One of San Diego County’s more troubled agencies is notching improvements — but it’s not out of the woods yet.
The Department of Animal Services is now on its third director in two and a half years, leadership turnover that has coincided with an exodus of dozens of employees from the 55-person agency. And four former staffers have sued in recent years, alleging discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation and more, according to legal filings.
Now, the department’s new director, Dr. Brieana Sarvis, says an era of restructuring and reforms is underway.
Officials have curbed the worst of their soaring turnover. In the county’s most recent fiscal year, the department lost about 22% of its staff, county data show. In the year before that, about 65% of its staff left.
The agency’s leaders are also reforming practices in its two shelters, following an outside review released last month. And it’s on the cusp of opening a new $37 million shelter in Santee to replace an aging, inadequate facility in Bonita.
“All of those things take time,” Sarvis said of the push to reform her agency. “We need to build up trust if any has been lost.”
Sarvis, a veterinarian, arrives at the department after a 12-year career with the San Diego Humane Society, where she worked as a staff vet and later as an animal hospital director.
She first joined the county last year as its chief veterinarian and was tapped to lead the Department of Animal Services in April, following the abrupt resignation of former director Vaughn Maurice in February.
The Humane Society responds to animal control calls and runs shelters for 14 cities within the county. The county department handles those responsibilities for the county’s unincorporated areas.
To curb turnover, Sarvis says she’s open to scaling back and even ending certain services the department provides — such as vaccine and microchip clinics, owner-requested euthanasia and mobile vet clinics.
“The team is struggling with a large population of animals,” Sarvis said. “I think that we need to closely evaluate — is that appropriate? Do we need to retract back a little bit to support our teams better first, and then try to expand our services?”
The agency Sarvis now leads has faced growing public criticism for its staffing turmoil, handling of animal abuse cases and euthanasia practices.
Last year, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the department knew for years about concerns regarding the treatment of horses at a Rancho Santa Fe ranch before stepping in to seize animals there.
Earlier this year, the department also lacked the ability to respond to a major animal welfare case in its own jurisdiction.
In May, authorities undertook a mass rescue of hundreds of animals, including 165 horses, at a troubled sanctuary in Julian called Villa Chardonnay. Sarvis — then only a month into her new job — made the decision to have the Humane Society lead the rescue, even though the property was in an unincorporated community.
“I don’t think we were in a very good position, given that I had literally just started in the position and we were trying to build up our team,” Sarvis said. “The biggest benefit we got from having Humane involved was the scale of what was going to be needed.”
The new director of the San Diego County Department of Animal Services, Dr. Brieana Sarvis, with pot-bellied pigs Winston and Bubba, who are up for adoption, at the County Animal Services facility in Carlsbad on Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (Hayne Palmour IV / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The Union-Tribune reached out to all five members of the Board of Supervisors asking about the direction of the department and how they’ve worked to improve it.
All of them either declined or did not respond, except for Supervisor Paloma Aguirre.
“I’m encouraged by the urgency and leadership that Dr. Brieana Sarvis has brought to strengthening the Department of Animal Services and addressing longstanding challenges,” Aguirre said in a statement. “My priority is ensuring every animal receives safe, compassionate care and that the dedicated County employees who care for them have the support and resources they need to succeed.”
The leader of the county’s largest labor union, which represents Department of Animal Services staff, said she hopes the recent outside review marks a “turning point.”
“The problems at County Animal Services are well documented,” said Crystal Irving, the union’s president. “Despite the well-documented issues, workers remain committed to serving the public and protecting the welfare of animals. Employees will continue using our frontline experience to support that mission.”
Report flags Bonita shelter
As staffing issues and criticism mounted last year, Sarvis — then still the county’s chief veterinarian — ordered an outside review of the department’s operations.
That report, released by the county last month, details a department doing many things right but also plagued by a poor facility in Bonita and other practices that don’t align with industry standards.
In all, the review from animal welfare consulting firm Team Shelter USA commends the department’s medical and surgical care, low euthanasia rates, foster program and enrichment facilities for animals at the Carlsbad shelter.
Many of the shortcomings identified by the review revolve around the Bonita shelter, whose closure has been delayed.
Cheri Joseph, a dog-walking volunteer, pets Meatball, a 3-year-old pitbull, at the San Diego County Animal Shelter in Bonita on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. (Kristian Carreon / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Last year, county officials expected to open the new Santee shelter in May and close the one in Bonita. But severe rainfall earlier this year delayed it, said Chuck Westerheide, a county spokesperson. An opening is now slated for the fall.
The review flagged multiple issues at Bonita, in particular the well-being of dogs. It found shelter staff routinely cleaned and hosed down kennels with dogs still inside, in violation of industry standards.
“This practice must be discontinued immediately,” the review said. “Dogs at Bonita show signs of anxiety, stress and frustration.”
