UPDATE: TODAY’S EDITORIAL SPOTLIGHT with ASSEMBLYWOMAN AMY PAULIN, etc., HAS BEEN CANCELED; Assemblywoman Paulin requested a postponement to attend to business in Albany . We will UPDATE when it is RESCHEDULED..
The Editorial Board has plans a couple interviews this week, and you can join the discussions via CoverItLive. Just look for the live chat to the right of your screen when you watch the Editorial Spotlight interviews at lohud.com/editorialspotlight. Here’s what’s coming up:
TUESDAY: State Assemblywoman Paulin, D-Scarsdale, discusses New York’s need to update its regulations for animal shelters and the care and handling of stray, lost and homeless animals in a LIVE Editorial Spotlight interview at 1:30 p.m. on LoHud.com. Paulin has suffered recent criticism for proposed legislation (A. 5449A) that she says aims to protect lost, stray or homeless animals by partnering with animal rescue organizations, but some animal activists say gives shelters license to kill. Also joining the discussion: Nancy Perry of the ASPCA and Jane Hoffman of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals.
WEDNESDAY: Representatives of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York share their views on proposed new regulations for high-volume hydraulic fracturing — a controversial method for extracting natural gas from deep within the earth — in a LIVE Editorial Spotlight interview at 11 a.m. on LoHud.com. Participating are: Nancy Schmitt, president and co-founder of Taum Sauk Capital Management, who has more than 30 years’ experience in the energy business; and John A Conrad, president and senior hydrogeologist, Conrad Geoscience, which provides environmental services for the public and private sectors, including the energy industry.
To watch the interviews, go to www.lohud.com/editorialspotlight; to comment or ask a question during the interviews, engage the “CoverItLive” feature on the computer screen.
AND A REMINDER! The first of two public hearings on the Tappan Zee Bridge Hudson River Crossing Project takes place from 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Palisades Center mall in West Nyack, in the fourth-floor Adler Room. A second hearing is scheduled for 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Westchester Marriott Hotel, Grand Ballroom, 670 White Plains Road, Greenburgh. The project, scaled back from a decade-long plan to overhaul the entire Interstate 287 corridor, now just focuses on a four-mile stretch that includes the 56-year-old overtaxed Tappan Zee Bridge. This week’s hearings address the environmental impacts of the project. Still to be solved: the funding puzzle for a project expected to cost $5.2 billion, and when and how mass transit will come to the corridor. Visit thenewtzb.com to find out more.
8 Comments
Seriously? Your interview about Pualin’s Quick Kill Bill features someone from the ASPCA (they WROTE the bill and somehow bamboozled Paulin into sponsoring it) and a person who is doing her best to keep NY’s ACC from being forced to deal with rescue groups? Is this in any way supposed to be a balanced discussion, or are you also puppets of the ASPCA and support their attempts to protect their ability to kill animals any time they feel like picking up the Fatal Plus?
Marilyn, we webcast these LIVE discussions along with CoverItLive, so viewers (like you) can join the discussion. At 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, go to lohud.com/editorialspotlight and when you click on, you will see the CoverItLive discussion to the right. Your questions can be sent for us to use during the discussion. Your input certainly helps broaden the discussion, as we discuss this bill, CARRA and the issues in general that surround New York’s shelters and the regulations for treatment of lost, stray and homeless animals. Also, feel free to email any questions prior to the interview to me at ncutler@lohud.com … if you cannot view the Editorial Spotlight live, it will be archived at lohud.com/editorialspotlight. I look forward to hearing from you.
Nancy
I agree with Marilyn that your selection of panelists for discussion of the Quick Kill Bill is massively unbalanced. The ASPCA, Jane Hoffman of the Mayor’s Alliance, and a third individual, Laura Allen, wrote this bill. Amy Paulin is pushing it for them and has been extraordinarily intransigent despite the outcry. My read is that Paulin is looking to expand her fundraising base to prepare for a future Congressional bid, and is banking on support from the ASPCA, which has direct connections to NYC’s Old Money.
A05449 codifies shelter killing . . . it provides legal cover to shelters such as New York’s infamous Animal Care & Control, which neglects animals, and needlessly kills them, with the collusion of the ASPCA and a shelter chain of command that leads up to Mayor Bloomberg. The bill allows shelters to reject rescue groups for spurious reasons, choose not to scan for microchips, and choose not to list lost pets online. All the appalling decisions that shelters currently make every day would continue to be permitted. And the Quick Kill provision is unheard of, even for our barbaric, antiquated, violent shelter system.
In choosing who to give publicity to, you have made the same mistake most people make: you have assumed that the ASPCA has the best interests of shelter animals at heart. In fact, the ASPCA killed animals for NYC for a hundred years, and they are steeped in the mentality of shelter killing, which is now being forcefully challenged by the No Kill movement. The Quick Kill Bill is the ASPCA’s effort not to bring about shelter reform, but to PREVENT it. Your choice of panelists who created or support A05449 will inevitably give a positive impression about legislation that, if passed due to the lobbying power of the ASPCA, will be rolled out across the country . . . and make our already brutal shelter system even worse.
I suggest you add NY Assemblyman Micah Kellner, sponsor of CAARA, the true reform bill, NY Assemblyman Joe Lentol, an opponent of A05449, or Nathan Winograd, the national leader of the No Kill movement, to your lineup. And I suggest you read the background to this disastrous legislation before Tuesday’s interview:
http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=8559
Despite your response to Marilyn, this will not be an equal or open discussion. What you are doing is giving attention, and therefore help, to the wrong people.
Karen, We are well aware that this discussion will need your help, as well as our questions, to explore all issues related. I would love to have a similar interview with Assemblyman Kellner, and a representative from a local rescue group. I will reach out to his office this week to arrange, and you can email suggestions to me at ncutler@lohud.com. We often hold Editorial Spotlight interviews that are similar to “pro-con” on major issues. For example, Wednesday’s discussion on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, comes after a discussion with National Resources Defense Council and other representatives. Viewers can participate in these discussions (via CoverItLive), which makes them better (so I hope you will). And, they are archived on lohud.com/editorialspotlight so viewers can see all interviews, and all opinions, on the subject. Again, thanks for the feedback, and pleas email any questions for the interview prior to the discussion to me at ncutler@lohud.com; we are also asking for questions via Facebook and Twitter (@lohudopinion).
Thanks,
Nancy
Since its rescheduled, why not add panelists who can present another point of view. I suspect, however, that your original panelists will not make themselves available for a rescheduled live forum.
This bill has me outraged. As an owner of a rescue pit-mix who is sweet as any dog I have ever been around this bill doesn’t give dogs a chance to adjust before they can decide to kill them. While I understand not all dogs can be saved by allowing the decision to be made upon entry whether or not to put down an animal is criminal. Dogs need to be given the opportunity to adjust to there new environment is a license to kill animals. There are bills in place and many states have animal rights bills that protect animals rather then condemn them. This bill is what needs to be killed not these animals.
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