ASPCA: A New Beginning?

Posted on February 9, 2012 by jbsibley

I’ve been hearing whispers for some time now but I’ve recently confirmed it: Ed Sayres, President and CEO of the ASPCA, is looking for an exit. I’ve been able to confirm that he’s applied for at least one job outside the organization.

To New Yorkers, Ed Sayres’ tenure will likely be best remembered for his opposition to meaningful shelter reform in New York City and New York State, his arrogance in the execution of a dog named Oreo after his organization used her to raise huge amounts of money, and for the ASPCA’s role in propping up the regressive and abusive New York City Animal Care and Control – although to be fair, when the ASPCA ran city animal control, they did a considerably worse job of it. His signature initiative at the ASPCA, “Mission: Orange”, promised to take cities in America to No Kill and failed miserably. In Austin, one of the first Mission: Orange cities, killing actually increased 11% in the year after the ASPCA initiated their program. It was only once local activists rebelled against the program, ejected the ASPCA-backed city shelter director and insisted on proven No Kill strategies that Austin did finally achieve No Kill status – without the help of the ASPCA, who obstructed progress at every opportunity. Indeed, his tenure has been marked by open hostility to progress in animal welfare nationwide and the promotion of policies designed to impede it.

So now we get to envision what the ASPCA might look like in a post-Sayres mode, and I like what I see. As the dinosaurs of animal welfare get out of the way it only leaves room for improvement, and the ASPCA has a lot to offer. They’re wealthy and well known, they’re politically influential, and they have some very solid programs and some knowledgable staff. They actually do run a (small) shelter in New York City and formerly ran New York City Animal Control for around a hundred years, so they have the benefit of real-world experience that is sadly missing at the HSUS. They provide significant spay/neuter resources in the New York City area, provide grants to animal welfare organizations, and have been very active in the fight against puppy mills. They also have a lot of bloat in the form of extraneous management and bureaucracy and a lack of focus – they have their fingers in so many pies at the moment that it’s hard to say exactly what the ASPCA’s mission is.

A new leader could change all that and could sharpen their focus, and if I may I’d like to suggest a central mission for an organization that seems to have lost sight of theirs.

The No Kill revolution is here. We’re now up to 28 communities in the US saving 90% or more community-wide, saving all of the healthy and treatable pets in their communities, and not a single one of them has had significant participation in that effort by the ASPCA. Not participating in this isn’t really an option: if the ASPCA wants to keep their donors long-term, they need to get on the right side of history before their donors turn to the small, mostly local organizations that have led the No Kill revolution, as I and others continually urge animal lovers to do.

The right leader – a progressive, forward thinking leader who truly embraces strategies proven in communities throughout the US to end the killing of healthy and treatable animals – could leverage the power and reach of the ASPCA to turbo-charge the No Kill movement in America.

This is the ASPCA I imagine – and indeed, if they’d like to still be here a hundred years from now and known throughout the world as the organization that ended animal homelessness in the United States, there is little other path for them to take but to wholeheartedly embrace, promote, and capitalize on the existing successes and growing expertise of the No Kill movement.

The search for a new President and CEO is probably a bit down the road, but as a lame duck Sayres’ influence will be on the wane within the ASPCA and the list of possible successors has likely begun to be drawn up. A No Kill leader with a proven track records of lifesaving, tremendous progressive vision, and keen organizational leadership skills could lead the A into a new era of astounding success.

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Posted in ASPCA | 3 Comments

NYCACC and Maddie’s Fund: Money Ain’t a Thing

Posted on February 3, 2012 by jbsibley

Last time we looked at the relationship between Maddie’s Fund and New York City Animal Care and Control, we looked at how NYCACC data is falsified to keep the grant money flowing to the Mayor’s Alliance, and I’d suggest taking a look at that post for some basic background. Today I’m going to look a little deeper at how Maddie’s incentivizes animal adoption here in NYC, why their project has been simultaneously a runaway success and an abject failure, and why they can never leave. Further, I’ll demonstrate that despite being criminally underfunded by the City of New York ACC is not motivated by money and, in fact, leaves easily earned grant money on the table.

This is the graph that really tells the story of Maddie’s involvement in NYC from their 2010 Progress Report, p. 11. The red part of the bar graph represents the number of animals adopted out to the public directly by ACC, the grey part of the graph represents the number of animals adopted out to the public by other partners obtaining those animals from ACC who share in the Maddie’s grant administered by the Mayor’s Alliance.

