This sickens me. Ugh.
New York City Animal Care and Control appointed a new Executive Director some time ago by the name of Charlene Pedrolie. Apparently she is a renowned business consultant. But she has no experience working in animal rescue.
Since taking over, she has enacted policy changes that save money at the expense of the health and lives of the animals. As a result, much of the NYCACC veterinary staff has resigned and many animals have been put to death needlessly. They order animals that are slightly sick to be put down instead of treated because it's cheaper. Which means in NYCACC something as simple as kennel cough (which my dog has had) is a death sentence.
If that wasn't bad enough, she recently banned 7 rescue shelters from taking animals off death row to be adopted. One of the groups, Brooklyn Animal Foster Network has saved 1000 animals in two years. That's one group. And Pedrolie has banned seven.
I know not a lot of people read this, but of those few who do, many are pet owners, right? And I'm sure of those, at least some of you adopted your pet from shelter. Look at your dog or cat. Imagine 1000 just like them NOT finding a home for political, pigheaded reasons.
Her reasoning, if you can call it that, is that she received "complaints" about Laurie Bleier, the head of BAFN. People have alleged that Bleier is abrasive and rude to them.
Let me tell you something about shelters. They're tough. They take an emotional toll. I know, I've worked in one. I only lasted 5 months because of how hard and depressing it is. And people treat you like crap. Especially if you don't tell them what they want to hear. If they don't meet pre-screening requirements, they will argue with you. Usually it's over the phone and you can get out of it quickly. But sometimes they will show up in person in a rage and cause a scene at the shelter. These are the people you have to be short and abrasive with. Unfortunately, these are also the kinds of people who would lodge complaints in order to have you shut down. Nice to know hundreds of innocent animals will be killed over a few bruised egos.
Another false claim by Pedrolie is that one of BAFN's animals was emaciated. This claim was proven to be 100% untrue by the ASPCA. If you don't believe me, call Joe Pentangelo at (212) 876-7700, ext. 4450.
When you visit the nice pretty NYCACC website, remind yourself that it was designed pro bono by Laurie Bleier's company, Brainstorm LLC.
By the way, this is Laurie Bleier:
She looks like a terrible, person, doesn't she?
By the way, Brooklyn Paper readers were flooding the letters to the editor after this story broke. Myself included.
OK, it's contact time. I say inundate everyone possible with phone calls and emails until something finally happens.
E-mail the Mayor's office
Call Charlene Pedrolie on her direct line at (212)442-2059 or her cell phone at (732)939-7948.
E-mail NYCACC
Care 2 Petition for Pedrolie's removal.
If anyone finds any other contacts or information, please either e-mail it to me or post it here as a comment.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Saving Animals In Brooklyn - Now That's Just Bad! Close Them Down! I Said Now!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
A Little Something To Make You Lose Faith In Humanity
A video was recently removed from YouTube because it showed a Marine abusing a puppy. And by abusing, I mean throwing off a cliff.
I say we throw him off a cliff and see how he likes it. But afterward, he better NOT get a military funeral.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
$928,073 Doesn't Begin To Cover It, Mikey
There was a really good article in yesterday's New York Times about the fate of Michael Vick's dogs.
Twenty-two of them are at a sanctuary in Utah called Best Friends Animal Society. Twenty-five others are in foster care around the country. One was euthanized for being too aggressive against people to rehabilitate.
The article focused on Best Friends. Some of the dogs are court ordered to be there for the rest of their lives because they will likely never be adoptable. Some may eventually be adopted out. One, named Georgia, had all 42 of her teeth pried out so she wouldn't fight back when she was forced to breed. The workers at Best Friends are working with the dogs to try and make them trust humans again so they can find homes.
Pit bulls have been used for fighting because of their trusting nature and eagerness to please. They aren't inherently violent dogs (yes I am pimping my own work). Having worked in an animal shelter, I have seen dogs of all different breeds come in in all different states. There have been pit bulls, Rottweilers, and other "mean" breeds that were some of the gentlest dogs that came in. And there were dogs of other breeds that were aggressive. It was all about the environment they came from. If a dog is treated well, it will be a good dog. If it is neglected, left outside alone, mistreated, or in any other way abused, it will more likely be aggressive (though not always, I was there to meet Max, a mistreated German Shepherd who was very sweet).
PETA wanted to have all of Vick's dogs euthanized. Fortunately, there were shelters who were willing to take them in and work to rehabilitate them.
Heart-string-tugging picture:
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Poly-tix
In this deliciously heated election season, it's important to look at the candidates closely. Especially if they are crazy Mormon Republican morons with no respect for animal life.
I didn't write this article, I found it online.
Romney's Cruel Canine Vacation
The reporter intended the anecdote that opened part four of the Boston Globe's profile of Mitt Romney to illustrate, as the story said, "emotion-free crisis management": Father deals with minor — but gross — incident during a 1983 family vacation, and saves the day. But the details of the event are more than unseemly — they may, in fact, be illegal.
The incident: dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon. How it got there: Romney strapped a dog carrier — with the family dog Seamus, an Irish Setter, in it — to the roof of the family station wagon for a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family apparently completed, despite Seamus's rather visceral protest.
Massachusetts's animal cruelty laws specifically prohibit anyone from carrying an animal "in or upon a vehicle, or otherwise, in an unnecessarily cruel or inhuman manner or in a way and manner which might endanger the animal carried thereon." An officer for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals responded to a description of the situation saying "it's definitely something I'd want to check out." The officer, Nadia Branca, declined to give a definitive opinion on whether Romney broke the law but did note that it's against state law to have a dog in an open bed of a pick-up truck, and "if the dog was being carried in a way that endangers it, that would be illegal." And while it appears that the statute of limitations has probably passed, Stacey Wolf, attorney and legislative director for the ASPCA, said "even if it turns out to not be against the law at the time, in the district, we'd hope that people would use common sense...Any manner of transporting a dog that places the animal in serious danger is something that we'd think is inappropriate...I can't speak to the accuracy of the case, but it raises concerns about the judgment used in this particular situation."
Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was less circumspect. PETA does not have a position on Romney's candidacy per se, but Newkirk called the incident "a lesson in cruelty that was ... wrong for [his children] to witness...Thinking of the wind, the weather, the speed, the vulnerability, the isolation on the roof, it is commonsense that any dog who's under extreme stress might show that stress by losing control of his bowels: that alone should have been sufficient indication that the dog was, basically, being tortured." Romney, of course, has expressed support for the use of "enhanced interrogation" techniques when it comes to terrorists; his campaign refused to comment about the treatment of his dog.
As organizer of the Salt Lake City Olympic Games, Romney came under fire from some animal welfare groups for including a rodeo exhibition as part of the Games' festivities. At the time, he told protesters, "We are working hard to make this as safe a rodeo for cowboys and animals as is humanly possible."
