If you call yourself a No Kill advocate and you decry the killing of animals by shelters without the vigorous pursuit of all available alternatives, but support the killing of animals in the face of other options when it is done by yourself, your friends, or groups you approve of, you are not in favor of No Kill. You have a God complex.
In the past 24 hours, Waggin’ Train has been deluged with offers of help for Nikki, the German Shepherd I wrote about yesterday that they “rescued” – and then decided to kill. In those 24 hours they’ve gotten 750 emails petitioning them to release Nikki into a better situation. They’ve been contacted by rescuers who have offered to take Nikki. They have been offered training, behavioral evaluation, donations to support Nikki’s needs. There has been little response other than to shut down their Facebook group and batten down the hatches, and although I cannot confirm it – they’re not talkin’ – I have no reason to doubt that Nikki died today at their hands, on schedule.
One of the principals in Waggin’ Train, Nanette, provided us with a little insight into her philosophy in an email sent to a donor on Nov 22, nearly a month after having her pulled from the shelter and taken to a boarding kennel, and just after seeing her for the first time. She is afraid not for Nikki’s well being, but for liability.
part of being a responsible rescuer is to make the tough decisions (to euthanize) when needed. It’s very hard, and I don’t make them quickly or without serious thought. However, I would rather be the one to make that decision, than for that decision making process be taken from me by a town animal warden or a court, as a result of an injury or an attack to someone
Now, releasing the animal into sanctuary care, as was a possibility, would have negated this which seems to be Nanette’s main concern. Her secondary concern is another shade of the “Angel of Death” complex: if she thinks a dog needs a killin’, then she’s the best one for the job.
I cannot, and will not place a dog that is dangerous…even if it is fear based. The liability is just too high.
And the thing about that is that there’s no indication of this dog being dangerous until Waggin’ Train got a hold of her. Dangerous is in the eye of the beholder; is there an actual bite record here? Prior to Waggin’ Train getting custody this dog lived with a young child and was turned in due to a landlord conflict over barking, not aggression.
In the end I have no idea if this dog was or wasn’t aggressive. I wasn’t there. What I do know is that Waggin’ Train repeatedly refused offers of help. They refused a free consultation with an outside trainer. They refused a free consultation with a behaviorist to evaluate Nikki for possible sanctuary placement. They were so focused on killing her that they would not consider any other option.
It is not right – ever – to kill an animal who has a place to go that provides an appropriate and safe environment for them. Many times people beg to get an animal considered for sanctuary placement, Waggin’ Train instead chooses death. I can’t say I’ve ever met an animal for whom death was superior to sanctuary, because when the animal is alive there is always the possibility of improvement, whereas death is rather final. Having seen formerly feral dogs go to adoption and formerly aggressive animals become the beloved companions of children it’s pretty amazing what can happen when one does not close the door on possibility, even when it takes years to figure out what an animal needs. I have to believe that an animal with no known history of aggression prior to Waggin’ Train taking possession a whopping 2 1/2 months ago would have a pretty good shot at improvement.
But I don’t think we’ll ever find out.
I do not share the decision making process of my rescue dogs with anyone. I do not need any additional trainer’s input. I trust the individuals I have already enlisted (both that also specialize with the GSD breed.) [EDITOR'S NOTE: Neither of these individuals appears to be an accredited trainer.] Although difficult and emotional, I have not come to my decision quickly or without serious thought.
That being said, I am firm on the decision I have made, and the reason I have made it, and will not discuss it further.
The Angel of Death always knows best.
Well hello there folks. Been a while. New house, moving, holidays, all that good stuff. But lets get right to it, shall we? This week I have two posts in the hopper on ethics; the first clear cut and the second less so. Let’s begin with the clear-cut one, which is now rather urgent.
In October a beautiful young shepherd named Nike (Now Nikki) was turned into the Brooklyn Center of New York City Animal Care and Control.
A volunteer spotted Nikki in the lobby with a young boy, who was immensely upset that his dog had to go away. The volunteer promised the boy that Nikki would not be killed. Nikki was very upset in the shelter and difficult to handle for medical, but she was pulled by Waggin’ Train rescue.
Waggin’ Train sent Nikki to a boarding kennel in New Jersey. German Shepherds frequently do not do well in either shelters or kennels, they tend to bond intensely with their families, are suspicious of all others, and do not do well in chaotic environments. At first she was reported to be settling into the kennel very well, where she was handled exclusively by the kennel’s owner. As recently as early November there were reports that she was showing steady improvement.
In late November the representative of Waggin’ Train finally actually met Nikki. She lives several states away and had elected to manage this rescue of a dog with known behavioral issues from afar without ever having met her. She was not pleased with what she saw, and Nikki was moved to the home of an SAR handler.
