NYC Comptroller (and potential 2009 mayoral candidate) William Thompson issued a new audit of Animal Care & Control and found that though conditions are better than in 2002, there are still issues with animals' health, security, and how the agency deals with missing animal reports. Some of the findings:
- 52% of the cats and dogs taken in were euthanized (this is a 13% decrease from 2004, but the Daily News summarized it "Shelter means death")
- Sick animals weren't isolated from healthy ones
- No accountability for missing animal investigations
- Dogs were not exercised properly ("AC&C maintained that it could not use its dog runs at the Manhattan shelter because of noise complaints, but could not explain why the Brooklyn runs were not used.")
- Medicine is kept in unlocked cabinets and visitors aren't always supervised when handling pets
- Adoption areas are not always clean
The ACC is contracted by the city to help get pets adopted and run the shelter system, and its director says improvements have been made in security and cleaning. The missing pet investigation finding, though, is troubling, because owners only have 48 hours to notify ACC that a pet is missing anyway. In 2002, Comptroller Thompson found terrible conditions (here's the 2002 audit).
On our forums someone posted a notice about some kitty cats available for adoption - you may not want to look because it's way too cute. And the ACC has a Cafepress shop - check out the "Gay Adoption" tote!
