Dogs at new NYC Animal Care Center shelter neglected inside cramped, filthy cages, council member and whistleblowers say
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It’s a canine crisis.
A new, $75 million city-funded animal shelter in Queens is disturbingly overcrowded with rescue pets – which are crammed into too-small cages, provided with insufficient food and living in their own filth, The Post has learned.
Dogs at the Queens Animal Care Center were left in tiny, feces-filled kennels without water — while rabbits languished in bloody cages with sores, the Post observed during a recent tour of the facility.
The shelter now houses more than 220% more dogs than it has capacity for, with 161 dogs and 206 cats – plus 45 rabbits and seven guinea pigs.
“It’s not an ideal situation,” Queens Council Member Robert Holden told the Post. “And it kind of shows the city’s lack of commitment to animal welfare.”
Holden said he was disturbed by the condition at the shelter — especially since it’s being run by the Animal Care Centers of New York, which won a controversial $1.4 billion contract with the city in 2019 to run all the animal shelters in New York City for 34 years.
The local pol was first alerted to the situation through reports from his constituents and scathing social media photos.
“What we did see is dogs and cats in smaller cages than they’re supposed to be in,” Holden told The Post. “The kennels had to be cut in half because they have to fit the population.”
ACC specifically got $75 million out of its billion-dollar-plus contract to run the Ridgewood shelter — which they opened just last month.
The decision by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to allow the nonprofit to run the city shelters until Aug. 31, 2052 was ripped in 2019 by activists.
“A 34-year contract makes ACC a mega-institution, locking out any accountability,” animal rights activist Marilyn Galfin said at the time.
When confronted with the situation at the Queens shelter, the nonprofit tried to explain it away by saying it’s facing “high levels” of shelter pets at the site and has not yet finished hiring all the staff required to meet its needs.
“Our staff is working tirelessly to ensure all pets are cared for, healthy and ready for adoption. If a pet’s kennel is dirty, we clean it up as soon as we possibly can,” a spokesperson said.
“No pet is willfully left in a mess, nor is it physically possible for us to have an eye on every kennel at every second .. our veterinary staff often have multiple emergent situations at any given time and must prioritize those most in-need.”
Some of the shelter’s first dogs came from an existing Brooklyn ACC shelter that’s slated to be undergoing renovations until 2026.
A worker who gave her name only as Megan showed The Post a dog named Coco – who was given up after her owner had a baby and who lives inside her cage all day, save for four quick walks a day.
According to a Post review of ACC dog walking logs, many dogs are walked only once a day for about two minutes – which isn’t even enough time to go to the bathroom.
Photos sent to Holden’s office depict dogs like Zamboni, a young mutt who was found covered in feces inside its kennel.
On Wednesday, a Post reporter observed another dog surrounded by feces – who was not moving for several minutes.
“I will let the vets know,” a volunteer replied when told of the dog’s distress.
But multiple shelter sources told The Post that veterinarians aren’t on call 24/7, and sometimes don’t respond to a dog in need for several hours or even days.
Sources also detailed incidents of larger dogs not getting adequate food servings, tails bloodied from hitting the small cages and water bowls filled with feces.
“It’s distressing for a lot of our dogs to go to the bathroom [inside a kennel],” one source told The Post. “Many are housebroken, and it can be an emotionally distressing thing.”
Management isn’t quick to resolve any issues either, the sources said.
“The general response is, ‘we’re understaffed, there’s a nationwide crisis,’” another source told The Post, “but management is on site every day. They see this.”
This isn’t the first time the ACC has come under fire for questionable shelter conditions. In 2020, The Post similarly exposed filthy conditions at the ACC’s Brooklyn site.
Holden says he has already spoken with the ACC and will bring the issue to the mayor’s attention.
“The city should provide enough funds to use some temporary building to rent,” Holden said. “From what I saw online – the horrible pictures – I see how that could happen, when you have double the amount of animals that you have to house.”
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