NORTH BAY ANIMAL SERVICES ABANDONS 114 SICK AND STARVING DOGS IN CLEARLAKE
On February 8, 2026, Clearlake Animal Association took over the contract to run the City of Clearlake animal shelter, after NBAS had run that shelter since 2020.
The new contractor was greeted with a miserable stench, and 114 emaciated, sickly, filthy dogs and puppies in cages full of soiled bedding, many with urine scalds and sores demonstrating severe neglect. The pictures below depict criminal animal cruelty.
These dogs were living in a horrific hoarding environment. 114 animals living in a facility meant to house no more than 30 dogs.
Many dogs were living in dog crates, 24/7, and sleeping in their feces and urine. Mama dogs were living with large litters of puppies, and in one case, two large grey pitbulls living in one crate. One outdoor kennel had five large dogs together – unsafe for the dogs and the kennel staff. The smell of ammonia reaked throughout the facility. The hoses for the washing machine are draining out the window and under the building. The play yard was completely covered with feces.
Several dogs are extremely emaciated. An elderly dog was lying and shivering on a cold floor looking like she was on death’s door. There are several aggressive dogs and a large litter of young puppies outside in a makeshift kennel covered in feces. Some dogs are matted and covered in feces. When NBAS lost the contract last August, management laid off all employees except 2 ACOs, who were expected to clean, feed, and care for all these animals.
Meanwhile, North Bay Animal Services still holds contracts with Petaluma, Sebastopol, Windsor, Cloverdale, and Calistoga, and the leaders of these cities continue to turn a blind eye to the abuses suffered by their cities animals at the hands of this organization.
UPDATE: NBAS HAS ISSUED A PRESS RELEASE BLAMING THE CITY OF CLEARLAKE AND THE NEW SERVICES PROVIDER FOR THE SITUATION.
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email us at info@petalumaarmyofkindness.orgThis is the history of animal sheltering in the City of Petaluma, from 2009 to the present.
It is a story of love, success, community support, and hard work.
It is also a story of greed, selfishness, and the brutal destruction of a truly stellar organization.
It is the story of a city bureaucracy turning a blind eye to corruption and dishonesty.
Click each section to read more.
2009 - Jeff Charter takes over management of Petaluma’s city-run animal shelter
2009 - Jeff Charter takes over management of Petaluma’s city-run animal shelter
2011 - Petaluma Animal Services Foundation (PASF) is created by Jeff Charter, Valerie Fausone, and Sue Davy
2011 - Petaluma Animal Services Foundation (PASF) is created by Jeff Charter, Valerie Fausone, and Sue Davy
The new non-profit proposes to the city of Petaluma that it take over animal services from the city, which has a high-kill shelter run by the police department and managed by Mr. Charter since 2009. Under Mr. Charter’s management, pet euthanasias have been drastically reduced, and the new non-profit wants to continue improving the care of the city’s animals.
“Most shelters use a very old model, and there is not much advancement in methods,” said Jeff Charter, manager of the shelter. Many shelters are dealing with limited staff resources, and are forced to put down pets that they can not immediately find a home for, he said.
“Most shelters see euthanasia as a human workforce management tool,” said Valerie Fausone, volunteer coordinator and volunteer dog trainer at the shelter. In fact, in Los Angeles, 650 pets are euthanized every year, she said.
“We are trying to stop that nonsense,” said Fausone.
…
When Charter became manager of the shelter in August of 2009, he put an emphasis on giving each pet individual attention to determine its needs. Some come with back-stories of abuse or neglect, and some have an unknown history. But volunteers give them temperament tests, train them to manage bad habits and let them exercise and socialize. Potential adopters are asked about their own living situation and habits to find a perfect fit for the animal. Euthanasia is now seen as an option of last resort.
Part of the success has come from trying to change the public perception of what an animal shelter is, said Fausone. Rather than a place for unwanted animals, it is a “bridge between here and there,” she said.
“Instead of a dog jail, we are really a college, and those are the dorms,” Fausone said about the kennels. “The animals are not ‘less than’ they are not deficient, they are just homeless,” she said.
2012 - PASF’s second bid for the City of Petaluma’s contract is successful
2012 - PASF’s second bid for the City of Petaluma’s contract is successful
The non-profit takes over management of the shelter on August 1st. With Valerie Fausone handling social media and fundraising, and Jeff Charter as executive director, the shelter immediately shows a great improvement in its “Live Release Rate”. Conventional shelter wisdom holds that an “open admission” shelter that is bound by contract to take in ALL homeless animals for a municipality, (not just those deemed most adoptable), must euthanize many animals in the interest of space and money. PASF immediately defies this conventional wisdom. https://www.petaluma360.com/article/news/petaluma-animal-shelter-is-increasing-its-adoptions/ https://www.petaluma360.com/article/news/a-world-class-animal-shelter/
2013 - PASF is embraced by the community
2013 - PASF is embraced by the community
The Petaluma Animal Shelter’s reputation grows – with stellar social media outreach, fundraising, and animal placement success. But not all in of those in animal welfare are proponents of PASF’s no-kill philosophy.
The former longtime director, Nancee Tavares, opposed the change. She had concerns over who was running dog training and whether dangerous animals were being adopted out in a quest to be “no-kill.”
“I’m not in favor of feral or outdoor cats – they just decimate the bird population,” she said. “Now they have the barn cat program and they’re not euthanizing anything. They’re going more toward a no-kill, when, you know what, some dogs need to go to heaven. There are too many good dogs out there.”
May 2017 - Lead Animal Control Officer Mark Scott accuses Jeff Charter of embezzling
May 2017 - Lead Animal Control Officer Mark Scott accuses Jeff Charter of embezzling
In May of 2017, Animal Control Officer Mark Scott, who until this time had been a trusted employee who was often spotlighted in the shelter’s social media outreach, went to the Petaluma Police Department with accusations of embezzlement by Executive Director Jeff Charter. The focus of his accusations were that Mr. Charter had bought a $3000 used motorboat that he was using for his own purposes. Mr. Charter countered that the boat had been purchased for animal water rescue, since 2016 had been a year of heavy flooding in the region, and that he had only used it twice, in order to get used to operating it.
Mr. Scott further accused Mr. Charter of using Foundation money to take his family on a trip to Michigan in June 2016. Mr. Charter countered that although indeed his wife and the four youngest of their children had accompanied him on a paid trip to a a Society of Animal Welfare Administrators conference, he had reimbursed the foundation for all of their travel expenses.
The PASF Board of Directors immediately hired a reputable local accounting firm who performed a full forensic audit of the shelter’s books. Aside from a few suggested improvements in accounting procedures, the firm found no discrepancies in the shelter’s books that would indicate misdeeds by Mr. Charter, while verifying that Mr. Charter had reimbursed the Foundation for his family’s airfare and lodging on the trip to Michigan.
While Mr. Charter was cleared of financial malfeasance by this audit, it was found that Mr. Scott had been using the company debit card to purchase food items and other sundries at gas stations while filling up shelter vehicles, and that Mr. Scott had used the company debit card for travel expenses, and later requested reimbursement for the same travel expenses.
The independent audit’s findings can be found starting on page 171 of this document.
The accounting firm’s recommendations may be found here.
October through December 2017 - Mark Scott and two other NBAS employees publicly accuse Jeff Charter of racial and sexual harrassment.
October through December 2017 - Mark Scott and two other NBAS employees publicly accuse Jeff Charter of racial and sexual harrassment.
In September 2017, Mark Scott filed a formal complaint with the PASF board of directors stating that Jeff Charter had racially harassed him. The Board of Directors immediately hired a law firm to do a full investigation of the allegations, including interviews with all shelter employees.