Several SAR (Search and Rescue) handlers had now worked with Nikki, and the Waggin’ Train representative seems to feel that they have all the experience that should be needed, even though SAR dogs are typically selected for non-aggression and there is no reason that an SAR handler would have any more experience than any lay person working with issues of fear aggression or socialization. There is no indication that Waggin’ Train sought a consultation with a trainer or behaviorist experienced with these issues.
You know where this is going, right? Yes, the representative of Waggin’ Train has decided to kill Nikki in the face of available options. In her words, “the liability is just too high”. Nikki’s death is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday Dec 27th. The Waggin’ Train representative is sending a vet to the home of the volunteer fostering Nikki to kill the dog she has evidently met only once.
Waggin’ Train has been offered, by a donor, a consultation with an actual qualified trainer for Nikki. They have refused. They have been offered a consultation with a canine behaviorist for consideration for sanctuary placement, and they have failed to respond to the offer. There is a third option of course, and that is to return Nikki to the shelter. While no one is a particularly big fan of that option, a return to the shelter would mean a chance at life and a chance at life is always preferable to a certain death.
Time is short. Will you help ask Waggin’ Train to make the right decision? We need a one week stay of execution to have her evaluated by a canine behaviorist for possible sanctuary placement. Even if that is not an option, I would hope that Waggin’ Train would spare her a certain death and return her to the shelter where a group might take her in who are willing to work with professionals with applicable experience. I too would not want to see Nikki in a situation where she may hurt someone or herself – but I’d also rather not see her dead.
Time is short now and quick action is crucial. Please sign this petition and let Waggin’ Train know that we, their potential donor base, do not want them to kill an animal without exploring every possible placement option. You may also wish to leave a comment on their Facebook page.
This past Saturday I went to Staten Island, one of the areas hit hard by the storm on its coast, to volunteer with Staten Island Feral Initiative. I’ve wanted to do something with SIFI for a while, as feral cats are a gap for me and I’d like to know more about them. This wasn’t exactly that, but it sure was eye opening.
We met in the morning in a church parking lot and divided up into team. Each team had one driver and we loaded all sorts of animal supplies into our cars, both for cats and dogs. Each team was dispatched to a different coastal neighborhood in Staten Island and instructed to give supplies as necessary but most importantly to walk the neighborhood, talk to as many people as we could, and find out what the needs of people were for both dogs AND cats so that whatever they needed for their animals could be delivered to them. We were assigned to go to Eltingville.
Eltingville was a lovely little neighborhood before the storm, with neat little homes and condos, but the storm had torn the coastal areas apart. Although there is no marina there, there is one across the cove from Eltingville, and the storm had picked up boats, swept them across the cove, and thrown them everywhere – in streets, into houses. In addition to the damage caused by the massive surge and the flooding (which had, by then, receded), the boats – and some cars – had been picked up and turned into weapons.
We began to walk the streets of our assigned neighborhood and take the lay of the land. For the most part, life was normal 2-3 blocks from the shore, but in the shore area… houses were completely flooded. Muck was being shoveled out of them, walls torn out, discarded household goods being carried to the street. Power lines were down everywhere and the hum of generators was constant.
The pile of rubble in the background was once a house.
We began to talk to everyone we met. At first we didn’t have much success – very fortunately, most of the people who had dogs took them with them when they left and there were no strays to be seen. We did distribute some dog food to people who were running low. We began asking people about cats, especially outdoor cats. The first few people we talked to denied ever having seen an outdoor cat in the neighborhood, but we know ferals are everywhere. Then someone pointed us towards Ralph.
Ralph is 75 and has been caring for, feeding, and neutering cats in the neighborhood for years. His house was a mess – the inside stil waterlogged and gutted as he shoveled the debris out of his home. In his front yard, however, he had cardboard boxes set up with bedding, towels, food and water. The insulated houses he had built had all been destroyed and nearly every possession was ruined, but he was still caring for cats as best he could. We left him with some food and promised him we would return with more food and replacement shelters for him.
From there he pointed us to others, who led us to still others. We found many people who cared for outdoor cats and helped them with the supplies we had. Many told us of a woman who cared for a very large colony and had her house destroyed. Eventually, we found her.
That used to be Kim’s house, and she took care of feral colonies totaling 40 cats. We knew we were in the right place because there was a cat shelter out front and several traps scattered around.
As we were looking for places to drop food, Kim herself pulled up. With the storm bearing down she had been trying to trap as many cats as she possibly could to take them to safety. She had 9 in the house when the storm surge hit her house and ripped it apart, trapping her inside in violently moving water. She had to break a window and climb out of it to survive, but the surge killed the trapped cats and destroyed her home, dragging half of it out to sea. Kim had been back many times since – not for the home, which was a total loss, but for the cats she cared for. She was extremely grateful for the food we left and we promised her we’d be back with habitats.
