The Humane Society of Southern Arizona (HSSA) presented its findings Thursday regarding the internal investigation into hundreds of small animals that likely ended up as reptile food after being transferred from an animal shelter in San Diego over the summer.
The final report from the independent investigation, launched after the HSSA board was made aware of concerns and concluded on Nov. 11, sought an understanding of the timeline of events and figuring out what HSSA employees knew about the incident and when they found out.
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The San Diego Humane Society (SDHS), dealing with an overload of smaller pets, including rats, rabbits and guinea pigs, reached out to various animal rescues to see if they could help. In July, the SDHS requested that the HSSA take the pets, investigator Terry Flores said in Thursday's news conference over Zoom.
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Then-HSSA CEO Steve Farley agreed to help, and then-COO Christian Gonzales executed the transfer on Aug. 7.
At the end of August, Farley told the HSSA board about the transport and that the animals were safe. The HSSA picked up the remaining 62 animals and processed their intake, Flores said.
However, the bulk of the animals were delivered to Colten Jones, who runs a reptile breeding company called The Fertile Turtle, which is not a licensed rescue organization. Since the 323 small animals were sent east by the SDHS, more than 250 of them have been unaccounted for.
On Sept. 29, the HSSA board learned about Jones, who was in the animal service database for some time, and The Fertile Turtle.
In early October, the HSSA Board Chairman Robert Garcia said the organization had fired Farley and accepted the resignation of its COO as well.
Earlier this month, the HSSA had "received new information that sheds light on the likely outcome for the remaining animals," an official with the organization said.
"The day after receiving these animals, Colten Jones sent a text message seeking assistance in processing a high volume of guinea pigs and rabbits for food. We know that Mr. Jones runs a reptile breeding company called The Fertile Turtle. A part of this business includes selling both live and frozen animals for reptile feed," a news release from the HSSA read, in part.
The news came to light after Chorus Nylander, an investigative reporter with KVOA in Tucson, said he was provided with a text from an unidentified breeder/animal dealer in Arizona that Nylander was told was sent by Jones.
The contents of the text — which was reportedly sent on Aug. 8 — and its sender have not been confirmed by NBC 7. The text reportedly reads:
"Do you have the ability to freeze off a bunch of guinea pigs and or rabbits? I don't have the manpower or labor to be able to do it in time for the show and it's too much for me."
Jones denies that the animals were turned into feed; however, the text message discredits that claim, Flores said during Thursday's presentation.
Flores said that there was no evidence to suggest that Gonzales or the HSSA knew that Jones was going to freeze and sell the pets at a reptile show in California but that the text "creates a reasonable belief Jones may have used some of the animals for those purposes."
The investigator says Gonzales was the only HSSA employee directly involved with the transfer.
"Documents and testimony supported Gonzales was the sole organizer of the small animal transfer and made the specific decision to transfer the animals to Colten Jones," Flores said. "Farley was aware of the transfer well before it happened and voiced his support for it. Farley did not know beforehand the animals would be sent to Colten Jones."
The report cites the Arizona organization's culture, which included employees' fear for their job, poor record keeping and training and miscommunication, as factors that led to the incident.
"This incident was the result of a failure of leadership to conduct due diligence in exploring and understanding the magnitude of accepting such an unusually large animal transfer from a sister organization," Flores said. "It also suffered from a lack of communication, assumptions on what was being asked of the team and the absence of the CEO in directly managing such an undertaking. Furthermore, policies were either side-stepped or ignored and proper research into what rescues HSSA works with was not done."
Flores said the breaks in communication and lack of clarity resulted in assumptions being "made that this was a good thing and that it should be done to help a sister organization."
Flores described recommendations for the HSSA spanning seven categories, including updating policies and practice, establishing new standards for comprehensive staff literacy, improving control over data, having informed recruitment for the next CEO, changing the policy for staff concerns reporting, and enhancing board literacy and oversight.
"We are committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure an animal never experiences such an outcome again and that HSSA moves forward with the right tools to continue to serve the thousands of animals that come into our care each year," Beth Morrison, interim CEO of the HSSA, said.
Garcia exonerated the SDHS in October: “[SDHS is] not responsible for what happened due to the poor judgment and inappropriate actions of the Humane Society’s former leadership,” he said.
The SDHS said that it was "heartbroken at the likely outcome for the small pets transferred" in an Instagram post on Nov. 15.
"We now believe that it is likely that these animals were not adopted into homes but instead utilized as reptile feeder animals," the SDHS continued.
The SDHS released a statement Thursday following the final report presentation, which read, in part:
"While we cannot overstate the heartbreak this has caused our staff, volunteers, animal welfare advocates and members of the community, the completion of HSSA’s investigation allows us to focus our efforts on identifying what legal actions are available to pursue, while we continue to meet the needs of the animals and people in our community."
The SDHS also clarified that it had reached out to the HSSA for adoption updates for the transferred pets immediately after they were transported.
"We were repeatedly assured that the animals were being placed in adoptive homes. We have remained engaged in discovering the outcomes of the small pets since the day of the transfer," the SDHS said.
The SDHS says its investigation is ongoing.
Garcia said that the Tucson Police Department has been asked to look into this incident and that the HSSA will cooperate with the department.
The 62 animals that were returned to the HSSA have gone to other reputable rescue organizations or were adopted out, according to Garcia.
The full report can be found here.
