In a press release Sunday, April 19th, Comptroller Stringer stood accompanied by Animal Advocates on Riverside Drive at 72nd Street at 1:00pm to reveal an audit of New York City’s Animal Care and Control noting unsafe conditions at the city’s shelters.
New York City’s Animal Care & Control (AC&C) is a designated non-profit corporation that operates the city’s animal shelter system under a five-year, $51.9 million contract with the Department of Health and Mental Hygeine). The contract requires it to rescue the city’s homeless and abandoned animals, as well as examine, test, treat, spay, neuter, and provide humane care. AC&C has three full-service animal shelters in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island; and two receiving centers, one in the Bronx and one in Queens.
Stringer announced “We found expired and missing drugs, hazardous conditions, and vaccines stored next to frozen remains – it’s enough to make anyone sick. How we treat animals in need is a reflection of our decency as a society and AC&C is failing in that important responsibility.”
Mislabeled and Mismanaged Drugs
His website’s newsroom reveals the audit in detail. The audit examined four months (December 2013 – March 2014) of New York City’s Animal Care & Control’s controlled substance logs, and shelter conditions were observed on several occasions between March and November 2014.
The audit revealed “499 occasions in which expired drugs were given to animals.” The Manhattan shelter distributed 489 expired tablets of Tramadol, an opioid, and in Brooklyn, expired doses of Diazepam, a form of valium, were given to at least three animals. Ninety-three bottles of expired controlled substances were not removed, some as old as 13 years. Vaccines also sat along food and beverages, as well as frozen animal remains.
Extreme Overcrowding
In addition, the shelters revealed overcrowding, cages stacked in hallways, and a faulty ventilation system that does not control the spread of disease (Kennel Cough puts once healthy Animals on AC&C’s At-Risk Page, also known as the Euthanasia list). Auditors also examined AC&C’s financial operations for Financial Year 2013 and “sought to determine if it had adequate controls to ensure proper operational and financial accountability,” questioning unaccounted expenses such as undocumented credit card charges, interest charges from late payments, and $221,000 in rental expenses annually since 2012 for a separate office location in Lower Manhattan.
A Solution for NYC Animals and Beyond
While the situation for stray and homeless animals in New York City’s shelters is deplorable, these conditions fit in with a larger trend seen across the U.S. There are over 70 million stray animals wandering the streets of the U.S., of which only six to eight million get taken into shelters and a fraction of that ever find good, loving homes.
We can all help to improve conditions for animals by opting to adopt from shelters and never shop for a pet. Additionally, it cannot be stressed enough that when you choose to take in an animal, you are making a life-long commitment to them, so please take these considerations into account before adoption. Sadly, many of the animals who end up in shelters are surrendered after their guardians realize they can no longer care for them.
To help NYC shelter animals in need, consider adopting of fostering an animal from the AC&C’s At-Risk Page. Not only will you be gaining a friend but also saving a life. Please show your support for Comptroller Stringer’s unwavering dedication to the animals of NYC by liking his Facebook page.
Lead image source: Scott Larsen/Flickr
New York City’s Animal Care & Control (AC&C) is a designated non-profit corporation that operates the city’s animal shelter system under a five-year, $51.9 million contract with the Department of Health and Mental Hygeine). The contract requires it to rescue the city’s homeless and abandoned animals, as well as examine, test, treat, spay, neuter, and provide humane care. AC&C has three full-service animal shelters in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island; and two receiving centers, one in the Bronx and one in Queens.
After a scathing four month audit there should be no doubt that NY ACC is being horribly mismanaged and that animals are suffering and dying painful grisly deaths. Why is there no accountability? If directors, boards, vets and other employees are not doing their jobs they need to be fired! NY ACC needs all new leadership NOW! The same problems were noted years ago in other audits but nothing has ever changed. PLEASE NYC CITIZENS demand that the leadership of NY ACC be fired and also demand that the Department of Health be dismissed as well! Let\’s recruit compassionate leadership that respects the lives of innocent animals! Please don\’t waste this opportunity to demand change!
How absolutely tragic is this!!! These poor creatures – as though life for them isn\’t tough enough and now we find out about this!
Surely these "guardians"should face some form of punishment???
This is the time to make the biggest stink we can to stop this slaughter house. E-mail, call, use social media to shame these bastards into treating NY animals humanely.
AMEN!!!!! KAREN