I was just one of many teams on the ground that day and we identified 6 caregivers in the target area and made sure they had some supplies. The next day, SIFI held a volunteer day where they constructed 75 cat shelters, which will be distributed to those people and others throughout the affected areas of Staten Island on Monday and Tuesday, as well as larger amounts of supplies for those who need it.
SIFI is one of many small all-volunteer organizations doing great relief work. You can read more about their efforts, including how to donate to them here and follow their activities on their blog. If you have time to help, they would greatly appreciate that as well.
This is one of those I really don’t want to write.
Hurricane Katrina was probably more than anything what promoted Best Friends from a regional to a national player in animal welfare. Their response to the disaster was forceful – indeed, entire books have been written about the response. They committed overwhelming time, manpower and funding to the rescue and saved thousands of animals, some of whom I would later have the pleasure of caring for as a sanctuary employee.
Although Katrina made their name, it also very nearly broke them. Their sanctuary was packed full to bursting with animals, their coffers depleted, their staff pushed to their physical and emotional limits. Even when I joined the staff, in 2008, the repercussions of Katrina were felt throughout the organization as management was obviously reluctant to commit resources to mass rescue situations and the Disaster Response Team went through multiple managers and reorganizations – in its current form, I believe it is an ad hoc team drawn from available staff without a dedicated manager.
So too it must have burned Best Friends to see the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) take more credit than they deserved in the aftermath of Katrina and walk away with a massive profit, after raising $34 million and reportedly spending only $18 million on Katrina-related activities.
Fast-forward a few years and Best Friends has opened a regional office here in New York City. It’s been quite the source of speculation in New York City as to what this office actually does. Here’s the claim of Best Friends on one of their websites:
By “grassroots local programs” they evidently mean the handful of single day events that take place in and around New York City throughout the year: the Super Adoption(s), Strut Your Mutt, a Pit Bull Day, and assisting with the occasional Pup My Ride transport going to NY area shelters (although those rescues are not coordinated by the NY office). This does not seem to me to be enough to justify a full-time presence in New York City, and I have in fact asked highly placed Best Friends staff what the function of the New York office is on a day-to-day basis. No one seems to know, exactly. While the events they promote benefit and fundraise for local rescues, producing them is not an entirely altruistic effort for Best Friends: they get their name, logo and mission in the media, in promotion, and into the hands of animal lovers in the New York City region.
And with all that attention, it would be easy for the animal lovers of New York City to conclude that Best Friends does more here in New York than they actually do. I can easily tell you what they do not do: I attend most of the animal related local legislative hearings in New York, and you won’t find Best Friends staff there. You won’t find them testifying before committees of the NY City Council about local animal related issues. You won’t find them lobbying the New York State Legislature on behalf of animals. You won’t find them doing day to day rescue work. And you won’t find them engaged in efforts to reform the notoriously abusive New York City Animal Care and Control system, the local pound. Indeed, when the kill lists of the last few months hit historic levels of 75 animals or more per night, nary a peep was heard from Best Friends. Nary a finger was lifted in the New York office.
Still, I’ve largely held my tongue until now. They were at least helping local groups attract adoptions and donations, even if they got something in return that helped their organization grow in size and influence (and donations) without any of that messy day-to-day practical stuff.
Then Sandy came.
Best Friends knew Sandy would be a big one. On October 29, they ran an article about the storm’s historic impact, advising the people in the affected areas how to best prepare their pets. And immediately after the storm, they sprang into action, sending out a fundraising email that promised swift response to the storm’s wrath. They put a giant graphic on their homepage advertising their response and posted a news story promising regular updates – and again, asking for money.
On Nov 1st, 3 days after the storm, we discovered Best Friends’ response to the largest hurricane in East Coast history: they sent two staffers and a truck. They appear to have driven that truck to the East Coast from the Best Friends home office in Utah, which would account for the long delay in response time. The choice to have them drive a vehicle here was a very curious one – it slowed their response time greatly and vehicles are in plentiful supply here in the northeast. Climate controlled box trucks are a very simple thing to rent around here – or for a more flexible and maneuverable option, multiple cargo vans. UHauls are not hard to find in the area.
I want to make it clear that the two staff members Best Friends sent are among the best there are. Their skill and commitment is not in question, not in the slightest. But by the time they arrived, other major animal organizations had boots on the ground for days. Massive investments, multiple rescue teams, vet teams, food distribution trucks, vehicles, fully staffed temporary rescue centers – the sort of massive response one would expect for an epic natural disaster. One of the other national organizations had a food distribution and vet care center set up in Staten Island before FEMA had even established a presence there. Best Friends sent two people to Bergen County, New Jersey.
It soon became clear as the flailing continued in the Facebook group of Best Friends New York City (which you’ll note they include as a major contribution to their efforts in their published news stories) that this meager response in conjunction with national fundraising was all they were prepared to offer in the home of their satellite office. It was suggested there that they offer grants to some of the local rescues who were doing boots on the ground in New York City, and they enacted that the next day.
