Senator Tony Avella
GOOD NEWS: In these very trying times that confront us on a daily basis, we are very pleased to share this news with you for New York City.
New York State Senator Tony Avella officially announced that he is running for Mayor of NYC today -- Sunday, December 18th.
Here are a few articles:
Mr. Avella first entered the NYC Council in 2001, served for two terms and was term limited out in 2009. In 2010, he was elected to the NYS Senate representing Northeast Queens.
While in the City Council, Mr. Avella became the champion of animal rights activists who wanted a ban on horse-drawn carriages. He listened and watched after the horrific death of Spotty in 2006 (when we started our campaign) and the following year after the death of Smoothie, a 12 year old mare, he introduced the first ever bill to shut down this inhumane practice. While this bill got a few supporters in the Council, the Speaker at the time, Christine Quinn, along with Mayor Bloomberg, were opposed to it and the bill could not get traction. Still, Mr. Avella went ahead and held a hearing on the bill, which brought out much interesting information and attention to this issue.
It must be known that this historic and important bill did get the support of current Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito who was in the Council at the time, but NOT then Council Member Bill de Blasio. So the fact that Mr. de Blasio made shutting down the carriage trade a campaign promise was welcomed by many but also looked upon with suspicion that it was too good to be true - which it ultimately turned out to be. This was yet another promise that Mr. de Blasio failed to keep.
While in the Senate, Mr. Avella's most recent success was the mute swan bill, which was passed and signed into law by Governor Cuomo. The Dept of Environmental Conservation wanted to kill mute swans and this bill put a much needed stop to it.
Avella also introduced a ban horse-drawn carriage bill in the Senate but the Home Rule requirement would have brought it back to the City and prevented it from moving forward since Christine Quinn would never had allowed it to move through the Council.
DE BLASIO: We have made it perfectly clear that we do not support Bill deBlasio for reelection. He made campaign promises to fix the Animal Care and Control facility and also ban horse-drawn carriages. He did neither. He lied.
HARLEM DEER: Appearing to attempt to schmooze unthinking animal rights activists into supporting him again, de Blasio recently began a "wild life project" to encourage people to be more accepting of wild life in their neighborhoods. But shortly after a coyote died on his watch and on Friday, Lefty the beloved Harlem deer, also died at the animal control facility on E. 110th St., where he had been taken. It was clear to many of us that the bad blood and unprofessional, childish competitiveness between Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo turned the handling of this situation into a fiasco. Lefty paid for it with his life.
Some articles:
SEPARATE DEPT OF ANIMAL AFFAIRS: Mayor deBlasio has created at least two agencies since he became mayor. He needs to create another one - a Department of Animal Affairs - something we have been requesting for 20 years. The Department of Health is not able to adequately oversee the carriage horses; city pound and the miscellaneous wild life issues that come their way - coyotes, ground hogs and now a deer. They see animals as "pests" to be controlled. Deputy Mayor Herminia Palacio oversees the Department of Health, along with several other agencies that include NYC Health + Hospitals, Human Resources Administration, Department of Homeless Services, Administration for Children's Services, Office of Chief Medical Examiner, Office to Combat Domestic Violence and Office of Food Policy.
Her experience does not extend to animal issues and her office has been putting us off for five months in trying to get a meeting with her to discuss the short comings of the ACC and the fact that the street laws governing the carriage horses are not enforced. Disgraceful. She either needs to do her entire job or step down.
So yes, we are thrilled about Tony Avella entering the race.
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