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The Executive Director Dilemma at AC&C of NYC
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New Yorker’s are just seven weeks away from electing a new mayor, or, electing to keep the current one, Michael Bloomberg, in office for another term. Certainly what is on the minds of many city residents is the economy. However, voting for candidates who have animals’ interests in mind is what’s driving the vote for a growing number of New Yorker’s.
One city run agency in need of more animal-friendly constituents is Animal Care & Control of New York City. Founded in 1995, AC&C is a non-profit organization that is contracted by New York City and the Health Department to provide animal care and rescue services to all five boroughs.
In mid-August the Department of Health announced that they would not be renewing the contract of current AC&C Executive Director, Charlene Pedrolie, who has only had the reins for less than two years. Some blogs have been quick to deem Ms. Pedrolie’s tenure as controversial. Former AC&C volunteers and other animal activists have gone so far as to circulate petitions calling for her removal because of her alleged lack of experience and a perception that she was out of touch with the severity of the intake and euthanasia problems of the shelter system, wrote New York Tails.
Yet according to the AC&C website, under Pedrolie’s watch, there has been an increase in adoptions and a record decrease in euthanasia. “Over the last 8 fiscal years, euthanasia was reduced 54.6%. Additionally, euthanasia was reduced by 19.64% in the 2nd Quarter of fiscal year 2009. Fiscal year to date, euthanasia has been reduced 10.51%.”
Many people, including volunteers and a former employee of AC&C, say that people who dislike Ms. Pedrolie need to look beyond the surface to understand that the blame is in the politics of the City, the Mayor and the Department of Health.
According to Jennifer Panton, President of United Action for Animals, a former employee of AC&C and current volunteer of AC&C, the Executive Director position is a thankless role in which the person has no real control. “You could put Gandhi in that position and we would still have the same systemic problems, due to the egregious lack of funding for NYC animals and the conflict of interest in governance with AC&C,” said Ms. Panton.
Acording to New Yorkers for Companion Animals, the city spends less than $1 per capita for animal care and control, the least of any metropolitan area in the country. The Humane Society of the United States recommends that per capita spending should be closer to $3 yearly to properly run shelters in urban areas. Ms. Panton adds that AC&C’s seven board members are made up three ex-officio members or city employees who are unrelated to animal care, while the other four members are chosen by the Mayor of NYC -- none of which are professional animal advocates or philanthropists.
History shows that the City has had a difficult time filling and keeping one Executive Director after another. Prior to Ms. Pedrolie, Edward Boks was tapped to head AC&C in January 2004. His term ended - mutual or otherwise – only two years later. Mary Martin, who was AC&C’s Medical Director, served as interim director for approximately one year, followed by board member Bruce Doniger, who also served for one year as another interim director before Ms. Pedrolie came on board. Prior to Mr. Boks’s time with AC&C, Marilyn Haggerty-Blohm was the executive director and was subsequently fired in 2002.
Due to no fault of their own, AC&C does euthanize animals, as they are contracted by the city to have an open door policy and not turn away any animals. This results in an intake of about 44,000 animals per year, or more than 100 per day -- approximately half of which are euthanized due to lack of space and there not being enough loving homes. Other city “no-kill” shelters can choose which animals they take in, therefore the dirty work of killing animals is burdened upon AC&C.
Many animal advocates stipulate that Mr. Boks was responsible for putting a dent in NYC’s euthanasia numbers, however that many more advocates concede that Ms. Pedrolie’s efforts made the dent even bigger. What’s more, Ms. Pedrolie added numerous improvements to the shelter including the hiring of four part-time adoption counselors, the training of 30 new volunteers to provide one-on-one customer service for potential adopters, six Canine Enrichment/Dog Walker positions were created to ensure all dogs are walked each day, two Transporter positions were created to deliver animals to New Hope Partners which reduces the amount of time the animals are in the shelters, thus creating additional space for newly arriving animals, and the list goes on.
Before Ms. Pedrolie was brought on, dogs in the non-adoption ward were never walked. An issue close to Ms. Panton’s heart, poor cruelty seizures, eviction and arrest cases would rot 24/7 in their kennels for months on end. “Now the staff is required to walk these pups thanks to Charlene who had to fight the Department of Health to implement this program,” said Ms. Panton. This even came after NYC Comptroller, Bill Thompson (who is currently running for mayor) cited in a 2002 and 2006 audit that dogs in the Manhattan and Brooklyn shelters are not exercised regularly, if at all.
An anonymous commenter on the recent New York Tails blog about Ms. Pedrolie encourages the city to “put its money where its mouth is” for the sake of the animals “or the animals' suffering will go on and on as another and another director is signed up and fails.”
New Yorker’s who want to see change when it comes to the well-being of NYC’s animals can start by voting for more animal-friendly politicians in the primary this Tuesday, September 15. And animal advocates who are impassioned about the policies of AC&C should come out and voice their concerns at the next AC&C board meeting on October 9, 2009 from 9 – 11 a.m. at 125 Worth Street in the 3rd floor boardroom.
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