The grey part of that graph shows a smashing success. The number of animals pulled from ACC by Maddie’s funded organizations was just 7,672 in the baseline year of 2003 and seems to have leveled off at approximately 20,000 in recent years – a huge win.

How was this accomplished? Partially through Maddie’s-funded improvements in ACC communications with rescue organizations and transport to those rescues but primarily through direct cash incentives: in 2011, a participating rescue that pulled an animal from ACC and adopted them out received $160 in grant money per animal over their 2003 baseline number – and that is on top of the adoption fee charged by the group. While this may seem high, it’s easy to see why it would need to be – disease runs rampant at ACC (partially due to a Maddie’s policy that allows the ACC to kill sick animals while keeping their funding, leaving them little reason to clean up their act) and unexpected and extreme veterinary costs are routine for the small organizations that regularly pull animals from there – even horrific injury can go completely unnoticed by ACC staff for weeks. So high or not, and even while partially working against themselves, this payment has been sufficient to take overall adoption numbers to around the 20,000/year range and could reasonably expected to keep them in that neighborhood with adjustments for inflation for as long as Maddie’s wishes to continue paying that rate.

The bottom of the graph shows the failure. The ACC’s adoption numbers to the public also have increased – slightly. From their baseline of 4,927 adoptions in 2003 they climbed to 10,865 in 2005 and have been dropping steadily ever since, to 6,733 in 2010 . The explanation that the Mayor’s Alliance gives is that the lack of improvement is due to a drop in intake numbers, but while intake numbers have declined that still means that in 2010, with intake of 34,765 ACC managed to adopt out less than 20% of intake on their own, a rather poor showing.

ACC receives slightly different incentives; after all many of their costs are borne by the city. In 2011, they were due to receive $32 per adoption to the public over their 2003 baseline number of 4,927 adoptions. Their dropping adoption numbers have meant a steady decline in the grant money they have received yearly. Theoretically, if they could claw their way back to 2005 adoption numbers, they could have brought in $190,016 through grant incentives instead of the $57,792 that they managed to bring in in 2010. That $132,224 difference certainly could have paid for a few adoptions staff positions.

What’s painful is that improving their adoptions numbers would be so easy because they’re so spectacularly bad at it. They do not have a published phone number, so the public can’t call them to ask questions. Potential adopters who do make their way to the shelter are greeted with a smelly, chaotic environment where they are frequently treated rudely, as if their presence is an inconvenience. The shelters refuse to provide separate intake and adoptions areas, so potential adopters are treated to a parade of the most depressing things on earth as they wait… and wait… and wait. Killing animals is expensive; adopting animals out makes them money – but obviously the money isn’t a concern to them, and institutional inertia keeps them allowing animals to get sick through conditions they create so they can then kill them. It’s curious to see ACC involving themselves in questionable moneymaking schemes like coffee and tea sales and fundraising dances when some simple improvements in what should be the core of their business could have such an immediate financial impact, not just in grant money but in adoption fees.

So Maddie’s has been a grand success here in New York City: they have massively increased adoptions from ACC, mostly by paying people to take animals away from ACC. However, they’ve been unable to fundamentally influence the way in which ACC works, even when providing them with financial incentive to change their policies. Maddie’s is the iron lung keeping New York City Animal Care and Control breathing, and as long as they stick around and pump millions of dollars into New York City every year, adoptions will be up and they will be able to claim success. However, because they have never successfully addressed the fundamental flaws in ACC operations that cause the issues in the first place and encouraged reforms that would lead to lasting change and future self-sufficiency, adoptions are likely to drop like a rock the moment Maddie’s closes their checkbook and New York City will be back where we started, and the ten-year project will be judged a failure.

So make yourselves comfortable, Maddie’s Fund. With your current strategy, you’re likely to be pumping cash infusions into a fundamentally failing system for some time to come, and the improvements will only last as long as your money does.

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Posted in Cats, Dogs, New York City, No Kill, Not Funny, NYCACC, Shelter Stuff | 8 Comments

Gloria Update

Posted on February 1, 2012 by jbsibley

Gloria’s not out of the woods yet, but this little fighter continues to improve. The blood transfusion seems to have jump-started her body’s ability to produce blood cells and so far the anemia is improving and her upper respiratory infection is getting better.

She is now well enough to leave full-time medical care and recuperate at Pets Alive and continues to improve steadily. But the big news is… as long as Gloria’s improvement continues and she gains some strength, she now has a home to go to. Her adoptive mom came to visit her today.

