A new bill in the NYC Council would establish an animal abuse registry that would publicly provide the names of people convicted of hurting pets and wildlife within the five boroughs.
Queens City Council Member Joann Ariola introduced Intro. 0782 on March 26, which would create a public animal abuse registry within the City of New York. The registry, Ariola said, would “go a long way” toward protecting New York’s animals by allowing rescues and other agencies to quickly search the names of potential adoption applicants, and prevent any sale or adoption by people who are known to cause harm to animals.
The Republican council member established the bill in response to the many calls her office would get about cases of possible animal abuse in her district, which includes Ozone Park, Glendale, Woodhaven, Howard Beach, Broad Channel and parts of the Rockaway Peninsula.
While the city already has an animal abuse registry, it is only accessible by animal-related groups in New York, such as animal control officers, rescues, pet shops, humane societies and veterinarians. Ariola’s bill will ensure any New Yorker can find out if animal abusers are in their neighborhoods.
“We went and looked further, and found out that there is an animal abuse registry, however, it’s not open to the public,” Ariola said. “And that’s what it really should be: open to the public so that anyone who’s seeing any type of abuse can at least check to see if this is someone who’s had a past history of abuse.”
She added that her bill would ensure all rescues regardless of their size, have access to the registry before approving a person for animal adoption. Everyone would have access to the registry, including those who live outside New York.
Police arrested an alleged animal abuser last year for tying up a dog with duct tape in Queens. Provided to amNewYork
Ariola said that a public animal abuse registry would serve as a vital tool for pet owners, enabling them to thoroughly vet individuals or services such as boarders, pet sitters and dog walkers, to ensure their loving companions are placed in good care.
“This should be a model where anyone can go in and check to see if there is an animal abuser even living within a certain distance of their own home,” she said. “If you hire someone to walk your dog, there’s really no way to look that person up.”
Both domestic and wild animals, including but not limited to squirrels, raccoons and birds, would be protected through the registry
Recent incidents of animal abuse in NYC
Sadly, animal abuse is common in many communities throughout the country, and NYC is no exception.
In July 2025, a man in Queens set a dog on fire after dragging the lifeless animal down a street in South Ozone Park. With the help of the media and a good Samaritan, police were able to catch the alleged suspect, Isaiah K. Gurley at the Queens Center Mall days later.
In a separate incident about a month later, police arrested an alleged animal abuser, Kristopher Fyffe, of Brooklyn, for duct taping a dog in Queens’ Gwen Ifill Park on Aug. 24.
The bill’s bipartisan support in the council
Ariola’s bill has bipartisan support in the City Council. In addition to her fellow Republicans Frank Morano (Staten Island) and Vickie Paladino (Queens) co-sponsoring Intro. 0782, Democrats from the council including Shahana Hanif (Brooklyn), Gale Brewer (Manhattan) and Virginia Maloney (Manhattan) support the bill.
“This is something that we all find very important because animal abuse is just abhorrent,” Ariola said. “It should never be tolerated.”
The bill is currently before the City Council’s health committee and would still need to go through the city’s legislative process before it can be considered for law.