By Staff Reporter
BUFFALO — The City of Buffalo Animal Shelter on Oak Street is out of room. Some dogs are being kept in cages in the lobby, and staff are pleading with residents to adopt, WIVB reported Wednesday.
“We have more dogs than we have capacity for,” said Jennifer Butera, the shelter’s director.
The crunch comes at an awkward moment. New York’s first statewide standards for animal shelters took effect last December, and the state’s promised grace period for shelters to come into compliance runs out in mid-December. The city has a $412,042 plan to fix up the 1995 building, but as of its last public update the grant behind it had not yet been formally accepted. And the brand-new, no-kill shelter Mayor Sean Ryan has promised is still years away.
“A bad situation”
Ms. Butera told WIVB the shelter leans on other organizations to keep its population down. “We have some overflow cages, but we rely heavily on our rescue partners that will pull dogs into foster,” she said. “Also, other rescues like the SPCAs in the area, so Niagara County and Erie County have been instrumental in reducing the population in our shelter. Cattaraugus County has also helped us out.”
Mr. Ryan, asked about the shelter by WIVB at a news conference Wednesday afternoon, was frank about the building. “It’s not a modern facility, it’s a kill facility,” he said, according to WIVB.
“We’re making the best of a bad situation as we’re looking forward to the future where Buffalo can join modern cities and have a modern, state-of-the-art, and most importantly no-kill shelter,” the mayor said.
He said an architect from Colorado who designs only animal shelters spent several days in Buffalo last week meeting with shelter staff and others. “They’re coming up with more firm plans about how many square footage do we need,” Mr. Ryan said. “Could it be one floor? Two floors? Also, trying to look at where is the best fit for that? So, we hope to have a response for them soon, and we’re going to include an allocation in our upcoming capital budget to get the animal shelter going. But, it’s going to take a few years to get this project from start to finish.”
What the city has already promised
The mayor made a similar commitment in June. In a June 2 announcement, City Hall said it was working to find a site for a new shelter “and plans to include funding for the new shelter in the city’s capital budget for Fiscal Year 2026-2027.”
Wednesday’s remarks referred to an “upcoming” capital budget instead. The city has not said publicly whether any money for a new shelter made it into the 2026-27 capital budget, how much a new building would cost or where it might go. The Chronicle has asked.
The June announcement also laid out nearer-term fixes. The state Department of Agriculture and Markets awarded the city $370,838 from its Companion Animal Capital Projects Fund, and Friends of the City of Buffalo Animal Shelter put up a $41,204 match. The work is supposed to include expanding kennel space into an existing garage, a new HVAC system, epoxy floors, sound-deadening ceiling tiles, new cat kennels and a new outdoor recreation area.
At the time, the city said it expected “to formally accept the grant funding later this year, with construction anticipated to begin following approval of the funding agreement and continue through 2027.”
Ms. Butera said in June that the grant was about more than comfort. “This funding will provide a much-needed boost in capital support to stabilize the situation at our current facility and allow us to meet New York State Department of Agricultural and Markets regulations,” she said in the city’s announcement.
The city also said its 2026-27 operating budget added “multiple new, full-time shelter staff positions” and that it reached an agreement with AFSCME Local 264 letting volunteers take on a broader range of tasks.
The state deadline
The regulations Ms. Butera mentioned come from the Companion Animal Care Standards Act, which took effect Dec. 15, 2025. It requires municipal and nonprofit shelters to be licensed by the state and to pass inspections, including unannounced ones, under enforceable care standards. State guidance calls for housing areas to stay between 60 and 80 degrees most of the time, isolation areas behind their own door, and floors that are impervious and properly maintained, as The Chronicle reported Sunday.
The state said it would treat the law’s first year as an educational year, with inspectors advising shelters on what to fix. That year ends in mid-December. Several items in Buffalo’s grant scope, including the HVAC system, the flooring and the extra kennel space, line up with what the new rules require.
The questions for City Hall
Buffalo’s shelter takes in animals from across the city, and its crowding affects everyone from the dog in the lobby to the neighbors who call about strays. Residents and the Common Council are entitled to clear answers on a few points:
- Has the city signed the state grant agreement, and when will construction start?
- What did the state’s educational inspection find at Oak Street, and can the building pass a licensing inspection after mid-December?
- Is there money in the current capital budget for a new shelter, or will it wait for the next one?
- How many animals is the shelter holding now, against how many it is designed for, and how many has it euthanized this year for lack of space?
In the meantime, Ms. Butera’s request is simple. Adoptable animals can be seen online or in person at 380 Oak St., and no appointment is necessary, WIVB reported.
The Chronicle has asked the mayor’s office and the shelter for comment and will update this story.
Featured image: A dog in an animal shelter, an illustrative file photo not taken at the Buffalo shelter. Photo by Nhandler via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5; cropped.
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