An Insider's View of What Happened at Valley River
I was a Volunteer at the Valley River Humane Shelter in the last half of 2007 and all of 2008. This blog is my response to many requests for information as to how Londi Moore, Jeanne Schick, Waylon Hill, and Linda Bamfield transformed a dog pound into a model low-kill Shelter, only to have it transformed back into a Dog Pound in 2009 under the leadership of Barbara Vicknair. These are my observations only; however, my published comments have not been challenged.
On February 13, 2008, VRHS shelter management was fundamentally changed when the Shelter Director and Animal Control Manager, Jeff Lockett, was forced to resign for using the VRHS Credit Card for personal items. For five months, Londi Moore and Jeanne Schick (who also served as Treasurer of VRHS) ran the Shelter as unpaid volunteer co-directors, eliminating theft of cash from the daily operations and the charging of expenses of outside businesses to Shelter accounts, replacing unmotivated workers, and transforming the facility from a near-bankrupt dog pound into an efficiently and humanely run low-kill Shelter that was financially in the black. After five months, a paid Shelter Director, Waylon Hill, was hired to carry on. He had been a former volunteer at the Shelter. Waylon continued to run the Shelter in an efficient manner, as a business using donor's money, with the intent of helping and saving as many animals as possible.
Under the new management, the only dogs being put down were those severely injured, severely sick, or with dispositions so bad that they could not be rehabilitated. Ferral cats were still being put down because of bad disposition and some healthy cats were unfortunately still put down for space limitations. In general, 250 dogs and cats entered the Shelter each month. About 125 dogs were moved monthly on shuttle runs to the Northeast to other organizations that had a shortage of animals for adoptions due to spay and neuter laws. Less than 20 dogs and cats were put down and the remainder were split between local adoptions and transported to various rescues. It was like a full time job for many volunteers, e.g., Lynne Wilson, Terry Drinkut, Mark Lyden, and myself. The job was tough but the rewards in saving lives were great.
During this time, donors paid to clear the grounds of stumps and fallen trees, add medical equipment to the Clinic, grade the roads, parking lots, and resurface them with gravel, repair the septic tank system, repair the interior chainlink Shelter kennels, run a new phone line and replace the phone system with a new system, purchase and install a new computer system, build 16 outdoor 60' x 15' exercise yards with 5' chainlink fences, build a 20' x 20' isolation kennel with 6' chain link fences, redo the puppy room floor so that it drained properly, and add a ventilation system to the cat rooms in the Shelter. The Shelter became a model Humane Society Shelter. Donors paid for outdoor kennels at Foster homes to allow more fostering of dogs and provided outside medical care for injured and sick dogs. And the Shelter began treating all dogs with heart worms. 2008 was truly the beginning of a new era for animal care at VRHS, a time in which the state inspector said the VRHS Shelter was the best Shelter in Western Carolina.
But trouble was brewing. The Shelter had previously had an unstated mission to do Animal Control by eliminating stray animals through rapid euthanization. Now it was saving all healthy dogs rather than putting them down. The people in control in the past felt left out and wanted their Shelter back as a quick kill facility. VRHS president Jim Tucker was a friend of Jeff Lockett and had persuaded the Board not to prosecute him but to let him resign. Tucker then sought to remove the volunteer coordinators and regain control of the Shelter. When the Board didn't back him after two months, he resigned and Linda Bamfield became President.
Linda Bamfield was thrust into a fire storm. Jeanne Schick and Diana Eastwood, the Treasury and Secretary of VRHS, had been the ones to uncover proof of Jeff Lockett's guilt. Linda, Jeanne, and Diana became the objects of ridicule and hate from former presidents who I call the Old Guard. Letters full of lies were written to the local newspaper by the Old Guard, all of whom had been the direct boss of Jeff Lockett and worked closely with him. They appeared to this observer to feel the new Shelter direction and success was both a "slap" in their faces and a public condemnation of their own incompetence. For the next 9 months, they tried to topple the board and the President. They were led by Wanda Payne, Bill Appleton, Cindy Taylor, Geri Ruth Roberts, and Marie Lampkin along with present board member Linda Hein. However, in spite of euthanization proponents Linda Hein and Bill Appleton running the nominating committee for the June 19, 2008, General Membership Meeting, they failed to elect new Board Members who would reverse direction to a rapid kill facility.
It was a difficult time for the Old Guard. They had failed to regain control and had to change tactics. They decided to try to pack the membership with new members through the aid of Cherokee County. The county officials wanted the Shelter to be their "low cost" Animal Control facility, subsidizing their costs with the Shelter's donor money. The facility did accept all stray animals from neighboring Clay and Graham Counties because those counties compensated the Shelter for their costs. However, Cherokee County refused to pay its share, hoping for a favorable change in the Board. Suddenly the Society was inundated with new applications for memberships from county employees. But, under the By-Laws, these new members were not numerous enough to petition for a meeting to change the board. For the time being, the Old Guard had failed yet again. And time appeared to be running out on them. The Old Guard was getting older. The citizens had begun asking the County to pay for Animal Control. And the success of the Shelter in saving animals was becoming known to the public. The Old Guard was losing allies among the membership.
