As part of an ongoing effort to compel the Humane Society of New York (HSNY) and Sarah Gore Reeves, the daughter of its absent board president, to send the homeless animals in their care to other adoption centers or to foster homes, about 30 animal rights activists staged a three hour protest at the prominent shelter and vet clinic on Manhattan’s East Side. It was the fifth such protest at the HSNY, which has been closed to the public over 28 months ago and will be closed for the indefinite future, according to its website. A two-month investigation by TheirTurn corroborated the allegations of multiple whistleblowers that adoptions have come to a virtual standstill and that the animals are being warehoused.
In recent months, the activists have turned their attention to the HSNY’s staff veterinarians who they say have the power to compel the organization’s Executive Director, Sandra DeFeo, to send the homeless animals to adoption centers that are open to adopters or to foster homes. Instead of acknowledging the activists’ concerns or disputing the warehousing allegations, the veterinarians have ignored the activists while quickly exiting their building. Activists say that, in the weeks ahead, they plan to further expose the complicity of the six veterinarians — Dr. Shingo Soeda, Dr. Ralph Gutierrez, Dr. Lauren Postler, Dr, Liz Higgins, Dr. Yaron Schmid and Dr. Ellen Hirshberg.
