Pets Alive Saves Brooke

Posted on March 14, 2012 by jbsibley

There’s a little pub down the street from my apartment in the South Bronx I enjoy very much. Good food, nice beer selection, good people. On Monday night I went over to have dinner there and spotted the most beautiful dog sitting outside, tied to a bench near the door. I went over to say hello, of course, and this beautiful blue and white pit bull greeted me very excitedly, licking my face and savoring the attention. The first thing I noticed, even in the semi-darkness, was that she was in need of medical attention. She had a large lump on the back of her head which I first thought was an abscess and recent wounds on her face, body and tail. She had been tied to the bench with a makeshift collar and a luggage strap and had sagging nipples which bespoke many litters. Despite many being available in shelters, the myth persists that blue pits are somehow more valuable or desirable, and this poor girl has likely been used as a puppy machine.

I went inside to talk to the bartender on duty but I already had a good guess as to what was happening. Frank told me that someone had just called to say that there was a dog tied up outside the bar and loaned me a flashlight to get a better look at her. We asked around among the patrons but no one claimed her. She’d been abandoned outside a bar.

Frank brought her some chicken and some water and when she was finished I walked her back to my car and put her in a crate in the back while I thought about what to do. I went back to the bar and ate while I waited to see if anyone would show up to claim her. I wasn’t too surprised when no one did. I went back to the car and decided I would call her Brooke.

I shot a couple of pictures of her and posted that I had found her and went upstairs to get Ginger for her dog test – I thought it would be a good idea to see how she did with other dogs before bringing her into my apartment! She passed the Ginger test with flying colors and we went upstairs to meet the crew.

She did very well meeting everyone and was quickly comfortable in the house, wandering around with the others and investigating. At bedtime I brought her up to the sleeping loft and invited her to sleep on the bed, and she quickly curled up and spent the entire night sound asleep beside me. She enjoyed cuddling and when we woke up she was ready with affectionate licks and followed me downstairs to see what the day would bring, and she ate calmly near the other dogs as I watched carefully.

By sheer luck I already had a routine vet appointment the next day for two of my dogs, so I called the vet first thing and got Brooke shoehorned in. Her physical exam was much better than I expected – most of the wounds on her face and body were healing well, and she was given an antibiotic to make sure some of them did not get infected and to treat a possible UTI. The large lump on her head was a cyst, not an abscess – thank goodness! My vet drained the cyst, which will likely shrink on its own. Brooke was so good for her exam, she was very friendly and didn’t even require muzzling for the cyst on her head – I simply held her head while the vet drained it. The source of some of her wounds is a mystery, but the side of her head was torn up by garrotte-type marks from having something around her neck she was struggling with. The cyst is probably from the same incident and the result of impact(s). As long as we were there we had vaccines done as well. She is young, my vet estimates her at 3-5 years old.

I was planning to get up to Pets Alive later that day to see Robert and I’ll have to admit I was hoping that they would consider Brooke. I checked the Facebook status where I had posted her picture and saw this comment from Pets Alive’s director…


Yep, busted!

I would love to keep Brooke. She’s so sweet and she gets along so very well with my group – but I have many dogs in my South Bronx studio, and I have to consider my landlord’s wishes and my neighbors as well. I was so happy that she had a place to go, a place where she would be loved and cared for until she can find her forever home. I wish I could have, in good conscience, taken her to the New York City shelter and know that she was safe there – but I can’t. I can’t ask them to call me if she is not adopted, they won’t. I can be nearly sure that if she stays long enough she will become sick, as every animal who enters the facility does. And I can’t be sure that in a place where medical data is either routinely falsified to serve a political purpose or given in a grossly incompetent manner that her medical needs won’t either be overlooked or exaggerated in order to justify her execution. I want to be able to someday trust my city to do the right thing, but right now they don’t. They can’t be relied on to help with this.

Brooke liked it at Pets Alive instantly, and should be posted for adoption on the Pets Alive website within a few days once they’re sure she is healthy, as I’m positive she will be. Someone’s going to get a great dog. Thanks to Pets Alive for saving her.

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Posted in Dogs, New York City, NYCACC, Pets Alive, Shelter Stuff | 5 Comments

The Quick Kill Bill: On Progress and Tactics

Posted on March 12, 2012 by jbsibley

We’ve made huge progress in hastening the defeat of the Quick Kill Bill. Thanks to you, the Assembly bill has lost a total of nine co-sponsors and has only six remaining. Even better, the sponsor of the Senate companion legislation has withdrawn his support and his bill, leaving the Quick Kill Bill without Senate support.

