Defending the Rights of Animal Care & Control Volunteers 
Animal Care and Control of New York City (ACC) is the organization responsible for operating our city's animal shelters. Many dedicated New Yorkers serve as volunteers at ACC facilities, giving their time to help care for homeless and neglected animals. Unfortunately, there have been reports from some volunteers of substandard conditions at ACC shelters, including allegations of animals wallowing in their own waste, cats and kittens going without food and water for extended periods of time, dogs not being properly socialized, ongoing killing of healthy animals, and failure to treat medical conditions.
I was deeply disturbed to learn that ACC has now instituted new volunteer policies apparently intended to silence such complaints. The new policies state, among other things, that volunteers may not "publicly criticiz[e]" or cast the agency "in a negative light." These policies violate volunteers' constitutional rights, and are clearly inconsistent with court decisions protecting whistleblowers and establishing that the opportunity to serve as a volunteer is a protected government privilege.
I have called upon Mayor Bloomberg and New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley, who effectively control ACC, to have this policy repealed immediately. I have also asked City Comptroller John Liu to meet with me to discuss what steps can be taken to provide additional oversight of ACC, to ensure that volunteers are being treated fairly and that allegations of substandard conditions at ACC shelters are handled properly. Copies of my letters to Mayor Bloomberg, Dr. Farley, and Comptroller Liu are available at my website here .