By November 4th Best Friends had heard a lot from their NYC supporters begging them to help the animals of the shelters of New York City, and in yet another national fundraising email they promised to do just that. This email boasted a lot about “organizing” and “gathering” but spoke little of the accomplishments of the 2-man ground team. A new news story that day promised assistance to the shelter animals of New York City in the coming days. Again, strangely, they didn’t feel the need to hurry but promised that a special “Emergency Response vehicle” was on the way, presumably from Utah. Much of this news story once again speaks of their work to “organize”, “coordinate”, “assist”, and “deliver” – things one can do by phone and certainly nothing that would require a nationwide fundraising campaign. At this time they also, in their Facebook group, solicited the participation of volunteers to help them transport animals out of New York City.
That plan appears to have fallen apart at some point.
On November 7th Best Friends could finally speak of some practical accomplishments, taking 41 cats and 10 dogs from the Town of Hempstead animal shelter to partners in the Northeast. Although they claim that their planned pull from the New York City animal shelters has been delayed due to “technicalities related to moving their animals across state lines”, I doubt that highly, especially because moving animals across state lines is in no way necessary. Only the coastal areas of NY have been affected, and NY is a pretty big state. Surely with their local office Best Friends must have made contacts to enable animal placement in-state. They can’t have been playing Minesweeper the entire time. The more likely explanation is that they were unable to navigate the considerably complex issues of pulling animals from New York City Animal Care and Control. Ironically, rescue access legislation which they once actively opposed and now support by lip service if not much practical effort would have paved the way for them to actually rescue some animals in the city where their office is based.
Tonight the New York City shelters released their first kill lists since the storm; they had been suspended in the immediate period after the hurricane. Best Friends is simply too late. At the time of this writing, 11 days after the storm, there is no indication that the New York City office has been able to save a single animal from New York City, either from the shelter or in the field.
Watching the Best Friends response over the past week and a half has been watching a giant flail. Disorganization, incompetence, a total lack of planning, of contacts, of resources. One of the bright spots has been the volunteers of Best Friends, who stepped up where their organization would not and organized supply drives on their own, which Best Friends generously loaned the support of their Facebook group to.
But in the end, even with all their available resources, with nationwide fundraising emails, with heart-wrenching Sandy graphics plastered all over their website with appeals to donate, the Best Friends response to the largest natural disaster in the history of the northeast United States was 2 additional staff members and a truck, later adding a grant program in apparent response to public pressure.
If you open up an office in NYC and use it to raise funds and increase your national profile, you’d damn well better be ready to give back to NYC when an emergency hits. When HSUS raised $34 million for Katrina operations and walked away having spent only $18 million they were the subject of an investigation by the Louisiana Attorney General – an investigation that was later dropped under mysterious circumstances. New York’s Attorney General has been much quicker and more aggressive about looking into Sandy related offenses.
I do hope it does not take Best Friends too much longer to do right by the animals of New York City and perhaps engage in some soul searching about what exactly their New York office should be doing on the 356 or so days in the year when they’re not running an event. At this point, after 11 days of aggressive fundraising and minimal response expenditure for a major disaster, I’ll say this:
They certainly have the money.
The most important and largely uncovered story of New York City’s Animal Care and Control (NYCACC) remains this: in a time of widespread tragedy when animal care services were sorely needed in New York City, NYCACC abandoned its mission and closed up shop. They are, quite simply, no longer fit to hold a contract performing animal control services to the City of New York, and they are now quite likely the largest limited admission publicly funded waste of tax money in the United States.
When the storm hit, NYCACC shut down its locations, and rightfully so: during the storm and in the immediate aftermath conditions in some areas were quite dangerous. However, their facilities remained closed to the public for several days after the storm, at the time of greatest need. Even now, 10 days after the storm, NYCACC continues to turn the public away and to limit their intake simply because they’re not capable of doing the job.
Today I visited three facilities of NYCACC. Manhattan, one of three full service facilities, appears to be largely open for business. The doors were unlocked with no signage posted warning the public to stay away.
At another full service facility, Brooklyn, signs were still posted warning of locked doors and limited intake.
Taken 11/8, 12:30pm. Posted on the front gate of Brooklyn NYCACC.
Finally, I visited the Bronx receiving center – despite its huge population and need for services, the Bronx does not warrant a full service shelter, just a storefront for pets to be dropped off at. In a bustling and busy area largely unaffected by hurricane devastation, the Bronx center remains closed for no evident reason. Employees loiter inside, clustered around the desk chatting away while the door stays locked and the holding cages behind them are empty.
Bronx NYCACC Receiving Center, 11/8 1:10pm.
Closed Bronx NYCACC receiving center, 11/8 1:10pm.
