The drama has only taken a catnap at the Toronto Humane Society, but with new board elections next week, expect the fur to fly again.
More than a year after an Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals raid uncovered squalid conditions at the River Street shelter and forced a housecleaning of the administration, two high-profile former directors are seeking re-election.
It’s a highly charged move in an organization still recovering from the fallout of a much-publicized takeover back in November 2009, and many current board supporters are not taking kindly to it
All the more so because one of the board hopefuls is Tim Trow, the THS president in charge when inspectors found rampant disease, overcrowding, feces-caked animals and a mummified cat inside the allegedly understaffed facility.
Trow, along with the head veterinarian and three other managers, was charged with animal cruelty. Charges were later dropped due to problems with the search warrants and raid, and were never addressed in court.
In the May 31 election for five seats on the 15-member board, Trow, a retired lawyer, is part of a five-person slate looking for a three-year term. It includes a former vice-president and a former THS spokesperson fired after the new board was elected.
But Trow is going one further: he’s also put forward a motion to have three current board members not up for re-election – the president, vice-president and current board chair-replaced by people affiliated with his team.
If successful, his faction would gain a majority on the board.
Much of the Trow group’s platform focuses on reviving policies that ended when he resigned, such as taking in stray animals. The organization hasn’t been authorized to do this since it split from Toronto Animal Services in 2001 but was doing it anyway while Trow was president. The practice was above board, he says, because he received a letter from the city solicitor saying the shelter should be able to accept such animals. The current board disagrees.
Since the raid, all strays go through Toronto Animal Services, the city pound, which can then turn them over to the THS for care and adoption. (A THS rep says TAS hands over about 20 cats and one dog weekly.) Trow complains that TAS too often euthanizes.
“The whole point of the Toronto Humane Society is to take in frightened animals that are hard for people to handle, sick animals that people can’t afford to pay the medical bills for, older animals,” he tells NOW, saying he knows he’s entering a volatile situation, “but I have to because of the animals. It’s always because of the animals.”
Trow’s running mate, former THS spokesperson Ian McConachie, says he wants the THS to be “an organization that does not [turn away] animals in need and gives every one of them an opportunity to find a new loving forever home.”
But several long-time THS volunteers interviewed for this story were not hopeful about the shelter’s future if Trow returns. Board VP Marcie Laking warns that if Trow wins, “staff members will quit, donations will drop, and the momentum we’ve built up will come to a standstill. If Tim Trow cared about the animals, he would leave the THS alone.”
Says Patricia Hope, who volunteered in the kitten nursery from 2003 to 08, when she says she was asked not to return after she raised concerns about neglect, “The immediate result would be an incredible demoralization of the staff and volunteers. There would be a lot of personnel turnover.”
Christine Hansen, a volunteer since 2005, concurs. “The building has gone from being overrun, with so many animals sick, to all of the animals looking healthy,” she says. “It’s almost pristine now, and very quiet.”
Changes boasted by the THS include a hugely increased adoption rate, more frequent cleaning of cages and better relationships with other animal welfare organizations.
“It’s like night and day,” says Linda Jacobson, a senior THS veterinarian who started volunteering at the organization a week after the raid. “When I arrived here, it was in a shocking state. There were over 1,000 cats in a building that had capacity for 350, and animals that had been in small cages for two or three years.”
“I hope the majority of people will understand that a shelter cannot operate properly if it takes in more animals than it can humanely care for,” she says.
But the way Trow tells things, it’s as if the two were working at completely different shelters. All animals at the THS, he says, were reasonably cared for. Cages were cleaned at the end of each day, and no animals died inhumanely.
“These people can have their own opinions,” said Trow, his voice notably agitated. “But they’re wrong.” Yes, it’s a challenge taking in all the animals that need protection, he says, “but that’s why people give you money.”
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