You can keep track of the progress here on this post, which I keep updated with all the latest information – and all current Assembly supporters are listed there with their office numbers as well as email links to contact them. Please don’t stop contacting these Assembly members and asking them to withdraw their support.

Word is coming from Amy Paulin’s camp that she is frightened of the opposition and that her office has received threats against her. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I expect her to begin making that claim to the press within the next few days. If there is in fact anyone out there pursuing personal threats or intimating violence against Ms. Paulin, I have a message for you: stop. It is not only wrong, it is spectacularly unhelpful and unnecessary, enabling her to paint her opposition – us – in a very unflattering light. We need not any threat of violence while we have the truth, and violent rhetoric serves no purpose other than to marginalize us. Don’t do it, and don’t stand by if you see others doing it. Many of us involved in this fight are also proponents of the philosophy of No Kill, which is at its core a philosophy of kindness and consideration. Violence and the threat thereof has no place there.

Keep fighting the bill. Don’t stop. But fight it with the truth, fight it with logic, fight it with heart. It’s not long now.

Nonviolence is the weapon of the strong.
-Ghandi

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Maddie’s Fund Looks The Other Way at NYC’s “Veil of Secrecy”

Posted on March 12, 2012 by jbsibley

A few weeks ago, Maddie’s Fund issued a rather surprising document from President Richard Avanzino entitled 71% of Americans Favor No-Kill Editorial. It is, for the most part, a plea for accurate data and statistical information in America’s public shelters, and it’s surprising to see it coming from him because the shelters of New York City falsify their data in order to get grant money from the organization he heads while he looks the other way. Further, his organization and the organization that administers the grant in New York, the Mayor’s Alliance, repeatedly claim that they are on their way to No Kill success while the data shows a different story, of a success that can and will only continue for as long as Maddie’s wants to continue to dump large amounts of money into NYC.

I wrote Mr. Avanzino an email on the subject but received no reply. I know that Maddie’s Fund is a small and rather old-school organization and what happens in social media is for the most part not on their radar. In consideration of this, I have written the letter below and will be sending it tomorrow to Mr. Avanzino via USPS, return receipt requested.

Dear Mr. Avanzino;

I am writing to you as a concerned New Yorker, animal rescuer, and advocate in the trenches of New York City – and first, may I sincerely thank you for all that Maddie’s Fund has done for the animals of New York City. I am a great admirer of yours and of the ideals of your organization.

I was distressed, however, by your recent editorial 71% of Americans Favor No-Kill, in which you talk about the importance of statistical transparency, especially from public shelters. I was especially struck by this passage with regard to the transparency of statistics: “It’s hard to believe so many industry leaders are still willing to protect their peers at the peril of the animals we are supposed to serve. Leadership is about stepping out in front and taking bold moves, not giving in to peer pressure. Leaders try to change the status quo, not maintain it.”

I know you hear a lot about the dysfunction of New York City Animal Care and Control (AC&C) – so much so that you wrote about it in an open letter in December of 2010 describing Maddie’s as having tied hands, without authority over policy, staffing, or oversight. The one area where you do have a significant amount of power, however, is statistical accuracy.

It is well known in the New York rescue community, and I believe to you and your staff, that the data reported to you by the Mayor’s Alliance who administers your grant here is falsified significantly, and none more so than the data of the AC&C. For years it has been an open secret in New York that in order to meet the “Zero Healthy Deaths” provision of the grant, the numbers for AC&C are falsified. Healthy pets are killed and recorded as sick, pets with normal behavior reported as hopelessly aggressive.

This is not just speculation or rumor on my part – I pull animals from the kill lists of AC&C for rescue and transport them. I meet them, I view their medical records, I bring them to safe harbor or to immediate medical care if necessary. I have documented the animals I meet and their paperwork in my blog at http://www.johnsibley.com. I routinely – on every journey – meet healthy animals who have been listed as sick to justify their deaths, or whose medical conditions have been greatly exaggerated, and I have documented them. I also meet animals from these same kill lists who have been judged to be too violent to live who are completely normal, well-adjusted dogs and cats who go on to normal lives in adoptive homes.

Lately it has become much worse: in an environment where some medical records are falsified to serve an agenda, all become suspect and rescues cannot rely on medical information given to them by AC&C. The animal pulled from today’s list may have undiagnosed parvo, or flu, or even strep zoo. Further, the Zero Healthy Deaths provision has created another wholly unintentional side effect: there is no incentive for AC&C to curb the spread of disease, so preventable conditions like kennel cough and upper respiratory infections remain resident in the shelter and affect all animals who stay there long enough.

