Mayor de Blasio said Monday he’s taking very seriously the bungled hand-over from the ASPCA to the NYPD of animal-cruelty cases, and pledged to improve the city’s handling of abuse reports.
“I’ve talked about the animal care and control apparatus that is, right now, not functioning the way it needs to,” the mayor said, in response to an exclusive Post report on the failed Jan. 1 transfer. “I’m going to be talking to Commissioner [Bill] Bratton about this.”
The nonprofit ASPCA, which launched the anti-animal-cruelty division 150 years ago, announced last August that it would relinquish its lead role to the NYPD, since it could no longer handle the city’s 4,000 annual calls.
But on Monday, New Yorkers calling 311 to report animal abuse were still transferred to an ASPCA answering service.
An ASPCA spokeswoman says her organization has hired 25-year veteran cop George Kline to oversee NYPD training. She said the police have been “investigating animal-cruelty complaints citywide in impressive numbers, and we are rescuing more animals than ever before.”