Activists Confront Humane Society of New York Vets Over Animal Warehousing 

During two protests in August at the Humane Society of New York (HSNY), a prominent animal shelter and clinic in Manhattan, animal rights activists called on the staff veterinarians to put a stop to the warehousing of animals at the organization’s adoption center.

“The veterinarians know that adoptions came to a virtual standstill 28 months ago when the Executive Director, Sandra DeFeo, closed the building to the public,” said Matthew Schwartz, an organizer in the effort to help the animals. “Instead of using their influence to compel DeFeo to send the animals to shelters that are open to the public or to foster homes, they are turning a blind eye in order to avoid confrontation with her. Their complicity has victims.”

Animal rights activists are calling on the Humane Society of New York to send the homeless animals in its shelter, many of whom have been languishing in adoption center for 28 months or longer, to shelters that are open to the public.

During the two protests, the activists confronted four of the HSNY’s veterinarians: Shingo Soeda, Ellen Hirshberg, Lauren Postler and Ralph Gutierrez. According to a source inside the building, DeFeo told the veterinarians and other staff members not to engage with the activists. While exiting the building, one employee stated “No comment” when asked why the HSNY isn’t sending the animals to adoption centers that are open to adopters.

Animal rights activists confront Drs. Lauren Postler and Ellen Hirschberg, staff veterinarians at the Humane Society of New York, over animal warehousing at the organization’s adoption center.

“The veterinarians and other senior staff members have a choice,” said Donny Moss of TheirTurn. “They can help the beleaguered animals being warehoused by their boss, Sandra DeFeo, or they can subject themselves to protests for the indefinite future. We’re not going away.”

The protests come 13 months after a whistleblower at the HSNY informed local animal rights activists that the HSNY was sending very few animals home since closing its building to the public in April 2020. The whistleblower also reported that 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.  

The Humane Society raises millions of dollars each year from individual donors, foundations and estates. These donors are under the mistaken impression that they are contributing to a bona fide animal adoption center.

Bonnie Tischler, who served as the HSNY’s Adoptions Director for 22 years before retiring in early 2020, was so distraught by the whistleblower allegations, which were corroborated by an investigation by TheirTurn, that she came out of retirement to support the efforts to help the animals. 

As of August 21, 2020, The Humane Society of New York’s website listed just 13 animals, a small fraction of the dozens of animals languishing in cages who need homes. Because the adoption center is closed to the public, potential adopters have no way of knowing that the unlisted animals exist.

“Cages are stressful, lonely and mentally debilitating, which is why shelters work so hard to find loving homes for the animals,” said Tischler.  “When I heard my former boss, Sandra, describe cages as ‘apartments’ and the shelter as a ‘foster home,’ I knew then that most of the animals would be stuck in cages indefinitely if we didn’t intervene on their behalf.”

During a call in July 2022, DeFeo told Christina Fritz, a client of the vet clinic who expressed concern about the shelter animals, that the HSNY had adopted out about 150 animals since closing its building to the public 27 months earlier. If that number is accurate, which the activists doubt, then the HSNY has sent home an average of 1.4 animals per week.

During a protest at the Humane Society of New York, animal rights activists call on staff veterinarians to put a stop to the warehousing of animals in the organization’s adoption center.

“A large, well-funded animal shelter in a bustling neighborhood that claims to have between 125 and 175 animals should be processing adoptions every day,” said Christina Fritz, a former client of the HSNY’s vet clinic who attempted, without success, to adopt and volunteer at the shelter. “In addition to doing hardly any adoption promotion and ignoring adoption applications, they won’t let anyone into the building to meet the animals. Why aren’t the leaders in the New York City’s shelter community speaking out?” 

In 2021, Donny Moss contacted the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, a prominent and historically influential shelter animal advocacy group where DeFeo serves on the board, to sound the alarm about the animal warehousing, but the organization’s Executive Director, Jane Hoffman, refused to help and stated, “Sandra’s presence as an Alliance Board member does not give me the authority to dictate the internal operations of HSNY.”

Moss, along with Tischler, the former Adoptions Director, also contacted the HSNY’s 15 board members, sending letters by email and regular mail. Two of them, James Gregorio and Alexandra Rowley, responded to Tischler, stating that they would provide her with the number of adoptions that had taken place since DeFeo closed the building to the public. Instead, they and one other board member, attorney C. Jones Perry, resigned. The Chair of the Board, Virginia Chipurnoi, who is 88 and lives out of state, has not commented on the warehousing scandal or responded to inquiries. Letters sent to her daughters, Alexandra Gore and Sarah Gore Reeves, both of whom have been active at the shelter over the years, have gone unanswered.

Virginia Chipurnoi, the President of the Board of the Humane Society of New York, has neither commented on the animal warehousing scandal nor responded to inquiries. She is 88 years old and lives out of state.

After the second protest at the HSNY, an anonymous whistleblower sent Moss an email calling on the activists to stop confronting employees and to direct their anger at DeFeo, the sole decision maker. In the message, this individual acknowledged the warehousing: “Look at the most recent Instagram with dogs Lila and Teuscher. Both have been at HSNY since 2016. A shih tzu that has aggressive possessive tendencies and a chihuahua mix that doesn’t get along well with dogs she doesn’t know. Why have they been here for so long? They can’t possibly be that difficult to find experienced owners for.” 

In an anonymous email to TheirTurn, an employee at the Humane Society of New York acknowledged that adoptable animals have been held in cages for six years

The message confirmed what the activists already know — that animals have been needlessly languishing in cages for years at the Humane Society of New York.