Syracuse animal shelter closure puts pressure on neighboring shelters

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse’s municipal animal shelter, B&R Bunkhouse Adoptables, is facing struggles as their partnership with the City of Syracuse ends this month.

Paws Across Oswego County (PAOC), an animal shelter in Scriba, has taken in dogs from neighboring shelters, including B&R Bunkhouse, in the past.

“The only other shelter in Syracuse is CNY-SPCA,” PAOC director Heather Axtell said. “They are also running into problems like us, with being full,” she said.

As Syracuse’s partnership with B&R Bunkhouse Adoptables ends, dogs and cats taken in by animal control will have nowhere to go. The same goes for strays and victims of animal cruelty.

New York State law requires municipalities to have a contract with an animal shelter. Without this partnership, people like Axtell and other shelters in the surrounding counties are worried about what the future looks like for these animals.

“We’ve taken dogs from Syracuse, not only B&R, but we’ve taken a lot from CNY-SPCA,” Axtell said. “We have two dogs now, Luna and Sheba, who came from the city of Syracuse because of the situation. There’s nowhere for the dogs to go, so it was a scramble in our chat.”

The Syracuse mayor’s office has offered no response to the residents of both Oswego and Onondaga County. There is no plan in place and no official discussions on where these animals will actually go.

Axtell said she expects to see unfed dogs and cats on the streets, animal fights, an increased spread of diseases, and animal attacks on humans.

She also said the City of Syracuse funded B&R Bunkhouse as part of their contract, which helped tremendously as many shelters are underfunded and thus lack necessary resources.

“They were being paid by Syracuse, but Syracuse was not paying their bills to B&R and their contract was supposed to end in December, but they extended it knowing that there is nowhere for these dogs to go,” Axtell said.

Paws Across Oswego County posted about the situation on their Facebook in February, and according to Axtell, the Syracuse mayor’s office is aware of it. Nonetheless, PAOC is urging residents to contact Syracuse officials.