Fwd: Fw: Can NYC get a handle on animal hoarding?
Elizabeth Forel
Can NYC get a handle on animal hoarding?
Yes – if we look at it from a different perspective and do the work necessary
READ IN APP Animal hoarding has always seemed hopeless. The words conjure up heartbreaking images of cats and dogs suffering, overcrowding, filthy, deplorable conditions, and unwanted litters. Cruelty and abuse. Behavioral issues. And hopelessness.
We often learn of extreme cases through the media. The ones we don’t hear about are generally fewer animals, but the same labels apply.
Most people designated as a hoarder have a fundamental inability to provide food, vet care, sanitation, etc. They believe they are saving animals. They generally don’t want the help of others, such as aid to give the animals vet care.
Major Recent Animal Hoarding Cases in NYC and Long Island
Brooklyn (July 2025): Over 115 small dogs (Yorkies, Chihuahuas) were rescued from a Brooklyn home following the death of their 78-year-old owner.
Queens (May 2025): 48 Belgian Malinois dogs were rescued from a 7th-floor apartment in Forest Hills, leading to a 96-count indictment for the owner.
Brooklyn (June 2025): Over 80 dogs were rescued from a home in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, where an elderly woman was found dead.
Long Island (October 2025): Over 200 animals, including exotic pets, rodents, and cats, were found in a Northport, Long Island, hoarding house.
East Village (July 2018): 33 Shih Tzus were discovered in poor, malnourished conditions in a Manhattan apartment.
While a hoarding disorder is recognized as a mental illness, hoarders face criminal charges, including felony animal cruelty and neglect.
Note: It is possible to have many cats or dogs and not be a hoarder – if these conditions do not apply: overcrowding; filthy, deplorable conditions; unwanted litters, behavioral issues; lack of vet care.
This article from the Animal Humane Society provides good information about animal hoarding - Animal hoarding: What it is, what it isn’t, and how you can help. However, it appears to stop at a certain point and does not take the next step, which we will address.
THE NYC ANIMAL CARE CENTER (ACC) GETS MANY HOARDING CASES FURTHER TAXING THE ANIMAL SHELTER SYSTEM.
This kind of information is not publicly documented. One must know where to search and read between the lines. Yet another reason why we need independent oversight of the ACC.
These are some of the cat cases that have shown up at the NYCACC shelters – language taken verbatim from shelter intake information on social media:
“Simon was surrendered by owner along with cats Joe and Tiffany. Client says she is no longer able to care for the pets as her building is being sold and she does not have anywhere to keep the pets. Client says she started out with a few outdoor cats that multiplied. There will be a total of 13 cats being surrendered on different dates. Simon needs out ASAP, *Monitor ocular abnormalities - appear quiet and stable, recommend recheck with full-service vet once place.”
“The NYPD brought in 10 cats after their owner passed away after being hospitalized. There was no next of kin and the landlord was feeding the cats. They were able to take 12 from the home as well. [22 cats] “
“June 2025 - Client arrived to the MACC with 2 stray cats. Dream Board and Story Board. She mentioned that these cats were from a hoarder case that we previously worked on in the past. She went back to the apartment to see if she was able to get the remaining cats in the home. NYCHA denied her entry, but she called the FDNY due to hearing the clicking noise from the stove. FDNY arrived to the building and get permission to go inside the apartment to check if there was a gas leak. With all that, the client was able to retrieve the cats.”
MY NOTE: NYCHA’s pet policy is a limit of one cat or one dog per apartment, and they must be spayed or neutered. A dog must not weigh over 25 pounds. Pit bulls, Rottweilers, and Dobermans are not allowed. NYCHA is well aware that their policies from 2009 are not enforced, and they do nothing about it. Many of these cats get dumped on the street or NYCHA property – intact – or end up at the ACC. This, along with backyard breeding at NYCHA developments continue to add to the chronic overpopulation issue.
If NYCHA did the right thing and provided low-cost or free spay/neuter to their tenants’ pets, it would not be such a burden on the shelter system. It is available to them, but they do nothing.
