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A Message from the President
Gary Weitzman, DVM, MPH, CAWA
April 2013 - I’ve nearly completed my first year as president of the San Diego Humane
Society. It’s no surprise to me that in
the past year I’ve completely fallen in love with this city and the people and
animals of our community.
 It’s been a big year for us! On top of being my first year, this has
also been a year full of firsts for the Humane Society. We launched our first public
needs-based spay/neuter clinic to provide affordable spay/neuter surgeries for the
community. We had our first annual Animal Compassion Awards to honor and
recognize the extraordinary people and animals in San Diego. And we’ve opened
up every door we could find to bring other animal groups into the Humane
Society. And this includes their
animals. To date, this year, we’ve
admitted more than 1,200 animals from partner shelters and rescue groups in San
Diego!
Looking ahead, we want to further engage the community by continuing to
build on programs that are making a dramatic difference in the lives of people
who love and care about animals. Programs like…
- Project
KEPPT – Provides education, resources,
and services to assist our community in keeping their companion animals in
their homes during times of need. This program is aimed at providing temporary
assistance to those in need, including the homeless, so that life’s setbacks
don’t have to mean losing your animal. We’re working to significantly grow this
program so that we can help even more people and animals.
- Vaccines – For the first time ever, we are providing free or
low-cost vaccines to people who need assistance in the quest to keep the animal
population as healthy as possible.
- Spay/neuter – As a part of our involvement with Spay San Diego, we’re
continuing to build on our new spay/neuter program so that we can provide
needs-based spay/neuter surgeries, and minimize the number of homeless animals
in San Diego.
- Advocacy – We are the voice for animals in our community,
which is why supporting animal advocacy is a critical part of our mission. For example, we are currently leading an
effort in collaboration with the Animal Defense Team to propose an ordinance that
will ban the sale of cats, kittens, dogs, puppies and rabbits from San Diego
pet stores. This ordinance is going to City Council early this summer.
We have an obligation to be the animal resource to the people of our
community…a resource to turn to when help is needed in caring for an animal. We
believe this is the only way to keep pets out of shelters and in their homes…where
they belong.
Warmly,
Gary Weitzman, DVM, MPH, CAWA
President and CEO
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