Hundreds gather to protest 'Kill the kitty' and Hempstead Town animal shelter

Nearly 400 residents and animal rescuers protested outside the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter in Wantagh last Saturday afternoon. Hope for Hempstead Shelter, a local shelter-reform advocacy group, held the rally to protest and demand a retraction of policies recently announced by the shelter.

“I think the number of people that we saw yesterday is remarkable, and I think the enthusiasm for change is something else,” said Derek Donnelly, director of Hope for Hempstead Shelter. “Never have I seen everyone so vocal — it was chant after chant after chant.”

At a Hempstead Town Board meeting, officials confirmed that all life-saving methods utilized by rescue organizations and citizens to help shelter animals have been revoked. The shelter will no longer accept requests for “Do Not Destroy” tags on animals, which allow animal rescuers to “buy” animals time at the shelter while they search for room for the animals at foster or permanent homes or alternative no-kill shelters. The town shelter has also stopped taking calls inquiring about animals, claiming that repeated calls have distracted shelter workers from their duties. It now requires animal inquiries to be sent via email or regular mail.

In addition to the new policies, Donnelly said, Saturday’s protesters rallied for more efficient spending by the shelter, the implementation of better qualifications for hiring workers, allowing animal rescue workers who were banned from the shelter in October back into the facility, more action from officials such as Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray, and the termination of the shelter’s director, Pat Horan.
“Every way that you look at this, this shelter is wrong, and there’s no reason for it … there is animal abuse, neglectfulness of the animals and neglectfulness of the taxpayer,” Donnelly said. “We want a complete turnout of this shelter, and we want it turned into a model for change. I think it’s the poster child for what’s wrong with some shelters.”