Pets in peril

+ a rare HERB OF THE WEEK! #52

This week I visited ACC’s East Harlem shelter for a depressing story on the harsh reality at animal shelters across the country. There are too many pets.

While there I met Grubhub, Buttons, Simba, and Cassie, as well as the human staffers and volunteers who work with the cats, dogs, rabbits, and guinea pigs the city’s shelters take in. 

The situation at the shelters was so dire that ACC said last week they could no longer take in any cats. They still took the cats that came, but hoped a warning like that would at least make people hesitate before bringing a kitty in.

Shelter staff said most of the people bringing their pets cited financial reasons – from the cost of pet food to vet bills – and while ACC tries to help people with food and other services, sometimes it’s just too much. 

“It’s now a luxury to be able to have a pet, for a lot of people,” one rescuer said. 

You can read more here and learn about volunteering here.  

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The other big story of the week is the asylum seeker crisis. My colleague Gwynne Hogan spoke with some people who slept outside of the Roosevelt Hotel as they clutched red tickets which held their place in line. “I have faith in God,” said one woman, who traveled from Venezuela. “I haven’t given up yet.”

And Liz Kim at Gothamist/WNYC broke multiple stories about the crisis – like the administration’s plan to shelter some people in Central Park and a “what have you done” checklist Mayor Adams required a group of Queens politicians to go through before meeting with him about the migrants. 

There’s also my colleague Yoav Gonen’s continued coverage of the sharp increase in NYPD car chases that are also deadly. 

✨Other interesting stories✨

The LeFrak City library, flooded during Ida, finds a new location [THE CITY]

The deal with the mayor’s weekly food distribution event [POLITICO]

Eric Ulrich hit with corruption charges in DA probe [DAILY NEWS]

“A boy denied booze at a luxury Upper East Side hotel has since mounted a campaign of defamation, sending paid protesters to chant strange allegations that the five-star destination denies the Holocaust, supports Jeffrey Epstein and has mice, according to court records, video and workers.”

This is a rare feature but this kid deserves it.

Read the full story from Patch. 

thanks for reading!