Volunteer-led · Est. April 2025
Better dog runs. Better public space. Built by the neighbors who use it every day.
stronger together →
Why North Brooklyn
North Brooklyn is one of the most dog-dense parts of the city, and its dog runs were never built for the number of dogs using them now.
Most NYC dog runs are not maintained by the Parks Department. The city provides the land and the fencing; clean-ups, repairs, supplies and fundraising fall to whoever shows up. In North Brooklyn, that has been a small group of volunteers.
That model is the problem. It works for whoever has the free Saturday, the spare cash and the confidence to organize — and quietly excludes everyone who doesn't. In a neighborhood as economically and culturally mixed as North Brooklyn, funding public space on goodwill produces uneven space: the runs that get looked after are the ones that happen to find the right volunteer. Everyone deserves better than that, and so do the volunteers.
Neglect has health consequences
Standing water, exposed organic ground cover and rodent pressure aren't cosmetic problems. McCarren has been through repeated illness scares — leptospirosis in January 2022, giardia later that year — with the run closed for emergency rodent mitigation and wood-chip replacement. It remains an unofficial, community-maintained run today.4
Stated carefully on purpose Press at the time reported up to four dog deaths. NYC Health's 2022 surveillance summary later stated its investigation identified one confirmed leptospirosis case linked to the neighborhood. Our point is the conditions and the closures, not a case count.
Enforcement went up.
The infrastructure didn't.
What we do
Established
Volunteer maintenance days — raking, mulch, gravel, wind-screens, tools — plus fundraising for the supplies the runs need to stay usable.
Established
Run Club, happy hours, clean-up days, block parties and adoption events that get neighbors meeting each other in person, not just following each other online.
Established
The annual North Brooklyn Dog Census, read against NYC Open Data, to show where infrastructure gaps actually are — and take that to Parks and Council.
NBK Dogs' own 2025 figures.3
Nobody is paid to rake a dog run. It happens because someone organized a Saturday.
What we're asking the city for3
Who we are
North Brooklyn Dogs is Caiomhe Anglin and Piper Carty. That's the whole organization, and it's deliberate.
A small group can move quickly, answer an email the same day, and sit in a room with Parks, a Council office and a dog run volunteer without needing three approvals first. What we're really trying to do is close the gap between the people making decisions about these spaces and the people using them every day.
Almost nothing here is our idea. It came from long-time residents who have been advocating for these parks for years, and from the neighbors, volunteers and groups who showed us how it actually works. We're organizing it, not inventing it.
Left to right: Piper and Caiomhe of North Brooklyn Dogs, with Jaime of McGolrick Dogs.
Burnout is the real threat to a neighborhood like this one.
North Brooklyn is diverse and it moves. People arrive, give a few brilliant years to a park, and then leave the neighborhood — and whatever they were carrying leaves with them. That pattern has repeated here for a long time, and it's why so much local knowledge keeps having to be rebuilt from scratch.
So we're trying to build something that doesn't depend on any one person staying: written-down processes, data that outlives a volunteer, relationships held by an organization rather than an individual, and funding that doesn't rely on someone's spare weekend. That is the whole point of doing this properly.
The network
Residents move between these parks constantly, so we treat them as one connected network rather than four separate campaigns. Each run has its own volunteer group, its own problems and its own fundraiser.
Cooper Park clean-up day. The welcome sign was painted by a neighbor.
Still an unofficial, community-maintained run, more than twenty years after it was put in as a temporary measure. Chronic drainage failure and rodent pressure. Fundraising toward Woof Fiber™, alongside a separate campaign for a properly designed run on the adjacent asphalt field. Donate to the McCarren fundraiser.
Fundraising
100% community-run, with $3,190 raised so far toward tools, ground cover, shade and seating. Neighbors are currently voting on the surface — keep as is, pea gravel, or Woof Fiber™ engineered wood fiber — plus border, water and lighting upgrades. Donate to the Cooper Park fundraiser.
