On March 12th, 2023 Leona, who was a nineteen-year-old elderly dog, wandered outside of her backyard. Her family quickly began looking for her around the neighborhood and began posting about her loss on social media. The family was alerted that their dog was found at the ACC shelter. They quickly began to call ACC to find the location where Leona was being kept and was provided with the address of their Brooklyn location. A few minutes after that call, ACC called her to notify her that Leona had been killed via euthanization by the Brooklyn -ACC staff. 

Leona was missing for a total of about three hours, which means that Brooklyn- ACC did not abide by the 7-day holding period before euthanization for identifiable dogs and 5 day holding period for unidentifiable dogs required by New York law.

The undersigned demand: 

• Mayor Eric Adams hold NYC ACC accountable for the wrongful euthanization of Leona and conduct a thorough investigation of the organization for acts of animal cruelty. 
• Mayor Adams passes the New York Companion Animal Protection Act  or the Shelter Animal Rescue Act