I am a volunteer at the Yonkers Animal Shelter, in Yonkers, NY. Although the pups at the shelter are very well cared for by amazing staff and volunteers, they do not have many comforts of home. The one great thing that they do have is 2 big play yards and 2 small fenced in areas for them to run, play and stretch their legs for 5-10 minutes a day when they get out. Thanks to a very generous donor 2 agility corses were set up, one in each large yard. Unfortunately, we have just heard that the City of Yonkers now wants to take one of the large yards and one of the small areas away from pups to open a public dog park (which the shelter pups woul not be able to use).  Note that there is already a public dog park up the road 5 minutes away in Ridge Hill so this is not needed in this particular area. This would leave 1 play yard and one small fenced in area for the pups. This means only 1 pup can go out to play at a time. With 50+ dogs that means they would not get out every day, they would not be able to spend the extra few minutes to play ball or learn the agility course. This means less socializing of the pups as they will be 24/7 in their kennels with no human contact. Also, a large concern Is parking, there is a small lot that shelter workers and volunteers use with few spots left for people to come visit the shelter. The pups can not afford to have stop by visitors leave because there is no where to park! Also a safety concern as who will monitor who is in the park,  control the dogs and vandalism and crime? What happens when dogs are ‘dumped’ overnight and left unattended? Not to mention sanitation as to who will ensure clean up and sanitation of the parks. There is s hazard of ensuring dogs are controlled when shelter pups are on walks or when kitties are brought in for the spay/neuter clinic.

PLEASE sign and share this petition to help us stop this from happening to our pups.