Several months after a judge found San Diego Humane Society’s policy of turning away possibly abandoned cats violated the law, the same judge this week gave the OK to changes the organization made to correct her concerns.
Those changes to the Humane Society’s Community Cat Program could mean more cats are accepted into shelters instead of being marked as so-called community cats and returned outdoors where they were found.
One of the main issues in the case had been whether the cat’s temperament should play a role in routing it to the shelter or back to the streets. With the ruling, the shelter is not required to consider an adult cat’s sociability in deciding whether to take it in. But older kittens get a more nuanced look.
Two animal groups and others sued the San Diego Humane Society in 2021 over policies they argued put adoptable cats back on the street. The Humane Society argued its program was science-based, developed by professionals and best for cats.
Last December, following a bench trial, San Diego Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal found the organization’s policy of returning potentially domesticated stray cats to the streets without ensuring they have a caretaker violated the law.
In February, the Humane Society came back with policy changes designed to address Bacal’s concerns. And in an order she signed Monday, Bacal said the Humane Society had “sufficiently modified” its program “in a way that eliminated the violations.” She found that the newly instituted changes comply with state law.
Each side — the Humane Society and the plaintiffs who sued over the policy — called Bacal’s ruling a win for its position.
Attorney Bryan Pease, who represented the plaintiffs, pointed to the fact that the shelter had to change its policies, saying it “makes it much more likely” that a cat brought in as a possible stray or abandoned animal will get itted to the shelter where it could be reunited with its owner or put up for adoption.
The Humane Society issued a statement that the judge “affirmed the legality” of its program. It also noted the court rejected the plaintiff’s request that the shelter must consider the cat’s socialization when evaluating whether the animal should be put into the Community Cat Program.
Under the program, if a healthy cat is found and brought in, staffers look for proof of ownership such as a collar or microchip. Such proof meant the cat would be itted into the shelter. But no signs of verifiable ownership meant the cat would be designated as a community cat — sterilized, vaccinated, marked with an ear clip and put back where they were found to be free-roaming.
Dr. Zarah Hedge, a veterinarian and chief medical officer with the Humane Society, said the organization made three changes to the program in February: sterilized cats without ear tips can be brought into the shelter instead of deemed a community cat; more kittens as old as 6 months get a more nuanced evaluation for sociability and potential for adoption; and lastly, shelter staffers can route a cat away from the program if they have a reasonable belief that the cat had once been owned even if there is no verifiable proof.
“We’re all very happy with the final decision,” Hedge said of this week’s ruling. “We certainly wanted to make sure that we were in compliance with the laws, and we felt that the changes that we made to the program in February would get us there.”
She said the changes were not “sweeping.”
“It certainly may change, to some degree, the numbers of cats that might be disqualified from the program, but not on a broad scale, especially because the court’s ruling had nothing to do with the socialization status of the cats,” she said.
The program started as a pilot but has been fully in place since March 2021. As of the end of last year, more than 18,000 animals in the region were formally considered community cats.
The law distinguishes between domesticated and feral cats. There is no dispute between the parties over trapping, spaying or neutering and then releasing feral cats, which are unsocialized.
