1. Before any other steps, make sure that it is safe to approach the dog. If the dog is aggressive, then it is best to call the Center for Animal Care and Control at the number listed below.
2. Call the Center for Animal Care and Control (CACC) at 212.442.2076 to find out if anyone has filed a lost dog report that matches the dog you’ve found.
3. Determine if the animal needs immediate medical attention. If so take the dog to a veterinarian. The rescue organizations listed below may be able to help you with veterinary care. Some vets also have inexpensive ’stray exam rates’ for found dogs. At the vet:
* Make sure the found dog is scanned for a microchip in their neck. This microchip would contain owner information. Most veterinarians in Manhattan will be able to do this.
* If the dog is not spayed or neutered, look into low-cost options for having this done. These organizations may be able to help:
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruely to Animals – They neuter found pit bulls for free!
The Humane Society
Mighty Mutts
* Make sure the dog receives his or her shots, and is checked for worms. This is especially important if the dog is going to be exposed to your dog or others.
4. Make sure the dog has short-term accommodations. Take this one step at a time and work on the first night first. Once this is taken care of you can work on foster care.
5. Take a print or (preferably) digital picture of the dog, so that you will be able to post their likeness on various rescue websites. MORNINGSIDE B.A.R.C. can do this for you if you do not have a camera.
6. If you cannot be positive that the dog you found has been abandoned, make up lost dog posters and place them both in the dog run and various locations around your neighborhood. Be careful, these posters cannot be posted elsewhere in the park. The Parks Department will fine you or your organization.
7. Find out as much as possible about the dog that you have found. Any organizations you contact will want to know the dog’s basic temperament, in other words, is it aggressive, dominant, food aggressive, and if it has been neutered.
8. Begin notifying people who can help you find the dog a permanent home:
* Notify Morningside BARC
* Email Manhattan Dog
* Place a classified ad on Petfinder.com
* Place classified ads in papers like the Village Voice and the Manhattan News Day. These ads are free.
9. There are many rescue organizations specific to breeds. Attempt to contact these organizations first, if you can determine the breed or dominant breed of the dog you found. Then contact specific rescue organizations. Names and phone numbers are listed at the bottom of this page. Although these groups will probably not be able to house your stray, they might be able to give you some leads on someone who can help you.
10. If you need help with any part of this process, contact MORNINGSIDE B.A.R.C.
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[NOTE: The advice that follows is based on the recent experience of a Morningside area resident who stuck herself with a used needle while cleaning up after her dog, and on her research of public health resources and doctors' advice. Be warned that she is not a medical expert.]
If you stick yourself with a discarded syringe, don’t panic but do seek medical advice as soon as possible.
Treatment to forestall possible infection with Hepatitis (types A and B) and, in the unlikely worst-case scenario, HIV needs to begin very soon – within hours to about a day – in order to be effective.
1. If possible, save the syringe/needle. While it’s not routine to run tests on the needle (because there’s usually not enough moist blood in/on it for effective testing), it can be helpful for your doctor to examine the syringe and see what type it is and how fresh it seems to be. The longer the needle has been lying there, the better off you are (although you’ll probably still need a tetanus shot).
Experts believe that HIV doesn’t live for more than a few hours outside the human body. Hepatitis can live longer and is much more infectious. The less blood is in/on the syringe, the better. The kind of disposable syringe usually used by addicts is less dangerous in terms of accidental disease transmission than a syringe that a health-care worker would use to draw blood, because the needle is smaller and less blood (or none) is actually drawn back into the syringe. To carry and store the syringe safely, it’s recommended that you put it in a screw-top glass container – tip downward, of course.
2. If you can make the needle-stick wound bleed, do so. That helps to flush it out. Hold the wounded spot below your heart so blood will flow to it. Then wash it well (with antibacterial soap if available) and put a dressing on it.
3. See a doctor promptly. The New York City Health Department suggests visiting the Riverside Clinic, on 100th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam (call first: 212-865-7757). It provides HIV and Hepatitis screening/treatment for free, plus it’s one of the few locations where you can have truly anonymous testing done. [However, visiting your regular physician and/or an infectious diseases specialist is helpful.]
The doctors’ potential concerns were, in descending order of seriousness: HIV, Hepatitis, tetanus, and simple infection.
- HIV is apparently extremely unlikely in this context; you may be comforted to know that the CDC has no documented cases of HIV transmission resulting from an accident involving a discarded needle outside of health-care settings. Nevertheless… your doctor may give you an HIV test immediately, even though an infection from the needle accident won’t yet show up. (They do this in order to establish that you don’t already have HIV so their reporting is accurate.) You can then be tested again in six weeks, by which time a new infection would show up. If your doctor feels there is any realistic risk that you may have been exposed to HIV, he or she can prescribe a course of powerful (i.e., unpleasant) anti-viral drugs that must begin immediately.
- Hepatitis A and B can both be prevented from developing if you start the immunization process within a couple of days of the incident. Several vaccinations over a period of six to nine months are needed to provide full immunity. There’s no vaccine for Hepatitis C but there are treatments, so your doctor will probably test you for that too.
- Tetanus booster shots are necessary if it’s been years since your last one. No big deal!
- And in terms of simple infection, keep an eye on the wound and make sure it’s not getting red or swollen. If it does, ask for antibiotics.
4. Take precautions. The CDC recommends that, for the sake of others’ safety, you should act as if you have a serious infectious disease until you know for sure that you don’t. In other words, don’t share body fluids or donate blood or organs until you know you’re in the clear (the CDC says six months). Also check in with your doctor if you notice a fever up to six months after your needle-stick.
5. Finally… Ask lots of questions and make sure your fears are taken seriously by your doctor(s), even if you know the odds are strongly in your favor.
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First, rinse, clean and apply antibiotic ointment to the wound. Then assess whether the bite is superficial or has actually punctured the skin. Most dog bites do not require medical treatment (many websites note that bites which deeply tear skin on the hands, feet or face, however, can be cause for antibiotic treatments to be prescribed. If you have questions, see your doctor or an emergency room physician). Although it’s very rare for infections to come about from properly treated dog bites, watch out for fever or painful swelling. Even if it’s a dog unknown to you who’s bitten you, doctors in Manhattan usually downplay worries about rabies shots, as rabies has been extremely rare in New York City in recent years. Most dogs are immunized, and even if they aren’t, there are very few animals regarded as rabies carriers from which they could have been exposed (squirrels and rats, for example, are low risks for rabies infection.) Ask your doctor if you are concerned, but rabies is not a common concern in New York City. Tetanus shots ARE often recommended for dog bites in Manhattan emergency rooms, if yours are not up-to-date and if the bite is a deep puncture.
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