In her new home she’ll have cats and kids to play with – now all she has to do is get well enough to go home. Keep it up, Gloria – you can do it!

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Posted in ASPCA, Cats, New York City, No Kill, NYCACC, Pets Alive, Shelter Stuff | 4 Comments

The ASPCA Comes Clean – And Makes Amends! Plus, Gloria’s Medical Update.

Posted on January 26, 2012 by jbsibley

According to Kerry Clair at Pets Alive, she has received a communication about Gloria from the ASPCA. Her must-read blog on the subject lays everything out clearly and I don’t have a whole lot to add except for – yeah, what she said.

Well, okay, maybe a little. In addition to everything Kerry has said, let’s look at the statement from the ASPCA:

The ASPCA has conducted an internal investigation into why Gloria, a stray cat with a broken leg who was abandoned in front of one of the ASPCA’s mobile spay/neuter vehicles, was transferred to NYC AC&C.

Our staff followed our regular procedure of sending stray animals left with us to NYC AC&C since that is where people who have lost their pets go to look for them. At the time Gloria was admitted to AC&C, we notified its staff that Gloria had a broken leg and needed treatment.

The bottom line is that we failed Gloria, and we are grateful that Pets Alive saved her. Our strict adherence to regular procedure was clearly contrary to our mission in this case, and we deeply regret that we did not alter protocol to treat Gloria immediately instead of relying on AC&C to do so. We are implementing new procedures to prevent this from happening again.

We thank Pets Alive for stepping up to provide Gloria with the surgery and care she needed. The ASPCA is awarding a grant to Pets Alive to fund the cost of Gloria’s surgery, medical care, and convalescence and to continue its work saving more animals.

Other organizations, take note: this is how you do crisis control and this is the first time in recent memory I’ve seen the ASPCA do it right. Every organization of every size makes mistakes; they figured out what theirs was, apologized, took steps to make sure it wouldn’t happen again, and offered to help make the situation better. Additionally, the statement is straightforward and plain and doesn’t reek of corporate doublespeak or non-apology apologies. Bravo.

I wish NYCACC would be as forthcoming, but I think it’s unlikely – the ASPCA had Gloria for only a short time and I believe them when they say they informed NYCACC of her broken leg, but ACC had her for three weeks and allowed her to suffer while missing the broken leg during two examinations. The ASPCA made mistakes; ACC demonstrated total incompetency – and I will continue to follow up on how that could possibly happen.

I still have my differences there (And, ahem, what’s the deal with Benny? Remember him?), and if the ASPCA goes to bat against the upcoming CAARA bill again I’m sure we’ll go another couple of bloody rounds. I won’t be donating to them anytime soon or encouraging others to do so. But it’s encouraging to know that a group that I frequently disagree with still has good people there who were moved by the story of one cat and took steps to make it right.

We now have a common and united goal in Gloria’ recovery, and the recent news is that she has had some complications since the removal of her leg. Post-surgery she was discovered to be extremely anemic and she is in specialist care, where she is undergoing testing and had an emergency blood transfusion. Additionally, she is fighting a bad upper respiratory infection that is the inevitable result of her three week stay at New York City Animal Care and Control. She’s very sick, but she is eating and her spirits are said to be good. If she can survive three weeks on a shattered leg, she can do this too. C’mon, Gloria, New York is pulling for you.

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Posted in ASPCA, Cats, New York City, NYCACC, Pets Alive, Shelter Stuff | 8 Comments

The Accidental Dog

Posted on January 24, 2012 by jbsibley

Just before the time that Macho passed away, a dog at the shelter I volunteer for had a terrible accident, and she needed to have a leg amputated. Chula (which means “pretty” in Spanish) is around 12 years old and appears to be a bull terrier mix. She’s lived at the shelter for about a decade. Because she had some arthritis in her front end, even some of the volunteers who knew her suggested that she be put down, that the adjustment would just be too much. Fortunately that’s not the way things work there. Chula had her surgery. We had to try.

I didn’t know Chula. I knew she was a “yellow card” dog (some behavioral issues) and she didn’t care for strangers much. I knew she was considered dog aggressive but I had done her dog aggression evaluation a few weeks before her accident and hadn’t seen anything that concerned me. I couldn’t stand the thought of a 12 year old tripod being returned to life in a kennel, so I offered to give her a try with my crew, and if it worked out I would adopt her. Little did I know exactly HOW well that would work out. I waited a few weeks for the staples from her surgery to come out, but I didn’t visit her during her recovery. After all, she didn’t know me, and I didn’t want to aggravate or excite her in a time when she needed to rest to heal.

