Mayor Bloomberg announced a plan to give the city's animal shelters an additional $10 million over the next three years, which is good news for animal lovers, though the funding does come at a price.
"Despite a difficult budget climate, we are committed to significantly improving the way animals are cared for while they await adoption," Bloomberg said yesterday. The money would allow receiving centers in Queens and the Bronx to expand their hours, restore pickup service for stray, injured or abandoned dogs and cats, create a trap-neuter-return program to reduce the number of feral cats, and create about 100 jobs.
But it would also mean that the city will abandon its plans to create full-service shelters in all five boroughs, leaving the Bronx and Queens out. "This is pouring money into a broken system," Esther Koslow of the Shelter Reform Action Committee told the News. "Ten million dollars over three years is still very little money. The city has relieved itself from an obligation and two large boroughs will not get shelters."
