San Diego Humane Society, is a non-profit organization in San Diego, California with five campuses in San Diego County - El Cajon, Escondido, Oceanside, San Diego and Ramona. They are an open-admission shelter and are zero euthanasia for healthy and treatable shelter animals. The organization's programs include sheltering and adopting animals, humane law enforcement, practicing and advancing the field of Shelter Medicine, rescuing animals in emergency situations, wildlife rehabilitation, the country's first 24/7 kitten nursery, positive reinforcement behavior training, providing adult and youth education programs, providing free pet food and supplies to families in need, sharing animals through pet-assisted therapy and more. San Diego Humane Society provides animal services for 14 cities in San Diego County and cares for nearly 50,000 animals a year.[1]
Create a more humane world by inspiring compassion, providing hope and advancing the welfare of animals and people.[2]
History
The San Diego Humane Society and SPCA was organized on March 10, 1880 by George W. Marston and George W. Hazzard, and is the oldest and largest humane society in San Diego County. 54 years later the organization signed a contract with the City of San Diego to run the shelter under the supervision of San Diego County Department of Health. In 1951, the first animals were moved to the original site, located on Sherman Street (formerly a milk plant). The lease was set to expire in 2000 and the city of San Diego asked San Diego Humane Society to consider building a new facility adjacent to the proposed County Animal Services facility on Gaines Street. The Humane Society accepted and opened the facility in 2002.
Fives years later and after the Asilomar Accords were adopted by several animal care agencies nationwide, the San Diego Animal Welfare Coalition was formed so that local animal welfare organizations could work together to reduce the euthanasia of healthy or treatable companion animals in San Diego County. San Diego Humane Society remains a part of the coalition to this day.
In 2009, San Diego Humane Society opened its Kitten Nursery, which delivers 24-hour care to infant kittens before they become eligible for adoption. The Kitten Nursery was the first program of its kind and has provided a model for other shelters ever since.
Through merger agreements, San Diego Humane Society absorbed the former North County Humane Society & SPCA in Oceanside, California in 2010, and the Escondido Humane Society in Escondido, California in 2014.
In 2014, San Diego Humane Society merged with PAWS San Diego, to expand programs to help more pet owners keep their pets, making this the largest pet safety net service in San Diego. PAWS San Diego provided essential pet services and support to low-income seniors, chronically ill and disabled individuals. After merging, this vital community service kept its name and became the official safety net program of San Diego Humane Society.
Later in 2014, San Diego Humane Society merged with Project Wildlife, the primary local resource for animal rehabilitation, conservation, and wildlife education. They opened the Pilar & Chuck Bahde Wildlife Center in 2019.[3]
In 2018, San Diego Humane Society began providing animal services to six additional cities in San Diego County, marking the biggest milestone in their 138-year history. They are now serving more than 2.2 million people across 620 square miles.
In winter of that year, San Diego Humane Society opened the Pilar & Chuck Bahde Center for Shelter Medicine – the first of its kind in California. The Bahde Center offers a comprehensive shelter medicine regime to homeless pets and serves as a teaching hospital to train the shelter veterinarians of tomorrow.
In September 2019, they opened a new Behavior Center facility where behavior experts work systematically to address complex challenges such as anxiety, fear, resource guarding, overstimulation, and other behavioral issues. Animals in the Behavior Center have individual rehabilitation plans to help them become adoptable.[4]
July 2020 The PAWS name was retired in July 2020 after six years of integrating the work of PAWS San Diego throughout San Diego Humane Society. The Society introduced a new model called Human Animal Support Services (HASS).
September 2020 San Diego Humane Society welcomed its Ramona Campus. The former Fund for Animals Wildlife Center in Ramona had been part of the Humane Society of the United States for more than two decades. With this new 13-acre Ramona Wildlife Center, the work of Project Wildlife expanded to protect and care for more injured and orphaned wildlife throughout Southern California, including native apex predators such as bears, coyotes and birds of prey.
October 2020 San Diego Humane Society opened the El Cajon Campus, taking over the management of the El Cajon Animal Shelter — marking the first time in our 140-year history to have a shelter presence in East County. At this fifth campus, SDHS shelters and cares for animals in El Cajon, La Mesa and Santee. Additionally, Humane Law Enforcement provides dispatch and field services for El Cajon seven days a week.
