With an animal cruelty investigation under way, the board of directors of the Toronto Humane Society will be meeting in the coming days to address allegations of animals suffering and poor shelter management.
Two of the society’s members said that they are aware of problems at the shelter, and an investigation by The Globe and Mail has prompted the 15 board members to call a meeting.
Wednesday, a group of members, volunteers and former employees called for the resignation of president Tim Trow and of the board of directors.
The group, the Association for the Reform of the THS (ART), also called on the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee of Ontario to name a trustee to oversee the finances of the 122-year-old charity.
Delores Qasim, who has been a board member for about seven years, said she was aware that Mr. Trow had overstepped the boundaries of his role as president, and that his management skills were lacking.
“He treats people badly and doesn’t listen to them because he believes that he knows better and knows right and is the most dedicated,” she said. “And as soon as you get that you’re cutting off good ideas.”
She said she didn’t always agree with his decision not to euthanize certain animals, but that she would rather Mr. Trow were president than someone who believed in using euthanasia to control crowding inside the shelter.
“I’m on the board because I’m proud of giving animals a chance. We don’t kill them willy-nilly. I’ve personal examples where I’ve felt [Mr. Trow] kept them going too long, but again, nobody can agree on where you draw the line, even veterinarians don’t agree on where you draw the line,” she said.
But where Mr. Trow draws the line has raised objections from employees and volunteers. Judi King, a volunteer dog walker and member of ART, said that dogs in the shelter were living in their own excrement, and that dogs with bloody diarrhea and open sores didn’t receive care because of under-staffing.
“They were sick dogs, and they were not getting the veterinary treatment that they were entitled to,” she said.
Linda MacKinnon, a THS member and founder of ART, said that in 40 years of involvement on boards she had never encountered such a lack of transparency from a charity.
Ms. MacKinnon is part of an ongoing effort to secure the society’s membership list that has included six failed attempts by a process server to deliver a written request to Mr. Trow.
Ms. Qasim said that she didn’t know why the membership list hadn’t been provided, but said that she too had struggled with a lack of transparency from management when she tried to secure data relating to the shelter’s kitten nursery.
The THS issued a statement yesterday saying the shelter was “completely vindicated” following Tuesday’s inspection by agents from the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of their River Street facility in Toronto.
But a spokesperson for the Ontario SPCA called that characterization premature.
“The investigation is ongoing and we are limited as to the information we can provide at this time. We can disclose that we found animals in distress requiring immediate intervention and as a result, orders have been issued,” Ontario SPCA Senior Inspector Mindy Hall, who is the lead investigator on the case, said in a statement.
In the days following a series of articles in The Globe and Mail, the Ontario SPCA has received “dozens of additional, credible complaints outlining serious concerns that point to a pattern of poor care over the course of many years,” the statement read.
The THS’s affiliate status with the Ontario SPCA has also been suspended, ending the agency’s authority to conduct animal cruelty investigations.