“PRIORITY PLACEMENT - YET ANOTHER POOR BABY DUMPED AT THE OVERFLOWING KILL SHELTER FROM A HOARDING CASE, WHERE THE ANIMALS SUFFER AND THE PERPETRATOR GETS AWAY SCOTT FREE... - PLEASE HELP HER FIND HER LOVING HOME BEFORE SHE GETS SICK IN THE FILTHY, OVERFLOWING KILL SHELTER! MANHATTAN ACC ADOPTABLE – Birdy – 246079 1 yr female, 6.1 lbs
“MEDICAL PRIORITY - SWEET SENIOR FROM A HOARDING CASE WHO WILL NEED A LITTLE DENTAL - Sadie is being surrendered with multiple cats. Owner and his mom have a total of 31 cats. They are overwhelmed and can not continue to take care of them. Sadie has Severe dental disease and needs dental care when adopted/placed.”
PRIORITY PLACEMENT – HERE WE ARE AGAIN... YET ANOTHER HOARDING CASE, WHERE THESE POOR ANIMALS SUFFER!
“Owner is currently dealing with a hoarding situation and has over 18+ cats in the house: BOND 228301; AMBROSE 228319;
““KILLED AT MACC - 06/14/2025!! - MARKED AS “PENDING ADOPTION” SO NO ONE COULD TRY AND SAVE HER, THE ACC DID “SURGERY” ON HER, BUT THIS POOR LITTLE GIRL’S BODY WAS JUST OVERWHELMED, AND SO THEY KILLED HER... RIP GORGEOUS LITTLE ANGEL, YOUR LIFE MATTERED”
Due to having no cat space, I told client that we would only take the sick cat because he/she didn’t look too great. They stated that the cat has been throwing up and there was blood in it’s urine.” - YET ANOTHER HOARDING SITUATION WHERE THE ANIMALS SUFFER, AND OFF TO THE OVERFLOWING KILL SHELTER FOR THESE BONDED HOUSEMATES!! “
“PRIORITY PLACEMENT - ANOTHER BABY FROM THIS TERRIBLE HOARDING CASE! - “Client explained that he owns his home but lives in a community governed by a HOA and there have been numerous complaints filed against him by his neighbors regarding horrible cat odor. At this point the HOA is threatening to take client to court if he does not surrender most of the cats living in his home.” - THIS IS THE SAME DUMPER WHO HAS DUMPED, AMONGST OTHERS, PERSIMMON (210485); KOI (210486); CIDER (210487); CASHEW (212077); COCONUT (212078); COFFEE (212079); KHAKI (214341); KIWI (214342); KANARY (214343); JACK FROST (216098); DECEMBER (216099); and CHILLY (216100); DORIAN (214732); DARCY (214733); and DREW (214734).”
from a White Plains hoarding case.
This bill in the NYS legislature never went anywhere. It simply sought to punish hoarders but provided no creative solutions.
And then, there is this woman …Serial animal hoarder caught keeping more pets in squalid conditions in Queens home: prosecutors
THE 1990S in NYC — some background
It seems that there has always been a need for animal rescuers because the City did not know how to do its job other than kill. In the late 19th century, the City rounded up strays and dumped them in the East River.
I subscribe to the principle that’s the opposite of Planned Obsolescence, which is Planned Permanence — meaning, if the large animal welfare organizations really wanted to fix the problem of overpopulation and killing, they could — but they’d also be out of a job and all the wealth that comes with it.
In the early ‘90s, I did small-time cat rescue – nothing like the larger groups. At that time, rescues like City Critters, Being Kind, and others were beginning to incorporate as 501-c-3s. The ASPCA gave up the animal control contract in 1994, and the City was forced to create the Center for Animal Care and Control (CACC), whose name kept changing, and is now the Animal Care Center (ACC). The Coalition for NYC Animals was incorporated as a 501-c-4 in 1994 to deal with legislation and political issues.
Except for a couple of City Council members, the city government did not listen to the animal protection community – just as they don’t now. It did not matter if we had a Democrat or a Republican mayor in office.
The City government did not offer support for independent animal rescue, and often rescuers kept many rescued animals in their homes. I always felt they were doing the thankless job that the city should be funding - yet they were punished for it.
This article in the Daily News from 1995, EVICTION PERIL DOGS PET PALS, is about friends of mine, Bob Blake and Linda Cherny of Being Kind, who were pioneers in animal rescue in NYC. They were treated unfairly since they were doing the government’s work of “animal control.”
Around this time, I began writing letters to the editor. Our Town, a community newspaper serving Manhattan’s Upper East Side, often printed our letters, which highlighted the frustration of residents and animal activists who felt they were doing the city’s job in rescuing animals – pointing out the limited resources or caring in municipal animal control – that the protection of community animals was a government responsibility rather than a hobby for volunteers.
