Esposito Rosario, Freelance
Many more dogs are being saved than years ago, but there's still a distance to go.
While the Bloomberg administration’s days are winding down, dogs and cats are still dying in droves in the beleaguered municipal shelter system.
Bill de Blasio promises a “no-kill city” if elected, and his election seems increasingly likely given his commanding lead in the polls. But we can’t wait two months or more for relief; New York City Animal Care & Control is overwhelmed with abandoned dogs right now.
Many, if not most of these, are mere puppies, often 1 year old or younger. These are good, friendly, eminently adoptable dogs with excellent friendliness test ratings — dogs that could have had a life as some lonely person’s companion. And I can attest from long experience walking them as a volunteer that they are very good at making humans love them.
Without dwelling on the city’s shameful failures in recent years to help millions of animals whose lives it could have saved, here’s a brief history:
There are currently animal shelters in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island; these house thousands upon thousands of dogs and cats. But roughly half of the city’s population lives in the Bronx and Queens. The city’s 2008 budget earmarked funds for construction of badly needed shelters in those boroughs. But in 2011, the city reneged on its commitment. The planned shelters went unbuilt.
Meantime, the city has failed to mobilize a robust effort to spay and neuter strays throughout the boroughs — especially in financially challenged neighborhoods. Although the ASPCA and local nonprofit groups like the Toby Project work diligently to offer free or low-cost spay/neuter services, their programs are starved for funds. The explosion of unwanted animals, both dogs and cats, testifies to that.
Little surprise: The official city Animal Care & Control shelters we do have are overcrowded. Though adoption rates have grown, they remain too rare.
And that means thousands of dogs, most of them beautiful, kind dogs, are dying. Yes, the city has made efforts to reduce its euthanasia rate for homeless pets and has had some success — driving it down from almost 24,000 in 2004 to 5,000 this fiscal year, according to the city.
But a visit to the Animal Care & Control website, nycacc.org, shows the daily list of animals to be euthanized the next day. (For some strange reason you have to register with CACC to view the list.)
We need not and must not wait for policy changes to be put in place when it’s convenient for city leaders. Here’s an urgent agenda that those who love dogs should insist gets put into action immediately.
via www.nydailynews.com/opinion/fight-life-dog-article-1.1483172
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