Maddie’s holds all the cards when it comes to requiring transparency from the New York City shelter system. For years, the sleight-of-hand has been accepted – and as you so correctly note, “this kind of reporting does not allow for any real understanding or judgement on performance… shelters miss the opportunity to take advantage of the gains that could be made”. I am asking you for the first time to audit the data Maddie’s receives, particularly in respect to the numbers of the AC&C. To accept those numbers when everyone involved knows them to be false is letting down the animals of New York City and is contributing to an environment of veterinary malpractice and neglect that is costing animals their lives, while suffering horribly. There is simply no way to know what your grant is doing – and not doing – in New York City without having correct information, and your partners at the Mayor’s Alliance have a history of misrepresenting what is happening at the AC&C. It’s time to stop taking it on faith, of blindly looking the other way. It’s time to require an independent audit of the data you receive and to set an example of what you plead for from others, requiring actual transparency – and hopefully, accountability – of your grantees.

Some have tried to paint this as an all-or-nothing proposal, that the only two choices here are for Maddie’s to continue to accept falsified data and continue paying out, knowing that the money is at least doing some good, or to leave New York City. I ask you to consider a third way.

There is no one in the trenches in New York City who believes for a moment that New York will be No Kill by 2015, the target end date for your grant. In the current political climate here that seems like an impossibility, and AC&C has made no progress toward a No Kill ideal and does not even currently pretend to. It’s time to sit down again with your partners here and re-assess what this grant is for and to be honest with the people of New York and with your partners about what can be done through outside financial assistance alone – to really see where your money can do the most good here and to hopefully create self-sustaining systems that may live on in service of an eventual No Kill goal once Maddie’s has withdrawn, unlike the current system which will collapse the moment you leave town unless other sources of funding are found, undoing the progress that has been made. Further, there is the risk here that uninformed politicians may believe that AC&C is actually on the way to No Kill, as the Mayor’s Alliance represents, and thus stand in the way of the forces of reform.

There is a further weakness in the current structure that a fresh look at the grant could address as well, and that is the power you have vested in the Mayor’s Alliance – and really in one person, Jane Hoffman – by virtue of your funding which she controls here. In your December 2010 letter, you stated that “Maddie’s Fund does not get involved in local politics or take positions on legislation”, but you have in fact done so by proxy here in New York City. The entity that your funding enables, the Mayor’s Alliance, has been at the forefront of some very troubling legislation here in New York, and you are helping to pay the salaries of people who write and promote this legislation.

In late 2011, New York City passed Local Law 59 of 2011. This law relieved the city of its decade old unfulfilled legal obligation to build desperately needed shelters in every borough of New York City and implemented mandatory spay neuter for cats with outdoor access. This controversial bill was partially brokered, supported, and publicly cheerled by the Mayor’s Alliance and Jane Hoffman. At the time of this writing, the advocates of New York City are fighting NYS Asw. Amy Paulin’s “Quick Kill Bill”, a disturbing piece of proposed NYS legislation that hopes to eliminate the stray hold for animals judged to be in “psychological pain”, codifies the abilities of shelters to keep rescuers out, and enacts a set of “requirements” for shelters that contain some good ideas like requiring scanning for a microchip upon entry, then completely negating those requirements with the phrase “as soon as is practicable”, rendering those requirements devoid of the force of law. Amy Paulin’s office has said that this bill was written with the input and support of the Mayor’s Alliance. Maddie’s money pays the salaries of the people advising and supporting anti-animal legislation such as this, legislation that puts many lives at risk.

I stand ready to help you as I can. I would be happy to take any representative of your organization with me incognito as I pull animals from the shelters of New York City. I believe that witnessing the falsification of medical information first hand would be invaluable to your organization as you debate a course of action.

In your editorial, you wrote “leadership is about stepping out in front and taking bold moves, not giving in to peer pressure. Leaders try to change the status quo, not maintain it”. We know the status quo in New York City is dysfunctional. Will you take the bold move of holding your partners to your plea for transparency and helping to change it?

Respectfully yours,
John B. Sibley

If you would like to contact Maddie’s and offer your own opinion, the most effective way to do so is by USPS. Their mailing address is:

2223 Santa Clara Avenue
Suite B
Alameda, CA 94501

I will report back and publish any reply received.

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Posted in New York City, No Kill, NYCACC, Politics, Shelter Stuff | 21 Comments

Please Help Stop the Killing of Lennox the Cat

Posted on March 6, 2012 by jbsibley

UPDATE 3/7: Lennox is SAFE and has been transported out of NYCACC. Please see this update for further information and THANK YOU all!

