an emotionally devastating atmosphere to try and help these animals. One volunteer spent thousands of dollars in promotions and for months walked all over the city to distribute his own advertising, because the CACC was not. He also produced a CD of the sounds of animals inside the shelter howling and crying out, which has received attention on the Internet from as far away as the Netherlands. Another arranged to have major improvements made to the dog run, which was so old and poorly designed it could not even be accessed from the shelter itself and was therefore hardly ever used, raising thousands of dollars for this entirely on her own. Two more volunteers spent all their free time and money filming, editing and producing a cable show at the shelter which led to over a hundred adoptions. Through rain, heat and freezing cold, another came to the shelter five days a week to walk the dogs; another would stay until l l'o clock at night (after her regular job), to groom the unkempt and matted dogs so they would have a chance at adoption.
Since the CACC is a City agency -- the Health, Sanitation, and Deputy Police Commissioners sit on the CACC Board of Directors, appointed by the Mayor -- humane groups are crying foul because CACC is supposed to have an open-door policy, yet cameras are now banned and wards shut from public view. Since taxpayers fund the CACC, the fired volunteers have joined other animal advocates to form the Shelter Reform Action Committee, and pledge to file a class-action lawsuit to protect the taxpayers' and the animals' interests.
# # #
DIRECTOR OF NYC ANIMAL SHELTER SYSTEM
RESIGNS ON EVE OF CITY COUNCIL HEARING.
Claims of mismanagement and conflicts of interest
plagued former DOH bureaucrat since 1994 appointment.
February 18, 1997 -- After more than two years of heated criticism from many members of the humane community, Martin B. Kurtz, the former Health Dept. official appointed to run the Center for Animal Care and Control (CACC), the nation's largest animal shelter system, has resigned effective this month. Mr. Kurtz was a lightning rod for controversy since his initial appointment in September 1994, because the Health Department oversaw the formation of the CACC for the Mayor, and Mr. Kurtz had no prior experience managing a shelter system.
Mr. Kurtz was previously the head of the DOH's Department of Veterinary Public Health Services, whose principal function is monitoring animal bites and rabies, and, more recently, dog licensing. Mr. Kurtz was also the Health Dept. official charged with overseeing the City's annual $4 million "animal control" contract with the ASPCA until 1994 when the "A" declined to renew the 100-year old relationship. In recent years, the ASPCA-built shelters in Brooklyn and Manhattan became increasingly criticized for their substandard conditions resulting in "an inhumane nightmare for the animals and employees who worked there, which they tried to keep quiet," according to Liz Grayson of The Animal Connection, Inc., an Upper East Side rescue group. "When we blew the whistle on the current conditions by talking to reporters in September, we were fired by Kurtz for going public," former CACC volunteer Jane Colton confirms.
Many of his critics blame Mr. Kurtz for allowing such substandard conditions to exist in the first place. "For Marty Kurtz to defend two years of dismal conditions by blaming them as ones he inherited is preposterously hypocritical," says Gary Kaskel, who once brought a Federal lawsuit seeking Kurtz' removal from the Health. Dept. based on his "extreme bias" against pet owners. "He's a real bureaucrat," says Kaskel, "interested it seems more in preserving his power and his job than in the welfare of animals."
"Marty Kurtz has the blood of more than 100,000 helpless animals on his hands because he took a job for which he knew he was not qualified, a despicable act," says Julie Van Ness of United Action for Animals. "The Health Department is in the business of protecting people, not animals, so the welfare of animals is not the Health Department's concern. But, ultimately it comes back to the Mayor, who really controls these appointments. It's no accident that the Commissioner of Sanitation is on the CACC board of directors. The CACC has been run like one more carting operation. Pick up and dispose -- that is, pick up and kill."
Last year, it is estimated the CACC destroyed more than 50,000 dogs and cats, the vast majority of which were healthy and adoptable. But even those statistics were the subject of dispute. "The CACC has a huge credibility problem," says Livi French of The Caring Corps. "Much of it had to do with trust, or the rather the lack of engendered by its predecessor. What with the historically sloppy recordkeeping that's still practiced, together with the Dept. of Health's heavy-handed omnipresence, plus the inherent nature of statistics to be twisted into just about anything, no one takes NYC shelter numbers at face value."