Here is a redacted version of the racial harassment investigation.
Here are some of the conclusions of this investigation:
This investigation completely cleared Mr. Charter of these allegations, although the board was unable to make the details of the investigation public because to do so would violate employee privacy laws.
Despite these investigation results, in December 2017, three employees including Mr. Scott*, and a former employee went to the local press accusing Mr. Charter of behavior that made them feel uncomfortable, including using racially and sexually charged language they say created a hostile work environment.
Since the accusations of sexual harassment had not been brought before the Board of Directors, the Board immediatly launched a second full investigation of these allegations.
Here is a redacted version of the sexual harassment investigation.
And here are the investigator’s findings:
In both cases, Mr. Charter was completely exonerated.
Here are the news reports based on the allegations of the complaining employees.* https://www.petaluma360.com/article/news/petaluma-animal-shelter-workplace-under-scrutiny/ https://www.petaluma360.com/article/opinion/change-needed-at-petaluma-animal-shelter/* Note that all three of the employees who made public allegations soon became founding employees of North Bay Animal Services.
Founding Board of Directors of NBAS
January 2018 - Sue Davy founds North Bay Animal Services (NBAS)
January 2018 - Sue Davy founds North Bay Animal Services (NBAS)
February 2018 - Mark Scott violates DEA regulations and then lies about the incident
February 2018 - Mark Scott violates DEA regulations and then lies about the incident
In February 2018, Animal Control Officer Mark Scott violated both DEA regulations and PASF protocol by using the schedule III controlled substance Telazol and a dart gun to sedate a dog during a police incident.
An investigation led by members of PASF board of directors determined that:
1. Mr. Scott had kept controlled substances including Telazol in his office and truck, and that these drugs were improperly stored and transported.
2. In 2015, PASF had outsourced its veterinary services, and as they no longer had on on-site veterinarian, they cleared all prescription drugs and controlled substances from the shelter. At the time Mr. Scott was charged with the task of donating all usable controlled substances to the new veterinary contractor. Rather than comply with this directive, Mr. Scott retained some of the presciption medications, and stored them in unsecured locations in the shelter. No other shelter employee was aware that he had done so.
3. Mr. Scott illegally and without veterinary supervision improperly administered expired Telazol to a dog.
The full investigation report is here.
April 2018 - NBAS, spearheaded by PASF Employee Mark Scott, bids for Petaluma animal control contract
April 2018 - NBAS, spearheaded by PASF Employee Mark Scott, bids for Petaluma animal control contract
As a result of this competitive behavior with his employer, Mark Scott’s employment at PASF is terminated.
December 31, 2018 - Mark Scott and two other former employees file a lawsuit against Jeff Charter and PASF
December 31, 2018 - Mark Scott and two other former employees file a lawsuit against Jeff Charter and PASF
In this lawsuit, Mark Scott and two other former employees of PASF who became employees of NBAS file a lawsuit against Jeff Charter and PASF. In this lawsuit the charges against Mr. Charter are amplified from the earlier accusations. Now Mr. Charter himself is accused of creating a hostile work environment at PASF by making extremely inappropriate sexist and racist remarks, refusing to pay overtime or allow breaks, embezzling, and encouraging drug use among employees. Since PASF had effectively been put out of business by NBAS, there were no funds to fight these allegations, and the legal firm representing PASF’s insurance carrier settled this lawsuit for a small amount of money.
Here are some excerpts from this lawsuit:
The full text of the lawsuit is here, and the attorney’s response is here.
April, 2019 - The Petaluma shelter’s adoption rate plummets under NBAS
April, 2019 - The Petaluma shelter’s adoption rate plummets under NBAS
In the first six months of NBAS’s tenure, their self-reported adoption rate was already lagging PASF’s by 26%. PASF had left the shelter empty – finding homes for all the animals in its care before the August 1, 2018 turnover.
Six months later, the shelter was already beyond capacity, with 88 animals in its care.
Not only that, but wildlife and stray intakes were drastically lower, and there were already misleading discrepancies in the number of euthanasias reported by NBAS, as well as in other self-reported metrics.
A full analysis of the situation is here.
May 19, 2019 - Mark Scott obtains a Veterinary Assistant Controlled Substance License
May 19, 2019 - Mark Scott obtains a Veterinary Assistant Controlled Substance License
In May of 2019, a licensed veterinarian (“Dr. E”) sponsored North Bay Animal Services as a “Veterinary Premise”, specifically as a vaccine clinic. The same veterinarian is listed as Mark Scott’s supervising veterinarian for a Veterinary Assistant Controlled Substance license.
In order to obtain a Veterinary Assistant Controlled Substance license, the licensee is required to have a supervising veterinarian.
On September 3, 2019, the initial veterinarian, Dr. E, disassociated themself from NBAS.
On January 23, 2020, a second veterinarian (“Dr. H”) signed on as supervising veterinarian, for the veterinary premise and presumabely as Mark Scott’s supervising veterinarian.
On August 6, 2020, the second veterinarian, Dr. H, disassociated themself from NBAS.
January, 2020 - NBAS opens a thrift store
January, 2020 - NBAS opens a thrift store
The thrift store is advertised on the NBAS Facebook page, and the public is asked to bring donations to the shelter. NBAS claims that all proceeds from the thrift store benefit the shelter. See post on Facebook.
The thrift store also makes this claim on Craigslist:
Oddly, this thrift store operates under a different EIN from that of NBAS and neither NBAS nor the City of Petaluma has responded to requests for information about the amount of proceeds paid to NBAS by this entity. Thrifty Paws is a DBA of North Bay Spark – EIN 84-3416925. NBAS’s EIN is 82-4614629.
In the 2018-2020 financial audit released by the shelter, there is no mention of money transfered to the shelter by the thrift store. There is a line item for “in kind contributions”, but these contributions are itemized as Facility Usage and Transportation Equipment.
November, 2020 - Two dogs are euthanized by NBAS without the knowledge of their owner
November, 2020 - Two dogs are euthanized by NBAS without the knowledge of their owner
On November 8, 2020 two dogs were brought to the shelter by a woman who was not their owner, but was actually the sister of the former partner of the dogs’ owner. The dogs had been left in the care of the owner’s former partner when she escaped his household with her baby daughter due to domestic violence earlier that year, and was unable to bring the dogs with her.
The woman who brought the dogs in claimed that the dogs were vicious and had killed livestock, although she provided neither proof of this allegation nor proof of her ownership of the dogs.
North Bay Animal Services euthanized the two dogs the following day without making an attempt to contact their owner, although the microchip information for both dogs showed that the person who brought the dogs to the shelter was NOT their owner.
These pet deaths were a violation of California’s Hayden Act, which specifies that an owner must be notified immediately when an animal is taken into the shelter, and that the animal will be held for five days before being transferred or euthanized.
Here is what the heartbroken owner wrote:
December, 2020 - A missing cat is euthanized within hours of being picked up
December, 2020 - A missing cat is euthanized within hours of being picked up
On December 12, 2020, an elderly pet cat was picked up by ACO Russ Marshall, and was euthanized that same evening at the request of Mark Scott. The owner of this cat had been looking for her for days, posting missing cat notices and asking neighbors if they had seen her. On the evening of the 12th, neighbors a few blocks away found her in their yard and called animal control, thinking that the cat would be kept safe at the shelter, particularly because the shelter advertised itself as “no-kill”.
Shortly after the cat was picked up, the finders learned of the missing cat and reached out to her owner, telling him that she had been taken to the shelter.
NBAS briefly advertised the cat on their “found animals” page, and the owner saw this listing, but by this time the shelter was closed for the evening.
The following morning the owner called the shelter hoping to pick up his cat as soon as possible.