The Old Guard redoubled their efforts, sending more letters with lies to the local newspaper, sending hate mail and hate emails to Board Members. They appeared at Board Meetings to disrupt the meetings. They even enlisted the aid of PETA, convincing PETA that the County was being overrun with strays because of the Shelter's change to a low euthanization rate. However, the Shelter was actually taking in as many strays from Cherokee County (for free and saving them) as they had handled under Jeff Lockett when they were just being put down. PETA wrote a guest editorial in the local newspaper calling for a change in Valley River's Direction with euthanization of more healthy animals to free up space.
The stress of the continuous attacks on the Board began to work. First Board Member Gail Sikes resigned, followed by Diana Eastwood. Jeanne Schick resigned from being Treasurer and then from the Board. At the end of a February board meeting, Wanda Payne presented a new petition to remove Linda Bamfield as President, using the signatures from a failed petition for a different purpose back in 2008. The deceit by Wanda was the last straw for Linda. In a General Membership Meeting on February 24, 2009, Linda Bamfield reported to the membership a surplus approaching a $100,000 for the Society and that nearly 4,000 animals had been saved the past year. She took a vote for membership approval for the Shelter to repair it's dangerous electrical system, adjourned the meeting, and then resigned, followed by Board Member Susan Cranston.
The Old Guard had won without a taking a vote. Five of the original 8 elected Board members had resigned under the continuous harrasement. The new president is Barbara Vicknair, an ally of Wanda Payne. Barbara is a politician, a former Cherokee County Commissioner, intent on having the Shelter perform donor-supported Animal Control for the County. On March 4, 2009, the Cherokee Scout reported that Barbara Vicknair wanted to move the Shelter towards accepting all stray and owner-surrendered animals by county residents (without compensation for Shelter costs) and to begin doing Animal Control for Cherokee County. The only way the Shelter can accept so many animals at once is to put most of them down after 72 hours. I guess the Old Guard can take turns walking down the center of the kennel line in the Shelter, pointing at healthy dogs to be euthanized to free up space - deja vu for me - brings back memories of Jeff Lockett in 2007, stalking the kennels in cowboy hat and boots, pointing out the dogs to die.
Then, in March, 2008, the Connecticut Humane Society stopped taking dogs from the Shelter, leaving the staff to scramble to find more rescues to save them. On March 26, the new VRHS Board voted to accept all surrendered animals in Cherokee County without any fees, in essence giving the county officials what they wanted: "free animal control at donor's expense." Healthy animals will be put down for lack of space when the warm spring brings in the flood of new dogs and cats from residents anxious to rid themselves of unwanted pets.
On April 1st, 2008, the Shelter Director Waylon Hill resigned under pressure from Barbara Vicknair. The staff that have looked after the dogs are expected to soon be replaced by the friends of the Old Guard as they plow through the $100,000 surplus left by the previous board. The present Kennel Manager Angela Coleman, and her assistant Laura McCullough, are the employees responsible for finding and coordinating with the major rescues to take the Shelter animals by shuttle. Who can replace them?
On April 30th, Angela Coleman and Laura McCullough also resigned under pressure. The local SW North Carolina Rescue Logan's Run pulled 20 Shelter dogs (as of 5/22/09) to prevent them from being put down, but no local rescue can save them all. Barbara Vicknair has "set the stage" for 80 to 90% euthanization in which the only dogs and cats saved are those adopted locally (approximately 20 to 40 saved by adoption out of 150 to 250 cats and dogs input each month). The Old Guard has put the Shelter on a downward spiral into the Killing Fields. And they are convinced that the community doesn't care and those who would stop them are defeated.
The Founder of Hug A Puppy in New Jersey sent me the following exerpt from her email (June 28, 2010) about her subsequent interaction with the VRHS Shelter, with her permission to use this in my blog. I think it illustrates the management style of Barbara Vicknair and friends.
"Just wanted to let you know that for about a year up until the day Angela and Laura left the shelter, our rescue pulled close to 400 dogs and puppies from them. With the exception of 6, ALL were adopted and went on to live happy healthy lives. In the few weeks after Angela and Laura quit none of my phone calls were returned and NO dogs were able to be pulled and saved. When I did get a hold of someone they told me they were not sure if they wanted to deal with the cost or time of doing transport to the north any longer."
Then, in May, the membership was sent new amended By Laws dated March 3, 2008, which charge the Shelter to accept all animals free of charge, i.e., free animal control for Cherokee County and to provide for rapid euthanization of homeless animals, i.e., keep the animal count within the legal limit of a Shelter so they can take in unlimited numbers of animals at a time. State law forces the Shelter to wait 72 hours to kill a stray animal but they can kill it immediately after an owner surrender. Dogs will come in and be walked directly to the euthanization room where the screams (and they do scream like a human when the person doing the killing fumbles trying to find the vein in the leg while a helper struggles to hold the animal still) can often be heard throughout the kennel area. Sadly, I've heard it all too often in the past at the Shelter.
