Animal Care Volunteers Bite Back
At an animal rights debate last week, five mayoral hopefuls voiced their support for a change in city oversight of animal shelters.
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio set his sights on Animal Care and Control of New York City, the organization that runs the city’s shelters. “AC&C has been a mess,” Mr. de Blasio said. “It’s been unfair to animals and unfair to everyone who cares about animals.”
According to former volunteers, Mr. de Blasio’s comment is right on the mark.
“A dog will have a Post-it note on its kennel card saying ‘move to isolation ward’ and it’ll be there for five days and they’ll put a new arrival right next to it,” said one volunteer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There is no disease management or infection control.”
Jeff Latzer, an ex-volunteer, agreed. “If you really want to quarantine your animals,” Mr. Latzer said, “you need to have a separate HVAC air system going into the quarantine system, and a separate one for adoption, and a third one for incoming animals. When it’s all combined you have this stale air, which becomes a petri dish for disease and infections.”
Mr. Latzer is one of a group of ex-volunteers whose experiences helped inform a report, put out early this year by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, which raised questions about AC&C shelter facilities.
http://observer.com/2013/05/animal-care-volunteers-bite-back/
