San Francisco SPCA

The San Francisco SPCA is an animal shelter and a spay/neuter clinic located at 2500 16th Street in San Francisco. Its historic collaboration with the City of San Francisco and the San Francisco Animal Care and Control Department made San Francisco the first "no-kill city" in the United States in 1994. Among the former executive leaders of the San Francisco SPCA are animal welfare leaders Richard Avanzino and Ed Sayres (president of New York's ASPCA.)

History
The SF/SPCA was founded in the Spring of 1868 by a banker named James Sloan Hutchinson. He intervened in the inhumane behavior of two men who were dragging a squealing boar off to market along the street's rough cobblestones. The incident moved Hutchinson to call together a group of fellow humanitarians to found The San Francisco SPCA. The SPCA is now the oldest U.S. animal welfare organization in the West.

After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the SF/SPCA built horse troughs throughout the City to provide water for horses employed in rescue and rebuilding efforts. Plaques memorializing the troughs remain in place as of 2006.

The Relation Between The SF/SPCA and SF Animal Care & Control [SFACC]
In 1989 The SF/SPCA ended its 100-year-old contract to provide animal control services to  the city of San Francisco. The SF Animal Care & Control Department was created as a governmental agency. The SF/SPCA was then able to focus its resources on pioneering programs for homeless dogs and cats. In 1994, SF/SPCA and SFACC were able to provide the "adoptable guarantee." The SF/SPCA pledged to take as many cats and dogs from SFACC as possible to find them a new home, no matter how long it took.

No-Kill
The pact between The SF/SPCA and San Francisco Animal Care and Control enabled animal advocates to implement a model that made San Francisco the first "no-kill city" in the United States. The SF/SPCA will keep any cat or dog under its roof until a home is found for it. The only time an animal will be euthanized is if it is determined to be suffering medically or behaviorally.

The model includes a set of tactics that, in combination, reduce the number of animals entering the shelter system and place most shelter animals in permanent homes. Some of these tactics are mobile adoption outreach units, aggressive early spay-neuter programs, medical treatment for treatable shelter animals, behaviorial training in the shelter, training classes for the public, and structured adoption screening and matching. The San Francisco model was replicated in Ithaca, New York, and a similar model is being established in an initiative to make New York City a no-kill city by 2008.

In 1998, the San Francisco SPCA opened Maddie's Pet Adoption Center, a facility that houses dogs and cats in condomium-style rooms featuring accoutrements such as television sets, cat trees, toys, and live aquariums. The facility is named for the pet Miniature Schnauzer of PeopleSoft founder Dave Duffield, who concentrates his philanthropy in the animal welfare world via the private foundation Maddie's Fund.

Controversies
The SF SPCA has been involved in several controversial issues in recent years. Some critics disagree with the Society's "trap-neuter-release" approach to feral cat management and advocate for extermination of the cats in order to protect bird life. Others oppose the organization's stance in favor of off-leash recreation for dogs in federal park lands in the San Francisco Bay Area. These groups claim that off-leash dogs disturb wildlife.