Coast Reporter: September 1, 2006: Wilson Creek shelter in crises, say former staff

Christine Wood, staff writer

The entire staff and the volunteer force of the Sunshine Coast branch of the SPCA have resigned within the last several months citing managerial issues and mistreatment of the animal in care at the Wilson Creek shelter.

Representatives from the group of 23 staff members and volunteers who have left the shelter since January, 2006 met with Coast Reporter last week to talk about their concerns.

Issues were raised around cats being left in cages for extended periods of time, a banning of wet cat food and filtered water, demeaning treatment of workers and a failure to neuter a male dog that ultimately ended in the dog’s death by euthanasia.

“We collectively believe the [Sunshine Coast] SPCA to be in crisis,” said Sandi Lacey, a senior staff member at the local shelter who resigned in January after 10 years of service.

The problems seem to stem from when a new branch manager was stationed at the Sunshine Coast shelter in November of 2005.

“She started making changes right away. We have had a line of new managers in there. In seven years we had six different managers and every time someone new came they wanted to make their own mark,” said Elisabeth Dixon, shelter worker for seven years.

Former volunteers and staff say those changes were not beneficial to the animals and some cases seemed cruel.

In a branch meeting held June 16, 2006, attended by BC SPCA general manager of operations Bob Busch and general manager of volunteer resources Brian Houlihan, volunteers and staff identified a number of their specific concerns.

All were aimed at the new manager and her running of the shelter.

Under fundraising it was noted the branch manager had given little if any support to the fundraising committee’s initiatives.

“The branch manager failed to attend many planning meetings prior to fundraising events and gives no follow up support. A small example of her negative behaviour was her berating the committee for placing the traditional thank you ad in the paper because she didn’t pre-approve the purchase,” the minutes said.

The minutes also noted “meaningful fundraising has ceased and much community support has been lost.”

Staff said the manager’s dismissive style and lack of communication is a continuing frustration,” and said “the situation at the shelter is rapidly deteriorating.”

Under animal welfare and safety concerns staff said, “It is strongly felt that the welfare of the animals and their safe environment is being jeopardized because knowledgeable, experienced staff and volunteers are quitting from stress. Standards of animal care have dropped because of the branch manager’s newly imposed policies. Examples are: cats kept in cages with no freedom or socializing for days and days; the more nutritious wet cat food is denied, even when donated by volunteers; discontinuation of filtered water for cats provided at the volunteer’s expense and time; animals that enter the shelter with special needs are no longer allowed required care, despite volunteers’ willingness to provide it; and great reluctance to have dogs and cats neutered and spayed in a timely fashion.”

In one instance staff said there was a very tense situation in the dog kennels because there were four un-neutered males and two females coming into or going out of heat.

Two fights broke out between the two males and one point a staff member was bitten.

“As a result the dog, Ruckus, considered a good ‘wiggle-bum’ dog, was euthanised, which did not have to happen.”

The meeting was scheduled to discuss these issues after staff and volunteers spent months raising their concerns to senior B.C. SPCA staff.

“When we heard about the issues we asked everyone to make a list of their concerns and we came out and met with every single person who voiced a concern,” said Lori Chortyk, director of communications for the B.C. SPCA. “We really tried to address all the ones that were valid, and the only two concerns we could verify were around a backload of filing that had to be entered into the system and some staff not entering data properly.”

She said there were no grounds for dismissal found for the branch manager and praised her efforts to “get the shelter back up to standard.”

“We have at all shelters animal health protocols that are set by our chief veterinarian. We have 37 branches and they all have their own way of doing things but care can never fall below a certain standard. It’s clear the protocols at the Sunshine Coast shelter had actually slipped,” she said.

Those protocols deem cats must stay in cages for 10 days when first entering the shelter to avoid the spread of disease, wet food and filtered water can not be served to animals, and all animals are spayed or neutered “as soon as possible.”

Chortyk said the reason to deny animals filtered water and wet food is that they may not receive the same type of food once adopted, and the change can cause intestinal distress.

“That was actually a protocol that had slipped and I know it sounds mean but it really is for the welfare of the animals,” she said.

In the case of the dog that was euthanized, Chortyk said it was actually neutered about three weeks before it was put down.

“I talked to the branch manager about that and she said the lack of neutering was not a factor in why the dog was euthanized. It was actually a result of that dog’s temperament. It had a history of attacking people,” she said.

Stories differ when told by former staff and volunteers, and there doesn’t seem to be an area of common ground between the two parties.

“I think there was just a lot of resistance to the new manager and there were probably mistakes made on both sides,” Chortyk said.

She noted each complaint was investigated but said, “By that time, things at the shelter had polarized.

She thinks some of the problems may have stemmed form the volunteers not being allowed to run the shelter the way they had in the past under old management.

“That’s what happens when volunteers want to control operations,” she noted.

Ex-volunteers and staff members admit they many have wanted some control of the goings-on at the shelter because many of them had been there for many years and they felt they understood the needs of the animals in care.

“We cared about the animals. We wanted them to be comfortable and make it a little less scary for them. We had experience and knew what worked and what didn’t but our experience didn’t seem to count for anything,” Lacey said.

All of the 23 shelter workers who resigned say it was a very difficult decision and they wish things could have been different but that working under the new manager and witnessing the changes at the shelter were “too much.”

“We could not in good conscience be a part of what’s going on there,” Dixon said.

Chortyk noted there are now new volunteers and staff at the shelter and said things are running smoothly.