After months of pressure, the City Council's Contracts Committee, headed by Kathryn Freed, began a formal investigation of the CACC last year. A public hearing was promised for early 1997. Freed's investigators claim they are being slowed by uncooperative DOH officials delaying the production of documents. The Shelter Reform Action Committee (SRAC) will file a lawsuit in State Court this month seeking to declare the CACC subject to the Freedom of Information Laws, an obligation it denies despite an opinion from the NY State Committee on Open Government to the contrary. SRAC plans other legal action to follow.
# # #
HUMANE GROUP SUES CITY & SHELTER SYSTEM
OVER ACCESS TO INFORMATION, STATUS AS CITY AGENCY.
Center for Animal Care & Control accused of operating in
secrecy to cover its mismanagement, misdeeds.
February 27, 1997 -- A coalition of animal advocates filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking a court order declaring the Center for Animal Care and Control (CACC) be deemed a City agency for the purposes of accessing information through the Freedom of Information Laws. CACC has denied numerous document requests from animal advocates looking into the published statistics on animals taken in, adopted and euthanized by the City Shelter System, which critics and insiders claim are inaccurate and deliberately misleading.
In 1994, Mayor Giuliani incorporated the Center for Animal Care & Control and appointed the Health, Sanitation and Deputy Police Commisssioners to permanently sit on its board. A multi-million dollar contract was then awarded to the CACC through the Dept. of Health. Charges of mismanagement, cruelty to animals and conflicts of interest have surrounded the shelter operation ever since. The recent resignation of CACC's executive director Martin B. Kurtz, a former Health Dept. bureaucrat, came after an independent management consultant's report gave CACC extremely low marks.
The City Council has been conducting a formal investigation of complaints about the CACC and a public hearing of the Contracts Committee headed by Kathryn Freed has been promised at its conclusion.
# # #
CITIZENS KICK OFF BALLOT INITIATIVE
TO FORM NYC DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL AFFAIRS
Current Shelter System run by Mayoral appointments
declared intolerable zone of inhumane mismanagement
Friday, April 18, 1997 -- Responding to years of what animal advocates say is a callous indifference by NYC government to the welfare of animals that end up in city shelters and then killed -- some 40,000 a year -- a coalition of humane groups and individuals spent four months with a team of lawyers writing new legislation which will amend the City Charter to create a Department of Animal Affairs to advocate for lost and stray animals, perform animal control functions and run the city animal shelters.
The highly controversial Center for Animal Care & Control (CACC), which was formed by the Giuliani administration in late 1994 to take over the shelters from the ASPCA, has been without an executive director for almost two months, after a disastrous record of mismanagement and sloppy recordkeeping. Critics claim that naming the Sanitation Commissioner as the CACC board chairman sends the wrong message. Insiders claim the Giuliani-appointed CACC Board has failed to halt interim management from creating an atmosphere of distrust, fear and intimidation among current staff and volunteers. (Volunteers at the CACC were dismissed back in September after speaking to the press, but weren't protected by the Whistleblowers Act because they were not employees.)
It is estimated there are more than two million pet owners in NYC. The ballot initiative takes these issues directly to the voters. The mandate will attack some of the root problems for animal overpopulation and expand animal control and shelter services, and create public accountability.
# # #
Date: Wednesday, May 28, 1997
Time: Noon
Place: Steps of City Hall
Join us as101 Dalmatians
(and every other breed)
tell the Mayor & Sanitation Commissioner (CACC chairman) that
LOST AND STRAY ANIMALS ARE NOT GARBAGE
as pets and their owners show their support for
the 1997 Animal Welfare & Shelter Reform initiative
the most important legislation for NYC animals in 100 years
City Councilmember Kathryn Freed (Contracts Committee chair)
will accept a copy of the 1997 ballot initiative from a special VIP guest
prior to the June 16th public hearing on the CACC
In 1994, Mayor Giuliani formed The Center for Animal Care and Control (CACC) to take over New York City's animal shelter system from the ASPCA. CACC was awarded a contract by the Health Dept. paid for with tax dollars. Instead of appointing experienced professionals, the Mayor appointed city officials with no experience or knowledge in animal care to run these shelters. For the past two years, the Sanitation Commissioner has been Chairman of the Board of the CACC.
The result: Fewer than 20% of the dogs and cats that enter these shelters survive. Before they die, these animals languish in crumbling and diseased facilities without proper medical care or housing. More than 100,000 healthy, adoptable animals have been needlessly killed, frozen and burned since 1995. The CACC does minimal advertising or fundraising to promote their adoptions. The Village Voice called CACC "The cruelest animal rescue system in the country."