Lennox the cat was turned in to New York City Animal Care and Control with the note that he had attacked someone. While at NYCACC, Lennox has earned their highest behavior rating. His notes say that he solicits attention at the front of his cage, leans into a human hand, has a soft and relaxed body posture, and displays no aggression.

There has been no investigation by the NYC Department of Health or NYCACC as to the circumstances surrounding his “attack”, and yet he is on NY Department of Health hold and is slated for death at any time. Did Lennox have his tail stepped on, or was he mishandled? Might he have been cornered by a stranger? We don’t know. What we do know is that the Department of Health has slated Lennox for death and that NYCACC has not advocated for him. We also know that Lennox is not neutered, and neutering him would greatly decrease any aggressive tendencies he may have (but has not shown).

Please help us help Lennox to live. He deserves to be released to a responsible partner rescue that can neuter him, thoroughly evaluate his behavior, and place him in an appropriate home.

There is a petition at change.org to request clemency for Lennox. [NOTE: Petition closed 3/7 due to Lennox being successfully released!] With every signature, emails will go to:
Thomas Farley MD, New York City Commissioner of Health
Mario Merlino, New York City Assistant Commissioner of Health
Norma S. Torres, New York City Director of Veterinary Health Services
Julie Bank, Executive Director New York City Animal Care and Control

In addition, if you can do more, please contact Dr. Farley’s office at (212) 788-5261 or fax number (212) 964-0472 and politely ask for mercy for Lennox the Cat.

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

NYCACC Moving Steadily Backwards

Posted on March 1, 2012 by jbsibley

Yesterday I did a rescue transport for Pets Alive from New York City’s Animal Care and Control (hereafter referred to as ACC). These transports are always worthwhile, sometimes thrilling, sometimes upsetting. This was all three.

My first stop was in Manhattan for two cats. Pets Alive had left a message on the rescue hotline the night before, but when I walked in the door at 9:20 no one had listened to the rescue hotline yet, despite opening at 8am. One of the cats we had requested was already spoken for, but Princess was still available. We’re always happy when another group steps up to take an animal – we’ll choose another one and more get saved! All of the other cats on Manhattan’s kill list had rescue commitments, so we made arrangements to pull the only cat who had not had a commitment made for him – I would pick up Sam later at my second stop, in Brooklyn.

Because the rescue hotline hadn’t been checked yet, Princess wasn’t ready. No problem – I’m used to waiting. One of the things Princess needed was her FIV/FeLV test, which was odd. She had been in the shelter for four days and had two physical exams, but this most basic of tests hadn’t been done – it’s a simple test that only takes a few minutes to get the results for. Here’s why that’s important: FeLV (feline leukemia) is a virus that is quite transmissable and can be deadly. Common sense and common shelter practice is to test for it on INTAKE, before the cat is brought near other cats.

Princess had hit the kill list after only three days in the shelter for “major conditions”. Her medical notes note dental tartar and halitosis as well as slight eye gunk. I don’t consider any of those conditions major. She is further noted to have a URI (also not major and utterly routine at ACC) and to be around 8 years old.

I try not to take cats out of their cardboard carriers during transport; if they get spooked they can get away far too easily, so we did not open Princess’ box until we arrived at Pets Alive to discover what appeared to be a perfectly healthy cat. Despite being diagnosed with a URI on 2/27, on 2/29 she was not coughing or sneezing and had no discharge from the eyes or nose or noises while breathing. She is also nowhere near eight years old, the cat manager there ages her at less than a year. She is very friendly and affectionate!

Is this incompetence, or is this a deliberate mislabeling of a medical condition to send a cat to the kill list? To receive a large grant that helps them operate, the ACC had had to guarantee “Zero Healthy Deaths” since 2009. They can’t or won’t do that, so they frequently mislabel animals as having major medical conditions who have none. Is this another attempt at that? Is this even Princess’ medical record? I don’t know.

Getting Princess out took about an hour and a half of waiting. In that time very few people were in the waiting room. When your shelter takes an hour and a half to get one cat ready to go, that’s another problem. Hard to do any kind of volume that way.

After leaving Manhattan I headed for another NYCACC shelter, this one in Brooklyn. I now had four animals to pick up there, a cat and three dogs. This was a bit of a different situation as they only knew about one or two of them, so I knew it would take some time to get them all together. No problem.

The other cat I was picking up here was Sam. Sam had been the only cat on that night’s kill list without a rescue commitment, probably because he had a medical issue – he was not bearing weight on one leg. For this his medical classification was “severe conditions not contagious”. At Brooklyn I was told that they now knew more about his condition; he had a fracture in his front paw.

