The New York City Animal Care and Control is a high kill shelter system, which has care centers in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. Daily euthanasia of many cats and dogs is a reality at the NYC ACC, sometimes for no other reason than a very preventable and treatable upper respiratory infection (commonly known as the "shelter cold"). The NYC ACC has one of the highest rates of animal euthanasia in the country.
The euthanasia rate at NYC ACC could be reduced by:
1) adopting more sanitary measures and isolation practices to curb the incidence of URI among the animals;
2) offering free or low-cost spay/neuter programs to members of the public;
3) affording members of the public and rescue organizations longer periods of time to find placements for animals slated for euthanasia;
4) placing more emphasis on saving the highly adoptable animals which find themselves on the euthanasia list only because of a very treatable URI;
5) providing full service veterinary care to the shelter animals; and
6) opening additional shelter care centers, perhaps in the Bronx and/or Queens, which would serve to ease the high animal volume at the existing shelters (thereby decreasing the daily euthanasia rate and improving an animal’s chance of being adopted at any given care center).
Best Friends Animal Society, the largest animal sanctuary in the U.S., has been working collaboratively with animal rescue groups and city shelters to to make the city of Los Angeles no-kill by 2017 and the entire state of Utah no-kill in the foreseeable future. We see no reason why the NYC ACC cannot also work towards this goal. Please urge Mayor De Blasio to implement overall shelter reform at NYC ACC in order to end the unnecessary killing of these innocent animals! Thank you.