# # #
Date: Monday, June 16, 1997
Time: 11 a.m.
Place: City Hall - 2nd floor Council Chambers
CITY COUNCIL HOLDS PUBLIC HEARING ON
NYC ANIMAL SHELTER SYSTEM
Center for Animal Care and Control subject of 9-month
investigation by Contracts Committee.
Animal advocates and aggrieved pet owners to testify
on mismanagement and corruption.
In 1994, Mayor Giuliani formed The Center for Animal Care and Control (CACC) to take over New York City's animal shelter system from the ASPCA. CACC was then awarded a contract by the Health Dept. paid for with tax dollars. Instead of appointing experienced professionals, the Mayor appointed city officials with no experience or knowledge in animal care to run these shelters. The Sanitation Commissioner is the chairman of the CACC board of directors.
The result: Fewer than 20% of the dogs and cats that enter these shelters survive. Before they die, these animals languish in crumbling and diseased facilities without proper medical care or housing. Thousands of animals have been needlessly killed, frozen and burned since 1995. The CACC does minimal advertising or fundraising to promote their adoptions. The Village Voice called CACC "The cruelest animal rescue system in the country."
FACTOID:
NYC spends only 67¢ per person annually on animal care & control.
The national average is $1.36 (Source: National Animal Control Association)
# # #
CACC BOARD MEMBERS FIRED BY MAYOR
FOLLOWING CITY COUNCIL TESTIMONY
Not-for-profit legal status of City animal shelters at issue.
Animal advocates point to Mayor's abuse of power
to maintain mismanagement and corruption.
June 16, 1997 -- In an extraordinary and brash move, 1st Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro fired Center for Animal Care & Control board members Dr. Louise Murray and Rosemary Joyce within hours of their testimony at a public hearing of Kathryn Freed's contracts committee today. The two board members were critical of the conduct of Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty, who was obstructing the hiring of a new executive director on orders from the Mayor. Commissioner Doherty, the CACC chairman, walked out in protest prior to the critical testimony, and returned later to testify that he didn't recall the same timeline facts as had been recounted earlier. Commissioner Doherty received sporatic jeers and laughter during his two hours before the Council committee.
In response to the firings, Councilmember Freed has called a press conference to discuss her displeasure with the Mayor's action. The animal protection community cites this as just another move by a callous and indifferent Mayor who doesn't care about the welfare of animals, and vows to make the Mayor's conduct an election year issue. There are more than two million pet owners in NYC.
# # #
CITIZENS FILE ANIMAL REFORM BALLOT INITIATIVE
FOR NOVEMBER ELECTION
Grass roots campaign gathers 75,000 signatures
in four months on behalf of homeless pets
September 2, 1997 -- Responding to years of what animal advocates say is a callous indifference by municipal government to the welfare of animals that end up in city shelters and then killed -- more than 40,000 a year -- a coalition of humane groups and individuals are asking the voters to amend the City Charter to create a Department of Animal Affairs to advocate for lost and stray animals, perform animal control functions and run the city animal shelters. Such department will have a mandate to find humane solutions to the pet overpopulation problem, principally through spay and neuter, humane education and expanded adoption programs. An independent oversight commission will ensure public accountability for the activities of this new agency.
75,000 New Yorkers signed petitions to put this issue to the voters in November. The petitions will be filed at the City Clerk's office on the 2nd floor of One Centre Street at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, September 2nd. A press conference will follow at 11:00 a.m. on the steps of City Hall.
SRAC filed a lawsuit against the City and the Center for Animal Care & Control (CACC) earlier this year over Freedom of Information requests denied by the CACC. State Court Judge Diane Lebedeff is expected to rule shortly.
# # #
ANIMAL WELFARE GROUP SUES CITY
OVER BALLOT INITIATIVE REFUSAL
Coalition charges City Clerk, Election Board
with inaccurate signature count, quashing referendum
September 22, 1997 -- Responding to years of gross neglect and mismanagement by the City in running the animal shelter system, a grass roots coalition of animal advocates, the Shelter Reform Action Committee (SRAC), submitted 75,215 petition signatures for a ballot initiative proposing a new City Department of Animal Affairs to improve conditions for the City's homeless pets. 50,000 valid signatures are required to put a referendum item on the ballot. Carlos Cuevos, the City Clerk, notified SRAC that 34,000 of the signatures do not qualify and that he was refusing to put the issue to the voters in November.
