{"id":14840,"date":"2025-06-26T00:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T00:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/14840\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T00:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T00:08:08","slug":"humane-society-wont-follow-through-on-threats-to-end-service-to-san-diego-thanks-to-last-minute-concessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/14840\/","title":{"rendered":"Humane Society won’t follow through on threats to end service to San Diego thanks to last-minute concessions"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Diego Humane Society officials say last-minute financial concessions from the city of San Diego mean the nonprofit won\u2019t have to follow through on repeated threats<\/a> to stop providing the city\u2019s animal control services.<\/p>\n

But the Humane Society says the city\u2019s decision to pay $1.5 million less than required by its 10-year contract<\/a> means that some services, such as leash-law enforcement, still must be reduced or eliminated.<\/p>\n

While there will be some changes to the services the Humane Society provides to the city \u2014 and the nonprofit might also increase fees it charges the public \u2014 those moves are far different than the nonprofit\u2019s threats this spring to completely end all service.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf 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,\u201d Humane Society official Juliana Tetlow said in May.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the nonprofit struck a different tone, thanks to $2.1 million of Humane Society funding the City Council added to the final budget this month. That money came after Mayor Todd Gloria had already restored another $2 million in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Diego Humane Society is relieved and profoundly grateful that the San Diego City Council has adopted a final budget that maintains enough necessary funding for us to continue safeguarding animals and serving the community,\u201d the nonprofit said in a prepared statement.<\/p>\n

While the city could bring animal control services in-house for about the same cost it pays the Humane Society, doing so would require millions in up-front expenses and take several months.<\/p>\n

But Tetlow indicated that if the nonprofit chose to stop service it would do so immediately, and provide the city no grace period.<\/p>\n

That possibility prompted Councilmember Kent Lee, perhaps the nonprofit\u2019s strongest advocate on the council, to say last month that he couldn\u2019t believe the dispute had gotten so rancorous and risky.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just blows my mind,\u201d said Lee, referring to the possibility of the contract being severed. \u201cAre we looking to possibly end those services? And what would the alternative be if we do?\u201d<\/p>\n

In its statement Tuesday, the nonprofit singled Lee out for his support.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are especially grateful to Council President Pro Tem Lee for his leadership and unwavering support in advocating for the city to honor its agreement with San Diego Humane Society,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

But the nonprofit also thanked Gloria and the rest of the council, which were desperate to make budget cuts anywhere they could because of a roughly $350 million deficit in the city\u2019s $2.2 billion annual budget.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit also said it plans to continue meeting with city officials \u201cin the coming weeks\u201d to identify and finalize service-level cuts required by the $1.5 million reduction in the city\u2019s payment.<\/p>\n

In April, Humane Society chief executive Gary Weitzman suggested<\/a> cuts could include suspending park patrols, halting spay-neuter vouchers funded by the city and some fee adjustments.<\/p>\n

But many fees were increased as recently as 2023, including adoption fees for adults dogs, which went from $100 to $150, and dog licenses for a spayed or neutered adult dog, which went from $18 to $20.<\/p>\n

Characterizing how much was cut from the Humane Society\u2019s annual compensation from the city is complicated.<\/p>\n

Gloria proposed a $3.5 million cut in his preliminary April budget and shrank that to $1.5 million in his May revise budget.<\/p>\n

But the city\u2019s independent budget analyst, Charles Modica, explained in May that Gloria had failed to account for $2.1 million in required increases to Humane Society compensation because of inflation-adjusted hikes in the city\u2019s living wage and minimum wage.<\/p>\n

Unrelated to the unresolved squabble over the proposed $1.5 million cut, Modica recommended the council add $2.1 million into the budget it adopted June 10 to account for those wage hikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIrrespective of the outcome of negotiations with SDHS, the budget for this non-discretionary contractual expense will likely be short by at least $2.1 million, and thus we recommend this increase,\u201d Modica said.<\/p>\n

The council agreed to add the $2.1 million, and a series of line-item vetoes issued by Gloria last week didn\u2019t address that money. So it remained in the final budget approved Monday.<\/p>\n

But the $1.5 million cut in Humane Society funding proposed by Gloria in May \u2014 down from $3.5 million he proposed in April \u2014 was never reversed.<\/p>\n

The IBA indicates the city\u2019s compensation to the Humane Society will be $16.7 million, $1.5 million less than the $18.2 million it should receive under its contract.<\/p>\n

Humane Society officials said they are optimistic this spring\u2019s crisis-style negotiations won\u2019t happen again next spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have commitment from staff to realign the budget in the coming year to get us back on track with full compensation due under our agreement in FY 2027,\u201d the nonprofit said in its statement.<\/p>\n

The Humane Society handles animal control services for 13 of the county\u2019s 18 cities \u2014 all but Chula Vista, National City, Imperial Beach, Lemon Grove and Coronado.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: June 25, 2025 at 4:46 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego Humane Society officials say last-minute financial concessions from the city of San Diego mean the nonprofit…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,728,8629,50,80,3549,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-14840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-local-politics","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-top-stories-sdut","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114746759904386801","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}