The Center For Animal Health And Welfare

I volunteered at the sheltered for approx 1.5 years and was asked to join the board in May 2021 by the Executive Director (ED) and despite my better judgement i agreed as i felt that i could help effect change on issues i and many others had been voicing oncerns about to this shelters director such as the lack of transparency to the public. I served as a board member from June 2021 to Dec 2021 when i was (secretly) voted off by 5 of the 6 board members. 1 quit shortly after my removal as he was also secretly left out of the vote to remove me, (That meeting was held by zoom and neither he not i was let into the zoom until the vote had been decided by the remaining 5.) I did nothing other than bring to light serious questions about animal care, safety practices, public fund solicitation, programming, policies and the qualifications, instability, and questionable actions of the ED. None of the 5 board members currently serving have spent more than 15 minutes in the past year on the shelter premisis to volunteer for anything therefore their imparting direction seems less than sensible. I know this as i did spend countless hours volunteering over the year prior to my joining the board. The ED is not forthcoming, hiding behind gaslighting. Deception is used to avoid having to explain her actions or lack of actions. There has been massive staff and volunteer turnover since her arrival 5 yrs ago and the remaining board members turn a blind eye despite receiving numerous written requests to review her management skills as it pertains to leadership qualities and employee relations. Ex staff and volunteers have been requesting an independent forensic audit, requests for review of staff turnover and reasoning, and transparency with issues like the whistle blower policy, volunteer handbook, employee handbook, social media policy, etc. Staff and volunteers are harrassed and bullied and then terminated for speaking up told they violated a policy they know nothing of and are not presented with. If you ask any questions or make any suggestions you are told never to return at the request of the ED. When contacting the ED or board members its termed harrassment and the return email threatens legal action. As a no kill shelter, last fall a dog was euthanized without a vet on staff, at the direction of the ED and board president (who would not have known the dog if he fell over him). The shelter used to have a behavior committee (that included a dog trainer) but despite public requests for the dog to be at the very least reviewed the ED gave the order to euthanize. There was not and currently remains NO veterinarian on staff, so who euthanized the dog and how? The ED took to her shelterpodcast after the dog was euthanized and told the public to not question the staff and to not discuss it, In America though we have the freedom of speech. There remains no veterinarian on staff and they are not operating a clinic any longer. The only staffer qualified to dispense any type of medical care without calling in a veterinarian, is the veterinary tech. The ED harasses, bullys publicly on her shelter podcast (Pawfee Talk/posted on the shelter facebook page weekly, see for yourself) volunteers, ex staff, public businesses in the county etc. She uses suffering animals to publicly raise funds and then the money is not used for the animal it was raised for, it's all deception and very disturbing. She will make a video of a distraught dog howling and crying in the kennel and then say.. "but it raises a lot of money". The remaining kennel and cat staff carrying out the daily tasks are exceptionally caring and deserve accolades for working under this tyrannical dictator. if there was a no star rating that is what i would chose, all due to leadership. Their public board meeting is April 19, 2022 6pm through zoom, the link is yet to be published ( transparency) but check their website in the coming days, unless of course they hide that

I volunteered at this place for many years. Unfortunately the real truth is that the management has done some questionable things, including terminating volunteers and staff that truly cared because they just expressed their concerns, or even worse, because they had to take time off for a death in the family. Since the management has done this, there are little staff and volunteers left. This creates a very bad situation for the animals, especially the dogs that are a little harder to walk and bonded with those people who were terminated. I wonder if they even get out to use the bathroom every day? In addition, like the post said before, there are issues with how the dogs are separated, communication, heating, snow removal, how dogs are kept when sick like with kennel cough, how they get taken care of medically since the one vet resigned and I don't even know who is there now. However the worst is how they euthanized a dog without it going before all of the board members for a vote, especially the dog trainer at the time who could have probably helped him but wasn't given the chance to. I also question how this dog was euthanized because of no vets being there on a regular basis. These are just some main concerns. I do still encourage people to adopt because as you can see these dogs really need to get out of there asap! One final note...We brought all these concerns and more to the board and nothing at all was done, which is why we had to create our own platform and go to social media.

Volunteered for many years and dog staff are wonderful, but poor management sometimes causes very bad environment for the animals and the staff...feel bad for them both, lots of complaints have been taken to the board from former staff/volunteers and current volunteers and it doesn't appear like things have been done to improve. Specific concerns are as follows: shortage of staff/volunteers, snow removal, proper heating, safety of staff, volunteers and dogs, communication issues....