New York City's animal shelters are overcrowded, unsafe, and poorly operated, according to a damning new report detailing inhumane conditions in the shelters run by the city.

"Animal Care and Control is running an operation that could make your stomach turn,” Comptroller Scott Stringer said in a statement accompanying his office's audit. Animal Care & Control's responsibilities include sheltering, spaying, neutering, and administering veterinary care to dogs, cats, and rabbits. But according to Stringer, many animals face hazardous conditions from the very people who are supposed to help them.

The audit's findings are based off of close examination of AC&C's medical bookkeeping between December 2013 and March 2014, as well as its financial records for the fiscal year 2013. The log books revealed that in four months, animals were administered expired drugs 499 times. In the Manhattan shelter, 489 doses of expired Tramadol, an opioid, were administered to four-legged charges.

Auditors also visited shelters in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island to observe their daily operations. In Brooklyn, they found employee lunches and vaccines chilling side by side (in violation, unsurprisingly, of Center for Disease and Control and Prevention guidelines). This commingling was arguably trumped in Manhattan, where vaccines shared freezer space with animal remains.

A Manhattan shelter was caught stacking kennel cages along narrow hallways, while one in Brooklyn used a single climate control system for sick-animal isolation rooms and healthy animal rooms, facilitating the spreading of disease. In Staten Island, peeling paint flaked over the kennels.

The comptroller's audit also offers 15 recommendations for AC&C, including the implementation of a computerized inventory system to keep track of expiration dates on medications. Other recommendations are based on finances: the audit found $11,715 in undocumented credit card charges, which AC&C has been very strongly urged to look into.

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, to which AC&C owes its current five-year, $51.9 million contract, has been asked to keep a closer eye on AC&C, and require it "to implement a system of internal controls that includes formal policies and procedures for its operation."

According to Stringer, AC&C has "fully agreed" to the "majority" of these recommendations. AC&C also released an official response to each of the audit's findings on April 1st, which outlines measures already taken. For example, AC&C is "currently evaluating software that maintains inventory of medication use, and has already identified one vendor and scheduled a meeting with the vendor to discuss inventory control."

Spokeswoman Alexandra Silver added in a statement,

"Animal Care & Control of NYC (AC&C) has worked cooperatively with the Office of the NYC Comptroller’s throughout this audit and was afforded an opportunity to meet with the audit team and provide comment and background on the report. We are committed to continual improvement, and are grateful to the City for recently announced capital funding that will, among other advances, allow us to build a new adoption center on the site of the Manhattan Care Center garage as well as update the HVAC system at our Brooklyn Care Center."

In the meantime, let it be noted that AC&C has just released its first official app. According to a press release, the app "lets users share pet profiles and photos with friends via Facebook, Twitter, text or email."

The @NYCACC App for iPhone! Finding/sharing animals looking for homes easier than ever ~ http://t.co/220iFUqb5p pic.twitter.com/z9WeUl7n2z — AC&C of NYC (@NYCACC) April 10, 2015

In other words, baby steps.