San Francisco is not alone.

The public animal shelters of Sacramento, San Diego, and Rochester, NY, are facing public opposition to the same wrong-headed "return to field" policies put in place at S.F. ACC. They are gathering signatures for their petitions on Change.org too. As of August 22, 2022, Sacramento had 300 signatures; Rochester had 82,217 (!); and San Diego had 1,450.

Unfortunately, many more shelters have adopted the "return to field" model for friendly stray cats. In the Bay Area, for instance, Berkeley Animal Care Services says this — and only this — about found pets on their website: "If you have found a pet, please report it to Animal Services with as accurate description as possible." In other words, like S.F. ACC, don't bring any cats to their shelter. One signer of this petition testified from personal experience that this exclusionary policy is indeed the case.

Berkeley Humane, the city's other major animal shelter, offers detailed advice for stray pet finders, but in the end it boils down to the same unspoken warning: "Whatever you do, don't bring the animal to our shelter."

Marin Humane Society displays photos and descriptions of pets reported as lost, so finders can see if the pet they found is a match. There is no advice on what to do if there is no match, but we can assume the worst.

For the record, the Peninsula Humane Society still allows pet finders to bring San Mateo County strays to their Coyote Point shelter. Let's hope it stays that way and that the other "closed-door" shelters — including S.F. ACC — see the light.