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Rescuers press council for sustained spay‑neuter, pet‑food and animal‑welfare funding; advocates raise Rikers cat colony issue
Summary
Volunteers, rescue groups and animal‑welfare organizations testified to the City Council urging FY27 funding for spay/neuter services, pet‑food pantries and oversight of shelter practices; separate presenters described a long‑running feral‑cat problem on Rikers Island.
A coalition of independent rescuers, nonprofit clinics and advocates told the New York City Council on March 19 that a combination of rising costs and scarce low‑cost veterinary services is producing an unsustainable animal‑welfare crisis and urged the city to fund spay/neuter surgeries, pet‑food pantries and emergency prevention programs.
Speakers described the volunteer network that currently covers high volumes of stray and surrendered animals. Maddie Samadora Johnson, who runs Park Slope Cats, said rescuers are “beyond depleted,” often paying vet bills out of pocket and dealing with long waits for subsidized surgery slots. Other witnesses, including Ann Leven and the Brooklyn Bridge Animal Welfare Coalition, described operating low‑cost clinics that can scale and asked the council to increase funding for spay/neuter and start pet‑food pantry programs to reduce shelter intake.
K9 Rescue NYC’s founder, Delmare Leon, and others cited operational failures at the municipal shelter system, including unfilled veterinary positions, returns of reclaimed animals and what they described as recent increases in euthanasia. Witnesses asked the committee to create an oversight task force, impose emergency protections limiting non‑medical euthanasia, and allocate emergency prevention funds (a figure of $15 million was proposed by one speaker as an example of a scaled response).
The hearing also included testimony about animals on Rikers Island. Mike Phillips, president and co‑founder of Urban Cat League, along with a retired DOC captain, said hundreds of free‑roaming feral cats live on Rikers and argued a previously approved DOC plan (including electric and plumbing hookups and an inmates program) has stalled; Mr. Phillips said $80,000 in private funding was ready to outfit the designated location if the DOC would act.
Advocates requested specific budget items—examples cited included $1.5 million for high‑volume trap/neuter/return (TNR) services, $500,000 for spay/neuter programs deployed last year and multi‑site funding for low‑cost clinics—but no formal appropriations or votes took place at the hearing. The committee heard several requests for an independent oversight hearing on shelter practices and for immediate operational fixes to reduce unnecessary euthanasia.