At this point he was told that she had been euthanized the night before.
The shelter attempted to explain this act by claiming that the cat was “suffering irredeemably”. However the release paperwork obtained by the owner shows that the Mark Scott brought the cat in specifically to be euthanized.
This pet death was another clear violation of the Hayden Act.
The owner of the cat has filed a lawsuit against NBAS and has asked for help funding the lawsuit. News coverage of the lawsuit is here: https://www.petaluma360.com/article/news/petaluma-man-files-lawsuit-against-north-bay-animal-servicesHere is the complaint that was filed.
The fundraiser is here.
Here are some more details:
The complainants 18 year old pet cat which was picked up near his house and taken to the shelter, uninjured and not sick (per the medical exam recorded in official records), was illegally and unjustifiably euthanized just two hours after pickup. This is an egregious violation of The Hayden Act (The law which protects animals and regulates shelters in CA.) The law states that no treatable animal is to be euthanized. It further states that all strays are to be taken to the shelter and held for 6 days in order to give the owner time to find it, or a rescue agency or adopter time to take it. And if that animal is in need of medical care the shelter is to bring it to a veterinarian to provide that medical care. The only exception is for animals who have been so terribly injured, or are so terribly sick and suffering as a result that they can be classified as “irremediably suffering” meaning suffering from a condition that is “impossible to remedy or put right.” Animals hit by a car and severely injured are a good example if when this applies.
Once the owner realized the shelter had taken his cat he made contact via email and phone calls to that shelter. This happened early the next morning after the cat had been picked up. The owner who had been looking for the cat saw its picture posted on the website under “found cats.” His calls and emails went unanswered. He drove to the shelter to pick up the cat. But the shelter was closed. This was on a Sunday. He was unaware they had already euthanized his cat. He waited for a phone call on Monday which finally did come from the director of the animal shelter who informed him he was too late and the cat was already dead. When questioned about why they had euthanized the cat, the director could give no legitimate reason, simply saying the cat was cold and hungry. The owner was upset and made the director aware of that. The director then knew he had a problem on his hands and began taking measures to cover up the truth of what he had done.
The Director notified staff at the shelter and the veterinarian who did the euthanasia of his phone conversation with the owner. This is recorded in the official call logs that were finally obtained along with the medical records after a months long battle with the shelter who at first had illegally and unjustifiably refused to turn them over to the owner. Within hours after that phone call, five different staff members began altering the official medical records at both the shelter and the animal hospital where the euthanasia was done. The statements they were putting in, which coincidentally all seemed to mirror each other, as if they had been coached on what to write, were trying to justify the euthanasia. But the software does not allow them to alter the official medical exam report, only the notes and other records. So they had no way of covering up that medical exam report. This changing and altering and falsifying of official records is another blatant violation of The Hayden Act.
About this time many other people were coming forward with similar stories about the animal shelter and the Director. This, due to social media posts spreading far and wide. As people began to talk and share information, the true extent of the deceit and illegal acts of the Director began to be apparent. An investigation into shelter operations was needed. Many folks went to the city council and repeatedly aired concerns about the shelter, and the animals, and asked for that investigation to be done. But it fell on deaf ears every time. It became apparent the citizens themselves would have to take the lead if anything was to change. They knew they had a moral obligation. A civic duty to do something. Because it was becoming apparent that what had been done to that one cat was not just a one time thing, but business as usual. Failing to provide medical care and shelter for many animals, and euthanizing them instead. Just to save money. So the lawsuit was filed and the discovery phase was open. This is when the bulk of the investigation happened.
Additional evidence was discovered during the discovery phase. See list below: (Note: Our investigation encompassed only cats, only in Petaluma. We simply did not have enough resources to investigate all animal cases including dogs and wildlife in all seven jurisdictions. Petaluma, Windsor, Healdsburg, Clearlake, Cloverdale, Calistoga, Sebastopol. So keep in mind when you review the numbers below, that’s a very limited amount of cases. The true euthanasia numbers for all animals in all seven jurisdictions would be much higher.)
1. The Director who was fired from his previous job as an Animal Control Officer for a number of reasons. Dereliction of duty, lying to supervisors, and being found illegally in possession of Telazol (a regulated controlled substance used to euthanize animals) has recently fraudulently and illegally obtained a “Veterinary Assistant Controlled Substances Permit.” This permit might have given him a way to obtain more Telazol which is only supposed to be kept and used at a veterinary office with a veterinarian present. The Director was questioned under oath about this license and he repeatedly lied and denied having it. We obtained a copy of his active and recently renewed license. He had no explanation. The fear is that if he has been able to obtain Telazol again, he could be euthanizing animals in the field and writing them up as “DOA”, or “Died during transport.” This exact thing has been alleged against him by former employees of his.
2. The Director stated under oath that he went through the Academy to become a “Certified Animal Control Officer.” This is false. He never went through that training. The only training he’s had was on the job training at his previous job which he was later fired from. He does hold a PC832 certificate which is easily obtained in a short two day course. And this is totally different that the Academy ACO training he claims to have. More lies. And he is woefully unqualified to hold a job as an Animal Control Officer, much less the Director of an animal shelter.
3. The communication logs revealed that the Director told the Veterinarian that euthanized the cat that caused the lawsuit to be filed that the cats owner himself said he had intended to have the cat euthanized. This was false.
4. In the calendar year 2020 the shelter reported euthanizing just 3 cats in Petaluma. But veterinary records we obtained prove at least 26. 21 (80.7%) of those euthanasias were performed during holding period mandated by The Hayden Act. At least 8 (30.7%) of those euthanasias were done on treatable cats that should have been kept alive. These are blatant violations of The Hayden Act.
5. In the calendar year 2019 the shelter reported euthanizing just 12 cats in Petaluma. But veterinary records we obtained prove at least 25. 20 (80%) of those euthanasias were performed during holding period mandated by The Hayden Act. At least 8 (40%) of those euthanasias were done on treatable cats that should have been kept alive. These are blatant violations of The Hayden Act.
6. “No Kill Shelter.” This Director falsely claims his shelter is “no kill.” (90% or higher live release rate.). If the true statistics were to be calculated it would be shown this shelter does not meet the requirement to be called no kill.
Summary:
This “No Kill Animal Shelter” claim is something that makes him very popular amongst the general public as well as the municipal governments that give him lucrative new contracts in more jurisdictions. He’s up to seven now. But most of all, by calling it a “No Kill Animal Shelter” it brings in tons of donations. So the motive here is money. The motive behind falsifying records and reporting false statistics is to be able to call it a No Kill Animal Shelter in order to get more donations and more jurisdictions. The motive is also money for all the cases of failure to provide expensive medical care in favor of cheap euthanasia for animals. And we are talking about millions of dollars per year being fed into that shelter. Where is the money going? Where does it all go? This director is alleged to have been embezzling money. This topic is separate from the lawsuit that had been filed. But it needs to be investigated, considering all the other criminal acts that have been uncovered. What is needed here is a dual forensic audit. A forensic audit of the finances and a forensic audit of the animal records. That will be the only way to uncover the truth and the crimes.
January 2021 - NBAS provides false information about the number of animals it has euthanized
January 2021 - NBAS provides false information about the number of animals it has euthanized
North Bay Animal Services has repeatedly provided information to the city and to the public that is later proven to be false by documents obtained via the Public Records Act.
