Paw Protectors Rescue

04/26/2026

This outcome was predictable and preventable.

Same pattern. Same outcome.

Dains failed Long Beach.
Dains failed Los Angeles.
Now Dains has failed Sacramento.

How many times do advocates have to speak up before leadership failures are taken seriously?

This isn’t an isolated issue, it’s what happens when documented concerns are ignored and animal shelters directs and leadership are recycled instead of reformed.

Stop ignoring the red flags.
Stop recycling the same problems.

Sacramento animal shelter manager, accused of racism in LA, removed from role

03/14/2026

We at Paw Protectors Rescue support Fix Our Shelters and their legal team The Ryther Law Group in their fight.

Paw Protectors Rescue is proud to stand with and be a part of the Fix Our Shelters coalition, working alongside real animal advocates across California to push for true viable, sustainable shelter reform, for transparency , accountability, and lawful, humane sheltering practices for animals.

For those who may be newer to this issue, the conversation about shelter accountability in California has been building for decades.

Paw Protectors Rescue's litigation, Logan v. Orange County Animal Care, helped shine a light on some of these systemic issues and ushered in in significant shelter reforms at OC Animal Care and recognition of the public benefit of enforcing California’s animal protection laws.

When that case was filed, the euthanasia rate for dogs at OC Animal Care was roughly 40%. Today it is closer to 10%, which shows that when the public demands transparency and accountability, meaningful change can happen.

There is still a lot of work ahead across California, but we are encouraged to see more real animal advocates, journalists, media exposure and legal efforts bringing attention to these issues.

Real reform movements rarely happen overnight. They build over time as more people begin asking questions, demanding transparency, and insisting that publicly funded shelters follow the law.

The more people who speak up for animals, the stronger the movement for humane shelter reform becomes.

What we’re seeing right now is the result of years of advocacy from rescuers, real animal advocates, journalists, media exposure and members of the public who refused to accept the status quo.
💪💪👊👊🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

03/14/2026

After watching this, in our opinion this feels less like a documentary and more like a “mockumentary.” LOL.

Much of what’s being presented here and the talking points and issues being discussed, transparency, compliance with the Hayden Act, manipulated and false data, inhumane kennel conditions, lack of medical care, euthanasia rates, improperly labeling dogs to justify euthanasia and accountability in public shelters were raised years ago in our lawsuit Logan vs. Orange County Animal Care which helped spark broader attention to these systemic problems in California’s shelter system.

We at Paw Protectors Rescue extensively documented and successfully challenged the above issues and talking points in court.

That said, let’s also be clear: OC Animal Care has made meaningful progress. When this work began, the euthanasia rate for dogs was around 40%. Today it is closer to 10%. That represents real improvement and shows that reform and accountability can lead to lifesaving change.

There is still more work to do in Orange County and across California to ensure public shelters operate transparently, follow the law, and work collaboratively with the rescue community.

It’s also worth noting that some of the people featured in this "documentary" previously attempted to bring a lawsuit against OC Animal Care that was unsuceesful and ultimately dismissed in court.

According to the judge’s ruling, the petitioners failed to show they were likely to prevail on the merits, and the court found no credible evidence that OC Animal Care had violated the statutes they relied upon.
The court also noted that many of the claims reflected disagreements with the shelter’s discretionary decisions about animal care, rather than violations of mandatory legal duties.

The judge further explained that the relief requested would effectively require the court to take over oversight of shelter operations, something courts are not empowered to do.
💪💪👊👊🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

01/28/2026

BREAKING NEWS!!
SDHS Ordered to Pay More Than $550,000 for Violating Animal Cruelty Laws!

We Sure Do Love Watching San Diego Humane Society Lose!

The award of attorney fees confirms the case against San Diego Humane Society delivered a significant public benefit, protecting animals and the public statewide

Here’s the part worth sitting with:
Imagine how many stray, community and feral cats could have actually been helped and benefitted by San Diego Humane Society with $550,000 if only SDHS had been following the law in the first place.

This case also proved something important that many people don’t realize:
County and municipally funded, taxpayer supported animal shelters are not above the law. And nonprofits can and do successfully sue these entities when public interest and animal protection laws are violated.

The case against San Diego Humane Society (SDHS) was about the abandonment of healthy, friendly, adoptable, non feral stray cats brought to the shelter by the public.

