LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
The Alliance continued in 2024 to be a consistent and reliable source of information and guidance for New York City’s pet owners, and anyone who cares about animals in our community.
We continued to help pet owners connect with resources and services to assist with a wide range of needs, including affordable spay/neuter services, veterinary care, sources of free pet food, legal assistance, surrender prevention programs, community cat assistance, and other animal-related resources.
Thanks to our loyal supporters, we have been able to continue in our mission to help improve the lives of New York City’s animals and the people who care for them. Since the Alliance was founded in 2003, private support has powered our success. The Alliance receives no government funding, and relies solely on the faith and support of individuals, corporations, and foundations.
Your support can help us continue to make a difference for New York City’s animals and the people who care for and about them.
Jane Hoffman, President Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals
2024 ANNUAL REPORT
Economic pressures in 2024 continued to squeeze the pocketbooks of pet owners throughout New York City and across the country. Rising costs of veterinary care, the ongoing shortage of veterinary personnel, inordinate wait times for vet appointments, and housing restrictions forced too many pet owners to make the heartbreaking decision to surrender their animal companions to shelters.
In September 2024, the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, along with dozens of animal welfare organizations and independent rescuers and community cat caretakers, testified before a New York City Council hearing on the state of animal welfare in New York City. Our unified message was clear: Affordable spay/neuter and routine veterinary care are out of reach for too many pet owners and rescue organizations. Limited resources and an unsustainable reliance upon non-profit organizations to shoulder the financial burden of providing free or affordable vet care for our community’s struggling pet owners will not solve the problem. We implored city leaders to step up and provide funding to supplement the efforts of the private sector and to create and expand existing high volume spay/neuter resources and low-cost community veterinary facilities to meet the needs of the public and the rescue community.
While advocating for more affordable and accessible veterinary services is one of the ways the Mayor’s Alliance worked toward positive change in 2024, actually connecting pet owners to available services and resources remained our primary focus.
We continue to be a consistent and reliable source of information for pet owners. We leveraged our years of experience and established relationships within New York City’s animal welfare community to offer guidance and make real connections to help pet owners and others who care about NYC’s animals find the resources they need.
In 2024 we launched a redesigned, enhanced website that provides a broader range of information in a more user-friendly format. Visitors to our website gain access to resources for affordable veterinary care, low-cost spay/neuter providers, sources of free pet food, legal assistance, surrender prevention programs, community cat assistance, and other animal-related resources.
Through direct email and phone communication with pet owners, we continued to connect people with the resources and services they need. For those pet owners who needed extra help to acquire services, we offered personal guidance and referrals to link them to appropriate resources to achieve the best possible outcomes for their pets.
We collaborated with community partners. We continued to work alongside our colleagues and community partners to share information and seek solutions to animal welfare problems in our community. We collaborated with the Animal Planning Task Force (APTF) of NYC Emergency Management, the NYC Mayor’s Office of Animal Welfare, the ASPCA, the Animal/Human Welfare Alliance, Lights Out Coalition, and United Spay Alliance. And we continued to steer donations of pet food and supplies to our partner animal care organizations.
We advocated for New York City’s animals and those who care for them.
We supported efforts to enact animal-friendly legislation. Among them: We urged the New York City Council to provide funding for free spay/neuter and veterinary care for low-income New Yorkers. We worked with members of the NYC Lights Out Coalition to support legislation to reduce light pollution that endangers the lives of thousands of migratory birds in New York City. We supported legislation to ban the use of glue traps that cause unnecessary cruelty and suffering to animals. And we met with housing officials to advocate for more pet-friendly housing regulations.
Our generous supporters continued to be the driving force behind our efforts to give New York City’s animals their best lives possible.
As we receive no government funding, we have always relied completely upon private support from individuals, corporations, and private foundations.
We need your help to continue our mission to make New York City a more humane and caring community for our animals and the people who love them!
