PETA, an organization that harms dogs, sues the AKC, another organization that harms dogs
This and other news for the week ending July 11, 2025
In other news: New York City’s pound is a badly mismanaged, abusive house of horrors. No Kill Sheltering Summer 2025. Researchers uncover another benefit of living with dogs and cats. Another state may soon ban the declawing of cats. Do you have what it takes to save lives? Communities are looking for someone to run or help run their animal shelters. Proposed laws require people to spend time with their dogs.
These are some of the stories making headlines in animal protection:
New York City’s pound is a badly mismanaged, abusive house of horrors
Last year, an exposé found that despite New York City taxpayers spending $75 million on a new shelter in Queens, the animals were still neglected by staff, languishing in bloody cages with open sores, caked in fecal matter, with no access to fresh water. I argued that you can’t move staff with an old (i.e., regressive) mindset into a new facility and expect different results.
Unsurprisingly, a follow-up investigation one year later finds not much has changed: filthy kennels, animals dying in the cages without veterinary care, and abusive staff hurting animals. In one case, a cat “left to bleed for three days” before dying. In another, “a dog at the Queens shelter was allegedly choked so hard on a leash by a staffer that he collapsed…”
The City offers nothing but excuses, blaming overcrowding on fewer adoptions. But that doesn’t explain the neglect and abuse. And as I explained to the reporters, low adoption numbers are a result of post-pandemic changes in shelter policy, including reduced adoption hours, appointment requirements, cumbersome visiting procedures, and a refusal to return phone calls from people interested in adopting. But, “As long as [the pound] can blame others for its own failures, New York City’s elected and appointed officials will fail to hold the agency accountable.”
It is not only a disgrace; it’s a crime.
New York State’s anti-cruelty law, most notably Article 26, Chapter 356 of the New York Agriculture & Markets Law governing the care of impounded animals, specifies that,
A person who, having impounded or confined any animal, refuses or neglects to supply to such animal during its confinement a sufficient supply of good and wholesome air, food, shelter and water, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by both.
Likewise, Section 353, the general cruelty statute, makes such conduct illegal, regardless of whether it occurs in someone’s home or at a pound. Indeed, New York City’s 311 system specifically encourages reporting of such crimes, noting that,
New York State law defines animal cruelty as a situation where a person causes unjustified harm, pain, or suffering to an animal or neglects an animal's care by not providing it with proper food, water, medical care, or suitable shelter.
That describes conditions at its own Queens facility to the letter.
They not only deserve to be fired, but those who commit these acts should be prosecuted.
No Kill Sheltering Summer 2025
The Summer 2025 issue of No Kill Sheltering is available for subscribers of The No Kill Advocacy Center. As a thank you, it is also available to patron-level donors of my Substack page.
The current issue covers:
A court ruling to protect kittens from shelter abandonment;
The “Million Pet Challenge” is a dangerous bait and switch;
States are claiming to be No Kill. They can be, but here's why they aren’t;
Free speech for shelter reformers;
Corruption in the humane movement;
And more.
PETA, an organization that harms dogs, sues the AKC, another organization that harms dogs
