Suss v. American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

MEMORANDUM ORDER

VINCENT L. BRODERICK, District Judge.. I

This case, brought under the Fourth Amendment, involves the need to reconcile human rights with the obligation to protect other species from harm caused by human activity. It also presents the question of whether exercise of sovereign powers of compulsion may be delegated to private entities. 1

After the discovery that a cat was trapped, between closely adjacent walls of two buildings, peace officers of a private organization, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (“ASPCA”), determined that saving the feline required breaking…