After analyzing photocopies of the petitions which the Board of Elections has purported to review, SRAC has filed suit against the City charging the City Clerk and the Board of Elections with illegally denying thousands of valid signatures, effectively keeping the referendum choice from NYC voters. An elections process expert hired by SRAC advised everything about the way the Clerk's accounting was documented was highly irregular. Signature witnesses were deemed invalid for no apparent reason, striking out whole petition sheets without justification. Election board workers were given poor quality photocopies of hundreds of petitions resulting in many more signatures being deemed invalid as illegible. SRAC volunteers checked records on Election Board computers for more than a week to confirm the widespread errors.
The referendum has met with wide approval from humane groups and sympathetic politicians alike, receiving endorsements from City Council members Gifford Miller (Man.), Jerome X. O'Donovan (S.I.) and Contracts Committee chair Kathryn Freed (Man.). Councilmember Freed's committee recently concluded a nine-month investigation into the City's animal shelters, confirming many of the criticisms of animal advocates. For a copy of the committee's report, entitled "Dying For Homes: Animal Care And Control In New York City," call 788-7016.
Julie Van Ness, president of United Action for Animals, and SRAC treasurer, says "the shift of animal control responsibilities from the Department of Health to a Department of Animal Affairs will give the City the best possible opportunity to humanely solve the pet over population problem." The referendum was brought under Section 40 of the City Charter, which permits creation of new City offices.
After a week of reviewing the thousands of photocopied petitions provided by the City Clerk's office, it became clear that the 50,000 signature requirement was met. SRAC, represented by the law firm of Dewey Ballantine, filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court that seeks a court order directing the City Clerk to put the referendum item on the November ballot. Justice David Saxe is expected to rule on the issue this month.
# # #
SAD TAILS OF THE CITY:
VOLUNTEERS BARRED FROM HELPING
N.Y.C.'S CAGED POUND PUPS
Fired for blowing the whiste on inhumane treatment
October 24, l 996 -- Reeling from recent press exposes highly critical of its management, officials at The Center For Animal Care and Control (CACC) have punished whistleblowers by firing the people who volunteered their time, money and services helping the animals confined to the NYC Shelters.
The volunteers were the only conduit to fresh air, sunshine and touch for the caged animals languishing in shelters eyewitnesses call inhumane and unsanitary. Medium-size and large dogs now sit imprisoned, some in 3x3 foot cages, without being walked for indefinite periods. The law requires adequate food, water and exercise for all shelter animals. CACC officials admit they cannot comply.
For over a year and a half these individuals have been traveling to the East Harlem Shelter to volunteer in an emotionally devastating atmosphere to try and help these animals. One volunteer spent thousands of dollars in promotions and for months walked all over the city to distribute his own advertising, because the CACC was not. He also produced a CD of the sounds of animals inside the shelter howling and crying out, which has received attention on the Internet from as far away as the Netherlands. Another arranged to have major improvements made to the dog run, which was so old and poorly designed it could not even be accessed from the shelter itself and was therefore hardly ever used, raising thousands of dollars for this entirely on her own. Two more volunteers spent all their free time and money filming, editing and producing a cable show at the shelter which led to over a hundred adoptions. Through rain, heat and freezing cold, another came to the shelter five days a week to walk the dogs; another would stay until l l'o clock at night (after her regular job), to groom the unkempt and matted dogs so they would have a chance at adoption.
Since the CACC is a City agency -- the Health, Sanitation, and Deputy Police Commissioners sit on the CACC Board of Directors, appointed by the Mayor -- humane groups are crying foul because CACC is supposed to have an open-door policy, yet cameras are now banned and wards shut from public view. Since taxpayers fund the CACC, the fired volunteers have joined other animal advocates to form the Shelter Reform Action Committee, and pledge to file a class-action lawsuit to protect the taxpayers' and the animals' interests.
# # #
DIRECTOR OF NYC ANIMAL SHELTER SYSTEM
RESIGNS ON EVE OF CITY COUNCIL HEARING.
Claims of mismanagement and conflicts of interest
plagued former DOH bureaucrat since 1994 appointment.
February 18, 1997 -- After more than two years of heated criticism from many members of the humane community, Martin B. Kurtz, the former Health Dept. official appointed to run the Center for Animal Care and Control (CACC), the nation's largest animal shelter system, has resigned effective this month. Mr. Kurtz was a lightning rod for controversy since his initial appointment in September 1994, because the Health Department oversaw the formation of the CACC for the Mayor, and Mr. Kurtz had no prior experience managing a shelter system.