When the staples were removed I went down to pick her up. When I popped the door to her recovery room open, I was greeted with excitement and kisses, and she walked with me out to the lobby.

It’s like she knew what I was there for. She never took her eye off me in the lobby and stayed right beside me at all times – the dog who didn’t like strangers. When we stepped out the front door to go to the car, I reached down and took her leash off. She stayed right beside me as we walked to the car, hopped into the car when I opened the door for her, and settled down on the passenger seat.

When we got home she walked right in and met the crew without incident. Everyone checked her out, she checked everyone out, and she played with some of them. She and Baron have a special bond and they love to wrestle – Baron has very limited use of his back legs, so he quickly falls over and lays on his back on the floor and bats at her with his front paws while she jumps on him.

She’s been wonderful. Incredible. The only issue we’ve had to work through is that at first she got very nervous when I left, but she’s now totally comfortable here. She’s remembered her housetraining without prompting and is one of the most affectionate and loving dogs I’ve ever had, and has been from the moment I first put that leash on her – she still doesn’t like strangers, but she loves me and I can do anything I need to. She loves to snuggle and get her belly rubbed. She’s been very responsive to training and has earned herself many nicknames… Big League Chu. Chula Hoop. Chucifer. Chuella de Ville. Chu Toy.

The missing leg? Doesn’t bother her. I wondered what she’d be able to do, and it turns out… well, pretty much anything except descending a steep and narrow staircase. So far, that’s just about it. She had to work up to a full-length walk, but she keeps up with the others quite well now. Her arthritis is being treated with supplements and an NSAID, and other than that she’s in quite good shape for her age. Her accident was ironically also her lucky break. It got her out.

Dogs still surprise me. I routinely see dogs who have been in a shelter a decade or more step into a home and become perfect pets, and not always the ones I would have predicted. She knew, when I opened that door, that she was coming home. I don’t know how, but she knew. There are others there who have been there as long or longer who are just as deserving. Can you take one home?

Welcome home, Chula.

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Posted in Dogs, Pets Alive Westchester, Shelter Stuff | 13 Comments

NYCACC: Why Changing the Director Alone Changes Nothing

Posted on January 24, 2012 by jbsibley

Julie Bank’s contract as Executive Director of New York City Animal Care and Control expires in April, and already activists are beating the drum to have her replaced. The view from the ground isn’t encouraging: widespread mismanagement, the mistreatment of animals, neglect, death, incompetency. I have an inkling, though, that the people who hired Julie Bank are fairly happy with her performance and she’ll have her contract extended for another two years. After all, she has done exactly what she’s been hired to do.

We know from the 25 No Kill open admission shelters in North America that have followed the No Kill Equation to achieve success that the most important part of the equation is a caring and compassionate director – but I’m here to tell you that the people who hired Julie Bank have a different agenda.

Ms. Bank was hired to be a fall guy; a patsy. Ms. Bank was hired to fail. Ms. Bank was given charge of a failing and desperately underfunded agency with the mandate to not make waves, not make big changes, not spend money, and to not make too much trouble for the city – and most importantly to take the blame for the failures of the agency in the place of the real source for the blame: the Mayor of New York City and the New York City Department of Health. By the standards of those guidelines she has been a smashing success.

So let’s look at who really controls Animal Control in New York City; let’s look at the governing structure of New York City Animal Care and Control – an “independent non-profit” firmly under the control of the city and the Mayor.

The Executive Director position currently held by Julie Bank is responsible to the board. The board is appointed by the Mayor (except for two newly created currently empty unfilled slots). The chairman of the board is Dr. Thomas Farley, who is also the Commissioner of the Department of Health and has been appointed to that position by the Mayor as well. The DOH supervises AC&C’s contract and budget and is responsible for starving it for funding, so Farley both underfunds the ACC and chairs the board that accepts the underfunding without complaint. He supervises the ACC which is technically a contractor to the DOH (which he heads) while chairing the board as the contractee. Neat, huh?

