Seeking to avoid “drama,” Orange County Animal Care encouraged a local reptile rescue group to use a third party to take custody of hundreds of rabbits, rodents and other small animals last year because of the unfavorable optics.
Alexina Estrada, county animal adoption partner coordinator, wrote in a June 2022 email to Jason Haywood at the Southern California Herpetology Association & Rescue: “If you have a friend or know someone from a bunny (charity) that would be willing to put them under their name, we can do that. It may be better received by the bunny folks — we understand not wanting to deal with the drama.”
Haywood responded that “those rabbit people are absolutely bonkers,” adding that he planned to take the bunnies to Fresno and work with an animal adoption group there to find them homes.
The recently disclosed email exchange, interpreted by some as an attempt to obscure the provenance of the bunnies, has boosted fears that they are being used to feed reptiles. There is no evidence of that, but suspicions abound. Haywood did not respond to a request for comment.
“My concern is (the county doesn’t) have anything in place to find out exactly where those animals are going. It doesn’t sound like they’re willing to do their due diligence,” said Lisa Delaney, a Seattle-area animal enthusiast who monitors Orange County Animal Care.
County probe sought
Michael Mavrovouniotis, an animal welfare advocate, said it is improbable that the reptile group could place hundreds and hundreds of small animals outside its specialty when other rescue operators cannot.
“I think it is very, very likely the majority of these small pets ended up as snake food,” Mavrovouniotis said.
He and others are calling for an official county investigation into the fate of the animals turned over to Southern California Herpetology.
Since 2022, the Buena Park-based nonprofit has taken possession of at least 700 rabbits, guinea pigs, birds and small animals from Orange County, which says it isn’t required by law to track where the animals go from there.
Checks and balances
Alexa Pratt, spokesperson for the county shelter, said it has had a longtime relationship with the reptile group, which places all types of animals, and not as a food source. Southern California Herpetology is well known in the local animal adoption community, Pratt said.
“In the case of SCHA&R, the team at OC Animal Care has established checks and balances by seeing firsthand a variety of our animals placed with local entities like Tanaka Farms and OC Bird Breeders,” Pratt said.
“We see SCHA&R adopting out a variety of species, including rabbits and other mini mammals, at events right here in Southern California.”
For instance, she said, some of the rabbits were placed out of the Orange County Fairgrounds.
She conceded that the email sent by Estrada to the reptile group was “poorly written and could easily be misconstrued.”
Pratt explained the county had no intention of hiding where the rabbits were going, but wanted to deal directly with the third party, instead of going through Southern California Herpetology as the middleman.
“It is unfortunate, but even though SCHA&R consistently denies using any adopted animals as food, their respectability as a rescue group, and active involvement in the community, they continue to be a target of false allegations for merely helping all pets find new homes,” she said.
Issues in San Diego
But that doesn’t still the fears of some rabbit enthusiasts who question why the county doesn’t just investigate now, rather than wait for evidence of wrongdoing. In San Diego County, officials took the initiative and found that more than 200 furries that were handed over in August to a humane society in Arizona ultimately ended up with a group linked to the production of reptile food.
Pratt assured the situation is different in Orange County.
“Our hearts go out to the team at San Diego Humane Society. Their experience sheds light on some of the challenges of out-of-state placements,” she said. “In light of SDHS’ experience in Arizona, our team searched our own records to ensure we had not partnered with any of the publicly named individuals involved.”
Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner said he is open to considering an independent investigation here, but wants to wait until Orange County Animal Care has finished dealing with the effects of a Tustin fire that spewed toxic smoke near the animal shelter.
“It’s absolutely worth looking into, but give us a couple of weeks,” Wagner said.
Supervisor Katrina Foley said she believes Orange County Animal Care when it says that the small animals are not being used as a food source.
“No one has given me any reason to believe it is actually happening,” Foley said.