NBAS claims to be a “no-kill” shelter, and publishes statistics claiming that they euthanize a very small number of animals every year. For instance, the statistics published on their website and presented to the City of Petaluma in an Animal Services Advisory Committee (ASAC) meeting, claim that only five animals were euthanized in 2020. This claim is on the NBAS website, here: https://northbayanimalservices.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Asilomar-2020.pdf
However, when we requested a list of the animals euthanized in 2020, they provided us with the following, showing 17 dogs and cats euthanized:
Finally, Mark Scott presented the following slide at the most recent Petaluma Animal Advisory Services committee meeting – displayed by Assistant City Manager Brian Cochran through screensharing:
This incredibly confusing slide seems to indicate that 47 cats and 5 dogs were euthanized in 2020.
As further indication that the animal intake and outcome numbers being reported to the city and to the public by NBAS are false, one can simply look at their self-reported animal intake and outcome numbers, which show the number of “live outcomes” steadily decreasing from 573 in 2019 (the first full year that NBAS ran the shelter), to 320 in 2021. In comparison, the former animal services contractor for the city of Petaluma recorded 1001 “live outcomes” in 2017.
These numbers are from an image that was downloaded from the NBAS website: https://northbayanimalservices.org/shelter-animals-count-the-national-database/.
Looking at these numbers, it is clear that the reported “live animal” outcomes are in no way keeping up with their reported intakes. NBAS has provided no reasonable explanation for these missing animals.
January 21 2021 - Citizens’ concerns about the ethics and performance of NBAS fall on deaf ears
January 21 2021 - Citizens’ concerns about the ethics and performance of NBAS fall on deaf ears
On January 21, 2021, the City of Petaluma held its quarterly Animal Services Advisory Committee meeting via Zoom.
One citizen compared the reporting and responsiveness standards promised in NBAS’s proposal to the city, to the current reality, and another questioned city staff about why NBAS was not asked to fulfill its promised level of reporting and community responsivenss.
Another citizen discussed the illegal euthanasia of his cat (described above):
Both of these public comments were largely dismissed by assistant city manager Brian Cochran, whose job it is to oversee the animal shelter.
The minutes for this meeting are here, and the recorded video is here.
May 12 2021 - Emotional questions from citizens are once again not addressed
May 12 2021 - Emotional questions from citizens are once again not addressed
July 2021 - NBAS alters and deletes the records of euthanized animals
July 2021 - NBAS alters and deletes the records of euthanized animals
In April 2021, in order to shed some light on multiple discrepancies such as this, we requested all animal intake data for a period including the month of December 2020. The large spreadsheet we received included 78 intake records for December 2020.
In July 2021 we once again requested animal intake data, and once again included December 2020 in the time span of our request. Much to our surprise, the spreadsheet provided by NBAS now included 74 intake records for December 2020.
Upon close comparison, we discovered that five intake records related to four animals had been deleted from the data. Oddly, an additional record appeared in the data that had not shown up when we requested this data in March.
We then requested detailed records for the three cats and one dog who had “gone missing” from the December 2020 data. The records NBAS provided, after a very lengthy delay, indicated that two of the cats and the dog had been euthanized, while the other cat appeared to have an extremely long and confusing medical history involving many intakes for examinations.
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NBAS uses the PetPoint system to track all animal intakes and outcomes, as well as calls to animal services and donations. When NBAS employees enter data into this system, it is stored at a central database controlled by the company PetPoint. The data that is stored includes a “changelog” that indicates when each record was added, deleted, or changed, and also indicates which employee made this change.
Users of this software have different permissions levels. For instance an employee may only be able to add information, and this information is by default timestamped with the date and time that the event was entered into the system. A user with “admin” privileges, however, can modify and delete records, and can also override the timestamp of an event. When a change is made to a record, the “creation date” of the record is automatically updated to the current date and time, and this creation date can NOT be overridden, even by an admin-level user.
In examining a set of intake records provided to us by NBAS, we found that 337 of the 1352 records we received, or 25%, had been altered between two minutes and TWO MONTHS after the final outcome for the animal had been reported.
August 11 2021 - Citizens with complaints are accused of bullying. NBAS does not attend meeting
August 11 2021 - Citizens with complaints are accused of bullying. NBAS does not attend meeting
The meeting package includes a written public comment from a citizen who suspects that NBAS has falsified animal records and reports. The writer cites nine cases of animal records that don’t make sense.
In a shocking and disturbing turn of events, Assistant City Manager Brian Cochran announces that no representative from NBAS will attend the online meeting because they claim to have been bullied.
Due to the absense of an NBAS representative, Assistant City Manager Brian Cochran presents the NBAS mid-year report. A citizen points out huge discrepancies between the above report and animal data provided in response to a FOIA request.
Here is the link to the minutes for this meeting, and here is a video of the meeting itself. Public comment followed by accusations of bullying begin at 3:30 in the video. Mr. Cochran’s announcement of NBAS’s absence begins at 20:30.
May 11 2022 - Citizens complain of non-responsiveness regarding complaints and questions
May 11 2022 - Citizens complain of non-responsiveness regarding complaints and questions
June 20 2022 - Petaluma City Council adopts Brian Cochran’s recommendation that the Animal Services Advisory Committee be dissolved
June 20 2022 - Petaluma City Council adopts Brian Cochran’s recommendation that the Animal Services Advisory Committee be dissolved
This vote gives the public no recourse for voicing concerns about Animal Services, except in front of City Council, where the Animal Services contractor will give reports annually rather than quarterly. This leaves it up to the public to closely watch the weekly City Council meeting agenda for the opportunity to comment on the contractor’s annual report.
Here is the segment of the meeting where this issue is discussed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg8HMmm0aEo&t=10222s
September 2022 - A litter of seven valuable French Bulldog puppies arrives at the shelter.
September 2022 - A litter of seven valuable French Bulldog puppies arrives at the shelter.
At least four of these unaltered puppies are adopted out to city employees, including city staff and police, without being advertised to the general public. Two of these puppies, worth thousands of dollars each, are kept by Mark Scott.
Click below to view video: French Bulldog Puppies at NBAS
October 7, 2022 - Mark Scott illegally renews his Veterinary Assistant Controlled Substance License
October 7, 2022 - Mark Scott illegally renews his Veterinary Assistant Controlled Substance License
(see May, 2019)
Without a supervising veterinarian, NBAS could no longer be a veterinary premises, and its license expired on August 31, 2021.
Despite no longer having a supervising veterinarian, Mark Scott illegally renewed his Veterinary Assistant Controlled Substance License on October 2, 2020, and again on October 7, 2022.
October 30, 2022 - NBAS’s rating on Yelp plummets to two stars
October 30, 2022 - NBAS’s rating on Yelp plummets to two stars
February 2023 - Veterinary records show that NBAS has euthanized nearly ten times as many animals as they have claimed
February 2023 - Veterinary records show that NBAS has euthanized nearly ten times as many animals as they have claimed
These records were obtained in the course of the civil lawsuit regarding the illegal euthanasia of the cat Kaytie in December 2020. Many of these animals have no matching record in the animal intake data provided in response to FOIA requests from citizens. This means that either the animal intake records for euthanized animals were deleted, or that animals were euthanized without the hold period required by California law. Details of these euthanasia are on the tab titled “Vet Records”, in this spreadsheet.
Among the notes from the vets was this very telling comment about Mark Scott’s behavior.
March 2023 - We receive heartbreaking reports from the Clearlake shelter, which has been managed by NBAS since June 2022
March 2023 - We receive heartbreaking reports from the Clearlake shelter, which has been managed by NBAS since June 2022
A group of concerned citizens including former shelter employees, and a former state of CA Humane Officer went to the chief of police to present evidence and report a host of violations including: Egregiously inhumane living conditions for the dogs (left in cages for months at a time outside in the freezing cold, cages coated with feces and urine frozen yellow on their blankets from the freezing cold, no medical care provided at all even for dogs with serious injuries including broken bones, adopting out dogs and cats illegally without them being spayed or neutered, illegally seizing animals from citizens without cause then giving the citizen no paperwork or any way of being able to reclaim the pet. See pictures of shelter conditions above.