A shot of Sam's ACC records showing his "fracture". Click to enlarge.

Based on this information, instead of taking Sam back to Pets Alive I took him straight to Pets Alive’s excellent veterinarian, Dr. Furman of Monhagen Veterinary Hospital. Dr. Furman took x-rays of Sam’s leg and did a thorough examination of the leg. The x-rays showed no fracture, but he did find a small puncture wound, likely a cat bite wound, on Sam’s front paw. It was healing well. Sam has no further medical issues and definitely does not have a broken paw; in a few days he should be perfectly fine. He is also an utter sweetheart and was very well behaved for his exam. Again I ask: is this part of a larger agenda to lie about the medical conditions of animals to justify killing them, or is ACC simply completely incompetent?

On to the dogs!

Lincoln is an ADORABLE and very friendly Shih Tzu boy who instantly let me pick him up and carry him around. He’s only been in the shelter three days and there is almost no information in his listing at all. I have no idea why he’s been slated for killing. Let me tell you, New York City is nuts for small dogs and a small seven year old is likely to have many good years ahead of him. This is a dog I could take to an offsite adoption event at a Petco at 10am and have him adopted by lunch, a very sweet dog who should find a home very quickly. If you can’t adopt this dog out in New York, the only conclusion I can come to is that you’re not really trying.

Next up we have Tunechi, another small five year old Shih Tzu. Tunechi is completely blind, and I’m assuming that’s why he landed on the kill list after only two days in the shelter. ACC may consider blindness a medical flaw that justifies an animal’s death, but I and many other animal lovers do not. I have known many blind dogs who have been just fine – they learn their way around the space they live in very well. Dogs don’t mourn what they have lost in the way that humans do, for the most part they simply adapt and carry on about their lives. Tunechi turned out to be happiest when he was in someone’s lap, and he rode up to Pets Alive as a happy, calm, affectionate and very well behaved lap dog. He will be an awesome snuggle buddy for someone.

Finally we come to Robert. Robert is a very, very special dog. You see, Robert came into ACC on 2/26 after reportedly being hit by a car. He has no use of his hind limbs whatsoever due to damage to the spinal cord and lacerations on other areas of his body. Robert had x-rays done and got pain medication, but had nothing else for him done medically.

Before loading Robert into my car, they walked me back to the kennels to meet him. I think they didn’t believe that Pets Alive was committing to an animal injured this severely. I opened his kennel and squatted down to meet him, and it was obvious that Robert was in big trouble. His eyes were glassy and he was drooling; I couldn’t tell if he was dazed by the pain medication or if he was in shock – likely a bit of both. If anything, the haunting look on his face made me sure that we were doing the right thing. He was friendly and had no problem with me handling him or being carried, and we gently brought him out to the car and completed the paperwork.

Janet, Pets Alive’s medical liaison, called me in the car – she’d been looking over his records and wanted to talk to me as I’d now laid eyes on him. I told her I thought he needed a vet ASAP and she immediately made arrangements to bring him straight to Dr. Furman.

Spinal injuries are tricky. You have to address them as soon as you can – the more time elapses the less chance you have of correcting the problem. Dr. Furman’s exam showed that although Robert had no use of his hind legs at all, he DID have pain response, so there was some nerve function and thus some hope of improvement. Robert was immediately transferred to a specialty hospital and within 24 hours had x-rays, an MRI, and went into emergency surgery. Robert has a chance to be able to walk again. It will be some time before if we know if the surgery was a success and his recovery period will be long, but he has a chance.

Dr. Furman’s exam showed one other important thing. Robert was unable to urinate, having lost control of those muscles due to the damage to his spine. His bladder was so full it was in danger of rupturing. It’s likely that he didn’t urinate during his three days at ACC – and no one noticed. Had his bladder ruptured it would have caused extreme complications. It’s that whole competency thing again.

You can find out more about Robert in Kerry’s excellent blog about him. Such a sweet boy. The cost of his treatment and surgery is estimated to be between $8,000 – $10,000 and Pets Alive could certainly use your help to help Robert. There is a donate link on their homepage and you can add a note that it is for Robert’s care.

I’ll be back to transport more. I’m very happy to be a volunteer for an organization that saves animals like this and provides second chances for animals scheduled to die. But the basic level of medical competency at the ACC, which was never particularly good, seems to be dropping rapidly. I don’t know if animals are being misdiagnosed or deliberately mislabeled to justify their deaths and I don’t particularly care. It has to stop.

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Posted in Cats, Dogs, New York City, NYCACC, Pets Alive, Shelter Stuff | 32 Comments

Another Sponsor Withdraws From the Quick Kill Bill!