Fundraising
Established 2003. Poor drainage and flooding, outdated infrastructure. Regular volunteer days for gravel, raking, wind-screens and the native plant beds around the run. Donate to the McGolrick fundraiser.
Fundraising
The newest group in the network. Clean-up days and neighbor meet-ups are building the volunteer base, and the run is now fundraising toward Woof Fiber™ alongside Cooper and McCarren. Their donation page is being set up now.
Page in setup
Infrastructure ambitions
Cooper, Sternberg and McCarren are all fundraising toward Woof Fiber™ engineered wood fiber. We're working directly with the supplier and with the city on quotes for the turf itself, the site prep and the drainage underneath it — because a new surface laid over a bad base fails in a season. The reason this material matters: it's usable the morning after a downpour, which is exactly when a dog run has to work hardest.
In progress North Brooklyn Dogs is in the process of securing 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsorship and building a budget for surfacing, drainage and other dog-run improvements. Not yet in place.
Public partners
NYC Parks and the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance have been two of the strongest advocates we have. They are also severely underfunded and understaffed.
Dog runs sit largely outside their scope and their budget, and the policies covering them were written for a version of park use that doesn't match how these spaces actually get used. Dog owners are among the heaviest users of North Brooklyn's parks — 365 days a year, rain, hail or shine, before work and after dark, in weather that empties every other part of the park. We are not really in the plan, and we are not in the line item.
They do a great deal with very little, and we're grateful for it. This isn't a complaint about the agency — it's a case for funding it properly.
The numbers behind the shortfall7
So we advocate for them too
We back New Yorkers for Parks, the Play Fair Coalition's Parks 2030 platform and the 1% for Parks campaign. That platform asks for the things that would change our position directly: dedicated funding, permanent maintenance staff in every park, simpler partner agreements and lighter insurance requirements for volunteer stewards, and permits for community programming that are actually possible to obtain.
fund the people who fund the parks
Elected officials backing this work
Council Member, District 33
His office published the District 33 dog run report whose density figures anchor this deck — and he turns up in costume to judge the Halloween Dog Parade.
Council Member, District 34
Credited as a supporter on the Sternberg Park Dog Run Cleanup Day and on our weekly “This Week with North Brooklyn Dogs” listings.
State Senator, 18th Senate District
Came out to the Cooper Park Block Party to back the Dog Census in person, and supports North Brooklyn's parks at state level.
Assemblymember, District 50
State-level support for North Brooklyn's parks and for the volunteers holding the dog runs together.
Showing up matters more than a letter of support. Council Member Restler at the 2025 McGolrick Halloween Dog Parade — in costume, on the mic, in the park with everybody else.
Confirm before this goes out The contributions above are drawn from what the supplied materials evidence — published reports and supporter credits on event flyers. If any office has done more than that, tell us and we'll say so properly rather than under-crediting them.
Recurring programming
Mondays, 5–7pm at Easy Lover, 790 Metropolitan Ave.
A mobile dog slatmill parked outside a bar. Your dog does the cardio, you do the happy hour. It has quietly become the most reliable way to get North Brooklyn dog owners in the same place on the same night.
Foster dogs run free for a practical reason: most foster contracts bar fosters from taking a dog into a dog run or letting them off leash, so the slatmill is often the only real run a foster dog gets. The line-up rotates too — we keep bringing in new people and small businesses so there's a reason to come back next Monday.
Planned
The plan is a monthly raffle at Run Club, with tickets sold in person only — which keeps it simple and avoids lottery permitting. First ticket outlets under discussion are Easy Lover, Alita Coffee and NYC Pet on Graham, expanding from there.
The point isn't the prize. It's getting people to turn up, meet each other, and hear that ACC needs volunteers, that rescues need fosters, and that the runs need hands.
Run Club is the regular slot we're building this into first, because it already happens every week. Over the next year we're planning more events and happy hours around it, all pointed at fundraising for the runs — so a partner can start with a single Monday and grow into a series.
this is where brands fit →
Run Club runs weekly. Yappy Hour at Bk Backyard Bar, September 2025, is the kind of one-off we want to run more of.
