NYC AC&C MAJOR FAILURES

PETITION: (Major failures being vaccination, spay/neuter, adoption, assesments)

[BORDATELLA VACCINES]

The unnecessary neglect, cruelty and murder in NYC animal shelters defile basic animal welfare rules. The future of our City and the people that trust the authorities to be honest and provide safety and medical treatment is betrayed on a regular basis. Shelters are supposed to be stopovers on the way to new lives - not places where dogs and cats get sick in a very short time and are abusively murdered because of a ciy's neglect and apathy.

Animals brought into NYC shelters are subjected to an ever-present epidemic of kennel cough (also known as CIRD ) which is used as an excuse to murder dogs as young as 6 months old. Dogs brought into NYC shelters healthy are sick within 4-6 days and often killed one day after beginning treatment for kennel cough. The Bordatella vaccine is easily and inexpensively administered orally or in the nose. Using a spray method causes the virus to spread. The Bordatella vaccine should be administered ON INTAKE because it takes 2-4 weeks to be effective. Too often, dogs are executed within 5 days. Therefore, inoculating dogs with the Bordatella vaccine and killing them before it becomes effective is a systematic violation of the law and a waste of medication and taxpayer funds and a plot to find an excuse to kill.

A solution will require adding adjoining space to the existing shelters in Brooklyn and Manhattan, because in order for the vaccine to be administered upon entering the shelters and giving it the necessary 2-4 weeks to become effective, there needs to be the addition of an isolation ward so that dogs do not become infected at the current staggering rates for which they are illogically killed. Of course this would apply also to the two new proposed/promised shelters for Queens and the Bronx.  Failure to isolate infected dogs and releasing them with medication into the general population with adopters is a public health risk because this makes private citizens' pets susceptible to the virus.

The current strain of kennel cough in the shelters is resistant to the shelter-prescribed Doxycycline and many outside vets don't know that only Clavamox is working for this current strain. This compels private citizens to spend unnecessary sums of money when their pets come in contact with shelter animals. Kennel cough is an airborne virus.  The NYC Department of Health must and should issue a Citywide bulletin about the new strain of kennel cough proliferating in the shelters, so that the dogs of private citizens are not administered the incorrect medication if and when they get sick. Kennel cough can easily morph into an upper respiratory infection or pneumonia and result in death. Therefore, isolating dogs affected with kennel cough is a critical factor from keeping the infection from spreading.

[SPAY/NEUTERING]

Spaying and neutering immediately after intake and before a dog becomes infected with kennel cough is also a primary failure in NYC shelters. Too often dogs are released to the public not neutered or spayed. Requiring people to leave a $150 deposit on the condition that they return to have their pet neutered is not a deterrent to dog fighters that never return. There's a greater profit to be made from dog fighting. Many don’t return simply due to laziness. A key point is that any new shelters built will inevitably overflow twice as fast without the spay/neuter enforcement and follow up.

[ADOPTION]

The adoption team at the AC&C is a total failure when shelter adoption counselors steer potential adopters away from “undesirables”.  There is not an efficient team that works within the AC&C to contact the Rescue organizations, and communicate with the public regarding adoption events.  The New Hope department needs to do more. The responsibility falls in the hands of an organization called “Urgent Part 2-Death Row Dogs” that posts the cats and dogs online, and the caring citizens who frantically try to contact rescues and plead for these lives on their own pages. The AC&C lies about their efforts, as you can see below in the stats for the month of April.  The AC&C must hire people who care about animal welfare in the shelter system for starters, not a Chief Vet with a resume that includes extensive experience in lab research and vivisection. This might actually encourage the existing staff to have more interest in saving the lives of animals.

"During 23 days of April, 2014, the NYC AC&C murdered 124 innocent animals. During the 4 day period from April 20-23, a private animal advocacy site named Urgent Part 2-Death Row dogs, NYC rescues and private citizens saved one hundred sixty-three the NYC AC&C would happily have thrown away. “          -Lorraine Graziano Crimando

[ASSESSMENTS]

In addition to the lack of medical care for both dogs and cats, there needs to be an assessment policy review. Often, dogs and cats are killed for no reason. In 2014 a dog named Jasmine was assessed with a perfect behavioral rating and yet was killed while lactating and her puppies went into an unknown zone. The same thing happens regularly to cats with litters.

 There is also an obvious disparity between staff assessments of dangerous and friendly animals and the volunteers who actually interact with them. Dogs can sense who cares and who does not, as basic as that seems.  Too many dogs are terrified in the shelters and whether this is instigated or not, dogs should not be assessed in a fearful and/or traumatized state. It has to be said that dogs are so mistreated at AC&C as if they have no feelings, that they are killed without sedation. The death is painful.

By example, please read the blog below on the disparity between AC&C staff assessment and volunteer assessment for a dog named Edgar Allen. A volunteer wrote: "WOW what a kind, NOBLE DOG EDGAR ALLEN! He is spectacular all around: Spectacularly kind to the people he meets as well as the dogs he passes, spectacularly well-mannered (he seems to glide on the leash beside his walker, never leaving your side, as well as house trained), and he has the MOST SPECTACULAR TEMPERAMENT: EASILY, GLADLY AND GENTLY OFFERING AFFECTION, but so serene " Edgar Allen resisted the rough handling of the shelter staff and his 'crime' was that he kept taking his leash in his mouth. This earned Edgar Allen an aggression rating and without so much as a second behavioral opinion or final medical exam, Edgar Allen was murdered at just 2 years old. He was being "treated" for kennel cough as well for a very short time.

This is not an isolated case. This is a regular occurrence with AC&C operations. Excuses are always found to justify murder - whether it is a kennel cough epidemic easily avoidable with a Bordatella vaccine, or prejudicial behavioral assessments that put an undignified end to their lives.

The pathetic plight of homeless cats falls into a realm of abject neglect, incarceration that results in cage aggression akin to human "cabin fever," and isolation and the kind of fear that brings out the worst in animal behavior through terror and confusion.  Cats react to what they perceive as possible threats and end up mishandled or are blatantly abused. PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION FOR CHANGE AND NECCESARY FUNDING.