Can you imagine if, in the wake of a major disaster, the police closed up shop? If the fire department announced that they would only provide “limited service” for fighting fires? NYCACC has simply refused to do the job that New York pays them to do, and as such should have their contract terminated immediately. Enough is enough – when they’re open they’re killing, mistreating and abusing animals, and when there’s a state of emergency, they’ve closed up shop.
NYCACC today began to fundraise, claiming to need the money for the care of the smallest hurricane victims of NYC. One of the funds they encourage contributions to claims that:
Click image for associated NYCACC web page.
Except, of course, that they do – and today, in the Bronx, they are not taking animals at all. They’ve gone limited admission because it’s easier not to do their jobs than it is to save animals – have you seen their huge post-hurricane adoption event with discounted rates, specials, a big splash? Hey, me neither. Their claim to be “open admission” is now nothing more than a sham. At the city’s time of greatest need, they closed up shop.
It’s time to throw ‘em out.
Since Hurricane Sandy animals have been pouring into New York City Animal Care & Control (NYCACC). They have locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island but the Staten Island location was evacuated prior to the storm’s arrival and animals transferred to the other two shelters. Their computer systems were down for several days and they stopped killing animals as they battened down the hatches to ride out the storm.
By midweek this week they were full to bursting and as some normalcy returned to New York City their New Hope staff, the staff that interfaces with rescues, began to reach out to partner rescues to ease some of the crowding at NYCACC. Rescues responded and over 100 animals were placed in less than 24 hours.
One of the rescues contacted was Pets Alive Westchester, who immediately agreed to take 30+ cats even though this is one of their most difficult times of year – the approaching winter means that their heating bills are about to skyrocket and donations have been down.
I immediately started planning to transport the animals out of NYCACC the next day. Travelling in and out of Manhattan from my home in the Bronx is very difficult at this point. Traffic and police activity cause long and unpredictable backups. There is a massive gas shortage that makes refueling very difficult, with gas rationing and lines to refuel stretching 10 blocks or more. Finally there are travel restrictions in place to enter Manhattan: to enter the city between 6am and midnight you need to have at least 3 people in your car.
I had 5/8ths of a tank of gas, which would be enough for the day’s errands if everything went well. On Thursday night just after midnight, I drove my car over the bridge to Manhattan, parked it there for the night, and walked home.
On Friday morning I woke up and walked back over the bridge to my car. I was due at NYCACC Manhattan at 9:30AM and I ended up walking in at about 9:45. The shelters typically open at 8am but right now they’re on limited hours (opening at noon) and limited services, which I found odd – they certainly seemed to have plenty of staff milling about, including uniformed Department of Health staff and someone washing the sidewalks. I’m going to assume that when someone is hosing down the sidewalks you’re in pretty good shape. I knocked on the door, which was locked, and was allowed in. I met a new New Hope staff member there – I regret that I did not catch his name – and he was already in the process of getting the cats together whom I was pulling. I also handed him a list of small dogs who were known to be in the shelter and said I would like to add two small dogs to today’s pull, then settled down to wait.
A couple was in the lobby who had also been let in before the official “limited” opening time. The woman was crying with joy – they had finally found their beloved dog, who had been lost before the storm and the hurricane had put their search on a temporary hold. They were so happy to have her back, but they couldn’t have her back. NYCACC requires proof of ownership that is rather draconian at the best of times. Here’s what you need to reclaim a lost dog:
Click to Enlarge
Additionally, there was another complication: their dog was not spayed and New York law requires that all animals be spayed or neutered prior to their release from a shelter, even owned dogs being reclaimed by their owners. NYCACC charges $150 for that service and the surgery will done in a filthy, disease-ridden environment. Some vets at NYCACC are better than others. Some have an alarming number of surgery deaths. You don’t get a choice. I see the intent of this law, but the application of it has gone horribly, horribly wrong in the NYC shelter system. It encourages people to abandon their pets to be killed.
The couple was incredulous, then angry. They couldn’t believe they had finally found their dog and now they would not be able to take her home. After much argument it was discovered that their dog could, in fact, go home: she had been wearing an expired license that constituted proof of ownership, so that requirement was satisfied. She had also been at AC&C long enough to get sick, as all animals will who are there long enough. Because they do not do surgery on sick animals, their dog was eligible for a spay/neuter waiver – a $150 deposit is left and the dog must be brought back when well for surgery or proof of surgery must be presented to reclaim the deposit. Because the AC&C has mistreated her and failed to protect her from illness, she could go home… for only $218 total.
The sheer stupidity of it is mind boggling. There are a lot of animals lost right now, and a lot of people looking for them because of the storm. Do they expect someone who’s just lost their home to present vet records? Will they sock them with hefty reclaim fees? There was not a lot of flexibility in evidence.
