Stray dogs and cats suffer setbacks in the U.S. and abroad
This and other news for the week ending May 9, 2025
In other news: Under a new director and a $2.5 million consultant, a California County kills more animals. America’s first cats. PETA tells a city that once placed 99% of dogs and 95% of cats to abandon No Kill and kill more animals. A European court upholds a ban on vegan foods being called plant-based “chicken,” “pork,” and “beef.” Westerners are concerned about stray cats but do not want them killed. Turkey’s top court upholds the mass round-up and killing of dogs. A new sheltering program threatens an epic failure to care for needy animals.
These are some of the stories making headlines in animal protection:
Under a new director and a $2.5 million consultant, Riverside County kills more animals
How did needy animals benefit now that the Riverside County Department of Animal Services (RCDAS) has a new director and a $2.5 million contract with consultant Kristen Hassen? According to recent reports, they didn’t. Instead, they are subjected to more abandonment, filth, and killing.
NBC News reports that,
Mary Martin, the county’s newly appointed shelter director, and consultant Kristen Hassen are accelerating euthanasia [killing] as part of a calculated effort to declare the shelter “no-kill” by mid-year. The claim: eliminate large numbers of animals now so the kill numbers appear low later…
Photos allegedly taken inside [the] San Jacinto [branch of Riverside County Animal Services] show filthy kennels and animals living in unacceptable conditions — images that are reportedly even more disturbing than those from the Thousand Palms shelter [of Riverside County Animal Services], which led to an ongoing lawsuit.
Critics argue that instead of improving conditions or increasing adoptions, the current leadership is focused on manipulating statistics. By avoiding intake and pushing euthanasia [killing] early in the year, insiders say the shelter can misleadingly present itself as having turned a corner.
In that ongoing lawsuit, plaintiffs allege:
Animals in Riverside County facilities are subjected to neglect, inhumane conditions, and unnecessary killing.
The pound has one of the highest kill rates in the U.S., despite a $39 million annual budget.
Photographic evidence is cited showing animals dead in kennels or living in their own waste.
The lawsuit also alleges that cases of shelter-caused “animal cruelty are emblematic of the fundamental failings and pervasive deficiencies, the inertia and inaction, of RCDAS,” representing “a shocking, callous, and ongoing failure to follow California law.”
In the latest alleged failure of RCDAS, plaintiff’s attorney Dan Bolton sent a letter to an attorney for the County demanding that RCDAS cease and desist from labeling healthy dogs as “behavior” to kill them with impunity.
As you know, the Court upheld our Hayden Act claims relating to prompt and necessary medical care, and keeping accurate records for shelter animals (despite Riverside County claiming since day one the Hayden Act was not enforceable).
In recent weeks at the San Jacinto shelter, as well as the Coachella Valley Animal Campus, there has been a marked uptick in animals that are red listed to be killed in 72 hours for “behavior.” The shelter notes purporting to support killing the dog, however, are inconsistent with the experience of those who have spent time with the animals and observed their behavior both inside and outside of the kennel…
Essentially, any excuse, including kennel stress which virtually every dog experiences, is being relied on to kill dogs. This is not only a violation of the Hayden Act, with respect to medical care and record keeping (since the records contain incorrect or false information), but also shockingly barbaric.
Bolton goes on to demand “that Riverside County immediately stop all killings based on the opaque claim of ‘behavior’ in order to allow a more thorough examination of the behind-the-scenes operation of Animal Services and its deficient record keeping.”
While it may be facile for Riverside County management to cast animals onto a bogus kill list, it is neither humane nor legal. Shelter animals deserve so much better than Riverside County’s smoke and mirrors approach to improving shelter management by amping up the killing of healthy and adoptable dogs for no reason, other than to further the atavistic philosophy of Animal Services management, and gift Hassen the continued benefits of her $2.5M boondoggle contract.
America’s first cats