The Lawsuit Against San Diego Humane Society was Featured on The Cover of The San Diego Union Tribune.
Find out why this case could change animal welfare practices nationwide.
The Judge will be making her landmark ruling this Friday, December 20 at 1:30 p.m.
This is a landmark case.
Adoptable or feral? Lawsuit challenges San Diego shelter’s program to return cats to the outdoors
The case questions the breadth of San Diego Humane Society “community cats” program, which returns cats to where they were found.
No one expects to find kittens left in their driveway. But there they were, two curious little cats.
Dumped? Abandoned? Lost? Whatever led them here, this is coyote country, and April Hebert simply could not abide that fate. The San Marcos woman made flyers and Facebook posts and took them to a vet to check for microchips. (They had none.) The cats must be easily adoptable, she figured, so she reached out to the San Diego Humane Society, expecting the shelter would take them in.
But that was not the case. Hebert said she was told these healthy 6-month-old cats likely would become non-adoptable “community cats.” And that meant they would be sterilized, vaccinated, evaluated, have an ear-tipped then released back where they were found — in this case, her cul-de-sac along a canyon.
Experiences like hers with the San Diego Humane Society’s Community Cats Program are at the heart of a lawsuit from two pet rescue groups and two individual plaintiffs that is set to be decided this week. The suit alleges the organization routes into the program friendly strays or abandoned cats the plaintiffs argue are adoptable.
