Activists Protest Humane Society of New York Over Animal Warehousing

Animal rights activists staged a protest at the Humane Society of New York (HSNY) to sound the alarm about the plight of the animals who have been warehoused at the Manhattan shelter for 28 months. During the 90 minute protest, the activists spoke to dozens of area residents and clients of HSNY’s vet clinic, who are not allowed in the building with their companion animals for exams or euthanasia appointments. They also confronted several employees exiting the building, including staff veterinarians Dr. Ralph Gutierrez and Dr. Shingo Soeda. Many of the interactions were caught on camera. 

The protest comes 13 months after a whistleblower at the HSNY informed local animal rights activists that adoptions had come to a virtual standstill since the HSNY closed its building to the public in April 2020. The whistleblower also reported that the HSNY’s Executive Director, Sandra DeFeo, is keeping the building closed to the public under false pretenses. DeFeo claims that the building is closed due to COVID. However, according to the whistleblower and lawyers advising the activists, she cannot reopen the building because of violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The HSNY already settled one ADA lawsuit and, unless it takes steps to make the building wheelchair accessible according to ADA guidelines, it cannot reopen to the public without subjecting itself to another.  

Animal rights activists are calling on the Humane Society of New York, which has been closed to the public for 28 months, to send the animals to adoption centers that are open to adopters.

During the protest, activists spoke to several area residents who said that they attempted to adopt from the HSNY in recent months but were either ignored or turned away. These and other neighbors said they were perplexed by the ongoing closure of the building and disturbed to learn that the building is filled with homeless animals who hadn’t been seen by adopters in over two years. Clients of the vet clinic who spoke to the activists expressed frustration about not being able to be with their companion animals during exams and about being forced to wait outside in the extreme heat instead of in the HSNY’s air-conditioned lobby. 

Vanity Fair, the Today Show and several other mainstream media outlets reported on an animal warehousing protest against the Humane Society of New York during Broadway Barks, a star-studded adoption event during which Bill Berloni, the HSNY’s animal trainer, was brought onto the stage.

Activists attempted to speak to two of the HSNY’s staff veterinarians as they exited the building, Dr. Ralph Gutierrez and Dr. Shingo Soeda, but both ignored them. As if swatting away a fly, Dr. Soeda used a hand gesture to dismiss the activists and their concerns about the animals.

“Veterinarians take an oath to relieve animal suffering,” said Christina Fritz, a former client of the HSNY’s vet clinic who joined the activists. “Turning a blind eye to the cats and dogs who have been stuck in cages right under their noses makes them complicit in the cruelty.”

Dr. Shingo Soeda and Dr. Ralph Gutierrez, veterinarians at the Humane Society of New York’s vet clinic, ignore the activists attempting to talk to them about animal warehousing at organization’s adoption center.

During a call in July 2022, DeFeo told Fritz that the HSNY had adopted out about 150 animals since closing its building to the public 27 months earlier — in April 2020. If that number is accurate, which the activists doubt, then the HSNY has sent home an average of 1.4 animals per week, an appalling amount for a large, wealthy shelter in Manhattan that claims on its tax forms to have 125 – 175 animals.

In an apparent effort to minimize the number of adoptions she facilitates while keeping the Humane Society of New York closed to the public, Executive Director Sandra DeFeo lists just 14 animals on its website and does virtually no adoption promotion on social media.

“The Humane Society of New York is located in a bustling neighborhood at the crossroads of the Upper East Side and Midtown,” said Matthew Schwartz, a New Yorker whose adoption application was ignored by the HSNY. “A shelter in that location with ample resources should be doing adoptions every day.”

For the past 28 months, no adopters have entered the Humane Society of New York to meet the animals who need homes because the Executive Director, Sandra DeFeo, refuses to make the building wheelchair accessible. If she reopens the building without making the renovations, then she would be subjecting the organization to another ADA lawsuit.

In February 2022, HSNY’s Adoption Director of 22 years, Bonnie Tischler, recorded a testimonial about the plight of the animals being warehoused. Tischler, who retired in early 2020, has since joined dozens of animal rights activists in NYC calling on the HSNY to send the animals to foster homes and/or adoption centers where adopters can meet them. 

“Twenty eight months is far too long for homeless animals to not be seen by adopters who would otherwise be rescuing them,” said Tischler. “And, because the HSNY lists just a small fraction of its animals on its website and does little adoption promotion on social media, potential adopters don’t even know that the animals exist.”

During a phone call in August 2021, Donny Moss of TheirTurn asked DeFeo, the Executive Director, to send the adoptable animals to shelters that are open to the public or to foster homes. In response, she claimed that she has been “doing adoptions all along,” which Moss knew to be false based on his own two-month investigation. DeFeo also said that the shelter is the animals’ foster home; that their cages are like “apartments;” and that she would barricade the building if anyone tried to take out the animals.

“My heart sank when I heard the Director of an animal shelter describe cages as ‘apartments,’” said Moss. “Shelters are stressful for animals and are no substitute for loving homes where they can roam freely. Forcing cats and dogs to live in cages indefinitely is animal cruelty.”

Three members of the Board of Directors of the Humane Society of New York have resigned amid the warehousing scandal – photographer Alexandra Rowley and attorneys C. Jones Perry and James Gregorio

Since launching the campaign to help the animals being warehoused at the HSNY, activists have staged seven protests — five at the home of Alexandra Rowley, a board member who resigned amid the protests; one at Broadway Barks, an adoption event in the theater district; and one at the HSNY. Activists say they will continue to protest the HSNY and the individuals enabling the organization’s bad behavior until DeFeo and her board of directors send the adoptable animals to adoption centers that are open to adopters.