Posted on February 28, 2012 by jbsibley

Today, 2/28, Asm. William Boyland of Brooklyn withdrew his sponsorship of the Quick Kill Bill. He is the fourth sponsor to do so. If you have a moment, please contact him and thank him for doing the right thing.

UPDATE 2/29 – Naomi Rivera just withdrew her sponsorship, the fifth sponsor to do so. Please thank her as well!

UPDATE 3/6 – Joan Millman just withdrew her sponsorship, the sixth sponsor to do so. Please thank her as well for doing the right thing!

UPDATE 3/6 – Fred Thiele just withdrew his sponsorship, the seventh sponsor to do so. Please thank him as well for doing the right thing!

UPDATE 3/6 – HUGE NEWS! The NYS Senate companion bill to the Quick Kill Bill was sponsored by NYS Senator Greg Ball. Senator Ball has withdrawn his bill, leaving the Quick Kill Bill without support in the NYS Senate. Please thank him as well! Although this is a MAJOR blow to the Quick Kill Bill, there are still ways it could move forward – so let’s take this opportunity to keep the pressure on and finish it off!

UPDATE 3/8 – Francisco Moya just withdrew his sponsorship, the eighth sponsor to do so! Please thank him for doing the right thing!

UPDATE 3/9 – Margaret Markey just withdrew her sponsorship, the ninth sponsor to do so! Please thank her for doing the right thing!

UPDATE 3/14 – John McEneny just withdrew his sponsorship, the tenth sponsor to do so! Please thank him for doing the right thing!

UPDATE 3/16 – Felix Ortiz just withdrew his sponsorship, the eleventh sponsor to do so! Please thank him for doing the right thing!

WE ARE WINNING – but now is no time to let up on the pressure; let’s keep the momentum going. The remaining sponsors of the Quick Kill Bill MUST hear from New Yorkers – and especially from their constituents. If you can, and especially if you live in their district, please call the remaining supporters of the Quick Kill Bill and urge them to withdraw their support. A summary of the bill’s many weaknesses can be found here. While you’re at it, please ask that they support REAL shelter reform in the form of Asm. Micah Kellner’s CAARA.

Remaining legislative sponsors of the Quick Kill Bill:
Margaret Markey (Queens) 718-651-3185
Robert Sweeney (Suffolk Cty) 631-957-2087
Matthew Titone (Staten Island) 718-442-9932
Francisco Moya (Queens) 718-458-5367
Felix Ortiz (Brooklyn) 718-492-6334
Peter Rivera (Bronx) 718-931-2620
Naomi Rivera (Bronx) 718-409-0109
Richard Gottifried (Manhattan) 212-807-7900
John McEneny (Albany) 518-455-4178
Joan Millman (Brooklyn) 718-246-4889
Michelle Schimel (Nassau Cty) 516-482-6966
Fred Thiele, Jr (Suffolk Cty) 631-537-2583

You may also use this link to email the sponsors. As always, adding your own personal message to the text provided for you is very effective.

Some people have contacted me and asked – if they have contacted the sponsors, commented on Asw. Amy Paulin’s Facebook page, and contacted the Chairwoman of the ASPCA board – well, what more can they do? If you live anywhere near Amy Paulin’s district, you can grab the .pdf of the ad that ran in her local paper and the paper describing the flaws in the bill, make a whole bunch of copies, and head down to any populated area in her district and pass them out and talk to people about the bill. You can also get very nice posters and stickers from this Facebook group. Hit the train stations of Hartsdale, White Plains and Scarsdale at peak commuter times. Hit the high-end retail shopping area surrounding her district office in Scarsdale. Hit the pet stores in the area. We’ll continue to fight this bill, and we’ll win.

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Posted in ASPCA, Cats, Dogs, New York City, No Kill, Politics | 14 Comments

Quick Kill Bill News Update!

Posted on February 28, 2012 by jbsibley

NEWS UPDATE! Amy Paulin and Co. have postponed today’s scheduled forum – but we now know that it’s not dead and that they are planning to defend and promote the bill. This is no time to back down – please read about the weaknesses in the bill and take action – we need contact with the sponsors, now!

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Posted in ASPCA, Cats, Dogs, New York City, No Kill, NYCACC, Politics, Shelter Stuff | 3 Comments

The ASPCA and Amy Paulin Double Down on the Quick Kill Bill

Posted on February 28, 2012 by jbsibley

When we last checked in with Amy Paulin’s Quick Kill Bill we looked to be in pretty good shape. The ASPCA was expressing displeasure and distancing themselves with some of the aspects of the bill they themselves had written in response to massive public outcry, cosponsors were running away, and the bill seemed destined for a quick death in the Codes Committee.