Essentially, if you lose your animal in NYC and NYCACC picks them up, they are held for ransom: pay up or they’re at risk of death. Oh, and they’re at risk of death anyway. Illness or risky surgery, take your pick.
My cats were ready so I loaded the car and went back to see what dogs they had available for me. I was informed by the New Hope coordinator that their computer system was down so they could not release any more animals right now. I think my head just about exploded. They called us due to overcrowding. They asked us to take as many as we could. And now here I was, standing there in front of her, asking to take more animals, and I was being told no. She suggested that I come back later, which was an impossibility – as I explained to her, gas was extremely scarce and I had to plan this transport very carefully. I was one of the few rescuers in NYC at the moment who had a car, gas, was standing in front of her and was offering to take animals. She stood firm. They would not be released. I prayed that none of the dogs I wanted to take would make the kill list as I stormed out, got in my car, and headed for Brooklyn where I hoped to find some staff who could possibly think creatively to save lives.
Later I would find out why their computers were down: a router needed to be restarted. Animals are at risk due to a computer system that is less than robust and has been down for several days. Time to invest in some distributed cloud servers… and an offline backup.
Off to Brooklyn, which was a pleasure by comparison – although there’s that “limited service” thing again.
Here’s what greeted me when I pulled up:
Not very inviting. I opened the gate myself and walked up to the front door, which like Manhattan was locked. This one had a sign:
Again I knocked and stated my case before I was let in. Although I arrived before the opening of their “limited” hours I left long after their new noon opening time and the gate stayed closed, the front door locked. It is very clear to me that one of the ways that NYCACC is weathering the storm is by simply not doing their job: they are “open” in name only. Everything is set up to discourage you from entering and allow them to not let you in if they don’t want to help you. They’ve gone from doing much of their job poorly to not doing much of it at all – and this after being completely closed to the public for several days. Animal “Receiving Centers” (intake only) in the Bronx and Queens have been closed since the storm, and the Staten Island shelter remains closed as well. I wonder how many animals field services brought into the shelters in that time. Did they bring in any, or just drive around and look busy?
Their computers were up (I guess someone knows how to reset a router in Brooklyn), the cats were quickly ready, and New Hope staffer Jessica walked me though the shelter to meet available dogs. I was happy to see that Brooklyn was well staffed, clean, and not overcrowded – so WHY NOT BE OPEN? Jessica was extremely helpful and staffers helped me load my car and select two dogs in addition to the 35 cats in the car. I was quickly loaded, paperwork completed, and transported everyone safely to Pets Alive Westchester – who, by the way, could use your help if you feel inclined to do so (follow the link!). Mass rescues aren’t cheap and animals coming from NYCACC almost always need veterinary care above and beyond the usual due to the illnesses that run unchecked at the shelters.
This is Lexi, a small Shiba/Beagle mix. She’s pretty happy to be alive.
New York has actually had a taste of No Kill this week. The shelter hasn’t had a kill list in, I think, 5 days. It’s good that they’ve had a sample: No Kill starts as an act of will, a determination to do anything but kill. But as a city contractee with certain duties to the public, they shouldn’t be allowed to ignore them for their own convenience, which appears to be what has happened. They essentially seem to have stopped services nearly completely for a few days other than basic care for their resident animals, which is completely unacceptable. But what if they combined the reaching out for help when they need it, as they displayed this week, with a determination to do the right thing, employees not locked into dogmatic policy but given the liberty to pursue common sense and lifesaving, and maybe some basic skills like learning how to do effective adoptions? Because as depressing as today was, by the end of it I saw what was possible here and I am more convinced than ever that with reformation of the shelter system we could see both the end of the nightly kill list AND the services that the shelters are contracted to provide to the public, services that are all the more critical in times of crisis. This will be one of the untold stories of Sandy: faced with a challenge, a vital contractor to the City of New York simply stopped performing some of their duties. The good news is that once they crumble, as they will eventually, I believe that goal is as possible here as anywhere.
In a community that does not well define how animals with medical and behavioral issues are to be treated it is inevitable that animals will die for human convenience.
When a coalition dedicated to taking NYC No Kill pays only lip service to No Kill without working to implement it, that killing does not just occur in the shelters but potentially throughout the membership of the coalition. This is easy to see in the membership of the Mayor’s Alliance for New York City’s Animals, where one of the founding members – the ASPCA – is known for killing when it suits their purposes. Theoretically every member of the Alliance is supposed to be what they call an “adoption guarantee” organization, meaning “organizations that save all the healthy and treatable animals under their care, with euthanasia reserved only for unhealthy and untreatable animals”. Fortunately, by not defining what constitutes “unhealthy and untreatable”, the Alliance gives members an out to continue to kill at will (if they so wish; there are many Alliance members who would never do such a thing) while continuing to say they are working towards No Kill and accepting money in the form of grant funds to help New York City achieve No Kill, since they are paid for every animal they adopt to the public who came from the city shelter.