Mr. Kurtz was previously the head of the DOH's Department of Veterinary Public Health Services, whose principal function is monitoring animal bites and rabies, and, more recently, dog licensing. Mr. Kurtz was also the Health Dept. official charged with overseeing the City's annual $4 million "animal control" contract with the ASPCA until 1994 when the "A" declined to renew the 100-year old relationship. In recent years, the ASPCA-built shelters in Brooklyn and Manhattan became increasingly criticized for their substandard conditions resulting in "an inhumane nightmare for the animals and employees who worked there, which they tried to keep quiet," according to Liz Grayson of The Animal Connection, Inc., an Upper East Side rescue group. "When we blew the whistle on the current conditions by talking to reporters in September, we were fired by Kurtz for going public," former CACC volunteer Jane Colton confirms.
Many of his critics blame Mr. Kurtz for allowing such substandard conditions to exist in the first place. "For Marty Kurtz to defend two years of dismal conditions by blaming them as ones he inherited is preposterously hypocritical," says Gary Kaskel, who once brought a Federal lawsuit seeking Kurtz' removal from the Health. Dept. based on his "extreme bias" against pet owners. "He's a real bureaucrat," says Kaskel, "interested it seems more in preserving his power and his job than in the welfare of animals."
"Marty Kurtz has the blood of more than 100,000 helpless animals on his hands because he took a job for which he knew he was not qualified, a despicable act," says Julie Van Ness of United Action for Animals. "The Health Department is in the business of protecting people, not animals, so the welfare of animals is not the Health Department's concern. But, ultimately it comes back to the Mayor, who really controls these appointments. It's no accident that the Commissioner of Sanitation is on the CACC board of directors. The CACC has been run like one more carting operation. Pick up and dispose -- that is, pick up and kill."
Last year, it is estimated the CACC destroyed more than 50,000 dogs and cats, the vast majority of which were healthy and adoptable. But even those statistics were the subject of dispute. "The CACC has a huge credibility problem," says Livi French of The Caring Corps. "Much of it had to do with trust, or the rather the lack of engendered by its predecessor. What with the historically sloppy recordkeeping that's still practiced, together with the Dept. of Health's heavy-handed omnipresence, plus the inherent nature of statistics to be twisted into just about anything, no one takes NYC shelter numbers at face value."
After months of pressure, the City Council's Contracts Committee, headed by Kathryn Freed, began a formal investigation of the CACC last year. A public hearing was promised for early 1997. Freed's investigators claim they are being slowed by uncooperative DOH officials delaying the production of documents. The Shelter Reform Action Committee (SRAC) will file a lawsuit in State Court this month seeking to declare the CACC subject to the Freedom of Information Laws, an obligation it denies despite an opinion from the NY State Committee on Open Government to the contrary. SRAC plans other legal action to follow.
# # #
HUMANE GROUP SUES CITY & SHELTER SYSTEM
OVER ACCESS TO INFORMATION, STATUS AS CITY AGENCY.
Center for Animal Care & Control accused of operating in
secrecy to cover its mismanagement, misdeeds.
February 27, 1997 -- A coalition of animal advocates filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking a court order declaring the Center for Animal Care and Control (CACC) be deemed a City agency for the purposes of accessing information through the Freedom of Information Laws. CACC has denied numerous document requests from animal advocates looking into the published statistics on animals taken in, adopted and euthanized by the City Shelter System, which critics and insiders claim are inaccurate and deliberately misleading.
In 1994, Mayor Giuliani incorporated the Center for Animal Care & Control and appointed the Health, Sanitation and Deputy Police Commisssioners to permanently sit on its board. A multi-million dollar contract was then awarded to the CACC through the Dept. of Health. Charges of mismanagement, cruelty to animals and conflicts of interest have surrounded the shelter operation ever since. The recent resignation of CACC's executive director Martin B. Kurtz, a former Health Dept. bureaucrat, came after an independent management consultant's report gave CACC extremely low marks.
The City Council has been conducting a formal investigation of complaints about the CACC and a public hearing of the Contracts Committee headed by Kathryn Freed has been promised at its conclusion.
