Sixty-five cats were flown to a shelter in north Texas this week, as the San Diego Humane Society continues to manage hundreds of animals seized earlier this month from a Julian animal sanctuary.
The cats were flown out of Gillespie Field in El Cajon and taken to the Fort Worth facility. The transport was handled by the nonprofit Wings of Rescue.
Humane Society veterinarian Dr. Jonathan Chapman helps load a cat headed to Texas on Wednesday. (San Diego Humane Society)
“We are very grateful for the help from HSNT (Humane Society North Texas) during this challenging time, as San Diego Humane Society is close to setting a new record for number of animals in care,” spokesperson Nina Thompson said in a statement. The Humane Society has around 2,515 animals in care. The record high of 2,582 animals was set in July 2023.
Thompson said there was room on the plane to transport more cats, but animal care and veterinary staff determined only 65 were OK with being put into crates for the flight. Others were showing too high of stress levels to be safely moved, she said.
Looking ahead, some of the animals still in San Diego may be suitable to be adopted as “working cats” on farms, she said.
“A lot of these cats are stressed and shy and fearful, so they are not on a straight adoption pathway,” she said.
Humane Society staffers are going through about 150 responses submitted by people who formerly owned animals placed at the sanctuary to see if reunifications are possible. So far, more than a dozen horses, one cat and one dog have been reunited with their previous owners.
The Humane Society rescued 446 cats from the Julian property, as well as 30 dogs and 175 horses. Some of the cats and dogs suffered from malnutrition, emaciation, untreated wounds and contagious infections, officials said.
In addition, dozens of farm animals, including goats, chickens, turkeys and donkeys, were also at the sanctuary. Plans are underway to move them over the next week or two to a sanctuary in Northern California operated by the Humane Farming Association.
Officials say some animals at the Julian property were in such poor health they had to be euthanized, including 14 horses. Those decisions were made by multiple veterinarians, officials said.
“Some of the horses up at the property were not even able to get up so there were some difficult decisions that had to be made in the best interest of the horse,” Thompson said.
The Humane Society’s law enforcement officers served a search warrant at the 40-acre Villa Chardonnay Horses with Wings property on May 1 and launched a large-scale rescue effort. The sanctuary had been the subject of complaints about animal welfare for years, and had filed for bankruptcy last fall.
Many of the animals were transferred to San Diego Humane Society or county Animal Services shelters, but the horses remained at the Julian property. Thompson said 15 to 20 staff and volunteers and a veterinarian conduct daily exams at the site.
“With our shelters already over capacity, this rescue effort remains a massive undertaking,” Thompson said. The Humane Society has set up a site where community members can submit donations at sdhumane.org/julianrescue.