Today’s newsletter is presented by Kaiser Permanente.
Good morning, San Diego ☀️
Here’s what we have for you today:
- SDSU is planning to build 250 apartments for seniors — citizens, not students. Although, they can get in on campus programming.
- In-N-Out has a one-minute rule for when customers pull up to the drive-thru window. The city does not. A proposed College Area location of the chain is still waiting for permits, over a year after it was slated to open.
Tessa Balc
Audience engagement producer
Top story
Animal welfare groups ‘overwhelmed’ after spate of mass surrenders, rescues
There have been quite a few large-scale animal surrenders over the past few months. Like the massive Julian rescue that brought over 700 animals to the Humane Society, and the record-breaking Valley Center rescue nearly a month ago, in which officials rescued over 800 birds.
It isn’t all that surprising that local shelters are far beyond their capacity.
Last week the Humane Society ran out of space in its main San Diego campus. The County Department of Animal Services typically holds a maximum of 600 animals during its busiest times over the summer. Last Friday, the county had over 1,000 animals in its care.
Between the Humane Society’s campuses, there are about 2,000 animals under the organization’s care.
The Humane Society says it is committed to not euthanizing for behavior; however, this can make periods of low adoption rates even more difficult. Right now, they’re having trouble adopting out large dogs.
Shelter staff have some ideas why this is, and they attribute it to the housing crisis. Outside of the logistics of having a large dog in an apartment, sometimes people aren’t able to keep their pets because of stipulations from landlords. On top of this, veterinary bills can really put a hole in your pocket.
It’s external factors like these that make the shelter’s efforts to make adoption more accessible, like slashing fees in half, an uphill battle. Even after putting an urgent call out for adoptions last week, and lowering the associated fees, they saw fewer adoptions than they typically do on a weekend.
They’ll continue waiving half of adoption fees throughout the month, and on Aug. 29, they will waive all adoption fees.
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Stories you should know about
🏗️ SDSU Chabad House demolition set to make way for 8-story student housing: The former Jewish student center will be demolished to make way for the 78-unit building.
🎶 Black Heart to Latin jams to guitar god Patrick Yandall — Live music this week: Minneapolis-based Soul Asylum, southern rockers The Tedeschi Trucks Band and flautist Lori Bell will all be in town.
📝 County releases public report on Otay Mesa Detention Center conditions, citing illnesses and neglect: Areas of concern included an individual not receiving a needed medical device, not having vaccines in stock and a lack of coordination with the County on tuberculosis-related cases.
🧪 Opinion: San Diego biotechs in holding pattern over NIH funding freeze
What else we’re reading
🧠 Take some skin cells and UC San Diego scientists can grow a brain organoid out of it. Amid a separate, energy-consuming quest toward Artificial Generative Intelligence, biologists are working in their own realm, exploring questions of consciousness with lab-grown brains that can fit in a bee’s noggin. (WIRED)
🪖 On the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been extended with no return date, several sailors have tried to go overboard. (Military Times)
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Mid-Week News Quiz
Have you kept up with Times of San Diego this week? Let’s see!
☄️ What’s the name of the annual meteor shower that will be most visible tonight into tomorrow morning?
A) Lyrid
B) Orionid
C) Perseid
D) Draconid
Reply first with the correct answer to earn a shoutout in tomorrow’s newsletter.