Be Heard:

These two dogs were killed even though they had adopters anxiously waiting to take them home:

 RIP Shadow & Lola

Please call, write, email, fax, the Mayor, the ACC Board members, the City Council members, and the media and also send letters to the editor.  Here's a sample letter; please personalize, if you wish and use your own thoughts and words to convey your anger and dissatisfaction with the status quo:



Dear Mayor Bloomberg, Board members of NYC Animal Care and Control, Speaker Quinn and City Council members:

Thousands of our companion animals are being needlessly killed in the shelters of NYC Animal Care and Control.  Reports are rampant of "mistakes" (e.g., killing animals who had rescues waiting), intentional mislabeling as "ill", or failure to treat easily treatable "illness", in order to justify killing. We demand a thorough investigation into the mismanagement, mistreatment and on-going killing of our homeless companion animals, for which there is no end in sight.

I am writing to express my outrage and concerns about the appalling and unacceptable situation at the NYC Animal Care and Control shelters, resulting from an unconscionable failure in management and leadership at every level and recent severe budget cuts. Service cuts in the shelters have resulted in increased numbers of animals killed and animals forced to live in unhealthy and neglectful conditions. This was reported in the recent ABC Eyewitness News undercover exposes, which have brought shame to our City and its citizens: http://tinyurl.com/29bemct; also http://tinyurl.com/2c3zh2h; and http://tinyurl.com/2ce9wzg. NYC has always ranked among the lowest major cities in the per capita monetary allotment for shelter animals, but now the situation and its dire consequences are even worse.  Hideous numbers of animals continue to be routinely killed.  In addition, the animal shelters for the Bronx and Queens, which were mandated by law and subsequent court ruling, have not been built, after more than 10 years of delay tactics and stalling by the City.

The Nevada Humane Society, among many others, is part of a growing trend sweeping the country that has transformed one of the highest kill rate shelters in the US into one of the lowest. This should be a "how to" example for New York City.  Please see how they did it. http://www.nevadahumanesociety.org/pdf/HowWeDidIt11-08.pdf

It has recently been reported that the City Council will be considering a proposal that will cost $10 million of taxpayer money to install Wi Fi capability in our City parks.  While this may be a progressive endeavor, if funds are available for such a project, where are the funds to improve the conditions and most importantly, save the lives of thousands of NYC companion animals?  Their needs have been put on the back burner, with little or no attention paid to their suffering and deaths.

I consider this situation to be intolerable, unconscionable and unacceptable.  I urge the Mayor, all ACC Board members and all City Council members to address this urgent situation immediately and take all necessary actions to investigate and rectify it.

Sincerely,

Name
Address

CONTACTS:

• General email contact for all City Council members:
• members@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you wish to find the name and contact info for YOUR City Council member go to: http://council.nyc.gov/html/members/members.shtm
• You can send a letter by using "Contact Us" form for the following members with no email address at: http://council.nyc.gov/html/members/members.shtm : Dromm, Greenfield, Quinn, Vallone  
• No email contact at all (must call, write or fax) :Arroyo, Barron, Dickens, Nelson, Reyna, Rose

Email Contact info for all other Council members not mentioned above (some have both email and Contact us forms on the City Council website http://council.nyc.gov/html/members/members.shtm ):
gbrewer@council.nyc.gov ; fcabrera@council.nyc.gov; chin@council.nyc.gov; comrie@council.nyc.ny.us; ecrowley@council.nyc.gov; Edilan@council.nyc.gov;mathieu.eugene@council.nyc.gov;jferreras@council.nyc.gov ; LFidler@council.nyc.gov;foster@council.nyc.gov; garodnick@council.nyc.ny.us; jgennaro@council.nyc.gov; vgentile@council.nyc.gov; Sgonzalez@council.nyc.gov; dhalloran@council.nyc.gov; Ignizio@council.nyc.ny.us;rjackson@council.nyc.gov, ljames@council.nyc.gov;pkoo@council.nyc.gov;okoppell@council.nyc.gov;Koslowitz@council.nyc.gov;lander@council.nyc.gov;
lappin@council.nyc.gov;slevin@council.nyc.gov;mviverito@council.nyc.gov;darlene.mealy@council.nyc.gov;rmendez@council.nyc.gov; lkaplan@council.nyc.gov;joddo@council.nyc.gov;apalma@council.nyc.gov;drecchia@council.nyc.gov;Joel.Rivera@council.nyc.gov; yrodriguez@council.nyc.gov, jsanders@council.nyc.gov; cmseabrook12@yahoo.com; eulrich@council.nyc.gov; jvacca@council.nyc.gov; jvanbramer@council.nyc.gov;avann@council.nyc.gov , MWeprin@Council.NYC.gov;Ruben.Wills@council.nyc.gov

City Hall
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
New York, NY  10007
Tel: 212 788 3000  Mayor’s Action Line 212 788 9600
mbloomberg@cityhall.nyc.gov

Commissioner, NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene
Chairman Of ACC Board: Thomas Farley, M.D.
125 Worth Street, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10013
Tel: (212) 788-5261  Fax: (212) 964-0472
TFarley@health.nyc.gov

There are 7 directors on the AC&C Board.  Three of them represent these City Departments: Health, Parks, and
Police. They are called “ex officio” directors.  In effect, the Mayor appoints them.

The 3 "ex-officio" board members from the City are:

Commissioner, Department of Health
e-mail: tfarley@health.nyc.gov
Adrian BenepeCommissioner, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation
The Arsenal, Central Park, 830 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10021
Tel:  800 201-Park; Dial 311 for all Parks & Recreation Information
Benepe occasionally attended board meetings, but for the past several years, has sent a designee.
Demonstrates little or no interest in improving the plight of shelter animals. To e-mail Comissioner Benepe, go to http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildpr.html

[You’re limited to 150 words or less, so you may have to divide your message into 2 or 3 messages to him.  Or you can send him a letter.]
Lt. THOMAS J. SWANSON
Representative for NYPD Community Affairs.
The AC&C offers no information regarding Lt. Swanson, nor a direct contact for him.
thomas.swanson@nypd.org    


JAY KUHLMAN, DVMThere are 4 "independent directors," who are all selected by the Mayor’s Office. Gramercy Animal Hospital
37 East 19th Street
New York, NY 10003
Tel. 212-477-4080
sjkuhlman@aol.com

John M.B. O'Connor
joc@jocnewyork.com

BRUCE DONIGER
Appointed in Oct 2004. President and CEO of The J.E. & Z.B Butler Foundation, a non-profit that benefits at-risk youth and individuals with special needs. AC&C's Treasurer. 


PATRICK NOLAN
Appointed in March 2007 to fill a nine-month vacancy and now apparently a
permanent member of the Board. A VP of Marketing at Penguin Group publishing in Manhattan. He remains an
unknown entity.
His office e-mail: Patrick.Nolan@us.penguingroup.com
B. DONIGER
bbdoniger@yahoo.com 
Former partner at JP Morgan Partners and now CEO of J.H. Whitney Investment Management in Manhattan.   Was ACC's treasurer for four years. A blood sport hunter and ACC's most hostile board member to animal welfare issues.  His concern is not to embarrass “his friend,” Mayor Bloomberg.
212-363-0868  

THOMAS FARLEY, M.D
A veterinarian. Genuinely cares about the plight of shelter animals but has never publicly protested the DOH’s stewardship of the ACC or the actions and inaction of his fellow board members.