Animal advocacy has been at the heart of the San Francisco SPCA since our founding.
In 1868, local banker James Sloan Hutchinson was walking through downtown San Francisco when he came upon a scene that stopped him in his tracks: two men on horseback were chasing a loose pig through the streets. They roped the animal’s legs and dragged it across the cobblestones as it squealed in distress.
For many, this was simply the way things were. The treatment of working animals, livestock, and street dogs was all part of daily life, and their suffering often went unnoticed. But Hutchinson couldn’t look away. He stepped in, determined to help the pig and to create a future where all animals had protection under the law.
Within weeks, Hutchinson introduced legislation making cruelty to animals a crime in California. Soon after, he gathered a small group of like-minded citizens, and on April 18, 1868, the San Francisco SPCA was officially chartered, becoming one of the first animal welfare organizations in the nation.
With persistence, the SF SPCA began to shift public attitudes—outlawing blood sports, fighting to protect working horses, and laying the groundwork for innovations like San Francisco’s first horse ambulance.
What began with one man’s refusal to ignore suffering has grown into more than 150 years of progress. Advocacy remains our compass, guiding us toward a world where every animal is treated with dignity and compassion.
The ‘grande dame’ of the SF SPCA
Among the many advocacy milestones in our history, few are more memorable than the case of one dog whose story touched people across the country. While the circumstances were very different from Hutchinson’s day, the principle remained the same: standing up for an animal whose life hung in the balance.
Many of today’s SF SPCA supporters know this dog’s name: Sido. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she became the face of a new era of animal advocacy, one that expanded the conversation from preventing cruelty to recognizing animals as family members whose lives have intrinsic value.
When Sido’s original guardian passed away in 1979, her will requested that Sido be euthanized. Her intent wasn’t cruel; instead, it was out of concern that no one would care for her beloved dog. When the SF SPCA learned of Sido’s situation—that she was a perfectly healthy and adoptable dog—there was still no legal path to save her. By law, she had to be euthanized. That’s when the SF SPCA’s then-President Richard Avanzino stepped in to save Sido and change the decision that stood between her and a long and happy life.
Avanzino and the SF SPCA fought a legal battle that made national headlines. On June 16, 1980, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. signed SB 2059, known as “Sido’s Law,” into law. The next day, Superior Court Judge Jay Pfotenhauer ruled that the provision ordering Sido’s euthanasia was “invalid.”
Sido was saved. And in the end, Avanzino adopted Sido.
The spring 1982 issue of Our Animals magazine describes Sido as the “grande dame” of the SF SPCA. During her days at the SF SPCA office, she enjoyed greeting visitors, attending meetings, and getting attention from staff and volunteers. In other words, a life that would never have existed if Avanzino and the SF SPCA hadn’t advocated for her.
Sido didn’t receive much media attention after her day in court, but she didn’t seem to mind. Fame may be fleeting, but her legacy lives on.
Soon after Sido’s legal victory, the SF SPCA created the Sido Pet Protection Program. This program continues Sido’s legacy by protecting pets if their guardian passes away. Enrolled cats and dogs receive lifelong veterinary support, behavioral care, and help finding a new family.
In reflecting on Sido’s story, Avanzino says that “[Sido] was a great companion and a wonderful emissary of our cause…and even today we are hearing about cases that are relying on her [case] to basically say that animals are special. They’re family members. They’re in our hearts. We have a right and a responsibility to care for them and care for them well.”
We have a lot to thank Sido for, and her legacy continues to inspire and protect pets everywhere. Sido’s case proved that advocacy could save lives and change systems. The SF SPCA has carried that lesson forward, working to ensure that more animals can access medical care, resources, and pathways to the loving homes they deserve.
Stockton: a turning point in advocacy
In the early 2010s, the SF SPCA was receiving animals from the Stockton Shelter, one of our Central Valley transfer partners, that were gravely ill with preventable diseases like parvo and distemper. Each outbreak forced our shelter into quarantine, halting adoptions and slowing lifesaving work. It became clear that if we wanted to protect animals in San Francisco, we had to help address the root causes upstream, where less than a third of animals in the Stockton Shelter were making it out alive.
