I was a dedicated regular volunteer here for 9 months, getting up early and driving 40 minutes every Saturday morning to help clean, feed and give the cats some much-needed attention. And I loved doing it. But I had some concerns about them keeping almost all their cats hidden from the public in stressful, small back rooms for on average 2 months for no logical reason at all. I also had concerns about the lack of decent cleaning protocols for the cats, among some other things I found troubling. When I very kindly mentioned my concerns to the board president in a message, offering to help write cat bios, take photos, and do website updates for them for free, she never responded. A couple weeks later, I decided to email my concerns to their feline program manager, Becca Drake. I was again extremely nice, respectful, offered to help if it was a capacity issue, and she ignored my questions and concerns as well--only responding saying I could write one cat bio, for a cat whose adoption fee I had sponsored, but not answering any of my questions. That 16-year-old cat had been stuck there for no good reason for over 6 weeks after his owner died without even being posted online, and as soon as she allowed me to write a bio and she posted him online, he got adopted in less than 2 days! The adopters had seen him online and said they fell in love with his photo.
Another week or two went by and I decided to send one more email asking if she needed any help for 6 cats who were still not on the website but who had finally been moved up to the adoptable area. I copied the shelter director this time in case she was not aware any of this was happening and because I did not know who the proper contact was for this sort of concern anyway (in my opinion, it would be the director or a board member). Becca responded with the rudest email ever, and was extremely disrespectful and said she was disappointed I had asked the board any questions and basically that I am not allowed to speak to them. Um, what? Their own website says to contact the board with any questions or concerns. A week later, their director terminated me as a volunteer, stating that I had had too many concerns and asked too many questions over the past week or two. They made me drive 40 minutes there for my regular shift only to surprise me and pull me into a room and tell me they were terminating me. I received no prior warnings, no thank you for all the free labor, donations, time and energy I gave to them. I was told "we thought we had someone here helping with the cats, but we didn't" by their director, Kirsten. I was an extremely hard-working, friendly and dedicated volunteer who loved all of the cats there and would have done anything for those cats. I cleaned way more thoroughly and spent way more time with the cats than the staff did. I do not regret advocating for the cats. It is a shame this humane society's leadership and management would rather get rid of anyone who voices concerns and is willing to help for free than to actually listen and look into what I was sharing and actually improve the conditions for their animals.
The cat kennels and free roaming room are regularly quite filthy, with dried-on poop, vomit and other secretions, even on the walls behind kennels set up in their lobby. I regularly noticed soiled blankets were just flipped over and was even instructed by another volunteer who was training me to do just that. They have a huge laundry room filled with tons of clean towels and blankets--there is absolutely no reason to not replace soiled blankets. I saw this sort of thing time and time again. They don't properly isolate sick cats from healthy ones, even housing cats with ringworm in the same room as other cats and bringing new volunteers into that room for tours.
The only reason I would ever recommend anyone go here is to rescue the cats who are stuck in this place--most for months before they are even posted to their website, some for many months or even a year with no extra social media posts highlighting these animals to help them get out the door. There is no good reason healthy, friendly, gorgeous cats should be stuck in a shelter that long. I have volunteered at other shelters and they got their cats posted online almost immediately upon intake and most were adopted within weeks.
They lost a great volunteer who was really good with the cats all because they can't handle anyone who has concerns, feedback or opinions other than their own. The way this was handled was extremely immature. I'm still shocked no one from the board ever even bothered to give me a call and at least pretend to care. Their front desk guy, Terry, is repeatedly rude to both the public and at times, volunteers, and he has no business being a "customer service manager." read more
