Poop City

There but for the grace of god ...

The Voice has a sad story about "Steven," a 62-year-old former stock broker turned cat hoarder. His wife is in a nursing home, and he began taking in cats seven years ago, to look after and keep him company.

Now Steven has 35 cats, as the ASPCA discovered when it dispatched its chief "hoarding investigator," Allison Cordona, to his Washington Heights apartment in response to complaints about the smell.

In 2005 the ASPCA, as part of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, helped the city get thousands of dollars in grant money to launch an anti-hoarding program. Administered by the city's Department of Health, the pilot project pairs Cardona with a social worker who hooks up troubled hoarders with medical care, food stamps, and other services. Cardona, meanwhile, deals with the animals - first, spaying and neutering them; and then, trying to place them in adopted homes.

Before Cordona arrived, Steven said no one else had entered his apartment in five years. The cats had taken over, reducing furnishings to shreds, filling the place with hair and dust. I am eating as I write this, so I won't mention the litter boxes.

Unless animals are being abused, the ASPCA can not seize them - though at least one of Steven's cats looked malnourished, according to the story. Cordona eventually persuaded Steven to relinquish 32 cats, who will be spayed and neutered as necessary, then offered for adoption. Steven decided to keep three for himself.

"They're smarter than a lot of people," he said, "and they never, ever disappoint."

Amen to that.

Photo: Buster, Pig, Isadore and Beans. (Not pictured: Mookie and Zoe.)

Welfare program funds restored

This bit of news was inadvertently omitted from yesterday's P-O-R good government report.

From the ASPCA:

Thanks to your efforts, the New York legislature restored funding to two crucial animal welfare programs during last-minute negotiations to finalize a state budget by the April 1 deadline. The budget now awaits Governor Spitzer’s signature!

- The Senate and Assembly agreed to restore $150,000 to the Animal Population Control Program, which provides low-cost spay/neuter services to low-income New York pet owners and to state residents who adopt their pets from shelters and humane societies.

- Both houses also agreed to restore $100,000 to the pet dealer licensing program, which oversees licensing and inspection of pet stores and “backyard breeders” in New York State.

Governor Spitzer’s proposed budget would have diverted these funds to instead pay the salaries and fringe benefits of state employees.

Please take a moment to contact your state representatives, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and thank them for acting to ensure the integrity of these vital animal welfare and consumer protection laws.

P-O-R: Good Government Edition

NO CLASS: Democrats in the House and Senate have proposed federal legislation to prevent "Class B" animal dealers and unlicensed dealers from selling dogs and cats to research labs. "This bill," writes the ASPCA, "would eliminate the incentive for 'bunchers' - people who collect animals from random sources and sell them to Class B Dealers - to obtain dogs and cats through illegal [i.e. theft] or unethical [i.e. 'Free to Good Home' ads] means, as there would be no profit in doing so." Read the ASPCA endorsement for more details about S. 714/H.R. 1280, the Pet Safety and Protection Act. And, most important, be sure to contact your Senators and Representative (click here if you aren't sure how or who).

PROPERTY RIGHTS: New Jersey lawmakers are looking to crack down on pet food makers who release contaminated food into the marketplace. One bill, proposed by Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, would require food makers to certify that their products are safe, and would hold them liable for damages if proved otherwise. Another legislator wants tighter controls on the retail level in order to ensure that recalled food doesn't remain available for sale. The New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, while applauding those efforts, believes the state should take a more holistic approach by elevating pets above "property" status.

IMBY: Support New York's own animal-defending government watchdogs by attending the League of Humane Voters of New York City spring membership meeting, tomorrow (Wednesday) at the LGBT Center (208 W. 13th St., Rm. 101, 6:30 p.m.). Come for the animals, stay for the animal-free pizza.

Your chance to wear orange

Tomorrow is ASPCA Day in New York (and elsewhere):

On April 10, we’re asking you to dress yourself, your pet - even your home or car! - in this bright hue to let everyone know that you’ll be a voice for animals across the country.

Local festivities - "music, pet tips, a chance to meet the stars of Animal Planet's award-winning Animal Precinct, photos with your pet, food and more" - will take place from 4 to 8:00 p.m. in Union Square.

The ASPCA Mobile Adoption Van will be on-site, as will the current band of one of the founders of Blue Oyster Cult. But please, come anyway.

Spitzer: Come to New York, Kill Something

Eliot Spitzer seems to have it in for New York's animal population.

Even as he plans to divert tax moneys from crucial (and already under funded) spay-neuter and welfare enforcement efforts, the governor wants to pump (no pun intended - really) additional state resources into promoting hunting and fishing, which he believes will boost tourism revenue.

For those of us who don't see how slaughtering unarmed animals qualifies as recreation, much less as "sport," that might be bad enough. But Spitzer wants to up the ante - way, way up.

As part of his outdoor agenda, Spitzer said no new gun law will be adopted without hunting group consultation ...

