SPCA report on animal shelter: “Childish Behavior” and lack of oversight

No, not here (although the description might fit): SPCA of Erie County, New York reported on the animal shelter in neighboring Niagara County, New York. Also the parts about “horrific” animal cruelty and “excruciatingly painful” euthanasia may sound familiar.

WGRZ.com wrote today, SPCA of Niagara Report; “Childish Behavior”, Lack of Oversight,

In part of her report, Carr writes, “It’s clear that the NCSPCA is dysfunctional in many ways. Without standard operating procedures, without careful record keeping and record retrieval, without trust of one another, without a clear chain or command, with any strategies to improve, this organization will continue to disappoint and enrage the community,”

She continues, “there is an overwhelming culture of distrust at the shelter. Some staff distrust the Executive Director, the Executive Director distrusts many of the board members, many board members distrust the Executive Director and some staff and volunteers distrust some staff and staff distrusts some volunteers. Everyone seems to distrust someone associated with the SPCA. They gossip, pass on written complaints about each other to one another, try to get each other fired, go behind backs of one another to people in authority and make complaints. The evaluation team has witnessed this rather childish behavior at all levels of the organization, by board members, the Executive Director, staff members, and volunteers.”

Charlie Specht wrote for the Buffalo News yesterday, Probe details ‘horrific’ animal cruelty at Niagara SPCA: Report by Erie County counterpart details ‘excruciatingly painful’ euthanasia,

Barbara S. Carr on Friday released a “horrific” report outlining a dysfunctional culture that led the SPCA of Niagara to lose track of 245 animals and kill others in a painful, cruel manner.

“Animals were given a shot, which I’m sure hurt, and that caused them to throw up … and then they couldn’t move,” said Carr, executive director of the Erie County organization, who conducted the three-week investigation.

“They were injected directly into the heart. This is excruciatingly painful,” she said, fighting back tears.

This may be the most interesting part:

Some people expected the SPCA Serving Erie County to go easy in the probe of its Niagara County neighbor. It didn’t.
Imagine that! A real investigation with real results!

Here is the actual report: Niagara County SPCA: Assessment of Operations with Recommendations, in 116 pages dated January 27, 2012. Now you know what a real investigative report looks like.

-jsq