The entire structure was set by the Giuliani administration after the ASPCA gave up the city’s animal services contract in disgrace 17 years ago when the pound was even more kill-happy and abusive than they are now – yes, the ASPCA killed animals by the score. The city created a work of evil genius: while technically an independent non-profit, the ACC is under complete control of the city – and ultimately the Mayor. The best of both worlds for them: they can spend as little as possible on city animal services while placing the blame for inadequate performance on an “independent” nonprofit. They have been sued for this clearly illegal structure but the lawsuit was dismissed on technical grounds (“lack of standing”). The city placed responsibility for supervision of the animal control contract on the city’s Department of Health, but they have a very clear conflict of interest: the mission of the Department of Health is to protect the health of people. They have no mandate to care for animals, it is not a priority, and they have never shown any interest in doing so.

Open it up for competitive bidding? Not so fast. Under the New York State Dog Laws of 1894, the mayor of NYC alone decides who runs city animal control. As long as he’s happy, nothing changes. Until you have a mayor who cares, nothing changes. In 17 years, there have been TV news stories. There have been a series of newspaper exposes as well as independent stories. There have been blistering reports from the city’s comptroller. Nothing changes. The Mayor has ultimate power over NYC’s animals. Bloomberg has never cared a whit and now as a lame duck doesn’t have to. The board has a history of hiring Executive Directors they can completely control. The one time they did not was Ed Boks in in 2003, and his contract was not renewed after he repeatedly challenged DOH policy and attempted reform. They learned their lesson: every ED since toes the line and does not bite the hand that feeds them.

Don’t waste your time and your breath trying to get Julie Bank fired; as long as the people who hired her maintain the same priorities they’ve always had, New York City will get what it’s always got. To get the compassionate director we need installed, we’re going to have to look higher – the people who hire the Executive Director need to do so for the right reasons and support them in a manner that encourages their success.

My personal belief is that the best bet for permanent, lasting reform is to back a Mayoral candidate in 2013 who will change the structure and make reform a priority – because a Mayor is the only person with the power to do so. Thus far Manhattan Borough President and likely 2013 Mayoral Candidate Scott Stringer is the only potential candidate to make it part of his platform and display a serious understanding of the underlying issues, but it’s very early – we do not yet even have declared candidacies.

Want to learn more? The best source of history for the NYCACC is the website of Shelter Reform Action Committee – the site is difficult to navigate but the information is gold. They’ve been at this a long time. Study the history, study what’s happened and what’s been tried.

UPDATE: NYCACC has announced a board meeting on 1/31/12. These meetings are very educational. I’ll see you there.

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Posted in New York City, No Kill, NYCACC, Shelter Stuff | 6 Comments

NYCACC: Lies and Statistics

Posted on January 23, 2012 by jbsibley

“There are three kinds of lies. Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” – Benjamin Disraeli

Today I’m going to demonstrate to you how New York City Animal Care and Control (variously referred to as NYCACC, AC&C, ACC or “the pound”) spins lies into gold – and why.

There is a group in NYC called the Mayor’s Alliance which was formed to pursue a grant to transform New York into a No Kill community. Despite their name they are not part of city government and have nothing to do with the Mayor. In 2005 they got that grant which continues today from an philanthropic organization called Maddie’s Fund, a foundation that provides grants to communities seeking to be No Kill. The original target to make New York City a No Kill community was 2008, that goal has since been extended to 2015.

The Mayor’s Alliance consists of NYCACC and 111 No Kill rescue organizations in the NYC area. These organizations get money from this Maddie’s Fund grant, administered by the Mayor’s Alliance to incentivize activities such as adoption. NYCACC also receives other support such as funding for certain staff positions (among other things) and the Mayor’s Alliance promotes rescue and adoption overall and hosts events in New York City. All very well and good!

There are certain performance targets that all participating organizations are required to hit to keep this grant. This is no small potatoes; in total the Mayor’s Alliance had $4,990,000 to spend in 2011, with a little over $3,000,000 of that coming from Maddie’s Fund – the remaining funding comes from various sources including the ASPCA.

I encourage you to dig into some data if you’re interested – the yearly grant application is a fascinating if dense document and is extremely educational. Today we’re going to examine just one condition of the grant, one important enough to show up as a reminder on the very first page of the document that refers to Year 7 of the grant, from 2011.

A Screenshot From Page 1, Year 7 Grant Application

This is referred to as the “Zero Healthy Deaths” provision and it became a condition of the grant in 2009: starting in 2009, all partner orgs including ACC were required to save every healthy animal in their care. For the already No Kill partners – well, no problem. That’s what they do anyway. For the ACC, mired in a kill mentality, this presented a problem – it was a target that they didn’t think they could hit. Fortunately, they hit upon a quick and easy solution: lie about the health conditions of the animals in their care and classify healthy animals as sick. That way they could kill them and still get their grant.