We began sending veterinary teams to Stockton, where space was so limited that they worked out of a supply closet in the shelter, performing spay/neuters, treating illnesses, and providing urgent care. The results were promising, but it was only the beginning. We placed a dedicated veterinarian and registered veterinary technicians on-site, expanding treatment to include trauma cases, such as animals injured by cars or involved in dog fights. We also placed a rescue coordinator at the shelter to streamline transfers to San Francisco. With better medical care and a clearer pathway to adoption, lives were being saved.
Still, we hit a wall. Local ordinances prevented shelters from lowering or waiving adoption and redemption fees. Families who were ready to adopt or wanted to bring home their lost animal often couldn’t afford it.
That’s when the missing link became clear: advocacy.
Working alongside Stockton city officials, community members, and shelter staff, we pushed for changes to local ordinances that would give shelters the flexibility to adjust or waive fees. The results were immediate: adoption numbers increased and live outcomes rose almost overnight, soaring from 28% to 84%.
“The SF SPCA’s partnership gave us hope when things felt impossible,” says longtime supporter Alexis Spanos Ruhl. “They didn’t just send resources. They worked with our community to remove barriers and create real, lasting change. The difference has been transformative for Stockton’s animals and the people who love them.”
The Stockton Project taught us an important lesson: operational improvements are essential, but lasting change depends on removing barriers at the policy level. It was an innovative effort that saved lives and created a model that could be replicated in other communities facing similar challenges.
From Stockton to statewide: the birth of Shelter PALS
The lessons learned in Stockton reshaped our organization’s approach to advocacy. If outdated laws could halt lifesaving efforts, then meaningful change required going beyond shelter walls.
This blueprint—combining hands-on support with advocacy—evolved into what is now our advocacy program, Shelter Policy and Legal Services (Shelter PALS). Founded in 2020, this program brings legal and legislative expertise directly to the frontlines of animal welfare.
Today, Shelter PALS is led by Bruce Wagman of Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP—and yes, with a name like Wagman, it almost feels like fate. In addition to his private practice, he serves as Keith C. Wetmore Shelter PALS Special Counsel at the SF SPCA. Widely recognized as one of the leading animal lawyers in the country, Wagman has dedicated his career to the development of animal law, with an exclusive animal law practice for over 20 years. His practice includes working on behalf of companion animals, farm animals, wildlife, and animals used in research and entertainment. Along the way, he’s also adopted more than 30 shelter animals, turning his personal life into a reflection of his professional mission.
“We realized that helping animals one shelter at a time wasn’t enough. We had to tackle the legal barriers systematically,” says Wagman. “Shelter PALS allows us to support individual shelters while also writing new laws that impact animals across California. And once we got going, we expanded our policy work to improve the legal landscape for all sorts of companion animals, including cats, dogs, horses, guinea pigs, and roosters. It is revolutionary work that truly changes the future for all California’s companion animals.”
Today, Shelter PALS serves shelters and rescues across California, from Redding to San Diego, and from Tulare to Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, dismantling legal roadblocks to animal welfare, including cases involving hoarding, abuse, and neglect. Most shelters lack access to legal guidance, yet are forced to navigate complex questions about sheltering, liability, custody, and public health. Shelter PALS steps into that space to analyze legal challenges, create practical solutions, and turn them into tools shelters can actually use.
“Shelter leaders often face stress and confusion over state laws, struggling with interpretations and challenges that hinder their work,” says Jill Tucker, CEO of CalAnimals. “Shelter PALS has done a phenomenal job educating and supporting our members, and over time, policies have shifted to better support their lifesaving efforts. I’m profoundly grateful to the San Francisco SPCA for sponsoring this work and elevating our profession statewide.”
