The San Diego Humane Society fears more than 250 rabbits, rats, guinea pigs and hamsters transferred to a rescue organization in Arizona to help create more shelter space didn't find their way to forever homes, and were instead turned over to a snake feed company.
In Tucson Thursday, the Humane Society of Southern Arizona (HSSA) announced its leadership team was gone after a preliminary report from an ongoing investigation into 318 small pets transferred to Arizona in August from the San Diego Humane Society.
“After reviewing the report and details and discrepancies in what was told to the board about this situation, the board took corrective action and terminated the employment of the CEO and accepted the resignation of the COO,” said HSSA Board Chairman Robert Garcia. “We acknowledge that mistakes were made.”
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
Garcia spoke at a Thursday news conference at the HSSA about the transfer of 318 rabbits, rats, guinea pigs, and hamsters from San Diego to Southern Arizona. The San Diego Humane Society (SDHS) reached out to other animal rescues earlier this summer to see if anyone could help with its overload of smaller pets. Humane Society of Southern Arizona CEO Steve Farley agreed to help and COO Christian Gonzales executed the transfer on Aug. 7, 2023. However, Garcia said the animals were instead delivered to a private, family-run group that is not a licensed rescue organization. Sixty-four of those small animals have been returned to HSSA or SDHS but 254 are still missing.
“These actions undermine the integrity of this organization, but also threaten to undermine the integrity of animal rescues on a much larger scale,” said Garcia while explaining why Farley was fired and Gonzales resigned. “We did so due to their terribly negligent actions against the mission of the Humane Society and their failure to follow protocols.”
Garcia also exonerated the San Diego Humane Society.
Local
“[SDHS] are not responsible for what happened due to the poor judgment and inappropriate actions of the Humane Society’s former leadership,” he said.
Garcia explained the animals were delivered to Trevor Jones and his family in Mesa, Arizona, even though they are not a licensed rescue. Before his firing, Farley said the group was able to find homes for all 254 animals in seven weeks. Garcia said one of the Jones family members, Colten Jones, owns The Fertile Turtle and a snake feed business. The Fertile Turtle has deleted its Facebook and Instagram pages. NBC 7 attempted to reach Colten Jones but did not get a response as of Thursday.
“Our assumption now, our belief is that these animals did not meet a good fate,” sighed SDHS President Gary Weitzman, DVM. “We are very despondent with that news.”
“We wanted to save those animals' lives and if we have doubt that’s happened, and we do have that doubt, that crushes all of us,” Dr. Weitzman continued.
“We don’t have information to verify that at this point. Our investigation continues. We’re going to do everything possible to get as much information as we can,” added Garcia.
Garcia said Trevor and Colten Jones are in contact with HSSA’s outside investigator, but they aren’t helping as much as he hoped. A person claiming to be Colten Jones commented on a Facebook thread Wednesday, “As I have said before, they all found homes. Due to these aggressive messages and accusations, all adoptive families are terrified to come forward.”
NBC 7 contacted the account but didn’t receive a message.
Weitzman said the mystery forced both animal rescues to reevaluate future animal transfers that, historically, help animals get adopted.
“What happened there in Arizona has actually made it more difficult for us to do that and that’s an absolute tragedy,” he said.
“They, like us, are hurting and San Diego Humane Society offered their support for our organization, and I think we will need it,” concluded Garcia.
“We’re going to help them heel their staff and their community,” promised Weitzman.
