News

Melanie is in the City shelter system (NYC ACC)

NEW YORK, NY July 14, 2006 —Although animal shelters run by the city still destroy tens of thousands of animals each year, city officials aim to have a "no-kill" policy in place by 2015. But the effort recently hit a snag, in the form of higher gas prices. WNYC’s Arun Venugopal has more on how prices at the pump are leading to fewer rescued animals.

REPORTER: It’s a Sunday, but like any other day in the week, there is a lot going on outside the City’s Animal Care Center in Harlem.

[Sick dog yelping in van]

Several women, both paid employees and volunteers, are helping load a van with dogs and cats. The van is operated by the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, a non-profit group. The Alliance helps the city by transporting animals out of the animal care system before they have to be destroyed. Today, the Alliance van is headed for shelters in Brooklyn and Long Island. Jane Hoffman heads the Mayor’s Alliance.

HOFFMAN: These dogs are either strays that Animal Care and Control picks up off the street, or people turn them in. They’ve either found them or they’ve owned animals that they can’t keep for whatever reason.

REPORTER: She points to one of the van’s occupants, a Chihuahua mix named Joo.

HOFFMAN: This little guy was neutered and was owned by somebody at some point. But either he got away or he was dumped on the street. Because he’s ten and he has an injured back leg at this point.

REPORTER: However, Joo is one of the lucky ones. The fact that he’s in an Alliance van, being transported out of the city shelter system, means he won’t be destroyed. The Alliance has helped reduce the number of euthanized animals in New York in the last few years. It rescues about 160 animals each month. The problem these days is the Alliance’s exploding gas budget.

The Alliance has a 2 million dollar budget, of which 15 thousand dollars was allotted for gas for this particular program. Hoffman says that number is now expected to cross 45 thousand, at current gas prices. This has prevented the Alliance from buying a 2nd rescue van. But now, with gas prices staying well above 3 dollars a gallon, Jane Hoffmann says she’s likely to cut back on existing services.

HOFFMAN: Our gas has doubled or tripled prices. As the prices go up, our budget is being blown right through. And this is the lifeblood of getting these dogs out to these groups. I’d rather spend it on vet care, and food and boarding, than paying it for gas quite frankly, but we have to run this.

REPORTER: With one of the vans loaded up – five dogs and five cats in all – driver Ruth Martinez sets out for shelters in Brooklyn and Long Island. Martinez is a part-time driver who normally works as a real estate broker. She pulls up to a Hess gas station to fill up the tank.

MARTINEZ: You generally don’t have time to go hunting around, and when you hunt you’re wasting gas.

REPORTER: The price of unleaded is 3-36 a gallon.

MARTINEZ: The prices are not that different in the city. Maybe a penny here, a penny there. Basically it’s around the same thing. Now look, we’re getting up to 60 dollars. And I had half a tank.

REPORTER: Back at the Animal Care Center, a man brings his dog in – a well-cared-for Rottweiler-shepherd mix named Princess. He wants to surrender the animal. Understandably, he’s not in a state of mind to talk about it, only saying that things have become very difficult financially. One of the employees, Liz Keller, tries to talk him out of it, but fails.

KELLER: Everything’s being affected. All the costs are going up. Then your pet's going to be the first one to go in the family, because that seems to be what happens.

REPORTER: Animal Control took in more than 41 thousand animals over the last 12 months. Of which 20 thousand – under half – were euthanized. But that’s a major improvement over previous years, when nearly 70 percent of the animals were destroyed. The city credits better adoption programs and groups like the Mayor’s Alliance and the ASPCA. But the limitations of space at the ACC are severe, especially this month and in August, when as many as 6 thousand stray cats are brought in. When that happens, Hoffmann says, the Alliance simply can’t keep up.

HOFFMAN: If I can’t take them around then they’re piling up in Animal Control and they’re going to have to euthanize them because they have no choice.

REPORTER: And that’s already happening?

HOFFMAN: Oh, that’s happening every day.

REPORTER: Hoffmann says New York hopes to eventually become a city where no healthy animal is destroyed, something that San Francisco already approaches. To do that, it needs to make sure everyone spays and neuters their pets, and that would require far more investment in Animal Care and Control, a challenging, long-term budget issue. For the time being, however, she and other animal lovers are watching the price of gas, and hoping it doesn’t go any higher.

For WNYC, I’m Arun Venugopal.