January 2021 California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Bella’s Act (Assembly Bill 2152) in September 2020 to go into law on Jan. 1 to prohibit the retail sales of dogs, cats and rabbits in California. This is the first bill San Diego Humane Society sponsored. AB 2152, written by California State Assemblymember Todd Gloria (D-San Diego), puts an end to a supply of animals who have been bred and raised in unhealthy and inhumane conditions in out-of-state puppy mills.
Finances
San Diego Humane Society is a private, nonprofit organization that is funded through a combination of contract funding from cities for which they provide animal services, philanthropic contributions, grants, bequests, investments, and fees for services (e.g. adoption fees). Currently, the organization has 600 employees and more than 5,000 volunteers.[5]
Events
San Diego Humane Society hosts the annual "Fur Ball," a dog-friendly fundraiser for the animals at San Diego Humane Society. Fur Ball tickets include an evening of a hosted bar cocktail reception; on-site raffle; live and silent auctions; exquisite vegetarian dinner and wine selections, and dancing to live music.
San Diego Humane Society employs humane law officers dedicated to protecting animals throughout San Diego County by providing animal services and enforcing animal cruelty and neglect laws. San Diego Humane Society’s Humane Law Enforcement has officers in the field seven days a week, handling a variety of animal cruelty complaints. Humane Officers get their enforcement powers from the California Corporations Code 14502, and can exercise the powers of a peace officer while investigating animal-related crimes. Humane Officers are appointed by the State and undergo substantial training in animal care, state humane laws and continue education throughout their careers. They have jurisdictional authority anywhere in the State of California, however their primary area of responsibility is the County of San Diego. Officers are issued TASER devices, collapsible baton, and OC Spray as defensive weapons. Prior to 2004, officers who had completed the required training were permitted to carry firearms, however the agency no longer permits this.
Not only can San Diego Humane Society Officers issue citations, make arrests, file criminal charges and serve warrants, they also respond and rescue animals in disaster situations in San Diego and surrounding areas with the assistance of the Humane Society’s 24-hour volunteer-operated Emergency Response Team. Officers and ERT members provide emergency assistance to animals near and far and work with San Diego Humane Society's Community Engagement Department speaking to children throughout San Diego County.
The Society's Humane Law Enforcement Division also operates its own communications center, responsible for providing dispatch services and mutual aid communications for officers at the Society's three campuses. The agency uses the San Diego-Imperial County Regional Communications System as its communications network, enabling seamless communications with other agencies in their jurisdiction.[6]
Humane Law Officers resolved 24,451 cases in the 2018-2019 fiscal year.[7]
Awareness on Abuse
San Diego Humane Society responded to 1,800[8]animal abuse reports in 2013. Most of the calls required pet owner education, but 20 calls brought criminal charges. Kelli Herwehe, San Diego Humane Society public relations coordinator told The Coast News “It’s important for people to know the signs to look for,” Herwehe said. “Animals can’t talk. We need to be their voice.” The organization is focused on educating the public. "“About 90 percent is educating the public,” Herwehe said. “It’s not intentional cruelty or neglect.” But the 10% of legitimate cases go to the Society's Humane Law Enforcement Division.[8]
In the 2018-19 fiscal year, they responded to 2,808 cruelty complaints.[7]
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing animal cruelty. Based in New York City since its inception in 1866, the organization's mission is "to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States."
A puppy mill, also known as a puppy farm, is a commercial dog breeding facility characterized by quick breeding and poor conditions. Although no standardized legal definition for "puppy mill" exists, a definition was established in Avenson v. Zegart in 1984 as "a dog breeding operation in which the health of the mill’s dogs is disregarded to maintain a low overhead and maximize profits". They are cited as being a result of increased demand for household pets, especially after WWII. The Veterinary Medical Association of the Humane Society of the United States defines the main characteristics of a puppy mill as "emphasis on quantity over quality, indiscriminate breeding, continuous confinement, lack of human contact and environmental enrichment, poor husbandry, and minimal to no veterinary care."
A humane society is a group that aims to stop cruelty to animals. In many countries, the term is used mostly for societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals (SPCA). In the United Kingdom, and historically in the United States, such societies provide waterway rescue, prevention and recovery services, or may give awards for saving human life.
An animal rescue group or animal rescue organization is a group dedicated to pet adoption. These groups take unwanted, abandoned, abused, or stray pets and attempt to find suitable homes for them. Many rescue groups are created by and run by volunteers, who take animals into their homes and care for them — including training, playing, handling medical issues, and solving behaviour problems — until a suitable permanent home can be found.