A few weeks ago a New York City rescue called City Critters, not just a member but a founding member of the Mayor’s Alliance, took advantage of this loophole to kill a cat named Shannon.
City Critters picked up Shannon, a young stray cat nursing three kittens on St. Patrick’s day 2012. She was immediately placed in foster care but proved difficult to handle and quickly went through two foster homes, one where she did not get along with the resident cat and one where she attacked the person. Two weeks after being plucked from the streets she landed in a home with a woman who loved her and her kittens and was committed to working on Shannon’s issues – for clarity, I will call this woman Jane (not her real name). Maternal aggression in cats is not at all uncommon and it was hoped that it would subside in time. Jane committed to her through June 6 when she had to leave town, at which time she was to be transferred to another foster.
Shannon showed progress in the home and her kittens were eventually old enough to be adopted out to homes of their own. Without them, she gradually developed into a cat who was according to her foster parent “more relaxed, playful and trusting”. As you can see from this video made by her foster parent, Shannon loved to play with toys.
On June 6, Shannon went to another foster home. She did attack the woman on the first day but left no injuries, quickly mellowed and did very well in the home. Unfortunately the woman was unable to keep Shannon after her job situation changed and by early July Shannon was back to Jane temporarily – Jane had to leave town again in August so her situation was strictly temporary. This time, with a trusted person in her life, Shannon thrived. Jane saw no aggression issues with her in this time and she was comfortable, affectionate and playful.
In mid-August Jane once again had to leave town and City Critters re-took possession of Shannon, where she would be cared for by a volunteer in an empty apartment. Although she had done extremely well with Jane, it was feared that a new situation might once again trigger Shannon’s aggression, and it did. City Critters took Shannon back on August 17. On August 23rd – 6 days later – at the urging of the volunteer caring for her Shannon was taken to a veterinarian and killed.
Jane returned to town on Sept 1st. On Sept 6th, City Critters called her to let her know they had killed the cat she had fostered and loved for them. Jane would have been happy to take her back. City Critters didn’t ask.
The volunteer for City Critters who was caring for her temporarily in the vacant apartment doesn’t appear to have had a very good idea of how to handle an aggressive animal safely and was repeatedly attacked as well as allowing Shannon to corner her in the kitchen and bathroom. It does not seem to have ever occurred to anyone to put Shannon in a crate or kennel for safety until they could gain her trust and/or learn how to handle her. In their SIX ENTIRE DAYS together before deciding that death was the only way, options were considered and quickly rejected: they considered placement for her as a barn cat but rejected that fearing she would be unsafe, and considered medication for her but rejected that idea because they didn’t think they could get her to take it (I fear for other cats in their care whose very lives may depend on getting them to take medication). Besides, she would need a consistent environment and a dedicated caregiver to adjust to the medication – obviously something City Critters felt they could not provide. A vet recommended euthanasia as “not a horrible thing”. In the end the volunteer who had been caring for her for SIX WHOLE DAYS convinced herself that killing her was kindness, that she could never be hurt or abandoned or fearful again. And besides, Shannon had been knocking things over in the empty apartment where she was left alone most of the time.
And so Shannon is now dead.
City Critters is a founding member of an organization that claims to have the mission of taking New York City to No Kill, but even some of the founding members embrace convenience killing. We know that ASPCA embraces killing as a solution when trying is too hard. Now we know that City Critters does as well. These organizations are quite simply not qualified partners in a coalition with the stated goal.
Killing cats for behavior reasons is nearly always stupid. City Critters and their volunteer had many options that they chose not to pursue in favor of the easy way out. They could have tried a medical option, or restraining Shannon in a crate while building trust, or introducing her to a feral colony, or simply putting her back where she came from. The very easiest option was never considered: the foster parent Jane who had done so well with her, who loved her and cared for her and who had stepped up for her repeatedly was never contacted prior to Shannon’s hasty execution. City Critters also has relationships with other rescues who hopefully have more experience and more dedication with difficult cats, and there is no indication that they asked for the assistance of any of them.
Like New York City Animal Care and Control and the ASPCA, City Critters had a solution when an issue arose. It’s the blue solution.
I look forward to City Critters’ explanation for the death of Shannon. They received many inquiries about her death on their Facebook page but simply deleted them all. I asked their President to present her side but she did not return my phone call.
Her heartbroken foster mom wrote this in an email to me about Shannon’s story:
She should be remembered. She gave birth to three beautiful tabby girls whose future is much brighter than hers. She loved to chase things and could catch toy mice in the air. She liked shadows on the wall. and she loved staring out the window at pigeons. She liked to be petted but softly and with respect. She would purr and roll and rub around my legs. She was still trying to make something her own. When I had to do some repairs around the studio she was my helper. Following me around and very interested in what I was doing. She just needed to be a part of something. She needed time… I still can’t believe that Shannon is dead. I still feel that I was responsible. I really do. I was her friend. I let her down. I so trusted the wrong people. I should have known better.
