Credit: Nick Muscavage
Syndication: Bridgewater
NEW YORK – Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa is proposing that the city cover $1,000 in pet expenses for anyone who saves a dog or cat from being euthanized at a city shelter.
Sliwa is proposing giving people who adopt animals a $1,000 “Pet Snap Card” that they could use for food, supplies and related expenses at local stores.
The plan would cost nearly $3.2 million a year, Sliwa told The New York Post.
“This Pet SNAP Card will help promote and facilitate adoptions throughout New York City by easing the financial expenses of pets,” Sliwa told the Post. “It works in the same way the traditional SNAP program except it can only be used toward pet expenses; food, supplies, vet care, etc.”
“This direct interface with the animal shelter will also facilitate that every animal coming into and going out of the shelter is spayed/neutered and vaccinated,” he added.
One of Sliwa’s major campaign platforms is his fight to get rid of all animal shelters in NYC that kill.
“It’s one of the most serious issues that I am waging for mayor, and I’m the only candidate talking about animal rights and animal welfare,” Sliwa said in a press conference. “I will continue to make it one of the key campaign planks. Part of our mandate is that when I become mayor, there will be no kill shelters in the city of New York.”
Sliwa says the funding for the card would come from the $23 million Animal Care & Control budget, and he predicts that the program will save thousands of animals from being euthanized.
The Guardian Angels founder will face off against Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams in November, the current Brooklyn borough president who is the favorite to win the general election.