The result: stronger protections for shelter animals and all pets in California, clearer pathways for veterinary professionals, and better outcomes for the animals in their care.
Improving the system of care in San Francisco and California
While Shelter PALS tackles policy barriers statewide, many of our victories have a direct impact here in San Francisco because they help remove obstacles that stand between pets and the care they need.
At the height of the COVID-19 lockdown, one of the most urgent challenges was simply keeping doors open. Shelter PALS successfully pushed for veterinary professionals and shelter staff to be recognized as essential workers exempt from the lockdown, ensuring animal services could continue operating. This clarity allowed guardians to access lifesaving care for their pets during a time of crisis.
More recently, Shelter PALS, alongside the California Veterinary Medical Association and the San Diego Humane Society, co-sponsored AB 516 and SB 602, legislation that expands the role of Registered Veterinary Technicians (RVTs). These new laws will help address California’s veterinary care shortage by expanding the scope of work that RVTs and veterinary assistants can perform and authorizing RVTs to lead vaccine clinics without a veterinarian being present on-site. We advocated for these bills and more during our annual Animal Advocacy Day in April 2025, and Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 516 and SB 602 into law in the second half of this year.
The impact is immediate and far-reaching. By empowering RVTs and veterinary assistants, California can run more mobile and community-based clinics, particularly in under-resourced neighborhoods where affordable veterinary services are often out of reach. For San Francisco, this means more pets will receive timely vaccines and basic care. For the state as a whole, it’s a legal victory that strengthens the entire veterinary workforce and ensures healthier lives for local animals.
When free-roaming cats enter the courtroom
Another issue that has recently come to the public’s attention is how to best care for “community cats”—unowned cats that live primarily outdoors. These cats may be feral or friendly, but their level of socialization has long been a point of debate. Some groups argue that if a cat is friendly, it should be brought into a shelter and adopted, while ignoring the fact that there are too many cats and not enough adopters, resulting in a negative outcome for the cats. However, twenty years of research by experts in the veterinary community studying these issues have consistently found that a cat’s socialization status has no bearing on whether it will thrive outdoors.
Research on the best approach to managing the 30 to 90 million outdoor cats in America has consistently found that the most effective and humane way to manage community cat populations is to spay or neuter those cats, then return them to their outdoor homes (Hurley & Levy, 2022). Other solutions, such as mass euthanasia or attempting to place these cats when there are not enough homes to take them, are problematic in multiple ways and are not effective in reducing populations over time.
In a related lawsuit, the San Diego Humane Society (SDHS) was sued by opponents of its veterinarian-supported, modern community cat program. The opponents claimed that SDHS was required to take in all friendly outdoor cats, and the judge affirmatively denied that claim.
Throughout the four years the lawsuit was pending, Shelter PALS collaborated with an excellent legal team at O’Melveny to provide SDHS with pro bono legal services. Ultimately, the San Diego Superior Court ruled that the 2025 version of SDHS’s community cat program was legal. Thanks to the ruling, SDHS continues its lifesaving work in this area.
“We are so grateful to Shelter PALS and the San Francisco SPCA for their extraordinary support during our recent court battle,” says Gary Weitzman, President of the SDHS. “Their expertise and commitment made even the toughest challenges possible and created a lasting impact on our staff, our work, and the animals we serve.”
Honoring the past, driving the future
In 157 years, the SF SPCA has come a long way for animals. Every milestone in our advocacy work—from outlawing cruelty to expanding access to care—has been fueled by people who believe animals deserve better.
Through Shelter PALS, we provide shelters with free legal support thanks to the generosity of our donors and the dedication of our pro bono partners. With this community of animal advocates behind us, we’ll continue to break down barriers and create a more humane California, one victory at a time.
We are especially grateful for Barbara Wolfe’s commitment to animal welfare through the Barbara Wolfe Advocacy Fund, which makes our advocacy work possible
This story originally appeared in the fall 2025 issue of Our Animals magazine. Download a copy to read more.