NYC Proposes a Pantry To Give Away Free Pet Food. That Won't Solve the City's Animal Shelter Crisis.

This summer, New York City shelters were overwhelmed by a surge of pet surrenders. The Animal Care Centers of New York City, which contracts with the city to provide animal control services, reported a record 1,000 animals in its shelter system. The staffing and resource shortfall necessitated that the city provide an additional $1 million in emergency funding for the centers. Now, the city council has decided that the solution is a government-run pet pantry offering free pet food to residents. 

The proposed bill would direct the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to establish at least one 12-month pilot pet food pantry and report on whether it reduces pet surrenders. The goal is to prevent owners from surrendering pets due to financial hardship, but the proposal has several shortcomings. 

The New York Times reports that at least a third of the pet surrenders in recent months were due to pet owners losing their housing or having to relocate to areas that do not allow pets.

Roughly two-thirds cited rising pet care costs, though available data suggest that factors other than pet food are the main drivers. Veterinary costs, for instance, have risen by over 60 percent in the past decade, according to The New York Times. A Bank of America Institute report from earlier this year found that while current year-over-year inflation for pet services (such as veterinary care and grooming) was over 4 percent, the current rate of inflation for pet food had dropped to zero percent.

A final factor is a pandemic-era drop in spay and neuter procedures, which has led to a pet baby boom and shelter overcrowding.

Housing instability for humans, rising veterinary fees, and a decline in pet sterilization are the primary causes of the pet surrender crisis—not the cost of pet food. The country’s ongoing affordability crisis is making everything more expensive, and while there has been a surge in demand at pet food pantries in recent months, this is largely due to rising costs in other areas, prompting pet owners to seek out cost savings wherever possible. 

Beyond missing the root causes of the problem, the proposal also brings the added costs that come with launching a new government program. Any municipal-operated pet pantry—even if contracted out—incurs costs for supplies, staffing, warehousing, distribution, and oversight.

Cities like Los Angeles have launched similar government-run pet pantries, providing a precedent for NYC’s proposal. The L.A. Animal Services Pet Food Pantry is housed within L.A. Animal Services, which operates the city’s municipal pet shelter system. While the costs for the pantry itself are not broken out as a separate line item in the city budget, the agency receives over $6 million annually and has recently faced extensive staffing and budget cuts.

There has been a notable rise in non-profit pet food pantries in recent years—including in NYC—showing that a market-based alternative has arisen to meet the demand spike. Some locales have even introduced pet pantry “lockers” on sidewalks, much like the human version that has gained popularity in recent years.

Many Americans are indeed struggling to make ends meet, and policy solutions should address that directly. Government-run pet pantries are merely treating the symptom, not the disease.

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