Rescue & animal welfare
Adoption events at McCarren and Park House put adoptable dogs in front of the exact people most likely to take one home. Community programming and rescue support are the same work, done in the same places.
Running nowRoom to grow
We walk fosters through McCarren as a group. A dog in a crate is invisible; a dog walking the park on a Friday evening gets met by fifty people, and some of them are the right people. It's the cheapest, most direct adoption tool we have.
Right now we do this for foster-based rescues. With brand support behind it — bandanas, treats, photography, a table, something worth stopping for — we could make a real event of it and get considerably more of these pups seen and homed. We're also hoping to build something similar with NYC ACC.
Established partner
Our regular rescue partner for adoption and pack-walk events, and a board seat for our co-founder Piper Carty. Howls also works with brick-and-mortar rescue partners in Alabama who pull dogs and cats off euthanasia lists in the South, get them assessed and treated, and drive them to foster-based rescues in other cities. Those partners also give NYC rescuers access to expensive procedures at lower cost.
Alabama rescue partners
Growing relationship
We run donation drop-offs for Animal Care Centers of NYC at Run Club — unopened food and treats, blankets, towels, leashes, harnesses, crates, carriers, enrichment toys, litter. Conversations with ACC Ridgewood are underway and we're hoping to make that relationship more official; ACC's need for volunteers is something we raise at every event.
Growing
We're building out a list of NYC foster-based rescues — many of whom pull from out-of-state partners and from NYC ACC — so a brand, a venue or a volunteer can be pointed at the rescue that actually needs what they have.
Most foster contracts bar the foster from taking a dog off leash or into a dog run, so a foster dog often gets no real run at all. That's why foster dogs go on the slatmill free at Run Club: it's the one place we can give them the exercise their contract won't allow.
The wider ecosystem
Confirmed
August 22, 8–11am, Memorial Gore Plaza. A morning block party hosted by NBK Dogs, NYC Pet and Aunt Hilda, with a DIY bandana station, pet photography and dog treadmills. Free to attend, RSVP through Partiful. Funds raised go to the Cooper Park Dog Run improvements fundraiser.
ConfirmedVol. 3 date TBC
NYC Pet's monthly community market for pet lovers at 300 Graham Ave. Vol. 2 runs the same day as Rise & Bark, 12–6pm, with cat adoption and ten local vendors. Free entry, RSVP on Luma; Vol. 3 vendor registration is open now.
Established partner
A family-owned Brooklyn pet store since 1977, now marking its 50th year, with locations in Williamsburg, Park Slope, Fort Greene and Bushwick. The Graham Ave store is the anchor for Paws in the City and a planned raffle ticket outlet.
On the calendar
Volunteer burnout is a real risk The McGolrick Halloween Dog Parade may not be hosted at McGolrick this year, because the volunteers who normally carry it are stretched. We're hoping to keep it in the neighborhood and behind our runs regardless. This is exactly what happens when public space depends on a handful of people's spare weekends.
What's at stake — the 2025 parade
McGolrick Halloween Dog Parade, October 2025. Entirely volunteer-built, entirely free to attend, and the single best-attended dog event in the neighborhood.
These are separate organizations with separate missions. Sponsoring one of them tends to put a brand in front of all of them.
A lot of that overlap runs through one person. NYC Pet belongs to George Diguido — Uncle George to most of the neighborhood — who has been putting Brooklyn dogs first out of these stores since 1977, and who opens the Graham Ave shop up for Paws in the City, cat adoptions and whatever else the community needs a room for.
same dogs, same people, same week
Aunt Hilda
Date confirmedSponsorship open
Saturday, September 12, 2026, 12–4pm, Maria Hernandez Park, Bushwick.
The second annual summit run by Hilda Rodriguez of Aunt Hilda's Pet Care Services — a resource hub for pet parents rather than a market, since the park is a no-sale zone. Small businesses, vets, rescues, local artists and live music.