SDHS imposed an unreasonably high “proof of ownership” standard before accepting cats, which resulted in animals being turned away and effectively abandoned, rather than taken into protective custody.

The court found this practice violated California Penal Code §597(s), which prohibits abandoning animals without care.

What the court ordered:

A permanent injunction prohibiting SDHS from continuing their cruel and inhumane practice.

Enforcement of the law to protect stray and abandoned animals.

An award of over $550,000 in attorneys’ fees.

Why SDHS had to pay attorneys’ fees The attorneys’ fees were awarded under California’s private attorney general statute, a law specifically designed to encourage enforcement of important public rights when government agencies fail to act.

Although the case was litigated pro bono, the law requires a defendant like San Diego Humane Society to pay market rate fees when a case achieves a substantial public benefit. This ensures that organizations like San Diego Humane Society cannot violate the law simply because enforcement is expensive.

This statute also allows courts to award market rate attorneys’ fees when: A case enforces an important public policy The litigation confers a significant public benefit, the burden of enforcement would otherwise discourage accountability.

Why this mattered to the public, this case protected: Members of the public who bring stray animals to San Diego Humane Society expecting care, animals who otherwise would have been abandoned by SDHS.

The integrity of animal welfare laws statewide. It also exposed how “live-release rate” optics and statistics can be manipulated and distorted not by saving more animals, but by refusing to accept healthy, adoptable, friendly, non feral cats, thereby keeping them out of the San Diego Humane Society shelter system entirely.

The bottom line, this was a public interest case. The fee award was court-ordered, statutorily required, and based on the substantial public benefit achieved not on damages, profit, or personal gain.

The result: San Diego Humane Society's unlawful practices stopped.
💪💪👊👊🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

https://petassistancefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/mobileheader.jpg

11/09/2025

Thank you to all the attorneys that choose to be on the right side of history and for challenging the county and city tax payer funded municipal animal shelters status quo, it's about damn time!

Animal advocates aren’t staying silent anymore.

We are also aware that Both Long Beach Animal Care Services and San Bernardino City Animal Shelter have been under scrutiny for years and are now on the radar for serious Hayden Act violations, the law designed to protect shelter animals in California.

Long Beach Animal Care Services and San Bernardino City Animal Shelter = Hayden Act violators on watch. 👀🐾

Another Cal Animal member being exposed and held accountable for their Hayden law violations and mistreatment of rescue groups. LAST WEEK APPLE VALLEY, AND NOW DEVORE SHELTER.....

This just in:
RYTHER LAW GROUP IS SEEKING PLAINTIFFS IN CASE AGAINST SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY. If you are a 501c3 nonprofit organization, and you have had a dog or cat on a rescue hold KILLED by DEVORE before you could arrive... OR your organization has spent more than $5000 to save a life from a a visible health condition at the time of rescue PLEASE CONTACT US: [email protected]

Exposing Best Friends & HASS - A Deadly Alliance "Occupy Devore Shelter" Friends of Devore Shelter Dogs Wee Companions Small Animal Adoption Reform Riverside Animal Shelters Paw Protectors Rescue Animal Protection and Rescue League Julie Virga Fix Our Shelters Pet Assistance Foundation Justice For 318 SAVE THE ANIMALS AT SAN BERNARDINO SHELTER The Duck Sanctuary Exposed Sascha Knopf Human Animal Support Services "Hass Exposed" Tracy Voss Robby L Caban Center for the Environment and Welfare

11/09/2025

We sure do love watching Bad Animal Shelter Directors and Bad Animal Shelters lose!

Judge Bacal admonished San Diego Humane Society at the last hearing regarding their Dumping Cats for Stats lawsuit which they lost. Judge Bacal stated let's be clear, Plaintiffs won their case and lawsuit based on the merits.💪👊🏼

Gary Weitzman climbed out of whatever hole or rock he had been hiding under to attend the last hearing and show his face in the courtroom where his implementing the community cats program at San Diego Humane Society was deemed as animal abandonment.