By early June, reports from Shelter Staff and Volunteers reported rapid killing for space. Pictures are no longer taken of dogs that they predetermine to put down and dead bodies are immediately taken to the dump so there will be no visible record. For example, I was told that in the first week of June, an old cocker spaniel (who had been lost for a couple of days) was taken in on Tuesday, put down on Wednesday, and when the owner showed up on Thursday, the Shelter denied that his dog had been put down, saying they had put down a different dog within 48 hours of intake but it was done so because it was in pain. Conveniently, no picture of the dog was available and the body was gone. Long-time Shelter Volunteer Barbara Riopell who had helped with the input of the dog at the Shelter on Tuesday, reported it was not injured and in good health - just old. She had called the owner (in response to his radio appeal) to tell him his dog was at the Shelter. After the owner showed up, she was told in a meeting with the new Shelter Director Christie Wall and Barbara Vicknair that her services as a volunteer were no longer needed at the Shelter.
On June 19th, 2008, the VRHS Board held its annual membership meeting. Barbara Vicknair confirmed that VRHS was doing Animal Control for Cherokee County, and putting down healthy dogs and cats for space while currently paying for this government service with donor money and through sales at the VRHS Thrift Store. In the future, the County may (at their discretion) partially support VRHS for this service. The VRHS By-Laws were changed without discussion to incorporate Animal Control and to put euthanization of healthy animals for space in their official policy. In essence, the Shelter is no longer a Humane Shelter, just the Valley River "Dog Pound."
At the end of July, the Board asked Dr. Durland, the Shelter vet, to resign. Without a vet, animals can not be adopted or sent to rescue because they can not be spayed, neutered, or given a rabies shot. The word on the street around the county is that all dogs and cats coming in to the VRHS Shelter in August are being put down after 3 days and being dumped at the county dump. In September, the Shelter was still without the services of a vet. The local newspaper (Cherokee Scout) reported that President Barbara Vicknair told them Dr. Durland had resigned due to health reasons. When Dr. Durland confirmed to the reporter that he had been forced to resign, Ms. Vicknair declined to explain why she had lied. Certainly the Board has got what they wanted, a fine-tuned killing machine for SW North Carolina. VRHS president Barbara Vicknair is running for political office in Murphy and can honestly brag in her platform that she was able to kill more stray Shelter animals than ever before, at no cost to the taxpayer - totally supported by the VRHS donors.
So, what has happened since! It is now June in 2010. VRHS still lacks a web page. Contrary to their earlier assertions about not charging the public for dropoffs, they are now doing so. They briefly hired a new vet, Dr. Hester, in late 2009 who was working for VRHS Board Member Dr. Van Horn. That vet lacked the NC credentials to work on public animals, i.e., could not spay and neuter companion animals for the public. This meant that the successful VRHS "Big Fix" program that used to provide low-cost spay and neuter services for the public, was ended back in the middle of 2009.
In early 2010, the Board fired Christy, the new Shelter Director (who had replaced Waylon Hill), and the vet soon left. The Shelter has no "in house" vet and is still not sending animals out to Rescues on regular scheduled transports. It's only significant outlet for non-adopted animals (to comply with NC space requirements) is rapid euthanization. Public euthanization records for VRHS have not been filed with the state of NC since 2008. I have been told by state officials that they have no way to force VRHS to obey the NC law and provide the information to the public. However, they assure me that eventually they will apply enough pressure to get the records.
In early June, 2010, I received a telephone call from a lady, the Founder of Second Chance Rescue, now working with Dr. Mitchell's 501 c(3) Rescue in McCaysville, GA. She said she called the VRHS Shelter during the week to ask if her Rescue could pull 6 Australian Shepherd puppies listed on PetFinder. Barbara Vicknair told her Yes, but for a $100 a puppy. The lady replied that Rescues do a humane service in pulling animals from kill shelters and are rarely charged a fee. She asked if the puppies would be euthanized at the Shelter, if they were not adopted? And Barbara Vicknair hung up on her! Clearly, the Shelter is still being operated as a dog pound.
The new Shelter director who replaced Christy is Karen, the former head nurse of Dr. Durland. She is a competent, compassionate, and honest person who appears to be trying to reverse the "rapid kill policy" of animals at the Shelter. In the third week of June, she sent a load of 20+ dogs to the Connecticut Humane Society to adopt out. I am hopeful that those efforts will continue and be supported by the VRHS Board.
So my friends and enemies, this is my take on what happened at the Valley River Humane Society Shelter. It was a beacon of kindness and humanity for a brief year before it was crushed by those who only want to euthanize stray animals. But someday, those who want to save stray animals, rather than kill them, will prevail. Every day is a new day and the Old Guard just gets older and older, and Judgment Day does eventually come!
Ron Stoessell
ronstoessell@gmail.com
985 630
1613
Former Volunteer Web Master and Foster to Rescue Coordinator for VRHS in 2008
March 4, 2009 with additions as events unfold. Last update was June 29, 2010.