# # #
CITIZENS KICK OFF BALLOT INITIATIVE
TO FORM NYC DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL AFFAIRS
Current Shelter System run by Mayoral appointments
declared intolerable zone of inhumane mismanagement
Friday, April 18, 1997 -- Responding to years of what animal advocates say is a callous indifference by NYC government to the welfare of animals that end up in city shelters and then killed -- some 40,000 a year -- a coalition of humane groups and individuals spent four months with a team of lawyers writing new legislation which will amend the City Charter to create a Department of Animal Affairs to advocate for lost and stray animals, perform animal control functions and run the city animal shelters.
The highly controversial Center for Animal Care & Control (CACC), which was formed by the Giuliani administration in late 1994 to take over the shelters from the ASPCA, has been without an executive director for almost two months, after a disastrous record of mismanagement and sloppy recordkeeping. Critics claim that naming the Sanitation Commissioner as the CACC board chairman sends the wrong message. Insiders claim the Giuliani-appointed CACC Board has failed to halt interim management from creating an atmosphere of distrust, fear and intimidation among current staff and volunteers. (Volunteers at the CACC were dismissed back in September after speaking to the press, but weren't protected by the Whistleblowers Act because they were not employees.)
It is estimated there are more than two million pet owners in NYC. The ballot initiative takes these issues directly to the voters. The mandate will attack some of the root problems for animal overpopulation and expand animal control and shelter services, and create public accountability.
# # #
Date: Wednesday, May 28, 1997
Time: Noon
Place: Steps of City Hall
Join us as101 Dalmatians
(and every other breed)
tell the Mayor & Sanitation Commissioner (CACC chairman) that
LOST AND STRAY ANIMALS ARE NOT GARBAGE
as pets and their owners show their support for
the 1997 Animal Welfare & Shelter Reform initiative
the most important legislation for NYC animals in 100 years
City Councilmember Kathryn Freed (Contracts Committee chair)
will accept a copy of the 1997 ballot initiative from a special VIP guest
prior to the June 16th public hearing on the CACC
In 1994, Mayor Giuliani formed The Center for Animal Care and Control (CACC) to take over New York City's animal shelter system from the ASPCA. CACC was awarded a contract by the Health Dept. paid for with tax dollars. Instead of appointing experienced professionals, the Mayor appointed city officials with no experience or knowledge in animal care to run these shelters. For the past two years, the Sanitation Commissioner has been Chairman of the Board of the CACC.
The result: Fewer than 20% of the dogs and cats that enter these shelters survive. Before they die, these animals languish in crumbling and diseased facilities without proper medical care or housing. More than 100,000 healthy, adoptable animals have been needlessly killed, frozen and burned since 1995. The CACC does minimal advertising or fundraising to promote their adoptions. The Village Voice called CACC "The cruelest animal rescue system in the country."
# # #
Date: Monday, June 16, 1997
Time: 11 a.m.
Place: City Hall - 2nd floor Council Chambers
CITY COUNCIL HOLDS PUBLIC HEARING ON
NYC ANIMAL SHELTER SYSTEM
Center for Animal Care and Control subject of 9-month
investigation by Contracts Committee.
Animal advocates and aggrieved pet owners to testify
on mismanagement and corruption.
In 1994, Mayor Giuliani formed The Center for Animal Care and Control (CACC) to take over New York City's animal shelter system from the ASPCA. CACC was then awarded a contract by the Health Dept. paid for with tax dollars. Instead of appointing experienced professionals, the Mayor appointed city officials with no experience or knowledge in animal care to run these shelters. The Sanitation Commissioner is the chairman of the CACC board of directors.
The result: Fewer than 20% of the dogs and cats that enter these shelters survive. Before they die, these animals languish in crumbling and diseased facilities without proper medical care or housing. Thousands of animals have been needlessly killed, frozen and burned since 1995. The CACC does minimal advertising or fundraising to promote their adoptions. The Village Voice called CACC "The cruelest animal rescue system in the country."
FACTOID:
NYC spends only 67¢ per person annually on animal care & control.
The national average is $1.36 (Source: National Animal Control Association)
# # #
CACC BOARD MEMBERS FIRED BY MAYOR
FOLLOWING CITY COUNCIL TESTIMONY
Not-for-profit legal status of City animal shelters at issue.
Animal advocates point to Mayor's abuse of power
to maintain mismanagement and corruption.
