The city’s animal shelter system is getting a $3 million boost to provide more services for stray and homeless animals, officials announced Friday.
Animal Care Centers of NYC will use the money to purchase a mobile adoption van and expand medical and community pet services, according to a joint statement from Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson.
They said the increase pushes the nonprofit’s budget to an all-time high of $17.6 million.
“I know firsthand how important the Animal Care Centers of NYC are — the ACC is where I got my cat, Mousse,” Johnson said in the funding announcement.
Animal Care Centers is contracted by the city’s Health Department to handle all stray and homeless animals in the city. Unlike other shelters in the city, it cannot turn away any animal that comes through its doors — roughly 30,000 a year.
That means it is under more pressure to adopt animals or find rescue groups that will take them in.
And it has historically struggled to get adequate funding from the city. In 2010, budget cutbacks forced ACC to temporarily stop taking lost pet reports and reduced field services on nights and weekends.
Adoption numbers have increased in recent years while the number of animals that are deemed unadoptable and euthanized has dropped. But advocates said there is still a dire need for full service shelters in Queens and the Bronx. ACC currently has shelters in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island.
A bill recently approved by the City Council requires the city to create shelters in Queens and the Bronx.
Earlier this year, the city announced plans to construct a $60 million animal shelter in the Bronx. It is currently going through the land review process.
That plan hit a snag this week when Community Board 10 voted down the proposal. The application heads to the borough president’s office next.
