Not All Good for Cats and Dogs?

Appearing before the Oceanside City Council on June 30, Elaine Godzak presented her opinion on the effect of the North County Humane Society's merger with the San Diego Humane Society, which occurred earlier this year.

“It turns out that it’s not all good for cats and dogs,” said Godzak, who previously served as a volunteer for the North County Humane Society. She said that the North County Humane Society employed a “proactive rescue outreach process” because they would contact animal rescues and let them know which dogs would be put down.

However, according to Godzak, the San Diego Humane Society abolished that process after the merger because they believed that the general public and animal rescues are not capable of determining whether the dogs are suitable for adoption.

“They use a behavior-assessment methodology void of common sense,” Godzak said. “San Diego Humane Society seems to be oblivious to modern studies…. [For them] it’s just easier to put the animals in death row in lieu of fairly assessing them to determine what they might need and then determine what home might be appropriate.... San Diego Humane Society is acting like a generations-ago dog pound."

Even though money has been spent to improve the humane society facilities on Gaines Street, Godzak said she believes that it is just a nicer facility where they can put more animals to death. Instead, she stated that they should be spending their resources on trying to figure out the behavioral needs of animals.

Godzak said she was told that the merger would reduce the euthanasia rate of animals but she doesn’t believe that result has come to fruition. Upon asking for records, she alleged that the San Diego Humane Society had no intention of letting anyone see the data for adoptions and euthanasia.