When a Clearlake police officer attempted to help a citizen whose dogs were illegally seized get information about the whereabouts of her pets, shelter staff told the officer that they are a non profit organization and therefore operate under different laws and don’t have to tell the officer anything.
April 4, 2023 - NBAS posts a community letter claiming that they are the victim of a smear campaign.
April 4, 2023 - NBAS posts a community letter claiming that they are the victim of a smear campaign.
In this letter they claim that the discrepancy in euthanasia numbers is due to:
1. Euthanasia of animals from jurisdictions outside Petaluma whereas their Asilomar records are only for animals found within Petaluma.
2. Human error
3. Veterinarians not entering outcomes correctly.
They further claim that “(t)hrough a behind-the-scenes smear campaign, volunteers and members of the public are being offered future employment at the shelter, in hopes that the lies will cause the City leadership to cancel the NBAS contract.”
April 6, 2023 - Citizens of Clearlake speak out against NBAS at a City Council meeting
April 6, 2023 - Citizens of Clearlake speak out against NBAS at a City Council meeting
April 16, 2023 - NBAS delays spaying and neutering adult pets in foster-to-adopt homes
April 16, 2023 - NBAS delays spaying and neutering adult pets in foster-to-adopt homes
A Petaluma resident turns to NextDoor to voice frustration about not being able to arrange a spay appointment, nor adoption, for kittens that she has been fostering for over three months. Many others chime in with similar stories.
June 1, 2023 - Grand theft in Sebastopol
June 1, 2023 - Grand theft in Sebastopol
“Jane Doe” is a 75 year old woman living in a senior housing complex in Sebastopol. Her landlord sets a strict limit on the number of pets allowed in a unit. Ms. Doe has historically bred exotic cats, but given her living situation these cats lived with friends and relatives. On June 1, 2023, the cats were temporarily in the custody of Ms. Doe due to an emergency situation involving their foster home.
Within hours of the cats’ arrival, property manager “LL” knocked on Ms. Doe’s door, claiming that there was an emergency. When Ms. Doe opened the door, the property manager and a NBAS animal control officer entered her residence without a warrant and seized the five adult cats and thirteen kittens that Ms. Doe owns and that were temporarily in her possession at that location. These cats and kittens are purebred Siamese and Tonkinese cats. Ms. Doe had been charging a “rehoming fee” of $500 per kitten to their adopters. Thus these animals were worth approximately $9000.
Ms. Doe was not issued a citation and there was no claim that she was mistreating or neglecting the animals in any way. Ms. Doe was issued a “Notice of Impound” which was shown by me to Officer Levesque. The Notice of Impound indicates that animals may be redeemed by their owner in exchange for “impound and license fees” and that these fees must be paid IN CASH ONLY. The notice also states that the owner may request a hearing, and the owner will be subject to boarding fees only if the impoundment is found to be lawful.
It is presumed that the cats and kittens were transported to the animal shelter in Petaluma. Ms. Doe took the bus to Petaluma every day for at least a week, attempting to redeem her animals. She requested an Appeal Hearing as directed on the Notice of Impound, but never received a hearing date from NBAS. Each time Ms. Doe visited the shelter she was told that she needed to meet with executive director Mark Scott, but he was never available. When she was finally able to meet with him, he told her that she could redeem the animals for a fee of $9000. Since she did not have that amount of cash available, Ms. Doe offered to work at the shelter cleaning kennels in exchange for her animals. Ms. Doe claims that Mr. Scott laughed at her offer and told her “you can’t afford these cats”.
Ms. Doe also visited the Sebastopol Police Department and Petaluma City Hall in an attempt to recover her property.
After approximately six weeks, one adult cat was returned to Ms. Doe. The remaining 17 cats and kittens, worth $8500, remain missing. Ms. Doe requested that NBAS give her information about their whereabouts, but she received no information whatsoever.
To summarize:
1. Ms. Doe’s residence was entered without a warrant, and property worth $9000 was illegally taken from her possession.
2. Ms. Doe was not issued a citation, nor was there any indication that the animals in her possession were neglected nor being treated cruelly.
3. When Ms. Doe attempted to recover her property she was rebuffed by those who should have protected her and upheld her civil rights.
4. Ms. Doe is a vulnerable elder with limited computer skills, and this behavior toward her constitutes elder abuse as well as grand theft.
July 1, 2023 - Clearlake animal data shows one in three intakes have no recorded outcome
July 1, 2023 - Clearlake animal data shows one in three intakes have no recorded outcome
On July 1, 2023, we received four spreadsheets containing animal intakes, outcomes, case records, and medical data from NBAS.
I initially requested this data on April 25th, 2023, and the wording of the request was:
* All animal intake reports, including detailed outcome, for all dogs and cats that have been taken into the Clearlake shelter between Nov 1, 2021 and May 1, 2023.
* All case records for animal control cases between Nov 1, 2021 and May 1, 2023.
* All veterinary records for dogs and cats taken into the shelter between Nov 1, 2021 and May 1, 2023.
We found it interesting that we received intake and outcome data on separate spreadsheets, as PetPoint is able to generate a report that lists each animal intake with its resulting outcome on as a single line. If the outcome part of that spreadsheet is blank, it means that the animal does not yet have an outcome, meaning it is still in the shelter. Since these are all Clearlake intakes, animals without an outcome should still be in the Clearlake shelter.
In order to match intakes and outcomes, we created an Excel lookup to combine the two spreadsheets into one. Of the 963 dog and cat intakes recorded, 151 one of them do not appear in the outcome spreadsheet.
Additionally, 166 dogs and cats had an outcome of “transferred out”, with City of Clearlake listed as as the “Jurisdiction Out”. This makes no sense as an outcome. If you add these outcomes to the 151 intakes without matching outcomes, that’s a total of 317 animals with unknown outcomes, or 33% of the total dog and cat intakes.
Here is the spreadsheet that shows the combined intakes and outcomes. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1c3KoWR4XazwiK1cROZqLGSwFGokphfKF9lJCNwgwOzA/edit?usp=sharing
This spreadsheet is sorted by intake date. The intakes that don’t have matching outcomes are highlighted in pink and those with a “transferred to Clearlake” outcome are highlighted in blue.
A number of the intakes without outcomes are puppies and kittens, many of which were taken in well over a year ago. It’s extremely surprising that there is no outcome listed for these young animals, because puppies and kittens are quite adoptable. From the data we were sent, there is absolutely no way of knowing what became of these animals.
Also of note: there were 12 records of cremations, recorded as “Service In”. This type of record should indicate that an owner brought a deceased pet to the shelter for low-cost cremation services. The correct outcome for these intakes should be “Service Out”, which would occur when the owner picked up the ashes of their pet. None of the cremations have this outcome. Many have “stray – returned to owner” outcomes, and many of these outcomes have a timestamp of immediately after the intake, which is not a reasonable turnaround time for a cremation. Many of the animal descriptions for these “cremations” match earlier intake records or case records for sick or injured animals.
Similarly to the intakes, of the 874 dog and cat outcomes, 66 do not have matching intake records for the listed animal IDs. In the cases of all the missing outcomes, the animal ID of the animal in question appears to pre-date the IDs of the first animals taken into the Clearlake shelter in November 2021. PetPoint assigns animal IDs sequentially, and all the animals taken in by NBAS share the same PetPoint account, so this means that these animals were assigned a Clearlake outcome without having a Clearlake intake. Were these animals transferred to Clearlake from Petaluma?
We find these results extremely alarming.
UPDATE – on August 7, we received data from May 1, 2023 through July 26, 2023. The online spreadsheets have been updated accordingly.
