Animal sanctuary approved for La Honda

After years of planning, the Peninsula Humane Society and SPCA, the leading animal welfare nonprofit in San Mateo County, received the approval it needed to build its animal sanctuary on an 11.5-acre portion of land on the rural coast. The site is part of a larger 216-acre site just south of La Honda owned by PHS that will be left largely untouched. 

On the portion of the site that will be developed will be 70 dog cottages, 14 cat cottages, a 2,000-square-foot farm animal barn, a 6,500-square-foot administration and veterinary medical facility, a 660-square-foot maintenance building and a 995-square-foot, two-bedroom residence for caretakers.  

Of the dog cottages, 66 will be 192 square feet of heated indoor space each with an additional 450 square feet of fenced in outdoor space. Another four cottages will be slightly larger at 320 square feet of indoor space and an additional 900 square feet of outdoor space. 

Cat cottages will be smaller, at 320 square feet of heated indoor space each. Most of the cat cottages will share a 26,000-square-foot outdoor space while another four cottages for senior cats will have their own 900-square-foot outdoor space. 

Once complete, the site will operate seven days a week and be overseen by three volunteers and 10 staff members including six animal care staff, one veterinary staff, one behavior and training staff, one facility maintenance staff and a sanctuary director. 

“We are super excited that the Planning Commission approved our permit for the animal sanctuary,” PHS President Anthony Tansimore said in an email statement Wednesday. “This has been a long-term vision of ours to save more animals in our community and we are grateful for the commission’s support. The sanctuary will be a place where animals that cannot be adopted out for various reasons live out their lives in peace.” 

More than 5,500 animals are cared for by PHS annually. The organization asserts that 100% of healthy and adoptable animals they receive are rehoused into loving and caring homes and its reduced euthanasia by 99% since 1970.

In 2022, a total of 474 animals were euthanized by PHS, 160 dogs and 314 cats, according to its annual report. In 1970, the earliest year of data PHS has on record, about 37,680 animals were euthanized — 15,884 dogs and 21,798 cats. 

Despite the substantial progress the organization has made over its decades of operation in the county, it still faces pressures from advocacy groups that argue the organization could be doing more to further reduce the number of animals euthanized locally. 

Just last June, Partners in Animal Care and Compassion, an animal advocacy group based in Half Moon Bay made up in part by former PHS volunteers, called on the organization to adjust its behavioral assessments and care of animals to be more in line with industry standards after PHS put down a stray 70-pound German shepherd named Fluffy. 

At the time, PHS officials defended the decision, which they said was made by experienced staff after an adequate review. Still, Tansimore said the animal sanctuary would be another solution for preventing animals from being put down. 

The commission, which voted 4-0 with Commissioner Carlos Serrano-Quan absent to approve the proposal, shared little feedback during Wednesday’s meeting aside from praising the project as an important amenity for the county. 

The commission’s vote grants PHS a resource management permit, use permit and kennel and cattery permit, and adopts a mitigated negative declaration under the California Environmental Quality Act that identifies how the project applicant and developer will mitigate any possible negative effects constitution will have on the site. 

“We all recognize there’s a huge need for something like this,” Commissioner Manuel Ramirez said.