AlmostĀ eight years after the SPCA of Niagara was rocked by charges of mismanagement and maltreatment of the animals in its care, āalarmsā are again being raised at the organization.
OnĀ New Yearās Day 2012, the Lockport Road shelter was rocked by revelations from a Gazette investigation showing the agency was engaged in the mass killing of animals. The probe, initiated by complaints by whistleblowers in the organization, detailed theĀ euthanization of 473 cats and 100 dogs in a two and a half month period, as well as claims that the then executive director failed toĀ routinely provide the minimal amount of medical attention necessary to treat the injured or surrender animals placed in the shelterās care.
The executive had also presided over the mass departure or firings of most of the shelterās veteran staff.
After an independent investigation of the shelterās operations, by the former executive director of the Erie County SPCA, confirmed the charges, the executive director was fired and the agencyās entire board of directors resigned.
Now the shelter is again in turmoil after the resignation of three of its board members on Wednesday. Since January, six of what were then the agencyās 12 current board members have quit, citing what one described as āsystemic disfunction.ā
The resignations have left the shelter, whose by-laws call for 13 directors, without a board that can legally meet and conduct business.
One of the former board members told the Gazette, āThe ship is sinking.ā
Board members Bryan Barish, Donna Shepard and Jennifer Pitarresi tendered their resignations after what was described as a contentious board meeting that centered on demands for changes in the shelterās operations. The departing directors leveled withering criticisms of the board chair,Ā Susan Agnello-Eberwein, and the shelterās Executive Director Timothy Brennan.
Reached Saturday night, Agnello-Eberwein disputed that the all the resignations stemmed from issues surrounding the shelterās operations. She said Bob Richardson, a long-time board member and the board president, at that time, was āburned-outā and that Nicolas Pelosino and Dan Mezhir has found board service ātoo time-consuming.ā
She suggested that Barish and Pitarresi were upset with an amendment to the organization by-laws that would impose term limits on directors.
āIām a firm believe in term limits for everyone,ā Agnello-Eberwein said.
She described Shepard as āattached to the hipā of Barish and Pitarresi.
āIām very disappointed in Jennifer,ā Agnello-Eberwein said.
The current board president described the three most recent board departures as having been ādisruptiveā and said, āThatās sad.ā
While acknowledging the concerns that the board members had expressed over shelter operations, Agnello-Eberwein said Barish, Pitarresi and Shepard tendered their resignation despite the establishment of a new quality assurance committee, to be led by board secretary Jennifer Ruggiero.
āWe know there were concerns about quality assurance,ā Agnello-Eberwein insisted. āThese three people are doing nothing but trying to upset the SPCA and Iām very disappointed with this. This is a misconception between the old board members and the new board members. Itās like a witch hunt and Iām taking great offense to theyāre trying to rip us apart.ā
In his resignation, Barish wrote, āI have recently lost all confidence in the leadership of this organization.ā
Barish, who was a member of the board that took control of the shelter in 2012 in the wake of the last scandal, has served as secretary, vice president and president of the board since that time.Ā
The veteran board member said he has been āsounding the alarm for 12 months with no action.ā āI can no longer affiliate myself with this organization,ā he wrote.
Among Barishās charges are ācover-ups and secret meetings of the president, the refusal of the current executive team to follow the by-laws, failure to properly address operational problems within the shelter, failure to address and the cover-up of several medical concerns (and) allowing the executive director to misrepresent himself and his staffās actions and be insubordinate to several board members.ā
Shepardās letter of resignation echoed Barishās communication.
āAfter months of trying to ring the alarm and get the board to make changes for the benefit of the animals, I see it was to no avail,ā she wrote. āI canāt close my eyes to the animal care issues or irresponsible use of donor funding. I donāt feel I can live up to my fiduciary responsibility and stay.ā
Shepard cited what she called āthe neglect and incompetence of the staffā and a failure to reconcile the responsibilities of Brennan and Shelter ManagerĀ Lauren Zaninovich as evidence of failures at the shelter.
āI canāt continue on in the direction we are going,ā Shepard wrote. āSince working on making changes to fix the problems wasnāt an option, I have no choice but to leave.ā
Shepard said the organization was failing in its responsibility to both the animals and donors.
Pitarresi said she had watched the shelter recover from the 2012 upheaval during her seven-year tenure on the board of directors and had eagerly looked forward to Brennanās arrival, with a focus on corporate development that would ātake us to the ānext level.ā ā
āLittle did we imagine that the next level would be down,ā she wrote in her resignation letter.
In her resignation, Pitarresi decried what she said was the boardās āmantraā to āstay out of operationsā at the shelter. The four-page letter contains a long list of concerns including āturn(ing) a blind eye to obvious policy breaches.ā
Internal agency documents, reviewed by the Gazette, allege at least four breaches of the boardās approved euthanasia policy since January.
Pitarresi also charges that the board and staff have treated concerns by donors and animal advocates as āassaults instead of feedback.ā
āI was there for seven years,ā Pitarresi told the Gazette. āI felt (my resignation) was necessary, given that I kept hitting a brick wall. I knew the community would speak up if we couldnāt make change from the inside.ā
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