June 16, 1997 -- In an extraordinary and brash move, 1st Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro fired Center for Animal Care & Control board members Dr. Louise Murray and Rosemary Joyce within hours of their testimony at a public hearing of Kathryn Freed's contracts committee today. The two board members were critical of the conduct of Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty, who was obstructing the hiring of a new executive director on orders from the Mayor. Commissioner Doherty, the CACC chairman, walked out in protest prior to the critical testimony, and returned later to testify that he didn't recall the same timeline facts as had been recounted earlier. Commissioner Doherty received sporatic jeers and laughter during his two hours before the Council committee.
In response to the firings, Councilmember Freed has called a press conference to discuss her displeasure with the Mayor's action. The animal protection community cites this as just another move by a callous and indifferent Mayor who doesn't care about the welfare of animals, and vows to make the Mayor's conduct an election year issue. There are more than two million pet owners in NYC.
# # #
CITIZENS FILE ANIMAL REFORM BALLOT INITIATIVE
FOR NOVEMBER ELECTION
Grass roots campaign gathers 75,000 signatures
in four months on behalf of homeless pets
September 2, 1997 -- Responding to years of what animal advocates say is a callous indifference by municipal government to the welfare of animals that end up in city shelters and then killed -- more than 40,000 a year -- a coalition of humane groups and individuals are asking the voters to amend the City Charter to create a Department of Animal Affairs to advocate for lost and stray animals, perform animal control functions and run the city animal shelters. Such department will have a mandate to find humane solutions to the pet overpopulation problem, principally through spay and neuter, humane education and expanded adoption programs. An independent oversight commission will ensure public accountability for the activities of this new agency.
75,000 New Yorkers signed petitions to put this issue to the voters in November. The petitions will be filed at the City Clerk's office on the 2nd floor of One Centre Street at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, September 2nd. A press conference will follow at 11:00 a.m. on the steps of City Hall.
SRAC filed a lawsuit against the City and the Center for Animal Care & Control (CACC) earlier this year over Freedom of Information requests denied by the CACC. State Court Judge Diane Lebedeff is expected to rule shortly.
# # #
ANIMAL WELFARE GROUP SUES CITY
OVER BALLOT INITIATIVE REFUSAL
Coalition charges City Clerk, Election Board
with inaccurate signature count, quashing referendum
September 22, 1997 -- Responding to years of gross neglect and mismanagement by the City in running the animal shelter system, a grass roots coalition of animal advocates, the Shelter Reform Action Committee (SRAC), submitted 75,215 petition signatures for a ballot initiative proposing a new City Department of Animal Affairs to improve conditions for the City's homeless pets. 50,000 valid signatures are required to put a referendum item on the ballot. Carlos Cuevos, the City Clerk, notified SRAC that 34,000 of the signatures do not qualify and that he was refusing to put the issue to the voters in November.
After analyzing photocopies of the petitions which the Board of Elections has purported to review, SRAC has filed suit against the City charging the City Clerk and the Board of Elections with illegally denying thousands of valid signatures, effectively keeping the referendum choice from NYC voters. An elections process expert hired by SRAC advised everything about the way the Clerk's accounting was documented was highly irregular. Signature witnesses were deemed invalid for no apparent reason, striking out whole petition sheets without justification. Election board workers were given poor quality photocopies of hundreds of petitions resulting in many more signatures being deemed invalid as illegible. SRAC volunteers checked records on Election Board computers for more than a week to confirm the widespread errors.
The referendum has met with wide approval from humane groups and sympathetic politicians alike, receiving endorsements from City Council members Gifford Miller (Man.), Jerome X. O'Donovan (S.I.) and Contracts Committee chair Kathryn Freed (Man.). Councilmember Freed's committee recently concluded a nine-month investigation into the City's animal shelters, confirming many of the criticisms of animal advocates. For a copy of the committee's report, entitled "Dying For Homes: Animal Care And Control In New York City," call 788-7016.
Julie Van Ness, president of United Action for Animals, and SRAC treasurer, says "the shift of animal control responsibilities from the Department of Health to a Department of Animal Affairs will give the City the best possible opportunity to humanely solve the pet over population problem." The referendum was brought under Section 40 of the City Charter, which permits creation of new City offices.
After a week of reviewing the thousands of photocopied petitions provided by the City Clerk's office, it became clear that the 50,000 signature requirement was met. SRAC, represented by the law firm of Dewey Ballantine, filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court that seeks a court order directing the City Clerk to put the referendum item on the November ballot. Justice David Saxe is expected to rule on the issue this month.
# # #
