From WABC 7online.com, Tuesday, July 2, 2002
Will Changing City Rules Help or Hurt Animals in its Shelter?
(New York-WABC, July 2, 2002) -- Budget problems are forcing big changes at a center responsible for stray animals. City leaders say those changes will lead to better care, but some animal rights activists tell a different story.
Gary Kaskel is an animal rights activist who's been working to make things better in the city's animal shelters, but he thinks a new bill quietly signed into law by the mayor this week will do anything but that. The law cuts the shelter's hours of operation in half to save money. Gary Kaskel, Shelter Reform Action Committee: "We're troubled by the law, in that a 12-hour day leaves 12 hours in which animals could be hit by cars or injured in streets and there would basically be no where to take them."
The law also delays the building of new shelters in the Bronx and Queens for another four years and it reduces the shelter's adoption program from seven to five days a week. It's a program that's already been criticized in a recent city audit for not being aggressive enough with nearly 70 percent of shelter animals currently put down, many because of overcrowding.
Today, the mayor was quick to defend the new law and the shelter's adoption record, saying the real problem is making tough choices to control the city's deficit. He says he doesn't feel that cutting back on the shelter's hours will have a negative impact. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, (R) New York: "There is no impact or should not be any impact, other than in the most minor ways and we do have to make choices."
The city council's health committee chair tells us members did push for some compromises in the law to actually save animals. For instance, originally the shelter could euthanize animals after 48 hours but now that time is extended to include hours of actual operation. With new, 12-hour days, there's now a minimum four day waiting period. Councilwoman Christine Quinn, (D) Manhattan: "I absolutely think because of our bill, animals will be kept alive longer and also because of the law we passed, the council will now receive monthly reporting on how many animals are euthanized."
The council wants hearings to review the shelters later this summer.
Will Changing City Rules Help or Hurt Animals in its Shelter?
(New York-WABC, July 2, 2002) -- Budget problems are forcing big changes at a center responsible for stray animals. City leaders say those changes will lead to better care, but some animal rights activists tell a different story.
Gary Kaskel is an animal rights activist who's been working to make things better in the city's animal shelters, but he thinks a new bill quietly signed into law by the mayor this week will do anything but that. The law cuts the shelter's hours of operation in half to save money. Gary Kaskel, Shelter Reform Action Committee: "We're troubled by the law, in that a 12-hour day leaves 12 hours in which animals could be hit by cars or injured in streets and there would basically be no where to take them."
The law also delays the building of new shelters in the Bronx and Queens for another four years and it reduces the shelter's adoption program from seven to five days a week. It's a program that's already been criticized in a recent city audit for not being aggressive enough with nearly 70 percent of shelter animals currently put down, many because of overcrowding.
Today, the mayor was quick to defend the new law and the shelter's adoption record, saying the real problem is making tough choices to control the city's deficit. He says he doesn't feel that cutting back on the shelter's hours will have a negative impact. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, (R) New York: "There is no impact or should not be any impact, other than in the most minor ways and we do have to make choices."
The city council's health committee chair tells us members did push for some compromises in the law to actually save animals. For instance, originally the shelter could euthanize animals after 48 hours but now that time is extended to include hours of actual operation. With new, 12-hour days, there's now a minimum four day waiting period. Councilwoman Christine Quinn, (D) Manhattan: "I absolutely think because of our bill, animals will be kept alive longer and also because of the law we passed, the council will now receive monthly reporting on how many animals are euthanized."
The council wants hearings to review the shelters later this summer.