Naturally, the gun nuts are overjoyed at their luck, if a little suspicious - since Spitzer was previously sort of against the proliferation of firearms. Says Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association:

"If you go back to Gov. Spitzer's record as attorney general, he attempted to limit gun ownership in many ways. For him to do a broad initiative like this is really a very good thing for the hunters of New York state."

Could be that this is a ploy to get the hunting lobby to back down on its opposition to Spitzer's choice to head the Department of Environmental Conservation, Assemblyman Alexander "Pete" Grannis.

Certainly there must be some logic behind it, but until Governor Spitzer's endgame becomes apparent, I think I'll go back and see if I can find exactly when Candidate Spitzer promised to hand over the asylum to the inmates.

Related:
- ASPCA calls for action in re welfare budget cuts. [ASPCA]

Spitzer steamrolls puppies and kittens

During his run for governor, Eliot Spitzer railed against many things: influence peddling, inefficient administration, entrenched bureaucracy, et cetera, et cetera.

While it’s likely that most voters - including yours truly - missed out on at least some speechifying, it’s a safe bet that Candidate Spitzer never drew applause by declaring himself an enemy of the state’s cat and dog population.

Yet the ASPCA reports that, as part of his first budget, the governor is now looking to carve $150,000 from the state’s Low Cost Spay-Neuter Program, which has funded operations for animals adopted by low-income New Yorkers since 1997.

Spitzer also wants to take $100,000 from the pet dealer license fee pot - fees used to help keep pet stores and dog breeders in compliance with under-enforced animal welfare and consumer protection laws. Such a hit would “essentially deplete” the fund, says the ASPCA. The governor reportedly wants to devote the money to unspecified “fringe benefits for state employees.”

For directions on letting Spitzer and other state officials know this is a bad idea, click.

Related:
- Spitzer defends "right" to cruelty. [NYS]

A slow, painful death - in plain sight

Winston Mitchell, 37, of Queens, faces up to a year in jail after being arrested late last week for leaving Apollo tied on a short chain in his backyard, where the two-year-old pit bull mix starved and froze to death in temps at least as cold as 18 degrees, according to authorities.

Almost as infuriating is that as Apollo suffered, Mitchell's neighbors knew what was happening, but did not alert the cops until it was too late. A neighbor's account that s/he "begged" Mitchell to take Apollo indoors counters his sniveling excuse that he forgot the dog was there. Apollo's body was found frozen to the ground behind 32-20 107th Street in East Elmhurst, reports the Daily News.

Said ASPCA Special Agent Joseph Pentangelo, to the Post: "To starve and be frozen to death just inches from shelter is the definition of cruelty."

Meanwhile, the city and its "outdoor" pets are in for another blast of deadly cold.

Trainers come when called

Today brought two trend pieces on at-home trainers. (With two stories on the same day, it must be a trend!) A wire story from AMNY takes us to Anchorage, Alaska (shudder), where Robin Scheff turned a weekend whim into a career. Scheff has worked some tough cases, including that of a pit bull whose caretakers eventually had him euthanized out of fear he would one day kill their Jack Russell terrier. Back in the relatively genteel boros, the Times relates how Broadway trainer Bill Berloni and others help city dogs and cats - and their people - conquer nervousness and aggression issues without having to leave familiar environs.

Asides: According to the Times piece, adoptions from AC&C more than doubled between 2001 and 2006. Also, a lot of couples apparently have sex in front of their dogs.

While some New Yorkers are shelling out big bucks to make their companion animals comfortable and safe, at the other end of the evolutionary chain we have the likes of Matthew Woods and Latoya Katon. This allegedly sorry Brooklyn pair has been charged with letting one pit bull dehydrate and starve to death while leaving eight more to suffer the same fate in their backyard. When brought in for questioning by the ASPCA, Woods "punched and kicked cops and broke a plate-glass window." Of course people like Woods have nothing to do with giving pit bulls a bad name. It's the breed.

In other news:
- Busy schedule at LOHV. [LOHV]
- Flushed kitty poo endangers sea otters. [AMNY]
- The politics of co-sleeping. [callalillie]

Photo: Viciously adorable pit bull pup, c/o BARC and lisacat

ASPCA makes first 2007 arrest; puppy killer could walk

Earlier this week the ASPCA made its first arrest for animal cruelty of 2007. Oswald Joudan of Queens was charged with one count of misdemeanor cruelty for neglecting three-year-old Chow Chow (pictured) "so badly that the dog was being strangled by a collar that had grown into her neck." If convicted Joudan could get up to a year in prison and a fine of $2000, max.

And yesterday, Oleg Zhdanov of Manhattan was sentenced to 45 days for beating Lelu, a five-month-old Labrador, to death in 2005. But Zhdanov may not do one day behind bars, as Justice Edward McLaughlin agreed to consider letting him off with probation due to physical disabilities and his wife's mental illness. McLaughlin also allowed Zhdanov to keep fish in his aquarium, ruling that fish are not companion animals.

In other news:

League of Humane Voters releases 06 City Council Scorecard [LOHV]
Brooklynites beware "mean" dog walker   [Brooklyn Heights Blog]

Photo: ASPCA