The solution is similar for hoarding and the chronic overpopulation of cats and dogs
This necessary NYC background brings me to the recent Substack article written by Ed Boks/Animal Politics. Please subscribe. This Substack provides a wealth of information to those of us who care about animal issues.
Boks is a trailblazer in animal welfare and served as head of the CACC in the early 2000s. This is a fascinating, timeless 2004 interview in Satya by Lawrence Carter-Long - NYC Animal Care and Control: New Name, New Face, New Philosophy
Boks’ important article on animal hoarding looks at the subject in a different light.
Hoarding: When Animal Shelters Create the Crisis They Claim to Solve
Why managed intake without prevention breeds rescue hoarding, warehousing, and predictable animal suffering.
Real hoarding prevention must include:
Affordable spay/neuter that is accessible to low-income residents
Field services empowered to intervene early
Community-based support for struggling caregivers
Mandatory data transparency that tracks animals even if they move off-site
Intake policies that accept responsibility, not deflect it onto the public or unregulated rescues
Anything less is legalized hoarding disguised as animal sheltering, and it will produce the same outcome: animals suffering in the shadows.
Animals 24-7’s Merritt and Beth Clifton have previously addressed the hoarding issue:
You can subscribe to their newsletter here: https://www.animals24-7.org/email-alert-list-sign-up-today/
“The narrative surrounding animal hoarding often presents it as a personal disorder, but the reality is more complex. Animal shelters, under the pressure of managing intake and funding, may inadvertently create the crisis they claim to solve. The shift from solving the problem to managing its visibility has led to a situation where hoarding is less about individual compulsion and more about structural failures in animal welfare systems. This has resulted in a normalization of hoarding behavior, where communities are quietly rebranding it as innovation or crisis management. The ASPCA emphasizes the need for a multi-agency approach to address hoarding, recognizing it as a violation of animal cruelty laws and requiring intervention to protect the animals and their owners.”
What we can do in NYC.
Does the City of NY - i.e., the city council and the mayor’s office - understand this chronic overpopulation issue? I don’t think they do. And I also think they are not interested. Yet NYC is considered the wealthiest city in the world – home to 123 - 144 billionaires according to Forbes; and 384,500 - 400,000 millionaires according to Henley & Partners.
1. Do politicians really want to reduce the chronic overpopulation of cats and dogs? If so, they need to figure out how to raise the money for spay/neuter services and offer it FREE for a period of time – then reduce the cost - but it must be available to everyone. Stop thinking “low income” –The ASPCA defines low-income as a total annual household income of $50,000 or less. So, if someone makes a little more than that, they are not eligible. It makes no sense. The cost to spay a cat in many private veterinarian practices in NYC is $1,000. Not many can easily afford that.2. Yes, it would be nice if NYC built spay/neuter facilities in each of the five boroughs. But let’s be real -- It would take decades, just like “an animal shelter in every borough,” because this was an issue in the 1990s and before, and there is still no shelter in the Bronx.
This problem is now.
We must figure out another way – such as to reach out to private veterinarians – there are hundreds of facilities in NYC – offer them grants or stipends. Not all will be willing or able to provide these services — but surely some will.
It takes a village!
3. Provide large grants from the 2027 Mayor’s budget to organizations like the Humane Society of NY, the Toby Project, and Flatbush Cats to provide spay/neuter services. Maybe there are other practices. Last year, the City Council budget asked for $1.5M for spay/neuter (with no explanation), but the Mayor’s budget reduced it to $500K. It was given in its entirety to Flatbush Cats – with no Request for Proposal (RFP), accountability, or transparency – leaving the four other boroughs with nothing.
4. Create an information campaign/public service announcements on social media and TV. City Council members can use their newsletters to inform their constituents. The information would detail why it is important to spay/neuter their cats and dogs.
That’s enough for starters. In the meantime, we need incontrovertible facts and not hyperbole, gossip, and rumors. The Mayor’s office needs to come up with $200,000 to $300,000 to hire an objective, independent management consultant - an expert in animal sheltering – to provide an evaluation of ACC programs and practices and recommend solutions to improve their performance, efficiency, operations, and transparency.”
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© 2026 Elizabeth Forel
Coalition for NYC Animals, Inc, PO Box 20247
Park West Station, New York, NY 10025