11/01/2025

🐾 JUSTICE FOR THE VOICELESS: LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST APPLE VALLEY ANIMAL SERVICES 🐾
NBC Palm Springs just reported that a major lawsuit has been filed against Apple Valley Animal Services, accusing the shelter of systemic mismanagement, neglect, and violations of the Hayden Act — the very California law designed to protect shelter animals and give them a fair chance at adoption.

👉 NBC Palm Springs – The Roggin Report.
According to the report, the complaint alleges that Apple Valley Animal Services:
Failed to provide adequate veterinary care and humane treatment.
Mishandled medical and adoption records.
Euthanized animals that could have been treated or placed in homes.
Ignored statutory obligations under the Hayden Act, which requires transparency, medical care, and efforts to reunite or adopt out animals before euthanasia.

Shelters are supposed to be safe havens — not places where neglect is normalized.
💔 These animals have no voice. We are theirs.
🐶🐱 This lawsuit isn’t just about one shelter — it’s about accountability statewide. When agencies funded by taxpayers disregard the law, it erodes public trust and destroys the progress so many advocates have fought for.
If you believe in compassion, transparency, and reform in our shelter system, please:
✅ Share this post to spread awareness.
✅ Follow the case as it unfolds — and ask your local officials what’s being done to ensure compliance with the Hayden Act.

Together we can demand that California’s animal-welfare laws are not just words on paper — but promises kept.

09/15/2025

This is what co-opted “No Kill” policies and procedures pushed by HASS, Best Friends, Austin Pets Alive and Hassen really mean: hiding dogs and masking their dangerous behaviors from the public—all in the name of inflated live-release rates.

This is exactly why we at Paw Protectors Rescue have fought tooth and nail to keep HASS, Best Friends, Austin Pets Alive and Hassen out of OC Animal Care (OCAC) since 2018! 💪💪

Another serious incident at OCAC underlines Paw Protectors Rescue concerns: the very policies being peddled by HASS, Austin Pets Alive, Best Friends, and Hassen are what lead to these kinds of situations.

The first serious incident at OCAC occurred when an employee was mauled after Mike Kaviani enacted these policies. Now, history repeats itself.

According to the lawsuit, the county shelter failed to identify dogs that could be dangerous to staff or volunteers.

The case claims that the county “knew or had reason to know that Blaze had dangerous propensities and posed a severe risk to people at the shelter.”

Hauntingly, these policies enacted by HAAS, Austin Pets Alive, Best Friends and Hassen risks human safety, breeds distrust, and undermines the entire No Kill promise.

https://www.ocregister.com/2025/09/14/dog-mauling-at-oc-animal-shelter-sparks-negligence-suit-from-volunteer/

Volunteer Emily Moncur almost lost an arm in the attack by a dog she had just finished photographing in 2023, claims a lawsuit.

06/19/2025

The hits keep coming for San Diego Humane Society, SDHS PR machine keeps portraying themselves as a Beacon in Animal Sheltering, they are not.

We don't always agree with Nathan Winograd, but Wow!

From the architect of the Real No Kill Movement.

Gary Weitzman and San Diego Humane Society tried to spin this and claim victory.

San Diego Humane Society has not mastered the art of caring for animals but have mastered the art of spinning, lying, and deflecting.

Remember Folks, Real Animal Advocacy works!💪💪👊🏼👊🏼

In a victory for animals and those who care about them, a California Court issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the San Diego Humane Society from refusing to provide shelter and care to kittens and lost cats and instead abandoning them on the street.

While the ruling supports the legality of community cat programs, including for feral cats, it requires shelters to comply with state laws regarding abandonment and animal care.

In a bid to recast the Court’s ruling against it, the San Diego Humane Society claimed victory in the case — a claim echoed by apologists for “shelter” malfeasance — even though the Court ruled against SDHS and prohibited them from making any changes to the program that would reduce protections for kittens and for adult cats who are social with people.

CBS originally wrote an article regurgitating SDHS’s false claim of winning. They quickly removed the article when presented with the truth. CBS subsequently reported that “A judge found the Humane Society’s Community Cat Program violated state law…” In fact, it wasn’t a community program; it was a program that turned its back on kittens and lost or abandoned friendly cats.

Learn what the ruling means for kittens, social cats, and feral cats, and why we need to continue insisting on — and passing laws that mandate — No Kill policies: news.nokilladvocacycenter.org/p/court-prohibits-shelter-from-dumping