This has been an open secret in New York since… well, since 2009. Let me show you how it works.

I’m going to use as an example the cat kill list sent out by NYCACC to their New Hope partners on a single day – Jan 16, 2012. That link is the complete cat kill list for that day (certain details, like contact information, have been redacted or removed) and if you’ve never seen an original I encourage you to go check it out and familiarize yourself with the format. No need to be squeamish about this one – fortunately, every single cat on this list was pulled and saved by rescues, including Gloria. I transported six of the cats on this list to rescue and thus am very familiar with them. This isn’t a particularly large kill list for the ACC, only 12 cats. Of the 12 cats, 3 of them are categorized as having major health conditions when they have none. 3 more are categorized as having major health conditions when they have extremely minor health conditions, possibly none. In short, half of this list has faked medical conditions on it to justify killing these animals. Let’s take a look at the descriptions of those cats.

Lancaster - Click to Enlarge

Lancaster’s been saddled with a “3C” medical rating – major medical conditions. On his intake exam on 1/4 he was rated “2NC”, which means minor medical conditions not contagious. No fleas, no ear mites. The notation “nosf” (sometimes “nsf”) means “no significant findings”. On 1/15 he was re-evaluated and upgraded to his 3C rating, but his notes say he’s healthy. QAR means “Quiet, Alert, Responsive” and eupenic means “breathing freely and normally”. His final exam makes no note of illness at all. Nonetheless, he’s classified as major medical conditions and sent to the kill list.

Penny - Click to Enlarge

Penny is classified as “3NC” – major medical conditions, not contagious. Her initial exam on 1/13 shows a healthy cat. Two days later, on 1/15, she gets her final exam. No change. The notation “BAR” means “bright, alert, responsive” and the note “not ausculted” means that they didn’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t use a stethoscope to listen to internal sounds. All indications are that this is a healthy cat.

Darla - Click to Enlarge

Darla is classified as “3C”, major medical conditions, and had an initial exam on 1/5. Healthy cat. No significant findings. On 1/15 that hadn’t changed. Still healthy, all notes positive. Sent to the kill list.

Nestles - Click to Enlarge

Nestles is classified as “3C”, major medical conditions. Her initial exam on 12/29 showed no significant findings, her final exam on 1/15 showed nothing but “slightly congested”. Now, ACC definitely has a disease problem – upper respiratory infections and worse run wild in the shelter, and you’ll see that many of the cats on the kill list are put on medications for it – but not Nestles, because it’s not necessarily a URI. Just slightly congested. Interestingly, Nestles is simultaneously noted to be eupneic – breathing freely and normally. Nonetheless, that’s classified as a major medical condition and Nestles is off to the kill list.

Mary - Click to Enlarge

Mary is very similar to Nestles. Classified as “3C”, she’s off to the kill list for slight congestion – although she’s also simultaneously noted to be eupneic, breathing freely and normally.

Sammy - Click to Enlarge

Sammy is a four month old kitten. His initial exam on 1/13 indicates some eye issues, but his follow up indicates nothing but dried up eye discharge. He is classified “3C”, major health conditions, and sent to the kill list.

On this one single day there were 12 cats on the kill list. 3 of them have health conditions that are outright fabrications; 3 of them have health conditions that are greatly exaggerated. The other 6 have URI’s given to them at the shelter. The grant had the very odd and completely unintended side effect of further encouraging ACC to do nothing about the unchecked spread of disease in the shelter, because killing a sick animal is still okay.

So the ACC needs to hit certain performance targets to keep the money flowing, and they lie about it. There it is in black and white. Their other rescue partners – the 111 rescue groups that make up the coalition – are also having a funding source endangered by the ACCs reckless, irresponsible and unethical actions, and even worse it calls into question the accuracy of every statistic the ACC publishes. They’re not making any effort to hide this; it’s blatant. What other data are they faking? This calls every single statistic they publish into question.

Why are their partners in the Mayor’s Alliance not pressuring them to clean up their act? Why is the Mayor’s Alliance, the administrator of the grant, not cracking down to get them to straighten up – their blatant lies are endangering the entire partnership and a tremendous source of income and for almost the entire NYC rescue community. Maddie’s is stuck in the middle – their grant has undeniably made a tremendous difference in the lives of NYC’s animals (if not the basic operations and attitude of NYCACC) and they obviously would like to continue their work here, but their partners aren’t being truthful with them.