Then something interesting happened: they doubled down and started to marshal their forces to defend the Quick Kill Bill. The first step? They’re getting the band back together. (What band? The Killers, of course!)

An Amy Paulin press release revealed that her allies are not only the ASPCA but Jane Hoffman of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals (who depends on the ASPCA for a large part of the funding for her organization) and ASPCA kool-aid dispenser the Animal Law Coalition (a coalition of one, Laura Allen). If this collection of names sound familiar, it should, because these are the forces behind some of the worst legislative ideas in New York in the last few years. These are the folks who got together to defeat the original Oreo’s Law out of mutual self-interests and prevent shelter access reform in New York State. These are the people who got together to sell out the animals of New York City by passing Int. 655 (now Local Law 59 of 2011), which relieved the city of its legal responsibility to build and staff full service shelters of every borough in New York City. And these are the people who found a new stooge, Amy Paulin, to help them introduce legislation in order to block CAARA, a progressive law that sets a new standard of rescue access for shelter animals and codifies in law minimum standards for how shelter animals are to be cared for and treated. These are the people who exert great influence over New York City’s Animal Care and Control, who enable them to kill and to keep killing, and who now seek to drag the rest of New York State down to those standards.

Tomorrow – Tue, Feb 28, the newly reformed band will make their first joint appearance together in support of the bill in an online forum on lohud.com at 1:30pm. At that time you’ll be able to click here and join in an interactive forum with Amy Paulin, Jane Hoffman and Nancy Perry of the ASPCA.

They’re going to undoubtedly try some of the following talking points – some of which are outright lies. Here’s the truth about the Quick Kill Bill.

Amy Paulin has said that she is willing to withdraw the Quick Kill provision of the Quick Kill Bill – the language that allows the speedy execution of animals judged to be in “psychological pain”.
She may be willing in word, but she has not yet withdrawn that provision and it remains part of the bill.

Amy Paulin has said that the bill requires that shelters take additional steps to require shelters to reunite a lost pet and their owners.
The bill undermines any such language by exempting shelters from any requirement that they do not find “practicable”. For instance, they are required to scan for a microchip, check lost pet reports, and make listings of lost animals available on a website as soon as is “practicable”. This is a massive loophole; any shelter accused of wrongdoing under the law could simply claim that they found the requirement to be not practicable and they’re off the hook. This is not a law; this is a suggestion. If we could trust shelters to do the right thing, we wouldn’t need a law that requires them to take lifesaving steps, as CAARA does, instead of declaring them to be optional, as the Quick Kill Bill does – toothless loopholes masquerading as real reform.

Amy Paulin has said that the bill sets up a rescue oversight process between rescuers and shelters.
The bill says that shelters may work with rescue groups – but they don’t have to, and if they do they ARE the oversight process. They decide who gets to rescue and they can eject rescues that speak out against them. Interestingly, the bill requires that rescues pulling from shelters are able to provide necessary veterinary treatment and have effective disease control protocols, meaning that NYCACC would have approval over standards of other rescues that they themselves do not and cannot meet. Putting shelters in charge of regulating who can rescue from them merely codifies the current status quo, it is no kind of improvement and would not prevent abusive shelters from silencing their critics and preventing rescuers from taking animals and killing them instead, as now happens routinely. CAARA, by contrast, contains provisions that protect shelter whistleblowers and establishes objective standards for rescues that are not subject to manipulation by the shelter.

Amy Paulin has said that the bill improves requirements for shelter care and medical treatment.
The bill provides extremely nonspecific standards of care, with loopholes and weak language throughout – including some truly disturbing passages, like only requiring medical care and treatment for animals during their stray hold period. By contrast, CAARA provides very specific and detailed standards of care without the loopholes.

Amy Paulin has said that the bill establishes additional criteria for when an animal can be humanely euthanized as a last resort and tightens the exiting language.
The bill changes archaic and rarely invoked language to modern language for when animals may be killed as a first resort, negating the stray hold period, using language very similar (“psychological pain”) to that frequently cited by high-kill groups like PETA to justify the killing of stray cats and scared dogs. It replaces archaic language with a justification in the language that people who wish to exterminate feral cats already speak fluently and refer to often.

Finally, the ASPCA says that CAARA cannot pass because it contains “unfunded mandates”, which is when a bill requires expenditures without providing a source to fund them. For the life of me, I cannot figure out what they’re talking about – I see no massive expenditures attached to CAARA and when questioned they can never produce the requirements that are so terribly expensive. Not only does CAARA codify what most animal lovers believe to be common sense, it will undoubtedly lead to savings because cooperating fully with rescue groups means that animals spend less time in the shelter and transfer to rescue is far cheaper than killing. There simply are no huge expenditures involved in CAARA and they have yet to name any.

