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City's Death-Row Pets Have a Chance to Live

Frantic race is on to get a piece of $1B for cities that pledge to end euthanizing animals

by Heidi Singer, Staten Island Advance City Hall Bureau

Sunday, January 12, 2003

A Silicon Valley billionaire has provided a historic opportunity to virtually end the mass killing of homeless dogs and cats in New York City.

But to make it happen, the troubled shelter system must practically re-invent itself. Already staggering under its burden of 60,000 animals a year amid crippling budget cuts, the city is racing against time to repair its shattered relations with animal welfare groups and open up an institution that had become increasingly isolated in recent years.

The largest animal welfare fund in the nation's history, called Maddie's Fund, was created in 1999 with an astonishing promise of $1 billion to be divided among cities that pledge to eliminate killings of adoptable animals by 2008.

The fund has already given out one-fifth of its current endowment, and a number of major cities are working to become no-kill and get a piece of the cash.

"I do have a real sense of urgency," said Jane Hoffman, a lawyer and animal activist chosen by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to lead the charge. "They're going to make it tough for New York City. They know this is a big nut to crack and they want to make sure we can do it."

Dogs Go Unwalked

The challenges are huge. Last year, according to Ms. Hoffman, the city killed 12,000 to 14,000 healthy, adoptable dogs and cats in its three shelters and two intake centers, including one in Charleston. That figure doesn't include all the animals classified as dangerous, bad-tempered or otherwise unadoptable — anything from angry pitbulls to hissy kittens.

The Center for Animal Care and Control (CACC) puts an estimated three-quarters of its shelter animals to sleep.

By the end of the Giuliani administration, only a handful of the city's 30 to 40 rescue groups were willing or allowed to work with the shelter, said Ms. Hoffman, including only one Staten Island group, and the number of animals "pulled" had dropped to 5,500 a year. Although shelter officials denied it, a city Comptroller's two-year audit found virtually no evidence of volunteers or that dogs were being walked.

Animal activists said they merely hoped adult dogs and cats that wound up in shelters would be killed quickly, to end their suffering.

They blamed the center's executive director, Marilyn Haggerty-Blohm, for cutting off rescuers and volunteers, and doing little to increase adoption. But the Charleston animal lover and former aide to Guy Molinari was considered untouchable with Giuliani in office.

Creating Maddie's Fund

Around the same time the comptroller's audit began, Maddie's Fund was created by Dave Duffield, founder of the computer firm PeopleSoft, in memory of his miniature schnauzer, Maddie.

The California-based charity began with $240 million and is expected to rise to $1 billion in the next few years, with the goal of creating a "no-kill nation."

To get the money, communities must show they can eliminate killings of adoptable animals within a five-year period, a goal so ambitious it forces cooperation among city government, animal rescue groups and veterinarians, which New York City has infamously lacked.

But when Bloomberg took office, he created the alliance, and Ms. Hoffman has put together a $17 million Maddie's Fund grant proposal. To make it happen, she says she's convinced most of the city's animal rescue groups to give the shelter system another chance, this time with the backing of the mayor's office. Meanwhile, Ms. Haggerty-Blohm was removed in October and an interim executive director, Tottenville lawyer and bulldog breeder Julian Prager, appointed.

The mayor signed an agreement last Sunday that will allow rescue groups better access to city shelters. Groups that rescue specific breeds are eager to start pulling dogs again, said Ms. Hoffman, which might mitigate the recent jump in adoption fees to $200 for a purebreed. And a program is in the works to let hundreds of vets perform spays and neuters on rescue animals for just $10 each.

She said animal rights groups, famous for their infighting, are beginning to talk about cooperating on regular adoption fairs in parks and other public spaces - although not yet in this borough.

"I think one of the problems we have on Staten Island is the various groups, not that they don't get along, but they don't work together," said Ellen Donnelly, vice-president of the Staten Island Council on Animal Welfare. "Which is a problem, because if we did, we could get a lot more done, and we could get that money."

Still, the Council has applied to join the alliance, and both P.L.U.T.O. Rescue and Feline Rescue of Staten Island are already members.

Animals to Save

The plan is to increase the number of animals saved by 2,400 each year until 2008, when the number would reach 12,000, or roughly the number of adoptable animals the shelter now kills.

Animal activists on Staten Island say already they've seen encouraging signs. They've noticed CACC staff are more cooperative. Volunteers are being allowed back into the shelter starting this weekend. Adoption fairs will begin in Staten Island parks in the spring, and CACC has begun private fundraising to make up for the budget cuts, said Prager. He also plans to bring a mobile spay/neuter van to the Charleston facility.

Of the Island's two major rescue groups, one, P.L.U.T.O., has just been let back into the shelter, and the other one, the Staten Island Council on Animal Welfare, is considering working with it for the first time in the organization's 30-year history.

"I see a change for the positive in the staff," said Catherine O'Callaghan, an animal activist who attended the first volunteer meeting last December. "Before they were more secretive, but now they're more open."

Now that volunteers are becoming more involved, they have plans for the shelter, collecting toys and blankets for the animals and asking the shelter to create dog runs in a city-owned lot next door.

Heidi Singer covers City Hall for the Staten Island Advance. She may be reached at singer@siadvance.com.

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