You cannot build a functioning shelter on a foundation of lies. Richard Avanzino, the President of Maddie’s Fund, has a lot to say on the subject of transparency. In a widely read (and excellent) editorial, he wrote:

“In my opinion, real transparency means no fudging allowed… If there is a problem, the best way to address it is to talk about it.”

Mr. Avanzino, as a citizen of New York City I cannot thank you enough for all the good your organization has done here, but far more progress would be possible if your grantees were embracing your philosophy, and truth and openness and accountability were the talk of the rescue community rather than deception. Let’s talk about it. Let’s fix this.

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Posted in Cats, Dogs, New York City, No Kill, NYCACC, Shelter Stuff | 18 Comments

Supporting the ASPCA: Why Not?

Posted on January 22, 2012 by jbsibley

I’ve long been beating the drum to encourage people to support small No Kill organizations, not the big, out of touch, slow moving, outmoded, ethically challenged monoliths of animal welfare. It seems that when organizations get to a certain size, they just lose sight of their mission. They have a tendency to focus on fundraising to the detriment of all else.

And I could go on, but why? I present to you an argument against support of the ASPCA and organizations like them published on the website of the ASPCA. Hilarious. [Update: They pulled it. No surprise - and you can still read it! See below.]

Welcome, ASPCA – it’s good to know you agree that the No Kill boat has sailed and left you behind. Hopefully this means you’ll join us.

(P.S. When they read this and pull it off the website – hi guys, thanks for reading – it’ll still be eternally available over at Google’s page cache.)

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Posted in ASPCA, Fun Links, New York City, No Kill, Shelter Stuff | Leave a comment

Gloria, In Pain No More!

Posted on January 20, 2012 by jbsibley

Gloria, the badly injured cat abandoned by the ASPCA to die at New York City’s Animal Care and Control who was saved by Pets Alive had surgery yesterday to remove her leg, and now we know a little more. The surgery went very well and she is recovering nicely at the vet – she’s as tough as she is sweet.

Gloria in Post-Surgical Recovery

Here’s an x-ray of Gloria’s leg pre-surgery.

Gloria's (former) Leg - Click to Enlarge

Now, I don’t know about 50, but this is only one angle and there are a lot of bone chips in there. No matter the exact number, that is one horrible, extreme, exceeding painful break. More importantly, the surgeon who removed her leg was able to estimate the age of the break based on new bone growth; he says that the break is at least a month old.

So the ASPCA had Gloria when her leg was broken, probably freshly at the time. Again I ask: are they incompetent, or are they criminal? Her leg was almost certainly shattered when they had her, did they not examine her? When she was left at their mobile clinic with vets sitting just feet away, did they think to ask themselves why she might be there? How long did they have her? Did they know about her horrific injury and fail to inform Animal Control when they left her there?

And then there’s New York City Animal Care & Control – she had two medical checks there. They caught her URI; a good thing, since she got it from their disease-ridden facility – but both medical checks completely missed this shattered leg. How is the vet – or vets – who did these checks still allowed to practice veterinary medicine? Was she looked at by a vet at all, or are things so bad at AC&C that low wage vet assistants are now performing medical examinations and prescribing drugs, too?

This is the sad state of the leading animal welfare agencies in New York City. The following appeared in the ASPCA’s Twitter stream today:

The ASPCA lies about caring about the animals of New York City, and they sent Gloria to suffer while waiting to be killed at the hands of New York City Animal Care & Control – saved by Pets Alive from the kill lists.

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Posted in ASPCA, Cats, New York City, No Kill, Not Funny, NYCACC, Pets Alive, Shelter Stuff | 10 Comments

The ASPCA and NYCACC: Partners in Abuse and Neglect

Posted on January 19, 2012 by jbsibley

The story of Gloria continues to take unexpected twists and turns.

To recap: Gloria is a cat that was abandoned at an ASPCA mobile clinic in Queens. The ASPCA in turn abandoned her at New York City Animal Care and Control (AC&C or “the pound”), where she ended up on the nightly kill list after catching the cold that every single cat that stays at the AC&C long enough gets, for illness is allowed to run rampant through the facility and basic disease prevention protocols are routinely violated. Finally, yesterday the rescue I work with, Pets Alive stepped up to save Gloria (and 5 other cats and a dog!) and I had the unexpected honor of transporting an animal I had written about but never expected to meet.