The Animal Protection and Rescue League (APRL) is an American grassroots animal rights organization, founded in 2003, based in California's San Diego and Orange Counties.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is an American nonprofit organization that focuses on animal welfare and opposes animal-related cruelties of national scope. It uses strategies that are beyond the abilities of local organizations. It works on issues including pets, wildlife, farm animals, horses and other equines, and animals used in research, testing and education. As of 2001, the group's major campaigns targeted factory farming, animal blood sports, the fur trade, puppy mills, and wildlife abuse.
The Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA (PHS/SPCA) is one of the largest humane organizations in the United States. Located in San Mateo County, California, it is a private non-profit charitable organization. It is an animal rescue, rehabilitation and adoption operation with two locations. The Tom and Annette Lantos Center for Compassion, where adoptable animals are housed, is in the city of Burlingame and the older physical plant, which serves as the intake shelter, is located at Coyote Point in the city of San Mateo. PHS/SPCA has been responsible for considerable progress in the California Legislature with new humane laws in the state, especially since the late 1970s. PHS/SPCA has been characterized as a progressive and innovative humane organization.
A no-kill shelter is an animal shelter that does not kill healthy or treatable animals based on time limits or capacity, reserving euthanasia for terminally ill animals, animals suffering poor quality of life, or those considered dangerous to public safety. A no-kill shelter uses many strategies to promote shelter animals; to expanding its resources using volunteers, housing and medical protocols; and to work actively to lower the number of homeless animals entering the shelter system. Up to ten percent of animals could be killed in a no-kill shelter and still be considered a no-kill shelter.
The Nova Scotia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty (Nova Scotia SPCA) is a not-for-profit charitable society organized under the Animal Protection Act of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The Society is dedicated to the prevention of cruelty to animals and to the promotion of respect and humane care for animals. Its members are committed to providing humane leadership in animal advocacy, protection, education, and veterinary care.
The Michigan Humane is a private, non-profit organization providing animal welfare and sheltering services to the metropolitan Detroit area. Events at Michigan Humane are featured in the Animal Planet channel's reality television series Animal Cops: Detroit.
The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) is a volunteer-based, non-government organization whose goal is to prevent animal cruelty through education, animal sheltering and advocacy, based in Quezon City, Philippines. It was founded in 1954 by Muriel Jay. PAWS believes that the creation of a more peaceful society starts with the widening of mankind's circle of compassion which includes animals, thereby envisions a nation that respects animals, practices responsible pet ownership and protects wildlife. The volunteer-based organization rehabilitates these animals in the hope of finding them new homes and a second chance at a good life. PAWS does not take in pets of other people, but only victims of cruelty or neglect where the animal offenders are charged with violation of the Animal Welfare Act in court.
The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Center (MSPCA-Angell) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with its main headquarters on South Huntington Avenue in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1868, and is the second-oldest humane society in the United States. "MSPCA-Angell" was adopted as the society's identity in 2003, and indicates the names of its two closely related predecessor organizations: Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Angell Animal Medical Center. The organization provides direct care to thousands of homeless, injured, and abused animals each year, and provides animal adoption, a veterinary hospital, advocacy, and humane law enforcement.
The North Carolina Animal Protection Act aims to protect pets and their owners in North Carolina. This legislation models the Animal Welfare Act of 1966 and can be found in the North Carolina General Statutes under Chapter 19A: Protection Of Animals, Article 3, consisting of six articles.
Korea Animal Rights Advocates (KARA) is a non-profit organization that supports animal welfare in Korea and deals with animal cruelty cases. It is also responsible for the care of abandoned animals and their adoption.
Based in Oakland, California, the No Kill Advocacy Center is a non-profit organization led by Nathan Winograd, dedicated to expanding no kill animal sheltering across the United States.
The Richmond SPCA is an idependent non-profit animal shelter in Richmond, Virginia founded in 1891.
The Humane Society of Harford County, Inc. (HSHC) is a nonprofit open admission animal shelter located in Fallston, Maryland, contracted with the Harford County Government to provide sheltering services for all animals brought to HSHC by Animal Control as stray, or subjects of animal cruelty or neglect cases.
The British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a non-profit animal welfare organization which advocates for animal protection legislation, operates animal shelters, and runs educational workshops and public awareness programs throughout British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1896, it is a registered charitable organization and one of the largest such animal welfare organizations in North America. As of 2017, BC SPCA had 36 branches, over 500 staff members, nearly 5500 volunteers, operated 5 veterinary hospitals/clinics and a wildlife rehabilitation centre, and sheltered more than 22000 animals. It is also one of the few animal welfare organizations to monitor animals in film.
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