Poop City

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.

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.

Giuliani dogged by Post readers

Dog lovers (or "animal-rights activists," as the Post calls them) are reacting to coverage of Judi Giuliani's work history, which includes a stint at U.S. Surgical, a company that killed dogs to demonstrate its products.

Here's a sampling:

To witness or participate in the pain and suffering of a living being tells so much of a person's lack of character, greed and selfishness.

This is unforgivable, and she should be ashamed. The thought of Giuliani as first lady sickens me.

Rudy Giuliani has lost my vote. Anyone who can condone animal abuse is a loser in my eyes.

If Giuliani desires to be the first lady, she must understand two things: It is not a good idea to ignore public opinion, and Americans like animals and have a special fondness for dogs.

Giuliani's indifference to suffering obviously carried over to people, evidenced by her escapades with Rudy while he was married.

Ouch.

For his part, Mr. Giuliani doesn't think the issue is worthy of comment. At least not yet.

Photo: pwilnyc via Flickr

Lucky You: T-Bone is available

From NYCityPets.com:

This special guy is getting a second post. Why? Because he doesn’t deserve to be stuck, sleeping in a kennel. We play with him every day and can tell you that this happy dog just wants a quiet, warm bed and some heavy duty toys to catch. Oh, and a great person to play with him too!

Mr. T has his own place on Petfinder, Craigslist, Flickr, and over at Kya’s Collars (see adoptions). We love him and have taught him to sit and ask for his toys, to lay down, and to enjoy a good belly rubbing. If you want to meet him, let us know.

This handsome boy has waited too long for a permanent home. Contact NYCityPets if he might be the dog for you.

Ban "tethering," not pit bulls

District 22 Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) was already causing a stir with his proposed ban on pit bulls, and understandably so. But opposition to his latest proposed pet legislation - restrictions on outdoor "tethering" - is as hard to parse as the proposal itself.

Under Vallone's proposal, Newsday reports, pet guardians who leave a dog tied outside for more than three hours during a 12-hour period would be subject to a warning, followed by a $250 fine for a second offense. Vallone is also considering a ban on outdoor "tethering" between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

What could be wrong with that? Plenty, say some. According to the Dog Federation of New York - which is organizing against both the pit bull ban and tethering regs - such restrictions would punish "responsible" caretakers, including poor and minority pet parents.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what responsible pet guardian of any income level or background would leave his or her dog chained up for more than three hours in a day - much less leave a dog chained outside overnight? Considering just two very recent cases of dogs tied or caged outside and left to freeze or starve to death, it's high time for an anti-"tethering" law.

That said, suspicion of Vallone's motivation is warranted. Though he calls himself an "animal rights activist" and "animal lover," his record doesn't completely bear that out.

In addition to his maliciously ignorant assault on an entire breed of dog, Vallone hasn't always come to the aid of animals - even domestic animals - when presented the opportunity to do so. The councilman scored 60 out of 100 on the latest scorecard from the League of Humane Voters of New York City. Though certainly not the worst on the council - Speaker Christine Quinn rates a shameful zero - Vallone has yet to get behind what is possibly the LOHV's highest local legislative priority: the Pets in Housing Bill, which would save animals' lives by ensuring that no-pet lease clauses, once waived, can not be reinstated during a tenant's residency.

Backing such a rule would seem a no-brainer for someone who calls himself an "animal lover," much less an "activist," but the fact that Vallone is not a sponsor of the languishing Pets in Housing law casts doubt on the purity of his intentions.

No more so, however, than the opposition by a group of "caring" pet "owners" to another law that would dramatically improve, not to mention save, the lives of countless dogs, shackled all day every day, who can only watch in longing as the world passes them by.

Photo: UnchainYourDog.org

Giuliani killed dogs for money

The Post reports that First Lady hopeful Judith Giuliani once worked for a medical supply firm that routinely maimed and then killed dogs during surgeries performed for the sole purpose of demonstrating its products.

U.S. Surgical killed "hundreds" of dogs from the 1970s through the 90s, the Post says. Giuliani got a job there in 1975, as a saleswoman in North Carolina, and worked for the company for four years.

"It was a horribly cruel, outrageous program," Friends of Animals President Priscilla Feral said about the demonstrations of medical staplers on dogs ...

The dogs were "either put to death following the sales demonstrations because they can't recover from them, or they die during them," Feral said.

A campaign spokesman for Rudy Giuliani told the Post that Judith Giuliani "was in the operating room hundreds of times," but would not say whether she participated in demonstrations involving dogs.

Seems likely she did, though.

As the story says [emphasis added]:

The company, now part of Tyco Healthcare, has long acknowledged its salespeople routinely demonstrated staples on anesthetized dogs as part of sales pitches to doctors.

Then-CEO Leon Hirsch defended the practice in the 1980s, saying there was no other way to properly show how the staplers worked.

"A dead dog doesn't bleed," Hirsch said in a 1988 issue of Time magazine. "You need to have real blood-flow conditions, or you get a false sense of security."

Did someone say security? Yes, security!! Homeland Security!! Terrorism!! 9/11!! Run Rudy run!!

Pig ears recalled. Seriously.

If your give your dog pig ear treats (and who doesn't?), you'll want to read this, c/o HOWL911:

The FDA announced March 23, 2007 a recall of pig ears (as dog chews and treats) under the brand name Petrapport due to reports of Salmonella contamination, an organism that can cause serious infections in dogs, and, if there is cross   contamination, young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Salmonella can potentially be transferred to people handling these dog treats. The FDA advisory contains lot numbers as well as the signs and symptoms of Salmonella poisoning in both dogs and humans.

Here is the advisory.

The recall is unrelated to Menu Foods.

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.