Critics Of New York City's Animal Care And Control Shelters Plan Demonstrations

NEW YORK, NY, April 15, 2011

For dogs waiting in New York City's Animal Care & Control (AC&C) shelters, life can be short. With the exception of Christmas, dozens of animals die in them each day.

When Kay Smith volunteered with several rescue groups, she said she, "assumed that all shelters in NY were basically no kill . . . that if a dog was destroyed at a shelter, it must have been very bad or sick . . . I have never been so wrong in my life."

Having learned more about how the city's shelters operated, Smith was determined to help save more dogs' lives. She created a Facebook page, Urgent Part 2, to get the word out.

Smith recalls that, "What started as a desperate attempt to save some dogs turned into an enormous community of caring people, just as outraged as I was . . . .Before I knew it, people started reaching out when they heard about my postings, offering help and information. Rescues that once thought they were alone started emailing me to post for them."

Urgent Part 2 now numbers almost 14,000 people. Each evening hundreds them share information on Facebook, Twitter, websites, and elsewhere in an effort to find people or rescue groups who will save a dog's life. Thanks to Urgent Part 2, hundreds and hundreds of dogs who would have otherwise died are alive and well.

The AC&C's budget has suffered enormous cuts in recent years, making it increasingly more difficult to run the shelters properly and to build the additional required shelters in two of the city's five boroughs. Critics of the AC&C assert that, because of overcrowding in the city's three shelters, many adoptable cats and dogs are euthanized each day.

To raise public awareness of the plight of the animals in the NYC AC&C shelters, New York rescuers and animal advocates will be protesting against the Department of Health's policies concerning Animal Care and Control of New York City.

According to the information provided by demonstration coordinators, protesters will call for the immediate resignation of all AC&C Board members, demanding that the city shelter system be separated from the Department of Health and that New York, "the greatest city in the world," start treating its homeless animals with compassion.

The protest will take place on Saturday, April 16, between noon and 5 p.m. in Union Square (14th Street side).

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