Summit details and 2026 plans as stated in Aunt Hilda's own collaboration proposal and event listings.5
The campaign
Giving our community a voice to raise the standard for dog runs citywide.
It ran from September 2025 to January 2026 and asked one question the city could not answer: how many dogs actually live here, and where do they go?
It closed in January so the results could be analyzed and presented to the CB1 Parks Committee. A 2026 census is planned, with bigger goals.
1 dog = 1 count
Which runs people said they use6
Respondents could name more than one run, so these don't sum to the total.
Counting the dogs turns what every dog owner already knows into something the city can act on.
The census was pushed at every event, on every flyer and from every partner account for five months. That is what it takes to count a neighborhood without a budget.
In development
In developmentFundraising
A North Brooklyn dog tag program we're fundraising for, designed to do more than look good on a collar: better census participation, a faster lost-dog response, and cleaner data collection that can support ACC and future infrastructure decisions.
We're developing it with Animal ID, working closely on how the data is collected so it can actually inform future improvements across the city.
Not launched yet Scope, pricing and launch timing are still being worked out. Treat this page as a direction of travel, not a live program.
What one tag is meant to carry
NYC's dog rules exist, but they're written in legal language and nobody reads them at the gate. The tag links to a practical version that actually tells you how to keep a run safe and working.
Every dog needs the same set of records, and they're always in the wrong place when somebody asks for them.
This is the part that matters most at 11pm in a strange neighborhood. A scan of the tag triggers a found-pet alert and connects the finder straight to the contact on the record — a live call, not a form, not a voicemail queue, not a wait for a shelter to open. Fewer dogs end up in the system in the first place, and the ones that do are matched faster.
Who we work with
Labels matter to us Relationship labels above reflect how the supplied materials describe each connection. "Working with" means active collaboration or public support, not a formal or funded partnership. Tell us if any label should change.
Making it happen
PNC Creative is the professional layer that turns a good intention into a scheduled, staffed, documented event.
Piper Carty co-founded North Brooklyn Dogs, sits on the board of Howls Rescue, and runs PNC Creative. That means a brand gets one point of contact rather than five volunteer inboxes: curation and production of events and activations, partnership and sponsorship brokering, content creation, and honest matchmaking to the community partner that actually fits.
Each organization in this deck is independent and runs itself. PNC Creative does not own or operate any of them; it coordinates opportunities between them and the brands who want to help. Where Piper holds a role — co-founder at North Brooklyn Dogs, board member at Howls Rescue — it's stated plainly rather than buried.
The ask
Money is welcome and rarely the only option. Every one of these makes a real difference to a volunteer-run organization.
Samples, supplies, treats, gear — for events, for the runs, or for ACC and rescue drop-offs.
The monthly Run Club raffle needs prizes worth turning up for.
Direct support for surfacing, drainage, tools and ground cover at specific runs.
Back a named event or a season of Run Club, or a Pawsitive Impact Summit tier.
A yard, a back room, a storefront, a wall. Venues make events possible.
Printing, photography, transport, veterinary, grooming, legal, design.
Grant writing, landscape and drainage, data, city planning, fundraising.
A post, a story, a newsletter mention. Reach is a donation.
Co-branded products, volunteer days with your team, a bandana, a bowl, an idea.
What comes back the other way
we'd love money.
we'll take mulch.
And if you're not sure yet
Bring the idea anyway. PNC Creative can develop it, produce it, staff it and document it — and point it at the community partner it genuinely suits.
Get in touch
Piper Carty
PNC Creative
Piper@pnccreative.com
Piper is a co-founder of North Brooklyn Dogs and a board member at Howls Rescue. North Brooklyn Dogs co-founders: Piper Carty — piper@nbkdogs.com — and Caiomhe Anglin — northbrooklyndogs@gmail.com. NBKDogs.com is in build.
Follow the neighborhood
Every photograph, logo, flyer and event graphic in this deck comes from the supplied asset folders. Nothing has been generated, recreated or substituted.