Westerheide said that since the review, the county has repeatedly tried to remove dogs before cleaning kennels, but staff haven’t been able to find somewhere to keep them during the process.
Overall, Sarvis noted that many of the review’s other recommendations are already being implemented.
Fulfilling one leading recommendation, the county has hired two new volunteer coordinators — one focused on fostering animals and community outreach, the other on onboarding new volunteers and expanding existing programs. Previously, one person performed both jobs.
Other recommendations in the review involve animal control officers.
Often, the review said, officers had to subdue aggressive dogs by the neck with a catch pole in order to load them onto patrol vehicles without ramps and walk them up to cages, a departure from industry standards. Prior to the review, the county had bought two new patrol vehicles but they don’t have ramps. Westerheide said vehicles with ramps will be purchased by the county in the future.
Animal Control Lt. Lewis Petersen lassos a Queensland heeler that was found by a couple on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Ramona. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Additionally, the county’s return rate for lost dogs is below the national average. At the Bonita shelter, only 13% of recovered lost dogs are returned to their owners, and at the Carlsbad shelter, only 16% are returned. The national average is 19%, according to the review.
To improve these figures, the review recommends installing yard signs around the community with QR codes about lost dogs now in shelters.
The department should also stop telling owners they have to schedule an appointment to come look for their lost dog in the shelter and instead instruct them to come to the shelter, the review said.
“It is very helpful for me trying to get my team on board with these ideas, and we have this report to back it up,” Sarvis said. “It helps us to focus our efforts.”
‘Management concerns’
Even as the department continues to look to the future, grievances from former employees have led to new complaints to the county — sometimes in lawsuits, sometimes in letters.
Among those raising alarms has been the agency’s former director, Maurice.
In an interview with the Union-Tribune late last year, Maurice detailed his efforts to turn the department around. Turnover and the shelter’s euthanasia rates were trending down; officers’ shifts were shorter and case loads smaller.
But in February, Maurice quit. In a Feb. 5 letter to the Board of Supervisors announcing his immediate resignation, he wrote that higher-ups had been undermining him, contributing to a general erosion of support for his efforts to reform the department.
“The cumulative effect of this bullying has been significant,” Maurice wrote in his letter, which was reviewed by the Union-Tribune.
In the letter, one of Maurice’s top concerns was the ouster of the department’s former assistant director, Rachael Borrelli.
Last year, KPBS published an audio recording of Borrelli complaining that the department wasn’t euthanizing enough dogs, saying its shelters had lax policies for putting down “shit dogs.”
She was fired in January. She sued the county in May, saying it failed to stop sexual harassment she faced on the job.
Animal Control Lt. Lewis Petersen drops off a raccoon with vet assistant Briana Eisan at Project Wildlife on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in San Diego. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
According to her lawsuit, false rumors were being spread that she was engaged in a sexual relationship with another department official. She alleged that for months she urged the county to intervene, even emailing the entire department herself to deny the rumor, and that she was retaliated against for reporting the harassment.
The lawsuit makes no mention of the audio recording but notes Borrelli was put on leave “without explanation” on Sept. 16, the day before KPBS published its report. Borrelli’s attorney, Sam Donabedian, did not return requests for comment.
The county has since restructured her job to consist of two deputy directors, one handling animal control enforcement and another focused on administration.
In its defense of Borrelli, Maurice’s letter says she was placed on leave because of the recording, writing that “while the words used were horrible, the content was factually accurate.”
Maurice also wrote that an internal investigation sustained allegations of “management concerns” but cleared her of more serious allegations of abusing her authority, making improper euthanasia decisions and more.
“The pressure to terminate — before the investigation was complete and based on claims that did not match the documented record — created an ethical conflict for me as a leader,” the then-director wrote.
Maurice, who took a job with a cat sanctuary in Washington after leaving the county, did not return requests for comment.
Then-Director Vaughn Maurice has a meeting with staff on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Bonita. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Beyond Borrelli, the county is also facing two more lawsuits from former animal control officers.
Amber Lee, a former animal control officer, sued in June, saying she was fired for complaining about the inadequate equipment provided to officers for rescuing animals during wildfires.
Lee, whose lawsuit says she was the only Black woman at the department, said she was singled out by leadership for discipline and was even told by a fellow officer that she should kill herself, factors that led her to face a hostile work environment.
Lee’s attorney, Dena Acosta, declined a request for comment.
And Melissa Prettyman, a former animal control officer, says in a December lawsuit that former interim director Carl Smith demanded she pay him $13,000 for what he called defamation, after she complained about him at a county supervisors meeting and reported his relationship with a subordinate to human resources.
Smith eventually forced Prettyman to resign, according to her lawsuit. Prettyman did not return a request for comment.
Lawsuits against the department have already yielded taxpayer-funded settlements to former staff. Last year, the county paid $65,000 to a former shelter technician who said she was pushed out of her job for complaining about illegal spaying of cats in department shelters.
The county declined to comment on the pending litigation.