In October of 07, the Board of Directors of Animal Care and Control hired Ms. Charlene Pedrolie, a business woman without a shred of shelter or medical experience to run NYC's Animal Care & Control. Since that time the Board has inexplicably stood by and watched as mass resignations of key personnel and firings of long term, dedicated employees and volunteers have decimated the ACC into the nearly unrecognizable entity it is today.

There is a crisis of management at NYCACC, the municipal kill shelter system which intakes 44,000 homeless animals every year.

This petition is calling for the NYC Council and Mayor Bloomberg to convene an emergency hearing to create an Animal Care Task Force to oversee the replacement of the existing Board of Directors of NYCACC which has created this crisis.

Please sign this!

From Mary Jo Tobin:

Congratulations to everyone who participated in once again making our Love Wanted Adoption Event a huge success and special thanks to Judy Behan for securing the space at St. Andrews for us to host the day.

37 more animals are sleeping in cozy homes because of our efforts. 37 more families are smiling and doting on their new pets!

Karen and I were in Nantucket this past week and finally found a dog run after several years of scouring the island for a fenced in area. And what a dog run it is... with an ocean view, grass, a five foot fence, water, even bleachers!

It's an old ball field on the tip of the island in an area called Tom Nevers. What a terrific place. Jack and Auggie ran non-stop for 15 minutes. Auggie didn't even miss his ball.





More photos here.

The Parks Dept has been scoping out the dog run lately and griping about the "garbage".

Specifically, they're referring to the motley assortment of chairs that people are dragging into the run. Look, we know that if Parks had installed benches we wouldn't have to supply our own. That's a given. But we also don't need a dozen or more trashy-looking chairs for the co-oppers to gripe to Parks about.

This is an issue that's alienating the dog run with both Parks and the CB, and it's on the eve of a decision by them to replace the dilapidated fences. We're trying to convince Parks that we're responsible enough to maintain whatever investment they make in the run, including benches, so let's please not undermine that effort.

On the "responsibility" note, we don't have dog run pixies who come into run at night and clean up the empty beverage bottles and fill up all the holes dug by dogs that day. You're just unfairly dumping that job on someone else. If your dog digs holes, fill them up before you leave. It's not some other dog owner's responsibility to fix the damage you allow your dog to do. These holes aren't only unsightly but dangerous to running dogs. There's a shovel in the corral at the back. Please use it.

In early 2009, Parks has a capital improvement project scheduled to fix the grading of the path running next to the dog run. This will include replacing the dog run fence next to the path. Geoff Amend has been speaking with the CB about extending the project to include replacing all the fences. I gave him the requested materials estimates, which aren't too bad.

One of us will post any news about it here.

I'm posting this in anger so please forgive the strident tone of this message. Maybe a picture will reduce this post by a thousand words.



This is a photo of Jack's back following a vicious assault last Saturday morning, May 3, by two large dogs that have been attacking and injuring other dogs for far too long at the dog run, Owls Head Park and the immediate neighborhood. Many of you know these out-of-control dogs: Fritz and Bella belonging to Mia Vailakis. My dogs were attacked without warning while we were crossing Colonial Road. Her dogs ran out from between two parked cars.

This was the fourth unprovoked attack on Jack and Auggie by her dogs in the past two years. It follows a string a similarly vicious attacks on other dogs in the neighborhood -- three dogs on this block alone. The photo also shows pretty clearly that these injuries weren't caused by combat but by an ambush.

Mrs. Vailakis knows better than anyone how dangerous her dogs are because she's witnessed the injuries they've caused to other dogs over and over again.

Followup: Mary Jo Tobin, who runs the south Brooklyn pet adoptions, was so angered by this attack on Jack, who was one of her favorite adoptees, that she contacted State Senator Marty Golden's office. Marty, who is also a dog lover, contacted the ASPCA and the Dept of Health, both of which sent inspectors to Mrs. Vailakis' house to warn her to keep her dogs under control. Marty's office called me and gave me a contact number for an inspector at the Board of Health, Dangerous Dog Unit, should there be any further attacks by these dogs.

Mrs Vailakis has responded by (at last) muzzling the prime offender, Fritz, but her son continues to walking the dogs without muzzles.

New York State has a "one bite" dog bite law. With the Board of Health having put these dogs in the system as dangerous dogs, if there's another attack it will make them (the owners) liable for a potentially very costly civil action. In other words, if they attack my dogs again I won't hesitate to sic a pit bull with a law firm on them.