The bill requires the New York City to build and maintain more Animal Care Centers of NYC, meaning an NYC animal shelter will be in every borough.
The bill requires the city to build and maintain more Animal Care Centers of NYC.
![]() |
There will be an animal shelter in every NYC borough, per a new bill passed by City Council. Photo: Mayor's Office |
The New York City Council unanimously passed a bill on Thursday
requiring that a full-service animal shelter be built and maintained in
every borough.
The bill, sponsored by Council Member Paul Vallone
who represents District 19 in northeast Queens, will restore a legal
requirement for New York City to build an animal shelter in all five
boroughs that was previously removed by a law passed in 2011.
Now that that requirement is once again in place, the city has until July 1, 2024 to build shelters in the Bronx and Queens.
“Throughout the last four years, Speaker [Corey] Johnson and I have
fought to make full-service animal shelters a reality for Queens and the
Bronx,” Vallone said in a statement. “Having animal shelters in every
borough reflects our belief that all animals should be protected and
given the opportunity to find a home. After almost three decades, five
administrations and an uncertain future, we could not afford to wait one
more day.”
Vallone introduced the bill five years ago. Since the city’s
requirement to maintain an animal shelter in every borough was
overturned, the Bronx and Queens were left with just “receiving
centers,” according to the ASPCA, which do not provide shelter or
medical care for homeless animals or a lost and found for lost pets.
There are Animal Care Centers of NYC
(a nonprofit contracted by the city to run the city’s shelters)
currently in Manhattan. The city did announce in January that a
47,000-square-foot Animal Care Centers of NYC facility was projected to
open in the East Bronx in 2024.
In April, the city announced that the Queens one would move to a
larger, temporary location while officials search for a spot to set up a
full-service animal shelter.
“Full-service animal shelters in the Bronx and Queens will help more
at-risk animals get adopted and end the detrimental transportation of
vulnerable animals to neighboring boroughs, which increases the stress
on those facilities and hinders reunions between lost pets and their
owners,” said Matt Bershadker, President and CEO of the ASPCA, in a
statement.
“We thank the City Council and Council Member Paul Vallone for moving
these vital projects forward, and call on the mayor to fund them in his
budget,” he added. “We’re committed to working with ACC and the
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to see these facilities make an
enormous difference in the lives and well-being of tens of thousands of
New York City owners and animals.”
COMMENTS