These are the main talking points I expect them to cover – but you can find an even more exhaustive comparison between CAARA and the Quick Kill Bill here. I highly recommend that anyone interested read the complete text of the Quick Kill Bill and of CAARA for themselves as well.

What can you do to help stop the Quick Kill Bill and support CAARA?
No matter where you live, participate in tomorrow’s online forum on Tue, Feb 28 at 1:30pm EST and be ready to refute their Quick Kill Bill talking points and express your opposition.
If you live in New York, PLEASE contact the sponsors of the bill and ask them to withdraw their sponsorship and support CAARA – and tell them why they should. We need more New Yorkers to do this – TODAY!
Finally, wherever you live, contact Assemblywoman Paulin on her facebook page and publicly register your opposition to the bill, and contact the Chairwoman of the Board of the ASPCA and ask her to get her organization out of the killing business and join us – and CAARA – in our efforts to save lives.

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Posted in ASPCA, Cats, Dogs, New York City, No Kill, NYCACC, Politics, Shelter Stuff | 36 Comments

Finish Off the Quick Kill Bill!

Posted on February 24, 2012 by jbsibley

We’ve had some good developments in fighting the Quick Kill Bill lately. We’ve enlisted the help of Assemblyman Joe Lentol to kill the bill, informed the office of Speaker Sheldon Silver, and today the first ad opposing the bill appeared in the major newspaper of sponsor Amy Paulin’s district – and I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to animal lovers all over the world who donated to place that ad and inform her constituents of her intentions.

Despite all of that, the bill is not yet dead. Assemblywoman Amy Paulin has made noises about reaching out to opponents of the bill, but has not actually done so as of yet – indeed, when experts pointed out some of the more obvious flaws in her bill at the beginning of the process, she rejected their input and later labeled opponents of her Quick Kill Bill misguided, uninformed and uneducated. It’s time to put this horrible legislation away.

Every bill before the New York State Assembly gathers sponsors and multisponsors; assemblypersons who sign up to support and cheerlead for the bill. Our efforts have caused three sponsors/multisponsors to withdraw their support, but several remain. WE ARE GETTING RESULTS! IF YOU ARE A NEW YORKER, and especially if you are a constituent of one of the remaining sponsors, please follow EACH of these three links and email to remaining sponsors of this bill asking them to withdraw their sponsorship. Text has been provided, but as always adding your own heartfelt and polite message is helpful. These sponsors are not necessarily the enemy; most are merely uninformed as to the true intent of this legislation.

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

If you can do even more, please call their offices in addition to sending email, especially if you are one of their constituents or know someone who is and will call, and politely request that they withdraw their sponsorship of A05449, Amy Paulin’s Quick Kill Bill.

Remaining legislative sponsors of the Quick Kill Bill:
Margaret Markey (Queens) 718-651-3185
Robert Sweeney (Suffolk Cty) 631-957-2087
Matthew Titone (Staten Island) 718-442-9932
Francisco Moya (Queens) 718-458-5367
Felix Ortiz (Brooklyn) 718-492-6334
Peter Rivera (Bronx) 718-931-2620
Naomi Rivera (Bronx) 718-409-0109
William Boyland (Brooklyn) 718-498-8681
Richard Gottifried (Manhattan) 212-807-7900
John McEneny (Albany) 518-455-4178
Joan Millman (Brooklyn) 718-246-4889
Michelle Schimel (Nassau Cty) 516-482-6966
Fred Thiele, Jr (Suffolk Cty) 631-537-2583

If any of these offices say that they have withdrawn their support, please contact me so I can confirm, announce, and remove them from the list! Thanks!

If you are NOT a New York State resident, please continue to contact the Chair of the ASPCA board to let her know how disappointed you are with her organization for their support of the Quick Kill Bill, and let Assemblywoman Paulin know that the opposition to her bill is national in scope.

Let’s get this done so we can move on to the next step – passing CAARA and SAVING more of New York State’s animals!

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Posted in ASPCA, Cats, Dogs, No Kill, Politics | 8 Comments

Vicious Destiny Arrives at Pets Alive

Posted on February 22, 2012 by jbsibley

Vicious Destiny, the cat deemed too violent to be adopted to the public by New York City’s Animal Care and Control, arrived at Pets Alive today. She is reportedly affectionate and attention seeking and not at all scary.

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