July 19, 2023 - NBAS uses a City of Petaluma bus to transfer 20 dogs and 30 cats from a Stockton shelter
July 19, 2023 - NBAS uses a City of Petaluma bus to transfer 20 dogs and 30 cats from a Stockton shelter
In a Facebook post that was shared by the City of Petaluma, NBAS announced that it had used a city bus and driver to bring 50 animals from Stockton to Petaluma – a five hour round trip. The purported reason for this publicity stunt was that the shelter had discovered that 10 Stockton dogs were scheduled to be euthanized for space. Anyone familiar with Central Valley shelters will tell you that this is a very common occurrance. It’s unknown why NBAS chose this day and this location to perform such a grand rescue.
Meanwhile, in the shelter NBAS manages in Clearlake CA, there are 74 dogs, including 20 puppies, housed in atrocious and dangerously crowded conditions in a shelter that was built for 18 dogs.
Why did NBAS spend numerous man-hours and city funds to retrieve animals from a distant location, when the Clearlake shelter is suffering so badly from understaffing and overcrowding? Where the City of Clearlake pays NBAS $375,000 per year for animal services?
Citizens of the City of Clearlake are extremely upset about this situation.
Here is the entire Facebook post about this event. Note that critical comments, as always, have simply been removed from this post.
July 27, 2023 - Data shows that 327 dogs and cats taken into the Petaluma shelter since Jan 1, 2021 do not have recorded outcomes
July 27, 2023 - Data shows that 327 dogs and cats taken into the Petaluma shelter since Jan 1, 2021 do not have recorded outcomes
The requested animal intakes, outcomes, cases, and medical records can be seen here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bsX7klYVVXtPFadwm9HlHq8gscHjkHXK0ISCssQfzxM/edit?usp=sharing
The following analysis was sent to the Petaluma city manager, assistant city manager, assistant city attorney, mayor and city council. There was no response from any of them.
These records bring up many, many questions, including but not limited to:1. Why are there 327 intake records that do not have a matching outcome record? Normally if there is an intake without an outcome, it indicates that the animal in question is still in the shelter. However 327 animals FAR exceeds the shelter’s capacity, and many of these animals were taken into the shelter well over a year ago. 327 animals is over one in seven of the non-wildlife intakes for the shelter during this time.
On the first page of the spreadsheet linked above, I have highlighted each intake without a matching outcome in pink. I have marked each record in which the animal intake was more than 100 days before the record request as “suspicious”, along with many other records that don’t make sense. What has become of the animals without outcomes?
2. Why were there no spays nor neuters between Jan 31, 2023 and Jul 27, 2023 (the last date of the records I requested)? This fact may explain why there has been a great deal of outcry on social media about unaltered animals in “foster to adopt” for very long periods of time. These medical records also point to the general lack of medical care that is described repeatedly in YELP reviews: https://www.yelp.com/biz/north-bay-animal-services-petaluma.
The medical records are included on the last page of the spreadsheet linked above.
3. What about the dozens of other highly implausible records? An injured cat is picked up by animal control, then 20 minutes later its outcome is “service out- boarding”. On October 31st 2021, at exactly 6pm, nineteen animals are taken in by Mark Scott, with their intakes described as “seized” and the reason being “cruelty”. These animals include three turkeys, two chickens, a duck and an opossum. This incident does not appear in the animal control case records. The following night, again at exactly 6 pm, two cats, a turkey, and 16 chickens are seized for cruelty. Again, there is no record of the incident in the case records.
These and over two hundred other suspicious records are described in the NOTES section of the first page of the spreadsheet linked above.
December 18, 2023 - NBAS presents its annual report to the Petaluma City Council
December 18, 2023 - NBAS presents its annual report to the Petaluma City Council
A couple big issues here:
1. At 2:08:40 in the video below, Ms. Davy claims that the animal tracking software PetPoint used by NBAS “does not have a good way of tracking medical appointments”. This is a false statement, and in fact NBAS has provided medical records as entered into the PetPoint software. OF NOTE: In the data they provided in response to a FOIA request, there were ZERO recorded spays or neuters between Feb 1, 2023, and July 27, 2023.
See the “Spay/Neuter” page of the animal data provided by NBAS for dates between Jan 1, 2021 and April 27, 2023.
Ms. Davy states that animal medical records were tracked on a shared spreadsheet. This makes no sense.
2. The Financial Statement linked below refers to two loans made to the organization, the interest-free loan from executive director Mark Scott for an amount of over $48,000, and a second loan to the organization, secured by Mr. Scott, for an amount of $50,000, made on October 7, 2022. There is no explanation for the purpose of these loans.
ADDITIONALLY – once again there is no line item in the financials showing income from the TWO thrift stores that NBAS operates.
View 2022 Annual Report – Download View 2021 and 2022 Financial Statements – Download View PowerPoint Presentation – Download View Responses to Pre-meeting Questions from Council – Download
January 17, 2024 - We discover that a dog has been bred and given birth while at the shelter
January 17, 2024 - We discover that a dog has been bred and given birth while at the shelter
On January 24th 2023, nine one month old puppies were seized in Clearlake along with several adult dogs. On January 31st 2023 two of these adults and eight of the puppies were transferred to the Petaluma shelter.
These owner of these dogs was given no hearing or chance to recover her animals. But she has been tracking them through the system as well as she can.
Today she discovered on NBAS’s adoptable dogs page that one of these year-old dogs has had puppies. According to data I have received from NBAS dog has been in the shelter since she was one month old. Therefore she became pregnant while in the shelter.*
This fact violates every principle of animal sheltering and services. A main purpose of an animal shelter is to PREVENT litters of unwanted puppies. The fact that a dog could become pregnant while in the shelter demonstrates a dereliction of duties that is simply mindblowing.
Here is the evidence: https://northbayanimalservices.org/dogs/
The dog Maggie, above, has an animal ID of 51937232. Her description notes that she has recently had puppies, and this is also clear by her appearance.
Above are four two month old puppies listed on the same page. These are presumably her puppies.
I have a great deal of NBAS animal data, and I easily found Maggie by her ID in data from both Clearlake and Petaluma. Here are the two spreadsheets:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1c3KoWR4XazwiK1cROZqLGSwFGokphfKF9lJCNwgwOzA/edit?usp=sharing (Maggie is on line 929)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bsX7klYVVXtPFadwm9HlHq8gscHjkHXK0ISCssQfzxM/edit?usp=sharing (Maggie is on line 187)
Here are screenshots from these spreadsheets:
Note that Maggie was born on December 27, 2022, so with two month old puppies she must have become pregnant while quite young. Clearly both she and a male dog in the shelter – quite likely one of her brothers – were neither spayed nor neutered by NBAS.
The City of Petaluma staff and council was notified of this occurrence and they did not respond.*** According to Assistant City Manager Brian Cochran, Maggie was in “foster to adopt” when she became pregnant at approximately eight months of age. Mr. Cochran offered no clear explanation for why she had not been spayed before reaching this age. He also offered no clear explanation for why the records I have show that she was transfered to the Petaluma shelter on Jan 31 2023, but show no outcome for her as of July 27th. If she were moved to a “foster to adopt” home, there should have been an outcome record indicating this.
** Actually Mr. Cochran replied nine days later with the explanation that Maggie was allegedly not in the shelter when she became pregnant.
February 7th, 2024 - A Petaluma shelter volunteer writes an email about shelter conditions. The following day NBAS tells her they have suspended her as a volunteer
February 7th, 2024 - A Petaluma shelter volunteer writes an email about shelter conditions. The following day NBAS tells her they have suspended her as a volunteer
On February 6th, 2024, a shelter volunteer wrote the following email to the City of Petaluma. On February 7th, 2024 NBAS called to tell her that the shelter had suspended all volunteers. Later, when she called back, they said that actually they had only suspended her “and a few others”.
