A Brooklyn lawmaker is demanding the city’s animal shelter system end the euthanization of cats and dogs, at least until the coronavirus pandemic passes.

Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D–Williamsburg) said Wednesday he will introduce emergency legislation to halt the practice by New York City Animal Care Centers for one year, with an immediate effective date.

The bill, Lentol said, will apply to public, private and non-profit animal shelters throughout New York state.

“There is no reason to rush to euthanize right now,” Lentol said. “Life has been disrupted and owners may be separated from their animals for many reasons, illness and death included, leading to complication within families and with their pets.”

“At a minimum, we must give animals and families to reunite,” said Lentol. “Failing that, we must allow time for an animal to be fostered or adopted.”

Lentol, an advocate of no-kill animal policies, said he decided to make the move after he was notified of a recent case involving the group in which a pooch wound up euthanized.

Two NYPD cops on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic recently picked up a “friendly and healthy” lost Labrador retriever and cared for it at their precinct stationhouse for several days while seeking its owner, according to Lentol.

The owner of the dog could not be found, and the cops took the dog to ACC with “specific instructions” that if no one claimed the animal quickly, the cops would adopt it.

The dog was euthanized, Lentol said. ACC did not immediately comment.

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