The term “No Kill” is a popular one. Many shelters claim to want to be No Kill, or claim that they already are No Kill, or claim to be working towards No Kill. Many of those shelters aren’t and have no intention of working towards it, they simply like the perceived PR value of the term and so they bend whatever statistic or definition they have to to claim No Kill status.
The generally accepted definition of No Kill is when you are saving 90% or greater of pets entering shelters in your community, and that number was chosen by looking at some of the highest functioning shelters in the United States and examining their save rates. Since the development of that definition, we have in fact discovered that save rates of 98%+ are possible in a municipal open admission animal shelter. In the end, No Kill is not a number or a statistic, it is when every animal entering a shelter is being given the absolute maximum chance to leave alive. The 90% mark is a quick and easy benchmark, but the real goal of No Kill is to reclaim the true definition of euthanasia: a kind death reserved only for those animals who are hopelessly sick or suffering without hope of recovery. Right now the philosophy of No Kill also allows the euthanasia of those animals, mostly dogs, who are judged to be hopelessly violent. Our understanding of dog rehabilitation is advancing every day, and it is my hope that someday they too will be routinely granted the right to live, in sanctuary if necessary.
Organizations like the Mayor’s Alliance for New York City’s Animals claim to be leading New York City to No Kill. They’re not. You can’t achieve No Kill without reforming the basic practices of the city shelters, which the Alliance has been completely unable to do. They have been able to drop euthanasia by paying private rescues to take animals from city shelters. That’s helpful, but it won’t get you to No Kill without shelter reform. As we get closer to 2015 and the end of the grant that keeps the Mayor’s Alliance operational, look for them to modify their mission statement: “working to end the killing of healthy and treatable cats and dogs at our city shelters, Animal Care & Control of NYC”. I’ve seen them testing out language that their goal is now to “reduce euthanasia” and I expect them to slowly transition to that language, since that will allow them to fundraise indefinitely for a goal that will never be achieved, preserving the existence of the Alliance and the power of its leader, Jane Hoffman.
It’s important to know that the Mayor’s Alliance never actually intended to take NYC truly No Kill. Here’s how we know. The Mayor’s Alliance is funded primarily by a large grant from Maddie’s Fund. Maddie’s Fund requires data collection in what is called Asilomar format, a standard format of shelter data reporting created by the Asilomar Accords. The Asilomar format has a major Achilles heel that prevents it from ever being an accurate reporting tool or allowing anyone to use it to compare the performance of two different shelters: it leaves it up to the organization making the report to decide what they consider “unhealthy” or “untreatable”. This, of course, is somewhat ridiculous and it makes these statistics extremely easy to manipulate. Don’t want to bother saving cats with ringworm? Boom, make ‘em untreatable. Dogs with Demodex? Untreatable. Kittens? Hey, if they’re under 8 weeks old, you’re in luck – they’re ALL considered “unhealthy” by the definitions of the Accords and it’s up to you if you consider them treatable or not!
So Maddie’s Fund supports a reporting standard where the participating grantees get to make up their own definitions of what is treatable in their community, since obviously there are some places where, say, ringworm is special and can’t be treated.
When a community grant is given by Maddie’s, as it has been to the Mayor’s Alliance, the participating organizations within that community are supposed to convene and develop a Pet Evaluation Matrix where your community agrees upon the standards of evaluation and treatment for animals who do not meet the definition of healthy under the Accords. If your community can’t afford to develop one, they also have a model matrix based on a survey of veterinarians. Many organizations that have created a matrix make them publicly available. Finally, the No Kill Advocacy Center has published a matrix of their own, notable because the NKAC has been instrumental in actually creating No Kill communities, not just paying lip service to them.
The Mayor’s Alliance and the shelters of New York City do not appear to have ever developed a Pet Evaluation Matrix for New York. By not doing so they can exploit a loophole in the system: that they can simply change the definition of “unhealthy” and “untreatable” to allow the shelters to kill whomever it is they wish to kill today and include their deaths in the appropriate category. It’s yet another way that the Mayor’s Alliance takes advantage of Maddie’s generosity and keeps the money flowing, no matter if goals are being achieved or not. This is routine in NYC shelters and it is being done by the shelters with the aid and assistance of the Mayor’s Alliance with the full knowledge of Maddie’s Fund: that their grant supports the death of healthy animals in NYC that the shelters have fraudulently labeled “unhealthy”.
We’re now in the seventh year of the five year plan for the Mayor’s Alliance to take New York City No Kill that was since modified to be a ten year plan. Maybe it’s time to cover the basics.
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