S.F. SPCA celebrates 145 years of animal attraction

Prospective adoptees check out Layla Valenzuela and Marcel Edwards, who came to the SPCA to adopt a puppy. Prospective adoptees check out Layla Valenzuela and Marcel Edwards, who came to the SPCA to adopt a puppy. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close S.F. SPCA celebrates 145 years of animal attraction 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Oh, to be a dog in San Francisco in 2013.

Wild salmon kibble, off-leash parks with ocean views, greater numbers - and some say more political clout - than children.

Such was not the case in 1868. Most animals in San Francisco had a grim existence: Old horses, for example, were often beaten to death. And dogs? Let's just say it was a society that kicked dogs, not one that dressed them up in Halloween costumes.

All that began to change when a San Francisco banker named James Sloan Hutchinson witnessed a pig dragged to death on a cobblestone street. The horror inspired him to open the first SPCA west of the Mississippi, in hopes of persuading people to refrain from overworking or beating their animals and maybe even to take them to the vet once in a while.

The San Francisco SPCA is celebrating 145 years of kindness to four-legged friends this weekend with a carnival and free dog and cat adoptions, among other events, at its Florida Street shelter.

Much has changed in the past 145 years in how people view animals, thanks in large part to the SPCA. But other factors played a role as well, animal welfare experts said.

No beasts of burden

Old horses can thank mechanization and increasing affluence and education, as well as their local animal welfare group, for improved living conditions, said SPCA Co-President Jason Walthall.

"Animals were there for work. They were property," he said. "But with mechanization, we had fewer uses for animals, so their role became one purely of companionship. And if they're treated well, unlimited love."

Economic stability

Allison Lindquist, head of the East Bay SPCA, which is just five years younger than San Francisco's, said that worldwide, well-treated pets are often a symbol of wealth and a certain genteel sophistication. Places with economic stability tend to have less animal abuse than those without it, she said.

"If you can afford to feed a dog, that says something. It's almost a status symbol," she said. "The old saying is really true - you can judge the character of a community by how it treats its animals."

When the San Francisco SPCA first opened, its goals were modest: Volunteers would put out troughs of water for horses. Later it started caring for retired police horses, and providing veterinary care for injured horses.

For decades it served as the city's sole animal control organization, until the city opened its own animal services department, Animal Care and Control, in the late 1980s. Now both function side by side.

Over the years, the horse business ebbed and dogs and cats became the SPCA's stock in trade. The group's focus these days is promoting spaying and neutering, low-cost vet services and behavior training.

And, of course, adoptions. The SPCA's shelter - which is more like a canine Four Seasons than a pound - has no cages, only spacious playrooms for dogs to frolic in groups.

Cats have it even better: something called "cat condos," large, quiet rooms filled with multi-story scratching posts and TVs showing bird videos.

The SPCA's cat program is one of the best anywhere, said Dr. Kate Hurley, director of the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at UC Davis.

The housing and care of cats at the San Francisco SPCA is so advanced that Hurley promotes the SPCA's techniques to shelters elsewhere, with the result that more cats are adopted, cats are generally healthier and the overall cat population drops, she said.

'Good welfare for cats'

"The San Francisco SPCA was the first shelter where I could look in every nook and cranny and see good welfare for cats," Hurley said. "It's been transformative. ... For me personally, it's been fascinating and very moving to see all this play out over the years."

All of these programs have led San Francisco - both the city shelter and the SPCA - to have one of the lowest euthanasia rates in the country.

The SPCA has been so successful in eliminating overpopulation in San Francisco that it occasionally sees more people wanting to adopt animals than it has animals available.

So it brings in animals from shelters across California, provides them vet care and obedience training, and finds them homes in San Francisco.

"Most dogs and cats are adopted in two to three weeks," said Dr. Jennifer Scarlett, SPCA co-president. "Only the real hard cases stay longer than that. But that means we're successful. Healthy cats and dogs do not belong at a shelter."