SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Officials with the San Diego Humane Society told ABC 10News they are considering suing its counterpart in Tucson to force them to reveal the whereabouts of about 250 of the 318 animals transferred to the Arizona facility last month.
SD Humane Society lawyers had set a Monday deadline for Humane Society of Southern Arizona (HSSA) to respond with documentation detailing the purported adoptions of the unaccounted-for animals.
“Nothing has happened. We haven’t heard from the Humane Society of Southern Arizona," SDHS spokesperson Nina Thompson told ABC 10News in an interview Monday.
Originally hailed as a success story of cooperation between Humane Societies, the 318 rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, and rats were loaded into transports and driven to Tucson on Aug. 7.
SDHS said HSSA had assured them they would use their network of animal rescue group connections to find homes for the animals. SDHS has said it was told multiple rescue organizations would be involved.
However, on Aug. 31, HSSA CEO Steve Farley told ABC 10News almost the entire group was sent to one rescue organization near Phoenix and that around 250 of the animals had been successfully adopted. The remaining 68 were returned to HSSA in Tucson.
Animal rescue organizations in both Arizona and San Diego are casting doubt on the claim about the 250 animals being adopted.
Spokespersons for multiple organizations in both states, including SDHS, said the odds that an anonymous rescue could quickly find homes for so many animals were not plausible.
They said there was no public evidence that the animals were put up for adoption -- no social media posts, no website listing, no adoption events, which would be typical to find people willing to adopt.
In addition, citing a continued request for anonymity, HSSA has refused multiple requests, including by ABC 10News, to arrange for interviews with any of the 250 families that Farley said had adopted the animals.
“Out of 250 animals, if they were all placed in happy homes, wouldn’t someone come forward and say I have one of those animals? Here’s proof that this is a happily adopted animal," Thompson said.
According to Thompson, SDHS is exploring its options, which now include litigation and the hiring of a private investigator to determine the animals' whereabouts. SDHS is updating the public on its efforts through a page on its website at https://www.sdhumane.org/adopt/rescue-partners/small-pet-transfer.html.
Of the 68 animals that returned to Tucson, most have since been taken in by rescue organizations in San Diego, Arizona, and Las Vegas.
Twenty-four guinea pigs came to Wee Companions, a rescue group in University City. President Fanella Speece told ABC 10News she wanted to make sure the animals would go to good homes. The guinea pigs are going through a quarantine process and will begin to be put up for adoption around the beginning of October.
An email request for an interview was sent to HSSA CEO Steve Farley Monday afternoon, but he did not return the message as of the publication of this story.
