The San Diego Humane Society is threatening to stop providing animal control services for the city of San Diego unless the city agrees to come closer by $1 million to honoring its 10-year service contract with the nonprofit.
Mayor Todd Gloria hoped to bridge a compromise last week by retreating from an April proposal to cut $3.5 million from the city’s annual payment to the Humane Society and instead proposing the city would only cut $1.5 million from the payment, which was supposed to be $18.2 million.
But Humane Society officials insist any cut over $1 million is unacceptable and will prompt the nonprofit to stop providing service to the city.
“We’ve been very clear from the beginning of these discussions that the financial hit we could withstand and continue providing services was $1 million,” Juliana Tetlow, the nonprofit’s government relations specialist, said during a city budget hearing this week.
Tetlow said the nonprofit sympathizes with the cash-strapped city and its ongoing budget crisis. But she said the Humane Society can’t jeopardize its own finances beyond a $1 million concession.
“If we are put in a position to choose between helping the city with their budget deficit or ensuring we can be there for the animals in the future, our duty is to the animals,” she said. “The San Diego Humane Society was founded to take care of animals, not the city.”
The Humane Society’s contract with San Diego covers sheltering stray, injured or lost animals, reconnecting lost pets with owners, handling animal adoptions and overseeing the city’s dog licensing program. It also includes the nonprofit’s law-enforcement officers enforcing leash laws and investigating animal abuse, cruelty and neglect.
Gloria proposed last month a $3.5 million cut to the $18.2 million the city owes the Humane Society for the new fiscal year that starts July 1 under its 10-year contract. That amount was based on the city seeking 20% cuts to most expenses.
In his May revision to the budget, the mayor shrank the cut to $1.5 million and agreed to spend $1 million in separate city money on roof repairs on the Humane Society’s city-owned building in Linda Vista.
Tetlow said the $1 million for roof repairs doesn’t solve anything, because the city’s contract with the Humane Society already requires the city to make such repairs.
While Gloria is now characterizing the proposed cut as $1.5 million, Tetlow is characterizing it as $2 million — and she says that $2 million cut must be reduced to $1 million.
Tetlow said severing the contract would hit San Diego’s low-income communities the hardest.
“We are a safety net for residents who need help keeping their pets and those who need comion and understanding and a safe landing place when they can no longer care for their animals,” she said. “If the city puts us in the unimaginable position of having to terminate the contract due to non-appropriation of funding, it will unquestionably have a deeper impact on under-resourced communities in the city.”
Because the Humane Society has sharply hiked how much it charges San Diego for animal control since it took over those operations for the city in 2018, city officials have explored handling those services in-house.
The most recent analysis in 2022 showed that the city’s annual costs would drop by about $1 million. But the city would need to spend $17.2 million in upfront, one-time costs to launch its own animal control operation.
Those costs would cover buying vehicles, securing a site to house animals and hiring and training staff, such as veterinarians and animal control officers.
Timing would also become a challenge. Tetlow indicated the Humane Society wouldn’t give the city any sort of grace period if the contract is severed next month.
Councilmember Kent Lee, perhaps the strongest advocate on the council for the Humane Society, said he can’t believe the dispute has gone this far and gotten this difficult.
“It just blows my mind,” said Lee, referring to the possibility of the contract being severed.
“Are we looking to possibly end those services? And what would the alternative be if we do?” he asked Gloria’s staff during the Monday budget hearing.
Parks Director Andy Field, who oversees the contract negotiations, said he remains optimistic. He said conversations have taken place and that he looks forward to more “very soon.”
A solution, he said, could include the Humane Society raising some fees it charges the public.
Tetlow said she has been frustrated by several private meetings she’s had recently with individual City Council who she said have tried to use the nonprofit’s fundraising success against it.
“It’s been distressing to hear, ‘If the San Diego Humane Society already fundraises $10 million to excellence in performing state-mandated services, what’s another million or two?’” she said.
Tetlow conceded the nonprofit controls many millions in assets, but she said that its liquid assets to cover a contract shortfall are more limited. And those liquid assets have a different purpose, she said.
“These funds are for our emergencies and not to backfill the city’s shortfalls,” she said.
The city’s contract with the Humane Society requires the city to handle dead animal pickups, which is the responsibility of the Environmental Services Department, and complaints about barking dogs, which is the responsibility of code enforcement officers.
The contract allows for renegotiations in 2026 and 2030 but not in 2025. And it says renegotiations can only happen if both sides agree.