Her email was as follows, and included the photos below, which were taken on February 5th, 2024.
Urgent Appeal for Intervention at North Bay Animal Services
Dear Mayor Mcdonald and the City Council of Petaluma,
I am writing to express my deep concern and dismay regarding the rapidly declining and deplorable conditions at North Bay Animal Services under private ownership of Mark Scott. As a dedicated Petaluma resident and an individual with over 15 years of experience in volunteering for various reputable shelters, I feel compelled to bring to your attention the severe neglect, if not outright animal cruelty, taking place at this facility.
My involvement in animal welfare spans across multiple organizations, including the East Bay SPCA, Oregon Humane Society, Hopalong Animal Rescue, Marin Humane, and the Petaluma Animal Shelter while it was under the city’s ownership. I have invested hundreds of hours in volunteer work, fostered numerous animals, and contributed to various aspects of shelter operations, such as event planning, photography, fundraising, and volunteer training programs. Throughout this time, I have never seen practices nor conditions such as I have seen in my short time volunteering at North Bay Animal Services.
My first experience volunteering with animals was as a teenager at Petaluma Animal Shelter. As such, it deeply saddens me to witness the drastic deterioration of North Bay Animal Services, once a beacon of excellence in animal care. The current state of the facility, under private ownership, is in stark contrast to the state-of-the-art care and facilities and the wonderful, educational experience I remember from my teenage years.
Below are specific instances that illustrate the dire conditions and practices observed during my short tenure as a volunteer at North Bay Animal Services:
Health and Hygiene Practices:
Lack of regular deep cleaning, with dirt and feces on walls, as well as vines growing from the ceiling.
Unsafe/uncleaned ventilation system that may be hazardous to animals and staff
Lack of adequate and timely cleaning of animal holding areas, resulting in unsafe and unhygienic environments for animals.
Absence of training or follow-through on hygiene safety measures for volunteers and visitors, increasing the risk of disease transmission among animals.
Many sick, symptomatic, and contagious animals left untreated in common areas, resulting in transmission of disease to healthy animals.
Improperly stored medical equipment in molding, rotting, wet boxes left outdoors.
Facility Maintenance:
Poor maintenance of critical equipment essential for animal welfare.
Chipping, peeling paint in public and private areas of the facility
Broken or outdated facilities affecting the overall well-being of the animals.
Ignoring broken equipment crucial to the operations and hygiene within the facility.
No proper storage or organization of food, medical supplies, equipment, or donations, with food and equipment stored on the floor or outdoors or left haphazardly.
Poorly maintained animal holding areas, including trailers with no insulation and severe water damage.
Unsafe, rusting, dirty ventilation/HVAC throughout the space
Exposed/hanging wires in open holes in walls in multiple areas of the facility
Inefficient processing and allocation of donated items, resulting in donations left outside in the rain/heat for days, possibly affecting the safety and efficacy of these items.
Failure to provide continual clean, safe areas for animals, with only once-daily cleaning of animal holdings and kennels by staff/volunteers resulting in animals left without food/water or clean spaces for many hours and overnight.
Volunteer and Foster Programs:
Lack of oversight, orientation, training and management for volunteers or fosters by staff.
Absence of categorization of volunteer/foster duties, resulting in unmet needs within the facility.
Inadequate educational resources for volunteers and fosters, including job descriptions, training courses or videos, or staff/volunteer contact information.
Lack of communication and resources for foster parents and volunteers, resulting in foster pets with unmet needs.
Failure to release medical history of foster/adoptable pets to foster parents.
Failure to organize or pay for medical treatments, procedures, or basic needs for animals in foster.
Marketing, Fundraising and Animal Care Programs:
Absence of essential programs for fundraising and marketing.
Unclear allocation of funds, with little to no improvement in the care of animals or facilities.
Lack of community outreach and the continuation of important programs or events benefitting the animals, such as mobile adoptions, fundraisers, campaigns, or newsletters.
Unused facility spaces that could be utilized by outreach to other shelters or organizations at capacity and animals at risk of euthanization.
Medical Care:
Delayed and inadequate medical care for shelter and foster animals, including critical medical episodes.
Poor quarantine and welfare communication procedures, contributing to the spread of diseases.
Lack of medications or equipment to ensure the health and wellbeing of the animals.
Extreme backlog in spay/neuter cases, resulting in foster-to-adopt animals being sent out unaltered, potentially adding to the population of stray or unwanted animals in the city and putting unnecessary hardship onto the foster/adopter.
A strained relationship with local veterinary technicians due to unpaid bills, resulting in a lack of critical care for animals, and lack of partnerships with Petaluma veterinarians.
Security and Safety:
Lack of oversight and background checks for volunteers and fosters.
Lack of basic safety procedures in animal interaction, with visitors to the shelter allowed to interact with the animals without identification, supervision, or any basic paperwork to ensure their good intentions or intent to adopt.
Absence of basic protocols to ensure the safety of animals and visitors.
Lack of reporting for bites, volunteer injuries.
Lack of reporting of behavioral or medical issues of animals.
Operations, Leadership, and Oversight:
A director without prior experience in administration of shelter operations, particularly in the creation and oversight of policies and procedures within the space.
No impartial oversight of facilities, funds, donations, or animals under the leadership of Mark Scott or the board.
Lack of transparency in the use of funds, particularly the $500,000 taxpayer dollars allotted to North Bay Animal Services annually.
Poor customer service/communication with customers, adopters, fosters, and volunteers, resulting in a deluge of negative experiences as seen on social media platforms, reviews, and community posts.
Additionally, I feel compelled to bring to your attention specific incidents I witnessed in the few short months I’ve acted as a volunteer that highlight the severity of the situation:
A critically ill cat, vomiting green bile and exhibiting a lack of appetite and lethargy, was left without any veterinary care due to technical ownership issues. This animal was not given any treatment either to alleviate its symptoms nor to determine the nature of his sickness. It was left to suffer until ultimately it recovered and it was adopted out.
Another critically ill cat with a suspected urinary blockage (a medical emergency) was forced to wait at least a week for proper treatment. The only change during this time was a switch to a urinary diet, which would do nothing to treat the condition, nor the symptoms/pain this animal would have experienced. Its symptoms, including urine retention, straining, poor appetite, and labored breathing were brought to the attention of the director for many days. It was only granted a visit to the vet after it began to urinate blood droplets and multiple staff and volunteers interceded on its behalf.
A kitten stolen by a visitor, with no immediate action taken to address the situation. The staff did not notice an animal missing from its facilities for an entire 24 hour period, and it was only noticed by a volunteer the following morning. An incident of this nature would not have occurred with adequate security measures in place.
Puppies who were previously healthy exhibiting limping/neurological symptoms. When this was reported to staff, I received a call hours after my shift from the administration NBAS asking if “everything was ok with me” and stated that I was “asking a lot of questions about the health of the animals” and that they were “concerned”. Reporting symptoms of animals is a basic duty of volunteers at all other animal facilities I have worked with. At NBAS, it felt as if I was being punished and warned for reporting said symptoms.
These incidents, along with the overall neglect and deteriorating conditions, demand immediate attention and intervention. In that vein, I have learned of other distressing stories from volunteers and staff who have witnessed a sharp decline in conditions and the neglect of animals at North Bay Animal Services. Many dedicated individuals have left, unwilling to be associated with an operation that neglects its duties and its responsibility to the animals. The staff itself has indicated to me a feeling of hopelessness and inability to make effective changes, even in leadership positions, to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the animals and the facility.
