SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — San Diego Humane Society's president called the lack of transparency over the location of 318 small animals it sent to a partner organization in Arizona "really unprecedented."
SDHS President Gary Weitzman spoke to ABC 10News about the situation for the first time on Friday. On Aug. 7, the shelter in America's Finest City loaded the guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters and rats on a truck and delivered them to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona in Tucson.
The purpose of the shipment was to free up shelter space in San Diego.
In the following weeks, concerned animal lovers in San Diego and Tucson reached out to ABC 10News to tell us the animals were never publicly put up for adoption.
According to Weitzman, his group and the Humane Society in Tucson agreed to send the animals to multiple adoption facilities in Arizona; however, they went to one private rescue instead.
Steve Farley, who is the CEO of Tucson's Humane Society, told ABC 10News last week nearly 250 of the animals were adopted out of a private rescue organization in Maricopa County. The rest of the unadopted animals were returned to HSSA last weekend and most of them are now up for adoption there, per Farley.
RELATED: Questions raised over location of animals transferred from San Diego to Tucson
Weitzman said Farley still won't tell him the exact location of the animals that used to be under his watch.
"We've never worked with another organization that was unwilling to provide the information that we need about outcomes for our animals — either coming to us or going from us," Weitzman said. "So for us, we have to know what happened to the 318 animals that we transported to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona... We can't let this drop until we have answers to those questions."
Farley also said on Aug. 31 the organization his Humane Society sent the small animals to requested to remain anonymous for fear of encouraging more large transfers of animals.
"How on Earth would you market and advertise and look for homes for animals if no one knew who you were or that you had them? It just doesn't add up," Weitzman said.
ABC 10News interviewed Farley again Friday. He continued to praise the anonymous organization for adopting out more than 250 animals, but he refused to reveal the name of the group.
Additionally, he would not say whether or not he has seen the actual adoption records for each animal. Farley explained those are private records between the rescue organization and the adopters.
"All of these animals are accounted for and they are in happy, adoptive homes," Farley says. "There really are no questions unanswered and I provided all the information to San Diego Humane Society and to anyone else who asks because this is ultimately a really good story."
Weitzman said he's considering legal means to get the answer to this question: Where are the animals?
From Weitzman's point of view, he knows the inability to say where the animals that were once in SDHS' care means trust in his organization has been damaged, too.
"We trusted them. Very sadly — unfortunately — they have now betrayed our trust. And that hurts deeply," he said.