And then things got weird.

After 24 hours at Pets Alive, Gloria wasn’t acting right. She wasn’t moving much. Lethargic. Not eating. Concerned, they took her to their vet, who found that one of her back legs was completely shattered – broken in more than 50 places. It is destroyed; it will need to be amputated. Now it becomes clear why she was left at a mobile clinic. Now it’s clear why the ASPCA left her at the NYC pound – who never figured it out, even though they had her from December 29th until January 18th. They have a special plea list for animals with medical conditions – had they known, she would have been on it.

Which brings me to two points: number one, unlike the ASPCA, Pets Alive does not abandon an animal in need. Please, if you can, consider donating to them for the cost of Gloria’s surgery, which I believe will happen tomorrow. There is a donate link on the home page (and you can leave a comment with your donation) and I hope there will be details about fundraising specifically for her on the home page tomorrow. [Note: it's there now.] Pets Alive is one of many worthy groups that pick up the pieces in New York city when organizations like the ASPCA and the AC&C walk away. Support them and others that do it well. Gloria was fantastic yesterday, and she must be in unbelievable pain. I picked her up, held her, stroked her head, and she was friendly and affectionate which speaks volumes for her disposition. She’s going to be a wonderful tripod and who knows – maybe someone reading this might want to step up and adopt her. She’s worth it.

Secondly, this case represents nearly everything wrong with the state of animal welfare in New York City, and I want some answers. If the ASPCA knew that this cat was severely injured and turned them over to the pound without mentioning it or doing anything about it or following up, their actions may be criminal, and they are the organization charged with upholding the animal laws of NYC. Not only that but they have the resources easily available to make it right – a fully equipped veterinary hospital, a rescue facility that they present to the world as a model. If they didn’t know about her injuries, they may simply be incompetent. Did Gloria’s owner present her for treatment at this mobile clinic and then walk away after hearing the extent of her injuries, or was she just left there without explanation? Did the ASPCA abandon Gloria at the pound knowing the extent of her injuries and her suffering and failed to disclose it? We know they betrayed their mission, but did they break the law?

Then there’s New York City Animal Care and Control. Below is Gloria’s listing from the kill list which includes a summary of her medical treatment and findings.

We see here that she was examined twice, once on 12/29 and once on 1/15. On 12/29 she was given fluids for dehydration, on 1/15 given medications for the upper respiratory infection that is AC&C’s gift that keeps on giving. Both of these examinations completely missed her shattered leg. Who did these? If they were done by a vet, this vet should be reported for incompetence – a basic physical exam should include flexing the limbs and feeling for abnormalities. Were they even done by a trained medical professional at all? To add insult to injury, they did a behavioral evaluation on a badly injured cat in extreme pain on 1/3. She was noted to be tense. Gee, that’s not surprising.

I am assuming here that her broken leg did not happen in the shelter, which I think is possible but extremely unlikely. Such an extreme break with no obvious outward physical trauma would take an unusual event – hit by a car, a fall from a tremendous height.

This cat was completely failed on every level. Treated with utter callousness by the ASPCA who are in charge of enforcing cruelty laws in New York City, then cruelly abandoned by the ASPCA at New York City Animal Care and Control, where she was treated – repeatedly – with utter incompetence and cruelty as she suffered without assistance. This one animal represents everything that is wrong, so badly broken, with the state of animal welfare in the greatest city in the world. This is utterly and completely inexcusable, and New York deserves an explanation.

This tidbit turned up on the ASPCA’s twitter account today.

Rather than take a cat with a shattered leg into their top-of-the-line medical facility and “model” shelter, the ASPCA abandoned Gloria to suffer, get sick, and die at New York City Animal Care and Control. Whatever they knew about her medical condition, they betrayed their mission. Thank goodness for the little orgs like Pets Alive who try to pick up the broken pieces that those charged with safeguarding the welfare of New York City’s animals leave behind.

Do you know anything about Gloria? Were you at the ASPCA mobile clinic when Gloria was there? Do you know who examined her at AC&C? I want to know. Email me at jbsibley@gmail.com. All requests for privacy will be honored and I have the ability to black names out of documents/emails and strip photos of embedded identifying details.

To Be Continued

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Posted in ASPCA, Cats, New York City, No Kill, Not Funny, NYCACC, Pets Alive, Shelter Stuff | 7 Comments