NYCACC: A Cat Killing Machine

I have an odd perspective on New York City Animal Care and Control (NYCACC) being that I am mostly an outsider who comes in to pull and transport animals, and as such there are some things about their internal workings that are obvious to some that get by me. Here’s one of the more glaring ones.

I was recently part of a rescue that pulled 108 cats, mostly kittens and their moms, from NYCACC. Some of the kittens were young, bottle babies. Some were nursing. Many were weaned from their mother and able to eat on their own, ready for adoption. Kitten season is killing season at NYCACC and the kill lists lately have been quite large, up to 53 cats on one particular evening. Despite their repeated bleating that “no healthy animals are killed at ACC” a quick look at the lists will confirm that they do indeed kill many healthy animals on a daily basis, as I have shown before.

Silly me, I assumed the rescues were part of the relief valve that was taking overflow that NYCACC couldn’t handle when it turns out that they’re not even trying. Recently I was reviewing some email threads that had been forwarded to me where it was mentioned in a casual aside that as a general rule, NYCACC doesn’t adopt out kittens.

Wait, what?

That can’t be right. In Manhattan, I’m rarely in the adoption wards, as they are upstairs and out of the way – most of my time is spent on the ground floor in the lobby and offices there.

So I went there. The cat adoptions ward of NYCACC Manhattan is a small room with cages lining all 4 walls.

The Manhattan adoptions ward has a total of 60 cages. On the day I visited, 4 of those cages were marked for animals who were in surgery. 13 of those cages sat empty, with clean litter boxes and no paperwork on the door. And not a single one of them contained a cat under one year old.

I couldn’t believe it. I asked the attendant, an NYCACC employee, if they had any kittens available, and she said no. I asked how often they had them and she said every once in a while, and that she might be getting a pair of 10 month old cats in a few days. I asked if they ever had young kittens, just weaned, and she said no.

NYCACC is killing kittens that they have made not the slightest effort to save; even the ones who require no special care – weaned from their mothers, ready to go. They are bypassing the adoption ward and going straight to the kill list, these highly adoptable animals – sought after by adopters and commanding a higher adoption fee. They are killing them for no reason at all.

Even monsters usually work in their own best interests; it doesn’t take a genius to see that saving animals who fly out the door with minimal promotion and top adoption fees is a no-brainer. How could they justify this? I emailed Executive Director Julie Bank and Director of Communications Richard Gentles and asked how this could be. Here is the response I received from Richard Gentles:

We sincerely wish we could find homes for all the kittens that come to our Centers, but sadly, many are not ready for general adoption when they arrive. This is one reason we’re trying to grow our foster program, and why our New Hope partnerships are so important.

Healthy kittens at least eight-weeks old do get adopted very quickly, either to the public or to our New Hope partners. A healthy two-month old kitten moved to our adoption ward at noon could very well be adopted by 1pm that same day — so even in the midst of kitten season, you won’t always see cats less than one-year old available. Also, cats that come in as strays are held for 72 hours (to allow guardians to claim lost pets). This means that even if a kennel is available in the adoption ward, we would not be able to move them until the holds are up. (When potential adopters visit, we encourage them to consider taking home an older pet, as even slightly more mature cats are often ignored despite the numerous benefits they offer).

A two-week old kitten has vastly different needs than a two-month old kitten, with the former requiring resources we regrettably do not have. They need much more socialization than older cats, and many are unable to eat on their own and require bottle-feeding, which cannot be provided in the centers. If they can eat on their own, kittens may still be too young (under eight weeks) and underweight (under two pounds) to be spayed or neutered, and it is required by law that every animal leaving a NYC shelter be altered. At the same time, they are much more susceptible to infectious diseases. For all these reasons, it is imperative that very young kittens not stay in our centers, and the majority of them are transferred out. We reach out to our New Hope partners, sending pleas and alerts, and we also try to find placement with AC&C foster parents. We currently have foster volunteers caring for some kittens, but we always need more people to get involved.

We encourage more animal placement organizations in the community to become New Hope partners, and we urge animal lovers to join our foster program and open their homes to animals in need. If you’re interested in helping out with our volunteer team, please visit http://nycacc.org/Volunteer.htm. We recently advertised the foster program in Metro, and will continue to promote it widely in the coming months.

Let me parse some of the statements given here.

We sincerely wish we could find homes for all the kittens that come to our Centers, but sadly, many are not ready for general adoption when they arrive.

Saving animals is too much work. Also, we kill kittens.

A healthy two-month old kitten moved to our adoption ward at noon could very well be adopted by 1pm that same day — so even in the midst of kitten season, you won’t always see cats less than one-year old available.

Except that the staff in those adoption wards say that they don’t ever have two month old kittens… and ten month old kittens *may* arrive in a few days in a week when so many kittens are kill-listed.

Also, cats that come in as strays are held for 72 hours (to allow guardians to claim lost pets). This means that even if a kennel is available in the adoption ward, we would not be able to move them until the holds are up.

I’m confused: so they can’t be moved to the adoptions ward, but they can be moved to the kill list?

(When potential adopters visit, we encourage them to consider taking home an older pet, as even slightly more mature cats are often ignored despite the numerous benefits they offer).

Adopting an older pet appears to be encouraged by not offering anything else.

A two-week old kitten has vastly different needs than a two-month old kitten, with the former requiring resources we regrettably do not have. They need much more socialization than older cats, and many are unable to eat on their own and require bottle-feeding, which cannot be provided in the centers.

Of course it could, but it would be better provided in foster homes, which I don’t think you’re actually looking for.

If they can eat on their own, kittens may still be too young (under eight weeks) and underweight (under two pounds) to be spayed or neutered, and it is required by law that every animal leaving a NYC shelter be altered.

Here it is folks: the big lie. This is actually not a city law he is referring to, but a state law, and that law very specifically provides for young animals to be adopted out unaltered with a security deposit given and a contract to bring the animal back for altering once they are of age. This is how every other shelter in New York does this: by taking an S/N deposit and requiring that people come back. The “it’s against the law!” argument is quite simply a lie.

At the same time, they are much more susceptible to infectious diseases. For all these reasons, it is imperative that very young kittens not stay in our centers, and the majority of them are transferred out.

How about the not-so-young kittens? Oh, and how about addressing the real issue: the disease that runs rampant and unchecked in the shelters? Other shelters have very young kittens that don’t regularly die in their cages.

Horrifying.

I’m calling their bluff. If NYCACC needs cat fosters in order to stop killing highly adoptable kittens, count me in. My apartment is hardly ideal for caring for kittens, but it beats death, doesn’t it? I wandered over to their foster page, which is horribly confusing. It seems I’m available for the earliest next orientation, which is on July 16. That seems like an awfully long time to wait with so many animals dying.

Cloud, six weeks old. Killed at NYCACC.

Peter, five weeks old. Killed at NYCACC.

Rue, 5 weeks old. Killed at NYCACC.

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