I implore you, as the Mayor of Petaluma and its governing body, to take urgent action to rectify the situation at North Bay Animal Services. Our tax dollars are meant to support a facility that upholds the highest standards of care for animals, and it is disheartening to see them potentially misused or squandered. As a citizen, I am very proud of my hometown, and do not want to see our city’s reputation tarnished in this manner, nor the animals under our care neglected or mistreated. I am prepared to escalate this matter to the media if immediate steps are not taken to address the issues outlined in this letter.
I appreciate your attention to this matter and trust that you will prioritize the well-being of the animals at North Bay Animal Services.
May 29, 2025 - The Sonoma County Grand Jury Issues a Scathing Report on NBAS
May 29, 2025 - The Sonoma County Grand Jury Issues a Scathing Report on NBAS
READ THE REPORT HERE
If your city is among those who are still in contract with NBAS, this would be a good time to write to your city staff and city council. The Sonoma County Grand Jury has found that the negligence of NBAS and lack of oversight from the cities the shelter contracts with represent a threat to public safety.
Here is an excerpt from the report summary:
Here are more details from the report: In response, the City of Petaluma issued this statement in support of North Bay Animal Services.
August 7, 2025 - The Clearlake City Council Votes to Terminate its Contract with NBAS
August 7, 2025 - The Clearlake City Council Votes to Terminate its Contract with NBAS
September, 2025 - The City of Petaluma Hires a Contractor to Provide Guidance to NBAS
September, 2025 - The City of Petaluma Hires a Contractor to Provide Guidance to NBAS
The City of Petaluma responded to the Grand Jury report above by hiring a consultant to make recommendations on improving shelter operations, specifically to:
assist the City and NBAS in making improvements in several key areas including:
organizational structure and oversight; shelter operations and animal care;
behavioral assessments and staff training resources;
and licensing performance and rabies control.
The above is from page 8 of this document.
The person they hired was previously the interim director of Sonoma Humane.
Unfortunately although he could see that shelter conditions were absolutely terrible, Mark Scott refused to share ANY information about shelter operations or financials with him.
Because of this, the contractor realized that he would be unable to help in any way, and in November he resigned from his position.
The City of Petaluma has the right, by contract, to all the information the contractor needed, including detailed bank statements, but for some reason they declined to exert legal pressure to obtain this information.
The shelter’s refusal to provide this information is highly suspicious, as is the fact that Mark Scott does the bookkeeping for the shelter in addition to being its executive director.
2018 to Present - Related Businesses
2018 to Present - Related Businesses
There are two animal products companies related to Mark Scott. Superior Pet Products Animal Lovers Pet Products
Note that although Animal Lovers Pet Products is owned by someone named Alex Sladowski, both businesses have the same address and phone number, and Mr. Sladowski passed away in 2022.
The address in Cotati is actually a building owned by a different business. The owners of the business are annoyed by visitors and mail for Mr. Scott.
We suspect that Mr. Scott has opened bank accounts in the name of one or both of these pet products businesses, and is using them to pay himself, by purchasing “pet products” using North Bay Animal Service’s bank account.
Additionally, Mark Scott and/or Sue Davy have registered the following businesses with the secretary of state:North Bay Animal Services – EIN: 82-4614629, registered 2/06/18 North Bay Spark – EIN: 84-3416925, registered 10/04/19 Thrifty Paws – registered 12/02/23 ReMAP (Rehoming Moms and Puppies ) – registered twice, in June and September 2022
North Bay Spark was originally the nonprofit running the thrift store in Cotati called Thrifty Paws. North Bay Animal Services has repeatedly alleged that all profits from this thrift store benefited the shelter, but in the shelter financials there is no record of income from this source.
Donations to the thrift store are dropped off at the shelter, and shelter employees, who are paid by NBAS, are put to work loading these donations onto trucks.
The “donate” button on Sue Davy’s dog rescue website https://remapnb.org/ previously linked to a PayPal account with the name Thrifty Paws. Within the past year that link was changed to a PayPal account for the new non-profit ReMap.
These outside businesses are a conflict of interest, at best, and more likely are a way to redirect income from NBAS to the pockets of Mark Scott and Sue Davy.
Here are the tax documents for NBAS: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/824614629
Besides the lack of a line item for thrift store revenue, the 2022 return does not mention the $100,000 income from this grant: https://www.californiaforallanimals.com/grants/open-grants/.
A full financial audit including bank statements and detailed expenditure records would reveal the extent of this potential fraud.
This investigation completely cleared Mr. Charter of these allegations, although the board was unable to make the details of the investigation public because to do so would violate employee privacy laws.
Despite these investigation results, in December 2017, three employees including Mr. Scott*, and a former employee went to the local press accusing Mr. Charter of behavior that made them feel uncomfortable, including using racially and sexually charged language they say created a hostile work environment.
Since the accusations of sexual harassment had not been brought before the Board of Directors, the Board immediatly launched a second full investigation of these allegations.
Here is a redacted version of 
In both cases, Mr. Charter was completely exonerated.
Here are the news reports based on the allegations of the complaining employees.*
The full text of the lawsuit is 
On September 3, 2019, the initial veterinarian, Dr. E, disassociated themself from NBAS.
On January 23, 2020, a second veterinarian (“Dr. H”) signed on as supervising veterinarian, for the veterinary premise and presumabely as Mark Scott’s supervising veterinarian.
On August 6, 2020, the second veterinarian, Dr. H, disassociated themself from NBAS.
Oddly, this thrift store operates under a different EIN from that of NBAS and neither NBAS nor the City of Petaluma has responded to requests for information about the amount of proceeds paid to NBAS by this entity. Thrifty Paws is a DBA of North Bay Spark – EIN 
These pet deaths were a violation of California’s Hayden Act, which specifies that an owner must be notified immediately when an animal is taken into the shelter, and that the animal will be held for five days before being transferred or euthanized.
Here is what the heartbroken owner wrote:
This pet death was another clear violation of the Hayden Act.
The owner of the cat has filed a lawsuit against NBAS and has asked for help funding the lawsuit. News coverage of the lawsuit is here:
However, when we requested a list of the animals euthanized in 2020, they provided us with the following, showing 17 dogs and cats euthanized:
Finally, Mark Scott presented the following slide at the most recent Petaluma Animal Advisory Services committee meeting – displayed by Assistant City Manager Brian Cochran through screensharing:
Looking at these numbers, it is clear that the reported “live animal” outcomes are in no way keeping up with their reported intakes. NBAS has provided no reasonable explanation for these missing animals.
Here is the link to the 
Despite no longer having a supervising veterinarian, Mark Scott illegally renewed his Veterinary Assistant Controlled Substance License on October 2, 2020, and again on October 7, 2022.
Here is the entire 
The dog Maggie, above, has an animal ID of 51937232. Her description notes that she has recently had puppies, and this is also clear by her appearance.
Note that Maggie was born on December 27, 2022, so with two month old puppies she must have become pregnant while quite young. Clearly both she and a male dog in the shelter – quite likely one of her brothers – were neither spayed nor neutered by NBAS.
The City of Petaluma staff and council was notified of this occurrence and they did not respond.**
* According to Assistant City Manager Brian Cochran, Maggie was in “foster to adopt” when she became pregnant at approximately eight months of age. Mr. Cochran offered no clear explanation for why she had not been spayed before reaching this age. He also offered no clear explanation for why the records I have show that she was transfered to the Petaluma shelter on Jan 31 2023, but show no outcome for her as of July 27th. If she were moved to a “foster to adopt” home, there should have been an outcome record indicating this.
** Actually Mr. Cochran replied nine days later with the explanation that Maggie was allegedly not in the shelter when she became pregnant.
Here are more details from the report: