Kudos to Cheryl Winsten-Bartlett for PUBLICLY responding and identifying herself as a board member encouraging contact. I would say that contact generally occurs at board meetings and via letters. Since the Hermitage has not published its information on the where, when and hows of board meetings, and the only published way to contact the board is through the general hermitagecats@aol.com address, you might think contact is limited. However, Taylor and Tom have dozens and dozens of contacts from former volunteers, donors and sponsors in the form of emails and letters they have never answered. In fact, in the past they even refused delivery on paper letters which were sent with receipt requested slips. If Taylor is too afraid to have open meetings with contact with the general public, then he should start going through his in box and answering those letters individually. Or let the board secretary do it; I believe she would find it edifying to read people's first hand accounts, uncensored by T&T's version of events. Unless the board just threw away all the letters that made them uncomfortable?

I find it interesting that there were a few, writing as if from inside the Hermitage, who responded to the Tucson Weekly article in the TW's comment section, anonymously (bob1234, mitzi). They kept hitting the "We're fair, don't question us, just look forward" drum. Don't bring up the past? We're not talking about something that happened 20 years ago to our parents, we're talking what's happened in the past two years, when the Hermitage paid large sums in an unsuccessful spree of lawsuits and subsequent settlements. We're talking about a self-described no-kill shelter that offed dozens and dozens of cats, and continues to choose to have its medical care provided by a vet from a kill shelter. We're talking about how large sums of money are still being spent in the dark. Those are not "communication and management problems"; they are serious, multiple, sustained board errors in judgment and policy that go against the core of the Hermitage mission. And while some of these problems have stopped, others continue, because the power in the board has not changed. Bob and Mitzi, get real. NO ONE THE HERMITAGE KICKED OUT IS GOING TO GIVE YOU ANY MONEY UNTIL TAYLOR AND TOM ARE GONE. Ask the board members to share with you the letters from donors that the Hermitage entered into evidence at the civil court hearing where they sued to shut down this blog. Ask Tim and Taylor to share with you the dozens of letters and emails they received from volunteers and donors (and did not reply to a single one). You don't tell people to shut up and go away, and then expect them to open their wallets a year later when you're in financial hard times. There will be no healing without there being a full reckoning. If South Africa can do it, I think a cat shelter can do it.

The Hermitage now has live links posted to its volunteer application and handbook.
The handbook has multiple references to the Executive Director, but there hasn't been one since Mary Jo Spring went off to explore other career opportunities.
And if you want to be on the board, or even find out what's involved, forget it. Everything related to that is gone.

Ron Zak left the Hermitage Board several months ago, although this was not publicized. What this means is that for the first time since the troubles began, there are more new board members than old. There are three people on the board who did not preside over the mass killings of cats, banning of volunteers, firing of staff, expensive and costly lawsuits that were lost and flight of sponsors and donors. And there are only two left who did, which means they can be outvoted and asked to leave. Everything now depends on those three. This is not the time for small, measured amounts of progress. The Hermitage is dwindling away. You have the com, you have the checkbook, you have the votes. This may be the most significant opportunity you will have in your lifetime to make a difference in your community. Do you have the will?

This is currently posted on the Hermitage's website, referring to their "Community Cat Initiative"
Everyone is welcome.
This is a group of cat lovers and concerned citizens working together to help eliminate the stray and feral cat population in Tucson. It’s a huge endeavor but with every cat that gets altered it may be another 4,000 that don’t go homeless, neglected or abused.
Be prepared to state how you would like to be of service to the group a.k.a. – the stray and feral cats.
Think beforehand about what kind of time commitment you are capable of.
How do you see yourself fitting into this cause? What would you like to get out of it?

This is the same organization that in July 2008 stated to the Arizona Daily Star that it was relocating its own feral cats to a release program in barns because "The decision was made because the feral cats were taking up space at the shelter..." The barn program only ever adopted to one individual. The Hermitage instead has reduced its feral population from over a 100 two years ago to a mere handful, and they didn't do it by adoptions or natural causes.

And I guarantee you, all are not welcome at these little meetings. I know about 70 former volunteers, employees and sponsors who are banned from the premises. I'm pretty sure if people from other animal rescues showed up, particularly with opinions that differed from the Hermitage, they would not be welcome either. If you really want to have a true discussion, ask the Hermitage staff what happened to their own feral cats, and see if they can give a logical answer.

Want to help cats in Tucson? Contact Casa de los Gatos, HOPE, FAIR, the No-Kill Alliance. Leave the Hermitage off your to-do list. This initiative is merely another attempt to rebuild the public esteem they lost without actually admitting to even themselves the wrong they did to their cats, the people who supported them, and to Sister's legacy.

In my last post I discussed the general observations shared with me by Martha Price, a now former volunteer at the Hermitage. Today I want to focus on the capriciousness of the way the Hermtiage is managed.

Ms. Price was asked to foster a litter of 5 kittens for several weeks over the holidays, which she happily did. When kittens reach 2 pounds (the minimum weight limit for a pediatric spay/neuter procedure), fosters bring them back into the shelter, where they are checked, and then fasted for the night prior to surgery. (This is done to prevent vomiting and choking under anesthesia). Ms. Price was also asked if she would be willing to continue to foster the kittens after their surgery, as the Isolation Area was not a healthy place for the kittens and their kitten area was full of sick cats.

But, one of the Hermitage's brilliant ideas under the new regime was to get rid of the on-site vet tech. So, from 5 PM to 7:30 AM, no one is there. So, these kittens would be brought in, fasted overnight, have surgery, return to the Hermitage at 4:30 PM, and then be left alone overnight.

When Ms. Price realized that no one would be checking on the kittens post-surgery, and that they would be coming home with her the following day anyway, she offered to just bring the kittens directly home from the Hermitage post-surgery. Debbie Brice, the Shelter Manager told her that was not possible, because the staff needed to check on them post-surgery. When Ms. Price asked how that was going to happen if no one was there, she was told that there was a baby monitor in the Isolation Area, and that staff would be alerted if there were a problem. They would hear the kittens if they were having a seizure or if they were hemorrhaging.

I will pause here while you all roll your eyes. Ms. Price felt the answer was inadequate, but dropped the matter. She was also told they would need to check on them in the morning and Ms. Price assured her she could have the kittens back before 8 AM, to no avail.

The following day, she sent an email to the Hermitage to find out what time to come pick the kittens up, and was told there had been a schedule mix-up, and the kittens had not gone in. Debbie Brice said they would be fasting again that night to prepare for surgery. They again refused to allow her to bring the kittens home the day of surgery and which would mean that the kittens would have to fast overnight for the third day in a row. Debbie repeated that taking the kittens home after surgery was considered a liability and they would be better off alone. ( Apparently she forgot that part of the contract a foster parent signs says they relieve the shelter of all liability).

When pressed as to how having a human being monitor the kittens could be considered a liability compared to a baby monitor, the staff responded that if the kitten became ill, the foster parent would not know what to do. Ms. Price responded that she would take the kitten to an emergency vet where she would personally pay all vet bills.

Debbie Brice was very upset that her decisions were being questioned and told Martha that they would no longer be requiring her services as a foster parent if she couldn't follow her orders. Martha was also told that Monica St. Claire had called the board, and told them Ms. Price would not follow the foster rules. (Ms. Price, who is in her 50's, told me she felt at this point that they were trying to treat her like a naive 18-year-old who would just go away). Later that evening she was left a voice mail that said that the kittens were staying at the Hermitage and it would be "silly" to send them home with her at all.

There are so many holes in the Hermitage response to Ms. Price, I'm not even going to try to address them. She did share with me that after her last discussion with the Hermitage, she contacted her bank, and canceled the donation check she had written to them over the holidays. And because she had been the one who wrote the thank-you cards to the donors, she knew that hers far surpassed any of the other donations.

I have below a letter from Debbie Brice, the Hermitage Shelter Manager wrote to the Hermitage volunteers. Once again, the Hermitage staff does not know the difference between CC and BCC, so I now have all the emails of all the people on the Hermitage volunteer list. This list is that it does not contain a single name that was on the Hermitage volunteer list of even a year ago. My commentary follows.

Happy New Year!
Welcome to 2010, I wanted to make sure I have all the correct information on our wonderful volunteers. Please let me know if you have changed your address, phone numbers, or any additional information. I am now the volunteer coordinator for the shelter, if there are any questions, please feel free to ask.
The best way to contact me is via email at hermitagecatcare@gmail.com as well as (520)571-7839 ask for Debbie. I am also checking to see who will be rejoining us for the New Year as well as the best times for you to volunteer. We operate every day from 8AM TO 4PM. Let me know what schedule you are able to commit to, and I will place you on our schedule. We are also planning some major projects that will require a solid day or two of work, and we need some extra helpers. A few projects include: converting our FFPP shed into a TNR holding space. Which requires moving and heavy lifting, but also some management to ensure it is done fluently. We also need to sort through linen shed while the weather is cool. We will be donating any items we can no longer use to the Ironwood Pig Sanctuary. We are looking for volunteers to commit to the first Saturday of every month as well as the following weekends for Petsmart adoption events at the corner of grant and swan from 11am -4pm. The more support, the more cats we can place into loving homes and the more cats we can rescue.
__ Feb 12-15 __ april 30- may 2 __ sept 10-12__ nov 12-14
This year we will focus on rescuing from PACC more. In doing so, we need foster families for kittens and their mothers. If you have a spare room and can offer a short term home, please let me know. Let the rescues continue! Foster information is available, let me know and I will forward the information. If you are able to commit to any of these projects let me know and I will start the assignments. Have a wonderful, safe, and bountiful year. Let’s rescue, save, and
protect the cats and kittens in Tucson, and create an impact beyond our city limits.
Thank you for all you do!
Sincerely,
Debbie Brice

PS:
# OF CATS RESCUED IN 2009- 426
# OF CATS ADOPTED IN 2009- 348

Sounds cheerful and positive, right? And if you were new to the area or the Hermitage, and didn't know about what's gone on there, you would not know that you should be asking the following questions:
Why is Debbie the fifth volunteer coordinator in less than 3 years?
What happened to all the other volunteers the Hermitage used to have?
In an organization over 40 years old, why have all the volunteers been there less than a year?
Why aren't there any group volunteer meetings or events?
If the Food for People's Pets Program space is being converted, what is happening to that program?
What, exactly, is a holding space for TNR (trap-neuter-release)? The Hermitage does not provide veterinary services, and contracts with the Humane Society for its own needs. Why is it not coordinating its TNR events with other groups which already have programs.
The Hermitage's Executive Director was quoted in the press as saying the feral cats at the Hermitage "took up space". If the Hermitage is starting a TNR program, exactly does it plan to do with the feral cats it traps that are found to non-releasable? Their buddies at the Humane Society do not accept ferals and kill them.
Why did no one bother to bring the cats to the last PetsMart adoption event?
What does Debbie mean by "rescuing from PACC more?" Other than the publicity litter that Mary Jo Spring accepted to look good for the public access TV show, how many cats from PACC did the Hermitage actually take in?
Why is taking in a cat from PACC a rescue, but turning away a cat in need at the door isn't?
Why is there no mention of needing volunteers to actually help care for permanent cats at the shelter? What has happened to that part of the mission?
If there were 120 cats at the start of 2009, and 426 were taken in, and 348 were adopted, then shouldn't there be almost 200 cats at the shelter? Why are there only 88? WHERE ARE ALL THE MISSING CATS?

As is usual when they're not doing well, the Hermitage has changed its website. They've dumped the old one, http://www.hermitagecatshelter.org Their new one at http://www.hermitagecats.org makes no mention of any of the great unpleasantness that came before, and has NO links to any kind of financial information. Apparently that is a step up from having only information that is from 2007, which is what was on the old site. I was contacted this week by one person about a nice new feature of the website--it accepts comments! Since hers were not favorable, the Hermitage did not publish them. But it's nice to know that someone in management has to read them, regardless. It's also interesting to see that the primary contents of the site are the same as they were 3 years ago -- I know, because I wrote it. Most of the posted dates are December 27, 2010, which is when this site was set up. But if you look at actual items, you'll see there's been no new newsletter since April 2009, the events listed are all from 2008, etc.

Next up, I'll share with you an email that Debbie Brice, the Hermitage Shelter Manager, sent out to their volunteers.
And then I'll share with you the comments of two volunteers who have left this fall.

1--Find checkbook. Email Tom and Tyler to find out where it is.
2--Pay bank fee for bounced check. Wait, first transfer money from money market account into checking account.
3--Start work on posting the2008 tax return; no, better, skip the 2008 return, that would just bring up ugly facts that would discourage potential donors. Start work on the 2009 return, that would show everyone how we are looking to the future.
4--Add new at-large members, people previously unassociated with the great public controversy, to show how shelter has entered new, positive phase. Screen thoroughly by not making application process public or announcing openings, and make sure their names were not on the petition to stop killing the cats.
5-Wait, make sure new board members are only at-large members, and not in an executive position, and don't add so many that they could actually overrule the 3 officers who made, and continue to make, the catastrophic decisions that have decimated the shelter.
6--Continue stonewalling. Over time, people are sure to forget what has happened, and goodness knows, it's much easier to play mental games with ourselves and pretend we still have the respect of the community. Why make a painful self-examination and grow from openly dealing with a mistake by publicly acknowledging doing wrong, entering a dialog and making true change?
7--Scapegoat Mary Jo Spring. Everything was caused solely by a rogue executive director who got out of hand, we were only doing what we thought was best for the cats. We are only guilty of trusting and supporting our director.

1--Find checkbook. Email Tom and Tyler to find out where it is.
2--Pay bank fee for bounced check. Wait, first transfer money from money market account into checking account.
3--Start work on posting the 2008 tax return; no, better skip the 2008 return, that would just bring up ugly facts that would discourage potential donors. And 2009 would just show the enormous legal fees we got from suing everyone and then paying that annoying blogger to drop her countersuit. Start work on the 2010 return, now that would show everyone how we are looking to the future.
4--Add new at-large members, people previously unassociated with the great public controversy, to show how shelter has entered a new, positive phase. Screen thoroughly by not making application process public or announcing openings, just approach people privately.
5-Wait, make sure new board members are only at-large members, and not in an executive position, and don't add so many that they could actually overrule the 3 officers who made, and continue to make all decisions of substance.
6--Continue stonewalling. Over time, people are sure to forget what has happened, and goodness knows, it's much easier to play mental games with ourselves and pretend we still have the respect of the community. Why make a painful self-examination and grow from openly dealing with a mistake by publicly acknowledging doing wrong, entering a dialog and making true change?
7--Scapegoat Mary Jo Spring. Everything was caused solely by a rogue executive director who got out of hand, we were only doing what we thought was best for the cats.

Mary Jo Spring has left, but the Hermitage continues to be untruthful to the public. The Board still thinks that it's OK to just make things up.

There is now a scroll across the official website stating that August was a record adoption month, with 40 cats going to new homes. Untrue. While 40 cats may be a record for 2009, it is hardly a record for the Hermitage, which has in pre-Spring years had multiple months with more than 40 adoptions, and even 50+.

A new section has been added to the "Who We Are" page, with additional falsehoods:

"Under the direction of former Executive Director Mary Jo Spring, The Hermitage has made great strides in caring for the the needs of our cats and in serving the community with innovative and beneficial programs.

The Hermitage has continued to provide lifelong sanctuary for those cats whose needs require special attention and unique care; however, The Hermitage Cat Shelter has also reached out in new directions to be able to touch the lives of more cats in positive ways.

Increased emphasis on adoptions has resulted in a significant increase in finding good homes for cats. Our adoption rates are more than triple what they used to be. Every month we are adopting an average of 30 or more cats into good homes. Every cat that we adopt out makes room for one more that we can take in. In 2009, we will save the lives of more than 300 cats that would otherwise have faced certain death."

When I worked at the Hermitage 2005-2007, monthly adoption rates averaged 25-30 cats, with a bit more around the holidays, a bit less afterwards. You don't have to take my word for it -- the names of those adopted were publicly posted and celebrated, there are dozens of former volunteers and staffers who saw the same information. If this past month was a record of 40, how can that possibly be "more than triple what they used to be?"

Unless what they're comparing August to is not the time before they hired Ms. Spring, but instead "what they used to be" is only the past 15 months. That's the time period when they fired all but 1 of the staff; sacked 90% of the volunteers; publicly admitted to killing over 40 sanctuary cats; sued former employees, and threatened others; antagonized sponsors and donors until they fled to other animal rescue groups. And for some totally unrelated reason, adoptions plummeted. I don't think you get to pat yourself on the back for restoring adoption numbers to previous levels, when it was your own fault they declined to begin with. My 5th grade students can see the error in that logic.

I fail to see how adopting out cats is anything new or innovative. What was new, and continues to this day, was the banning of adoptions to large numbers of people due to personal grudges. Hardly a great stride or service to the community.

And if I had the budget that the Hermitage does, and only managed to adopt out 300 cats per year and provide sanctuary care for the remaining 50 permanent residents, I would be deeply embarrassed. When I think of how much more Casa de los Gatos, HOPE, FAIR, and other groups do with far, far less money, the Hermitage's record is even more shameful.

Check back here for a big announcement mid-week. Tom, Taylor and Ron, this weekend is your last opportunity to exit gracefully.

The Hermitage has finally removed from its homepage the Board's extraordinarily self-serving and misleading thank you letter, full of praise for all of Mary Jo Spring's hard work and for placing them in such a grand financial situation.

I think a very different thank you is in order. I would like to thank, with great sadness and deep affection, all of the Hermitage cats who gave up their lives, in involuntary fulfillment of Ms. Spring's quest to reduce costs by getting rid of the sanctuary cats.

And as for the quality of the Hermitage's financial situation: Mr. Heidenheim, Mr. Tulowitzski and Mr. Zak, unless you have learned how to spin straw into gold, you need to follow Mary Jo Spring's example and resign. Now.

Here is a list of places where the Hermitage, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, relying solely on funds from the public, makes available to the same public its current financial information:

Hermitage 12-Step Plan

1. Mary Jo Spring departs
2. 2008 Form 990s are published on the website
3. Board votes to overturm policy prohibiting adoptions by former staff, volunteers and sponsors
4. Hermitage sends out a mass mailing to current and former donors, sponsors, staffers, asking for their input on how to heal the organization
5. New board members meet privately with current and former long-term sponsors and volunteers, and also heads of other animal rescue groups to ask their opinions and for input on how to proceed
6. Board retreat where responses are discussed
7. Board issues an open call for new board members and public participation
8. Open public meetings are once again held at The Hermitage and the Ward Council offices
9. New board members join
10. Individual board members send letters to other animal rescue organizations in AWASA, apologizing for the incident at last September's meeting, and ask to rebuild connections
11. Tom Tulowtzski, Taylor Heidenheim and Ron Zack resign from board
12. A new veterinarian with no-kill shelter experience is selected

The decision to put down an animal is an agonizing one. You don't want to do it too soon, and take away time when the pet still has a good quality of life, enjoys their food, likes being with others, their pain is controlled, they still want to play or go for walks, have a good time napping in the sun, or just being with their people. You also don't want to wait too long, and have your companion experience pain or fear. While veterinarians make learned recommendations, based on extensive education and experience, the ultimate decision in all animal rescue groups I know, other than the Hermitage, falls to the person who is the daily primary caretaker of the animal. They know what that pet's normal behavior is, their likely behavior in responding to different treatments, what the home environment is like, and what options are and are not feasible within those bounds. They are the person with best feel for the pet's true quality of life. It is a difficult decision, even when it is very clear that it is time for euthanasia, and that is the way it should be, because life is a precious thing, not to be ended lightly.

Mary Jo Spring has authorized the killing of scores of animals over the past two years. But she is not the primary or even secondary caretaker. In fact, I rather doubt she could pass a visual identification test on more than 5 of the Hermitage cats. I'd like to know, has she ever been present when even a single one of the Hermitage cats was put down? She had no shelter experience at all prior to coming to the Hermitage; has she ever been present when ANY animal was put down?

The Hermitage Kitty Store used to be an online store, maintained by the Hermitage staff, which contained items to further the Hermitage mission statement. There were bumperstickers for Spay and Neuter, Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat, Hermitage Cat Shelter t-shirts to increase name recognition, etc. Those have disappeared (along with the staff), and the store has now been outsourced to Amazon. All the Hermitage-specific items have been removed, and instead the site now carries items like Fake Blood and a bumpersticker that says "I like Cats...they taste like chicken". Not what I would expect from a self-described "world-class organization".

So, if you were a nonprofit organization that within the last two weeks had had two uncomplimentary articles on you published in the print media, had your petition to the court denied, and had your appeal of an unemployment compensation also denied, don't you think you'd be putting something on your official blog? Something to try to put a different spin on your growing public relations nightmare, something to give your side of the story. But, wait, you removed your official blog several weeks ago, and your top IT person departed. Well, you'd put something in your monthly newsletter, right? No, wait, you haven't sent out a newsletter since April. OK then, you'd put something on the front of your website right, a fact-filled, stirring response directly addressing the controversy, right?

Continuing its tradition of directly addressing problems and working together to come to resolution, the Hermitage this week has put its best efforts into posting on the front of their website: NEW! Play Circle The Cat!

The Hermitage is suing me to stop publication of this blog. They contend that my words have caused donors to stop giving money. While I like to think I am a persuasive writer, my contention is that I have only been one of a number of sources bringing attention to their inappropriate behavior; and it is the Hermitage's own behavior that has caused donors to withdraw, not my golden tongue. And I note that although articles on the Hermitage, some less than complimentary, have appeared in the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson Citizen, Tucson Weekly and on two TV stations, I am the only one being sued. I think this is because I am an individual person, and lack the deeper pockets of these institutions, and also the fact the blogging is a newer medium; presumably I am an easier target. I am also the one with personal connections to other people, those former volunteers, donors and staff, who they would like to shut up.

The hearing requested by the Hermitage is to ask a judge to prevent me from blogging further until a full trial can be held. The claim is essentially that my words have caused such serious, imminent and permanent damage that I cannot be permitted to write further in the time between now and a trial, that the damage would be too severe for recovery. You will note that this blog began in earnest back in the spring of last year, and they just got around to filing suit in February of this year. If something was truly causing me permanent, serious damage, I would not be waiting a year to attend to it; but that's me. If the judge orders me to halt until the trial, I will do so, for I am not a terrorist, as Mary Jo Spring has claimed, but a law-abiding citizen. There will be print media covering the hearing, so even if I fall silent, I expect you would be able to find out what happened.

The longer this has gone on, and the more different people's reactions I have seen to the chain of events, the more concerned I have become about the social ramifications of the Hermitage's behavior. The bullying attempts have worked on a large number of people, who have told me things, but not wanted them attributed to them as individuals, for fear of being sued themselves. One person was concerned if their name appeared in the paper in a negative context, it might endanger their job. And if it's this easy for a little animal shelter to frighten people over what many would consider a relatively minor civil matter, what does that mean for our society in general when it some to other, larger issues, where there might even be criminal activity? I have become more convinced than ever of the importance of free speech in maintaining our society as a democratic and civil organization.

If this had all happened 10 or even 5 years ago, there would not have been a blog, and there would not have been a coalition. The many people who were having bad experiences with the Hermitage would not have realized they were part of a much larger group, would not have been able to find one another, and would not have formed an activist body. The newspapers and TV stations probably would not have picked up on the story, and far fewer people would have been aware of what has happened.

There has been much talk this week about people using Twitter and texting in Iran in order to get around their government's attempt to control information. Technology is making it harder and harder to control and hide information, and I believe it will become the predominant force in the next 20 years, forcing a global opening of societies. The law on bloggers and twitterers and other writers in the new technologies has a long way to go to match that of the more traditional media. If this case continues forward, it will enter uncharted territory. For my part, I write with electrons, not ink. But it is the content, not the delivery system, which makes it valuable. In writing this blog, I serve the same purpose as the original muckrakers: shining light on a dark recess, on behalf of the public good. At this point, I now go before the judge, present my side, and wait. I hope to see you soon on the other side.

It's mid-June, and the most up-to-date financial information on the official Hermitage website dates from 2007. Where are the Form 990s for 2008? Where is the balance sheet for 2008? Where are the board meeting minutes, with their monthly summaries? Where is all the financial information on the actual money made at the fundraising events, promised by Executive Director Mary Jo Spring in their (now conveniently removed) blog, on the great successes of the El Tour, Litterbox Lariat, and other events? Where is the projection for 2009? What steps have they taken/are they taking to ride out the economic storm? Why is the Executive Director not stepping up the number of fund raising events?

Why is the Board meeting in secret? Why are the monthly meeting minutes not published? Why won't Executive Director Mary Jo Spring talk to the press? Why has the Board failed to answer the many phone calls, emails and letters they have received over the past YEAR?

Why in the world is the Board backing an Executive Director, who in the past year, has:
--filed police complaints against 3 former employees, none of which resulted in charges
--filed a complaint with the state veterinary board, which was dismissed
--was foolish enough to call a press conference to announce the filing of several of her complaints, resulting in a wave a bad publicity
--responded to reporter's questions about why such an allegedly serious sitation had gone on for so long steps from her office, could only glibly reply "I guess ignorace is bliss".
--challenged multiple employee's unemployment claims after they were fired, all her challenges being denied by the state, resulting in higher points for insurance
--decimated the volunteer program
--at public meetings called those who disagreed with her "terrorists"
--made statements to a media representative calling others "terrorists"
--failed to increase the income of the shelter, when she was hired as a fund raiser
--failed to lock and alarm the shelter after hours, which facilitated a break-in by 8 year-olds with dogs, who killed 1 cat and injured others
--stated to a volunteer that "a sanctuary is no longer feasible"

It is time for Ms. Spring to go, and for Mr. Taylor, Mr. Zack and Mr. Tulowitzski, who initiated and continue to support this travesty, to exit stage left. You have violated the public trust repeatedly, and in an extreme manner. Do you seriously think Sister Seraphim, the Hermitage founder, a nun who founded a sanctuary, would want this secrecy, this paranoia?

I've received a number of comments from people about what appears to be the Hermitage's latest fundraiser, which is including coupons for cats in the Val-Pak mailers. I know that a lot of organizations have specials to encourage people to adopt, and I don't think is a good idea. My philosophy is that if getting a 15% discount (about $4.50, with their new pricing format) will make a difference in your decision to adopt an animal, then you probably should not be adopting. You either are not making enough money to properly care for an animal, or you don't understand the kind of commitment having a companion animal involves. Frankly, when adopting from a rescue group, I would encourage people to pay OVER the adoption fee, to assist in the group's efforts to care for more animals.

The Hermitage says in its mission statement that one of its goals is:
Educating the public about responsible companion animal guardianship
And their vision statement contains this:
Our vision for the future is...People treat animals as the sentient beings they are, ensuring that they are neither exploited nor harmed. The Hermitage Cat Shelter is a world-class organization,...promoting the innate value of all animals

Placing coupons for cats in the Val-Pac encourages the view that cats are a disposable commodity, not sentient beings with innate value. I think a "world-class organization" can do a better job educating the public.

The Hermitage is having communication problems.

They removed the written link to their official blog, then later their icon link, and then later still removed the blog itself.

They revamped their MySpace Page, after criticisms from me about the incorrect information on their old one, but the MySpace site is still not linked to or advertised on their official website.

They started an account on Twitter in April, but have only 2 total tweets, both on the same day, one of which is "Meow!", not terribly informative.

They started another new blog, in a different location, billed on their Myspace page as The Hermitage Experience (Employee Blog), but again fail to link to it from their official site, and it is mostly just photos and descriptions of their Cat of the Week, no true news, not a series of personal musings from an employee, and the last posting there was May 20.

They created a new content-free Facebook page.

There are no upcoming events on the official Hermitage website listed between now and November.

Poor Monica was tasked with making phone calls to volunteers asking for donations; unfortunately for her, the list she was given included volunteers that had been banned. I can only imagine how it felt to be making those calls. Letters to banned volunteers were also sent out, asking for money.

They started an "eMewsletter", and as they explain in the April issue of their online newlsetter:

The Hermitage made the decision to send out a monthly eMewsletter for 2 reasons:
1) to keep our donors informed
2) to increase donations
The Hermitage wants to keep you informed about what is going on at the shelter, what events are coming up, and interesting cat information you can use. Staying in touch on a monthly basis is our way of saying thank you for your support.


But there have been no further issues of the eMewsletter.

The Hermitage continues to publish false information which makes it appear they are helping more cats than they truly are. On their Petfinder.com information page, they state the following:

The Hermitage Cat Shelter is Tucson's only no-kill, no-cage adoption center and sanctuary. We are currently caring for about 375 cats, half are permanent residents, and half are adoptable.

The Hermitage has not been the only no-kill, no-cage facility for several years. And they do not have 375 cats; in fact, they have less than half that number. In fact, they have only 48 cats listed as adoptable on their Petfinder listings.

While the information is on Petfinder.com's website, the info on the organization is written and maintained by the Hermitage itself, not Petfinder.com. This is true for all the organizations that list their animals on Petfinder.com. I know, because when I worked for the Hermitage, doing so was part of my job. And Petfinder.com is not some obscure website the Hermitage once put information on and then forgot about. Petfinder.com is THE place on the web for animal rescue groups to show stray and adoptable animals. In fact, if you click on the Hermitage's adoptable cat photos or links on any of their own pages, you are in fact taken to a Hermitage webpage that shows you their Petfinder.com listings, with an inset that says "powered by Petfinder.com".

Because I know they will set yet another land-speed record changing the incorrect information once they get a few pointed phone calls, here is a copy of the source code of the page, and here is a screen shot.

You'd think an organization that hired a full-time Executive Director with a sterling fund raising background would have a full calendar of ongoing fund raising events large and small. But if you look at the Hermitage's Event Calendar, the only upcoming activity you'll see is a solicitation for riders for the upcoming El Tour de Tucson in November.

If you dig deeper, and click on the icon to see photos of past events, you'll see the Food for People's Pets Food Drive, Litterbox Lariat, Indoor El Tour, Santa Claws, and the dedication of the Bonnie Kay Healing House. There are a number of problems with that list, from the perspective of keeping the shelter in the black.
1) The Food for People's Pets is a worthy program; I know, because I was the one who coordinated it when I worked in the back office. But, the monies raised do not go to the shelter's coffers, that food goes to outside groups for distribution to the poor.
2) The Litterbox is traditionally the shelter's biggest fundraiser. In the now-deleted official Hermitage blog, Executive Director Mary Jo Spring stated "It was a resounding success. There were over 100 people in attendance enjoying the entertainment and food, and just getting to know others who are supporting The Hermitage. The silent auction and live auction brought in a lot of money (details to follow)," Yet, as is typical, the financial details never did follow.
3) The Indoor El Tour was a very modest first-time event and did not raise much money. That's fine for the first time out, but it's not something to rely on as a major source of income. And Dick Blanchard, the El Tour coordinator for the Hermitage, has left the building (and the board).
4) The Santa Claws event did not even merit mention in the Hermitage's own official blog, whose purpose, before it was deleted, was "to inform our sponsors, donors and adopters of the ongoing activities and programs of the Hermitage Cat Shelter in Tucson, Arizona." Therefore, I think it safe to assume it was not a major source of revenue.
5) I suppose the Bonnie Kay Healing House is lovely, but I'm not sure, because the 50-some former volunteers, sponsors and donors that I knew at the Hermitage were all excluded from the event, because they are banned from the Hermitage. I would assume that Ms. Kay contributed a very significant amount of money, so it is again surprising that the dedication was never mentioned in the official Hermitage blog. Ms. Lundberg and Ms. Parker-Hotchkiss, you may want to ask your friends in other organizations if they have ever heard of a nonprofit banning 90% of its volunteers in a three-month period, concomitant with a complete turnover in paid staff, and ask yourselves if you can think of any circumstances where that would be appropriate. I encourage you to contact former board members and ask them why they left.

Ms. Spring makes just under $50K per year. The fundraising events above cover 8 months. I'd be very interested to see if the net proceeds even cover her salary for that time period, let alone make a significant contribution to the shelter's budget.

The Hermitage has now removed its picture link to its blog, but you can still get there by going to:
http://hermitagecatshelter.blogspot.com/
They dabble in a bit of revisivionist history on even this blog though, since they have come to realize that some items that they originally trumpeted from all four corners of the shelter actually reflected pretty poorly upon them, they removed them. I guess they are unfamiliar with the idea of a search engine cache, or a screen save, or even saving a text file. If there's something you saw before there, and can't find it now, just use OUR search, we've kept copies of all their postings.

I noticed when writing the blog article for Sunday that the Hermitage has removed from its website its diatribe against former employees Rosalie Torske and Paula LaRue. I also noted several weeks ago they had removed their written link to their blog, although the picture link remains (the cat in the black hat). I assume that whoever removed the written link did not have the technical knowledge to either realize the job was only half done, or how to remove the picture link. I wrote a blog post on current employee Mike the tech's personal blog on the cat mauling at the shelter, and that blog entry disappeared within 48 hours . When I wrote about the hideously designed Hermitage myspace page that was soliticing funds using cat care numbers more than 200% above the actual number of cats, that page was quickly and completely redone. (I have been told, but not been able to confirm, that the myspace page was done by Executive Director Mary Jo Spring's sister).

But not everything in life can be fixed with a delete key. Ask the dead Hermitage cats.

I recently published a series of letters from the Hermitage to a volunteer who they had kicked to the curb, and from whom they were now seeking donations. Therefore, I was quite surprised, to put it mildly, to find in Saturday's mail a copy of the Hermitage's Spring 2009 newsletter, complete with an envelope for mailing in my no-doubt generous donation. Amazing, frankly, because

1) The Hermitage is suing me to stop this blog.
2) Since I left the Hermitage in September 2007, I have moved, and yet this mailing was sent directly to my new home address. In fact, in documents on file downtown at the Pima County Superior Court, the Hermitage claimed in March that they didn't know where I live, and filed a motion for an alternative method of serving legal papers. There is even an affadavit recorded on March 27, 2009, from (former) board member Dick Blanchard, saying he called my business phone and pretended to be a potential client in order to (unsuccessfully) attempt to obtain my home address.
3) Now, I live at an animal rescue facility, my new address is actually pretty public, and I'm not claiming any violation of privacy that the Hermitage has it. My point is that someone clearly went out of their way, very recently, to add me to a Hermitage database.

The Hermitage has been claiming to donors that they had multiple computer database glitches this fall (see our blog, 2009-05-04: Unmitigated Gall), while simultaneously claiming on their official blog that former employees trashed their computers (the same claims appearing in police reports and later in court motions). I would like to suggest a third possiblity: they are technically incompetent. Based on their fund solicitation to me, they are either so clueless that they added me to something like Donor.SQL instead of PeopleWeAreSuing.SQL; or they sent out their fund solicitation to all their databases, including ones like BannedVolunteers.SQL, FormerBoardMembers.SQL, or StaffWhoseUnemploymentCompensationPaymentsWehave UnsuccessfullyChallenged.SQL, and I was just caught up in that mass mailing.

There is one more possible explanation for why I received this mailing, which is that yet another employee (and I have never personally met any of the new empoyees) is fed up, and doing their best to help the cats. While this sounds unlikely to the uninitiated, it is not without precedent at The Hermitage.

I know that Ms. Spring reads this blog daily, so I can make my formal request here:
Remove me from all your mailing lists.

There has been a rather poorly designed Hermitage MySpace page on the internet for quite some time now, soliciting funds thusly:

We are in desperate need of a new shelter. The building is falling apart and it is costing thousands of dollars to fix and the fixes are only temporary. We need to move our kitties (400) out ASAP.

I find it rather galling that when trying to raise monies from the public, they continue to claim 400 cats, when that number is actually in the area of 150.

Since I'm sure they'll pull this, just like they have the link to their official blog, and their employee's personal blog on what happened the evening when the ED didn't lock the shelter and children let dogs in, here's a screen shot that they can't pull.

Update: As soon as this blog posting went up, they redesigned their site. It's now more visually attractive, but the information is just a rehash of the Who We Are page and the old ED's welcome, nothing new there.

The Hermitage was advertizing on its website last week a seminar on fostering infant kittens (or as they phrased it, "kittins"). I found this interesting, because the Hermitage staff I knew who had fostered kittens were all let go, and the board members who had helped foster are also long gone. I thought perhaps the Hermitage had worked at "fostering" the talents of their new staff. I thought perhaps they had decided to "foster" a new relationship with volunteers since the September board meeting, when Executive Director Mary Jo Spring stated that there were only 7 volunteers (the rest having fled or been banned), and they didn't want any volunteers for cleaning, just tabling and outside events. So I checked the volunteer section of the website, and but saw nothing on fostering. And upon further searching I found that in fact, the seminar was being presented by Humane Society personnel.

Merchant Circle is a business review website. You can see for yourself how former customers of the Hermitage rate their experiences over the past year. Some of the names are familiar, some are folks I've never met, but there is a definite consensus.

Here's an article from this weekend's Tucson Citizen on why it is not responsible to give baby animals as Easter presents:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/lifestyle/114040.php

Here's the third part of the Hermitage's Mission Statement, as taken from their own website:
Educating the public about responsible companion animal guardianship

And here's the Hermitage website home page, whose scrollbar as of 11:15 this morning was still advertizing their Easter Adoptathon:
http://www.HermitageCatShelter.org

************************
Thanks for the lead, Jack!

Update at 4:30 PM: That was a quick response, the Hermitage has now pulled the item off their scroll.

Take a look at the Hermitage's eMewsletter.

There's just one article on a rescued animal available for adoption. Call me old-fashioned, but I'd expect the one article in a shelter newsletter highlighting an animal to be about an animal actually from that shelter. But, the Hermitage's vaunted new vision means that the primary adoption article in its first internet newsletter is for a Humane Society dog. There is also a note gushing about "animal advocate Bonnie Kay"'s generous donation to the Hermitage. The article fails to mention that Bonnie Kay represents the Humane Society, who provides veterinary services for the Hermitage.

Apparently the new vision does not include transparent relationships.

It's January, and the yearly board member elections for the Hermitage are only 4 months away. I can guarantee you at least three board members will feel that they have served on this Board from Hell for long enough, and would readily embrace the opportunity to leave, if only others could be found to take their place. Three makes a majority on this board. If you're a donor or sponsor or member of the community who has been upset by what you've seen and heard over the past year, send in your application now.

Go to http://www.hermitagecatshelter.org/volunteering.html, scroll down to the bottom, and click on the link to the board application.

An article on the Hermitage appears in the December 18, 2008 Tucson Weekly, entitled "No More No Kill"
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=119716
.
Quite a contrast to the December 23, 2004 article, written before the current board and executive director, when the same reporter visited the Hermitage as part of the Weekly's series on Tucson Heroes.
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=64043

The following letter was sent to our mailbox. We have received permission to print the letter, but have been asked to withhold the name and address. Nothing else has been added.

Click here for a scanned version of the letter.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
9/7/2008

Dear H.C.S. Coalition,

When I received your first letter, I thought you must be a group of disgruntled employees, volunteers and sponsors.

Then, I read the newspaper stories and actually believed the glossed-over version from the Hermitage. I thought, "This isn't so bad": only very sick cats were put down and the remaining cats were getting better care.

I received your second letter telling about the barn cat program and I panicked because we were sponsoring 2 shy cats...one with FE-L.

So, my husband and I rushed over to find out what was really going on. Needless to day, we were very upset.

The Hermitage people we saw and spoke with told us about the Barn Program and it sounded pretty safe. They made it sound like all of the feral cats would be in a larger space where they would be more free but still cared for. We asked about our 2 cats and they told us Rags had been adopted. We were surprised because we knew that Rags was not adoptable. She was feral and very people-shy.

The Hermitage people took us on a tour of the facility and we noticed that there were very few cats around. We are positive that a lot more than 50 cats have been put down. We never saw Chaos.

Two weeks later we received a letter informing us that Rags had been put down; they were sorry but we could sponsor another cat from the list they sent us.

We were devastated and my husband went to the Hermitage because we knew now that they had lied to us. They didn't even know Rags was a female and referred to her as "him".

My husband was told that the original statement that Rags has been adopted had been "a mistake". Not when 3 people had assured and reassured us that she had been adopted. At the time, we had communicated our surprise as her supposed adoption because of her feral nature. My husband was now told that she had stomatitis which required that she be put down. It was claimed that the feral cats all gave this to each other. We had visited Rags periodically and had seen no sign of illness. We have never been informed that she was sick.

My husband asked when Rags had been put down. Computer records were checked and he was given a date of 6/27/2008. It was, by this time, the second week in August. We had made our July support payment for a cat that had been euthanized, had we not visited in July, we suspect that we would have continued to pay for her. It was five weeks from the date of her death until we were informed, and they only after our physical visit.

A more disturbing possibility is that all feral cats were being systematically put down. My husband asked again about the Barn Program and was finally told that only 2 cats had been placed. This is not a program! This is one man with a barn who wanted 2 feral cats for rodent control.

The Hermitage claims that 100 cats have been adopted and 50 diseased cats put down. Many more cats appear to be missing, however, and their absence cannot be explained by a "Barn Program" which does not exist. We fear that all unadoptable cats are being killed. It is no longer a no-kill sanctuary and there is a huge need for that.

Thank you for listening to me. I do not have a computer so excuse me for the long letter.

It has occurred to me that if the lawyer on the Hermitage Board ever wakes up and reads what his Executive Director is publicly posting, it might be removed. So here it is in its entirety. The direct link is in the previous post. I would also like to point out several factual errors -- Paula LaRue and Rosalie Torske are not now, and never have been, members of the Save the Hermitage Coalition. The Coalition has no disagreement whatsoever with the stated mission of the Hermitage -- indeed, it is the actions of the Executive Director and the Board contrary to that mission that have brought this diverse group together. And Hermitage does not truly believe that the best place for a cat is a loving home, otherwise they would drop the politics and permit former volunteers and staff members adopt the remaining cats.
*****************************************************************

Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Rosalie Torske and Paula LaRue leave a path of destruction
Dear Supporters,

The Hermitage has been taking the high road and we have not lashed back when we have been criticized by a coalition of disgruntled, former employees and volunteers. This coalition was formed because of a fundamental disagreement in our mission. We will always remain a sanctuary but we will try to find homes for our kitties. Whether a kitty has special needs or is eminently adoptable, the best place for a cat is in a loving home. Employees and volunteers do not own The Hermitage cats and if they can be placed in a good home, they will.

That being said, we need to bring an important issue to the forefront. Two former employees of The Hermitage, Rosalie Torske, Assistant Director and Paula LaRue, Office Manager have gone beyond the grounds of decency and are trying to bring The Hermitage down. Angry that she could not take over the position of Executive Director (even though she does not have the experience needed for the position); Rosalie Torske set out to destroy the shelter. She recruited Paula LaRue to join her and together they destroyed our QuickBooks files (with our accounting information) stole proprietary and confidential files and donor list and are spreading malicious lies. They obviously do not care about the cat’s welfare, but only their own petty egos.

A police report has been filed and we will take full legal action against them. We ask you if you suspect either one of these people might have taken money from you illegally, please contact us.

In closing we want you to know The Hermitage is not going under, is financially solvent and our cats are getting the best care that they ever have. We ask you for your continued support. Join us in the continued success of Arizona’s first no-kill, no-cage shelter and help us find loving homes for our beloved kitties.

We invite you to visit our shelter and see just how wonderful our home for kitties really is.

The Hermitage Cat Shelter
Posted by rjb2020 at 9:52 AM
*****************************************************************

There are now only 156 cats at the Hermitage, and approximately 100 of these are ferals. And the executive director wants them out. As Ms. Spring publicly stated to the newspaper in July, in her view, the ferals "take up space". She had as many as she could euthanized before there was a public outcry, and claimed that they were suffering and needed to be put down due to stomatitis, a gum infection. Within the past 10 days, I have received information from people both directly and casually associated with the shelter that they believe another round of ferals will be euthanized as soon as the Litterbox Lariat activities are wrapped up, and the process of outsourcing HR/payroll/accounting is complete (cleaning is already outsourced).

The Hermitage changed vet care from Encanto Pet Clinic to the Humane Society, six months ago, ostensibly to reduce costs. Through euthanasia, adoption, and stopping the intake of cats from the public, they lowered the number of cats from over 300 to 156. Their own records indicate that only 20 cats currently at the shelter are healthy adoptables. At the August board meeting, Ron Zack, the treasurer, complained that although there were fewer cats, the vet bills had not changed much, and were mostly due to the dental care for the nonadoptable feral/sanctuary cats. Hel-looooo! That's like being surprised taking the young, healthy people off a health insurance plan doesn't significantly reduce medical costs.

Ms. Spring has been talking very openly to staff about how much she wants to get the ferals out. Her statements to visitors are quite different. Since she is an utter failure at fundraising, her survival strategy has been to cut costs, regardless of what the money was used for, and focus on the "savings" in her reports. You can make your own predictions. If you have room for a feral, a scooter, GI or special needs cat, now is the time.

Click here for full September Board Meeting Minutes.

My favorite excerpts are: Mary Jo's comment about how HR continues to be a challenge; the discussion about having introductory and probationary periods for employees; the Hermitage's version of Rio Nuevo, where the board fantasizes about building a new facility when they were just weeks away from starting to tap the building fund for operational expenses; and finally this:

Tom: how many volunteers would we like? 30 solid volunteers, espec to do tours and tabling outreach. (We have 7 good volunteers now.) We don't need cleaners.

Not wanting to truly have public meetings where riff-raff can attend, the board is publishing on the official Hermitage website that its meetings are held at the Ward council offices, while in truth, they are at the offices of Tri-Tronic, Tom Tulowitzski's place of business. However, as Tom found out in October, that doesn't help much when suddenly those who disagree with you include other board members, invited volunteers who are doing the lion's share of the work, and employees you require as part of their job to be in attendance.

Ms. Spring publicly and repeatedly called the Coalition members "terrorists" at a recent AWASA meeting. AWASA includes representatives from animal welfare and rescue groups from all over southern Arizona, so her presentation was not the most helpful thing she could have done for her cause, and I imagine there were many private side conversations by the other attendees afterwards. However, I am glad that she expressed her view to such a public group, because her mindset should now be quite clear to even casual observers.

Ms. Spring has been very concerned about controlling access to the Hermitage's public events, particularly today's Litterbox Lariat, the biggest fundraising event of the year. Image is everything for a nonprofit that relies on public funds, and the Hermitage's visage has suffered a great deal in recent months. By requiring advance purchases directly from shelter admin staff, she planned to control who could attend the event, even though it was being held at a public venue --undesirables simply would not be sold tickets. At the event itself, tickets would be held at a reception desk outside the La Mariposa building where the event was being held. Prior to entering, each peson would be greeted, checked off the Will-Call List, and then given a pin with color-coded ribbon, a different color for board members, donors, staff, etc. This would permit the uniformed police officer inside the event to immediately identify any riff-raff who did not have tickets and escort them from the premises.

But there are some problems with this plan; Ms. Spring does not know how to operate her own computer, and when the event coordinator and two staff people setting up the event all resigned last week, she had no idea where to look for the final Will-Call List, and therefore does not know who purchased tickets or how many. She may therefore be extremely suprised this afternoon at some of the direct legitimate sales that were made. Additionally, some supporters became unhappy after purchasing their tickets, and gave them to others.

Ms. Spring apparently does not understand that the hard-working, law-abiding, middle-aged women who are the backbone of volunteer work in this country are simply not the sort of people who crash public events and create scenes of physical conflict. We have finesse, are organized and smart. We are the type of people who purchase legitimate tickets, go to an event in a calm manner, wear protest shirts and buttons, discourse in a civil manner with other attendees who may or may not disagree, each attempting to convince the other of their opinion, and eat the rubber chicken like everyone else. We may invite an attorney friend or a reporter as company. This is America, this is the way disagreements are handled. The only excitement I can see for the police officer is if someone chokes on a cherry tomato at the buffet and needs the Heimlich Maneuver. As I see it, Ms. Spring has three choices: embarrassing videotape of Hermitage Board members denying entry to legitimate ticket-holders at their biggest fundraising event of the year, held at a public venue, where there are many empty seats; a recording of Ms. Spring refunding money to ticket-holders on the spot in order to avoid troublesome legal ramifications; or simply permitting all legitimate ticket holders to attend the event.

People have been falling out of the woodwork to let me know that Ms. Spring has been job hunting, and a copy of Mary Jo's resume was just forwarded to me. Guess that's one place she won't be interviewing. I did not alter the format or create the weird indentation, that is her handiwork. I did blacken out her personal phone number and street name, that's it. You'd think someone who "Developed, implemented and evaluated marketing programs and advertising collateral from concept through completion" would have come up with a more attractive format for an item as important as a resume.

A few choice excerpts:
"Turned company’s financials around in just one year". Can't argue with that one, she just forgot to mention that the direction they were turned was downward.
"Expanded existing events and created successful, new fundraisers" When I read this, I was immediately reminded of Bill Clinton's infamous quote, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." Only here, it depends on what the meaning of the word 'successful' is. The Indoor El Tour is new, and it will bring in $60 more that the Hermitage didn't have, so in that way, it is a success. She did create the spring fundraiser at La Encantada. And since she eliminated the WhiskerBowl Event, ditched the corporate Sponsor-a-Cat program, and gutted the donor pool so that the general public Sponsor-a-Cat program has fallen from $9,000 to $4,000, then yes, comparatively, the new events are a success.

I find the Human Relations portion for Hermitage the most entertaining: "Managed, hired, trained and motivated 20 employees...Directed, trained and coordinated group of 30 volunteers". If anyone knows any employees who were actually trained or motivated by Ms. Spring to do anything other than resign, or can identify a group of 3, let alone 30 volunteers who she trained and coordinated, please, let us know. It would also be nice if said individuals were actually still working there.

If anyone from other organizations where she has listed her copious experience would like to comment on the veracity of the claims regarding her work at their own businesses, please email the webmaster.

The following is an official Hermitage document. I have added a star next to the name of board members and their spouses.

PERSONS WHO ARE ALLOWED IN THE HERMITAGE CAT SHELTER OTHER THAN GENERAL PUBLIC 10/05/08

Volunteers & Board of Directors

Ginny Alexander*
Vern Alexander*
Jeannie Bolding
Judy Cools
Billie Cover
Tasha Cover
Sherri Cox
Kay Cuny
Sarah Dahlen
Glad Gammie
Pam Glantz
Pamella Harwood
Taylor Heidenheim*
Hope Hollenbeck
Carolyn Powers
Mary Rasmussen
Tom Rasmussen
Helen Shea
Judy Showers*
Kenna Smith*
Dawna Spencer*
Eunice Steinman
Joan Tulowitski*
Tom Tulowitski*
Nancy Wiseman
Ron Zack*

Now, this list was prepared only three weeks ago, but it's even smaller now. Vern and Ginny Alexander resigned, so I rather doubt they're still permitted in. I was told by the former admin assistant that Carolyn Powers was axed just because she has lunch with Sue Garvey, who is a former volunteer. So that leaves about 16 people who are not board members who are still permitted in the shelter. In the Executive Director's Report in the August Board meeting minutes, Ms. Spring states that there are currently 7 volunteers left, that the shelter does not need volunteer cleaners (on what planet does an animal shelter not need volunteer cleaners?) and they only want volunteers for tours and to do outside events.

The plan is to now put up a wall subdividing the entrance area so that access to the shelter will be further controlled. Visitors will now have to show photo ID, and then be issued a visitor badge before being permitted in the shelter. I wonder whether they will also have to put all liquids and gels in 3 ounce containers and remove their shoes for inspection.

If you read the Hermitage blog, you'll remember how several months ago, it was crowing about how the GI cat's health had been greatly improved by changes in diet and vet care. You would think these cats would be kept front and center, with staff making a point of showing these cats off to visitors as a shining example of how well the Hermitage's new vision is working. The reality is quite the opposite. Ms. Spring has banished the unsightly GI cats to an unseen part of the shelter, just the way she has the scooters. The GI room is disgusting. It is too small, reeks, has mold, and is a disgrace. I have multiple reports from volunteers that the room is not being properly cleaned on a daily basis, and fecal matter is allowed to accumulate. In an attempt to cut down on laundry, the cats are not given blankies to lay and sleep on.
Please, if you are able to visit the shelter, do so, and make a point of asking to see the GI cats. Inquiries from the public will result in a swift and dramatic change in their living quarters. Take a camera. And if you are disturbed by what you see, contact PACC.

Ms. Spring feels that the "scooters", or paraplegic cats, are too unsightly to be permitted in the front rooms of the shelter, because they sometimes poop on the floor. Prior to purging the staff, outsourcing the cleaning to Jani-King, and getting rid of all the volunteer cleaners, this was not a problem. People were on hand to address these things as they came up, cleaning was a continual, ongoing process, as it would be in a real sanctuary, hospital, or home. It was not a big deal. Ms. Spring says she has previous hospice experience, so you think she'd get this. The scooters cats are not in any pain whatsoever, are highly mobile, very social, and quite popular. Now, all the scooters except Festus have been put in a room in the back out of sight. This room does not have the smooth tile floors of the front, but instead has rough concrete that abrades their legs. There used to be washable carpeting the staff could put over concrete to protect the legs of the scooters, but that has been thrown out and not replaced. Ms. Spring's solution? Have the techs wrap the legs of the hidden cats. Remove the climbing trees that Festus so enjoyed. And start proclaiming at loud intervals how inhumane it is to have paraplegic cats at the shelter. That way, when they disappear, no one will notice for a while, and then she can trot out her oft-used refrain "We're so sorry, but no one realized how much they were suffering..."

Just how bad is the Hermitage's financial situation? Only $32,000 remains in the operating fund, and the shelter requires $43,750 a month in expenses. The money market fund was decimated over the past few months. The Sponsor-a-Cat revenue is less than half what it was just months ago. Almost no funds are being generated from public donations. The Board is now in a position where it is having to tap the building fund for daily operational expenses. My projection is nine months of cash left, at this rate. And if another pipe bursts under the sagging floor of the ISO area, where the sewer pipe continues to leak, not even that much.

How does this compare with other Tucson animal groups? FAIR is adding kennel space to its facilities. Casa de los Gatos is thriving, and has multiple fundraisers every month. I get enthusiastic emails from volunteers who used to help out at the Hermitage, talking about how much they now enjoy being at HOPE.

Board members, you are killing a Tucson gem.

Litterbox Lariat is the big fall fund raiser for the Hermitage. Only this year, it's going to be the big fall fund loser. It does not require a CPA to understand why. Here's what the executive director has done:

Tickets to the event are $85, with $25 going directly to La Mariposa to pay for the dinners. Due to the low volume of response, the RSVP deadline was extended from October 15 to the 24th. As of Wednesday, sixty seats had been sold. That makes $3600 actually coming in. I received an email today that some people who bought tickets to the Lariat are now asking for their money back, but for the purposes of this exercise, we'll stay with the $3600.

La Mariposa was guaranteed the purchase of at least 50 dinners. Some people who purchsed those tickets are now asking for their money back. However, I'll be generous and leave the $3600 coming in as it is on that particulare item.

Room rent for the ballroom is in the neighborhood of $2,000, depending of course on how long the event lasts. Ginny Alexander, who arranged the event, was able to get Mariposa to comp that.

Worried that the coalition would have a protest, Ms. Spring has hired security for the event. There was much discussion of whether to use a simple security guard, or a more expensive off-duty police officer in uniform. It was decided the uniformed officer would be scarier and worth the additional cost. So there will be one uniformed officer for 5 hours at $30 an hour. Subtract $150 to get $3450. I hope they feed the officer a nice dinner beforehand, and he has an enjoyable evening. He may have the best evening of anyone there.

Ms. Spring has a penchant for very elaborate and costly cards and envelopes and graphics. Two sets of invitations were printed out, the first to a group of 500 people who had donated in the past. When there was not a response from that mailing, a second printing of 250 was done, and given to a Hermitage supporter to send to her personal mailing list, which was separate from the first. That mailing was done last Friday. The total seven hundred fifty invitations were printed and mailed at a cost of about $2,000. That brings the income down to $1450.

The admin assistant estimated that $200 so far had been spent on incidentals for the event (pins and ribbons to identify the attendees so the police officer would know who had a vetted ticket, etc.) Now the event is down to $1250.

There were two shelter workers whose work time was spent preparing for the event. The admin assistant estimates she spent 80 hours and the accountant 40 hours, before they resigned this week, and that Ms. Spring spent 4 hours. Assuming the admin and accountant make $9 per hour, that would be an in-house cost of $1080. Ms. Spring makes about $48,000, but she is salaried, and such a hard worker, that we'll assume that she put in her work for free. The lariat is now down to $170, and there are still additional incidental expenses that haven't been made yet.

The big money from this event has always come from the silent auction. Event coordinator Ginny Alexander had done a great job getting some very lovely donations for the auctions. Ginnie resigned Wednesday, as well as her husband Vern, who was on the Board, and took back her donations. While I did not directly witness the event, it is my understanding that the rest of the Hermitage items were placed outside the door of their residence, where they were finally retrieved by Board member Taylor Heidenheim. Independent of this incident, a second donor of many nice items was also displeased with what was happening at the shelter, and withdrew her items as well. So Ms. Spring is probably hoping against hope that first, there will be something left to bid on, and second, some benificent angel will be bringing his big checkbook and be generous. But the biggest purchaser of seats for the event has already withdrawn his support from the shelter once, for very good reasons.

Next article: projected profits from Ms. Spring's new fall fund raiser, the Indoor El Tour.

Any recently departed, or current Hermitage employee or Board member who has not already done so, and would like to talk to us, on or off the record, please email the webmaster. If you are new to the blog, and not sure who we are, please read the archives, and compare the information there with your personal experience. Trust your gut, and what you have seen and heard yourself.

The Hermitage received some lovely publicity in the newspapers for their adopt-a-thon event this past weekend. Unfortunately, about 50 people were not able to attend and adopt a cat, donate to the food drive, or purchase tickets for the upcoming fundraiser. Why? Because they are all former Hermitage volunteers, which means they are not permitted to adopt, or enter the premises.

Board members, for goodness sake, has a single one of you actually called a single one of the volunteers who was banned, to ask for their side of the story? Or every single time, have you just accepted Ms. Spring's explanation? Fifty people are gone. Is that not astounding to you?

If you would like a Save the Hermitage T-shirt, complete with a list of dead and missing cats on the back, email the webmaster. Shirts will be provided at cost. Please include info on your size, and preference for long or short-sleeve. These shirts are de rigeur for Litterbox events.

Mary Jo Spring, Executive Director of the Hermitage, was on TV doing the usual Pet of the Week promotion. If you were not familiar with the details, then you may not have noticed that Ms. Spring was not able to remember the correct name for either the cat she had brought with her, or the Humane Society vet who provides services for the Hermitage. Orbit was a special needs, black-and-white cat with unique markings, and was adopted out several months ago. And that was certainly not him on TV. It is unclear whether Ms. Spring is just very confused, or the Hermitage continues to have a problem correctly identifying the few remaining cats.

The Hermitage website has a new page that states: "The Hermitage offers programs that help our precious animals live long and healthy lives." There are links to detailed information on several programs, and one very interesting omission: the much-maligned Barn Cat Program. Has the Barn Cat Program been cancelled? Is this a tacit admission that it didn't help cats live long and healthy lives? Or was it perhaps simply too embarrassing to discuss publicly?

In the September Hermitage newsletter, there is a section asking for donations for special kitty carts for the paraplegic cats at a cost of $1,200. The idea is that the cats would be better able to get around, and avoid getting sores and ulcers on their legs where they come into contact with the floor. It does sound like a postive.

The problem here is that because the Board let the Executive Director purge all the previous staff, there has a been a huge loss of collective knowledge about what has already been tried, and what worked and what didn't work. Guess what, carts had already been purchased for exactly this purpose, at considerable cost, and tried. And while it was a nice idea that might work in a home setting, what the staff found was that in a setting with many other cats, it didn't work, the carts disturbed the other cats a great deal. And because unlike dogs, paraplegic cats are also enthusiastic climbers, it created additional hazards. If the Hermitage wants to reinvent the cat cart wheel with its new staff, that's fine, but why do they need new carts to try it out? Unless they threw out the veterinary supplies along with the vet techs?

There has been dissent on the Hermitage Board over the past 4 months, not too surprising considering the sudden shift in direction. Two board members suddenly resigned this spring, and two others finished out their terms and left the building as swiftly as possible. One of the remaining board members has approached the Executive Director about mediation with the Coalition. It is worth noting that all four of the board members who have left had volunteer experience at the Hermitage. The two new board members that have been brought on board have no previous work or volunteer experience with the shelter.

It was this time last year that Tom Tulowitzski chaired the public meeting where angry volunteers, donors and staff confronted him and the board about Mary Jo Spring's behavior with employees, and the direction of the shelter. Three main items came out of that meeting: Tom promised that Ms. Spring would be removed from a position of authority over other employees, and changed to a fund-raising capacity off-site. Grants were going to be the financial salvation of the shelter. And there would always be a place for Fred Yost, the maintenance supervisor, when he healed from his surgery. For those of you board members who were not around for that meeting, let's summarize the results by saying Tom's "Truthiness Index" is 0.

If you want an idea of what kind of image the Hermitage now has in the community, particularly the animal rescue community, you should make some quiet phone calls to people outside your immediate circle, particularly those who attended the September AWASA meeting. It will then be very clear what you need to do.

Two healthy, cute kittens went into the Hermitage Cat Shelter two months ago. One was named Cinnamon. Several days later the kittens were observed to lack tails. One volunteer was told that the kittens had "played too rough". A visitor to an adoption event was told that the kittens were dumped at the shelter maimed that way. The lies need to stop.

In an unusual approach to fundraising, the Hermitage has chosen to highlight at its Litterbox Lariat fundraiser a real life shoot-out (their words). An animal sanctuary hosting an event glorifying gun violence: how very special.

Interestingly, the Hermitage continues to advertise for volunteers on its reformatted website. This time a year ago they had 75 folks, and orientations for new volunteers twice a month. Why, then, was a notice posted in the front office in early summer stating volunteers would no longer be needed, due to "special projects"? Why did the cat care manager tell "good" volunteers, but not others, that notice did not apply to them? Why have both short- and long-term volunteers over the course of the summer continued to receive phone calls and emails telling them the Hermitage no longer needs volunteers? When an established teenage volunteer emailed to ask what the special projects were, and if she could help with those, admin assistant Rosalie's ungracious reply was that she didn't have time to answer questions. This week alone, two adult volunteers had already been fired by Thursday, and who knows what will happen this weekend. Rosalie may want to rethink the manner and volume with which she dispatches volunteers, especially in view of her rather unsuccessful experiences earlier this year with recording devices.

There is a rather strong element of irony here -- in her paranoia about the Coalition, the Executive Director has ordered the dismissal of a number of volunteers who had nothing to do with the Coalition, including some of her (formerly) staunchest supporters. She doesn't cherry-pick very well, and she's the best recruiting tool the Coalition has.

On August 30th a wonderful event was held at Udall Park Amphitheatre to celebrate No More Homeless Animals Day. The occasion was hosted by HOPE animal Shelter, Spay & Neuter Solutions, The Center for Animal Rescue & Adoption, and Citizens For a No-Kill Tucson. After finding out about this event, Save the Hermitage Coalition asked if we could be included in order to let people who care about saving animals know about our coalition and what we were all about.

We were able to hand out information about our goals and the Hermitage Cat Shelter’s adoption & euthanasia statistical data from 1995 to the summer of 2008. Photos of many of the cats that have been euthanized personalized these statistics, and brought home to many of the people who came by our table the sad new direction of the Hermitage Cat Shelter. In addition, many of these same people signed our petition to stop the killing. There did appear to be much confusion as folks who knew about the shelter were under the impression that it was a no-kill shelter, and were very distressed to find out that cats, which in the past would have had life-long sanctuary, were now not as lucky.

A beautiful evening of music, food, and families with their children and pets came to an end after two and a half hours as the much needed but ill-timed rains came. It was a wonderful event that we were proud to be part of and Save the Hermitage Coalition was invited to participate in the next No More Homeless Animals Day.

Reprinted with permission of the author, in honor of the Hermitage management's latest blog post referring to the as-yet unspecified "new direction the shelter is taking".

*************************************
Better Business Bureau,
434 S.Williams Blvd., Suite 102,
Tucson, AZ 85711


Dear Sir or Madam:

I wish to make a complaint against the Hermitage Cat Shelter, 5278 E. 21st St., Tucson, AZ, 85711. This is a 503(c) non-profit organization that is supported by public donations. I have been a donor for many years and I have always supported the Hermitage's mission as a sanctuary for cats that most shelters in town would not hesitate to euthanize. For over forty years, cats that were old or had medical or behavioral problems could always find a loving home at the Hermitage. I am profoundly upset over recent events at the shelter.

I believe the Hermitage is now soliciting money under false pretenses: The Hermitage Board of Directors decided, in complete secrecy, to radically change the mission of the shelter. This change in philosophy was never discussed at the Board meetings, which are open to the public; it was discussed only in Executive sessions, which are closed to the public and no minutes are made available. The Board has steadfastly refused to answer any enquiries from donors, volunteers and staff members. The only communication I received was a group e-mail telling us, in a nutshell, that it was not any of our business how the Board chose to run the shelter! There were vague threats about legal action too.

Under a cloak of silence, the Board has changed the purpose of the Hermitage from a no-kill sanctuary and adoption shelter into a low-cost, high-volume adoption center. To achieve this end, the Board and its Executive Director, Mary Jo Spring, fired nearly all of the long-term staff and the few remaining workers resigned due to the intimidating atmosphere. Ms. Spring then proceeded to get rid of many of the shelter's unadoptable cats. The sanctuary used to be home to about 80 cats that needed medications or medical procedures. As long as they were properly cared for and medicated, these cats led happy lives but they are expensive to maintain so many of them were killed off en masse by Ms. Spring . In the last 3 months, over 70 special needs and other unadoptable cats have been euthanized. To replace the cats that have been killed, the Hermitage is now taking in profitable, quickly-adopted kittens from the Pima Animal Care Center.

In Ms. Spring's continuing effort to get rid of unadoptable cats, the ones that do not have health problems but are too shy to be adopted out as family pets are now being dumped out in a desert environment under a new "Barn Cat" program. These are not feral cats that are used to living outdoors; most of them have lived in the sanctuary for years and will allow a few trusted people to pet them. In the wild, these cats are doomed to be devoured by coyotes, owls and other predators. Ms. Spring actually said in an interview "these cats are taking up space." How can the Hermitage justify dumping cats into an outside environment when their own web site points out that thay have 4,000 sq. ft. of entirely fenced-in, covered outdoor areas and "this allows our free-roaming cats access to fresh air and sunlight without the dangers an outside cat faces."

I was also a volunteer at the Hermitage. On June 9th, I arrived at the shelter to do my usual chores and I was prevented from entering by a guard. Apparently, any volunteer who had asked questions about changes going on at the shelter was "fired" and banned from the shelter. Currently, nearly all of the volunteers have been banned from the shelter, even though the general public is still allowed to enter.

Despite the carnage that has occurred at the Hermitage over the past 3 months, their web site claims: "We are Arizona's first no-kill....sanctuary. The Hermitage is dedicated to the shelter, protection and care of homeless cats, especially those that are often not considered adoptable by other organizations." The mission statement says, in part, "The Hermitage is dedicated to providing lifelong care to those cats who for behavioral or medical reasons are unable to be re-homed." I believe the Board of Directors and Ms. Spring are deliberately misleading the public about their current activities at the shelter. They are not adhering to the Hermitage's mission statement and the web site does not present the shelter's new direction as a high volume adoption center. It is a case of false advertising and they are taking in donations based on the Hermitage's former mission as a no-kill sanctuary

The Hermitage should not be accredited by the BBB until they stop the killing and restore the shelter to its original mission as a sanctuary.


Yours sincerely

Valerie A. Conforti

In the latest post on the Hermitage's blog, they try to make the case on how they can still be defined as a "no-kill".

The points they list to define "no-kill" are as follows

"A no-kill doesn’t euthanize animals for treatable illnesses"

"A no-kill doesn’t euthanize animals for space"

"A no-kill doesn’t euthanize special needs animals who have the potential for a good quality of life"

They claim that the record number of cats put down were because of stomatitis. Stomatitis is a gum infection that is very treatable in the majority of cases. Even severe cases often can be completely reversed by a course of antibiotics and possibly extracting teeth.

Former staff who have left over the past few months have relayed tales of some cats being put down for minor health issues. Meanwhile, those cats favored by management have been spared no expense – sometimes even when vets have recommended against treatment.

In a newspaper article, the Executive Director says the feral cats were to be relocated. "The decision was made because the feral cats were taking up space at the shelter." Is it coincidence that most of cats who have been put down have come from the 'feral' area of the building?

In the first wave of euthanasias, a number of the cats were special needs, requiring special care and daily medications. If given proper care and their medication, they were living perfectly happy lives.

The Hermitage still claims to be a "no-kill" shelter. Board of Directors President, Tom Tulowitzki, is quoted in a newspaper article as saying, "I believe the cats are receiving better care than they ever did."

There are about 70 cats from the past three months that might disagree with both points... or at least they would if they were still alive.

If the idea of No More Homeless Animals in Tucson appeals to you, you won't want to miss this event:

As announced by http://www.tucsonaz.gov/hottopics/nmhad.html,
Tucson marks the 3rd annual No More Homeless Animals Day with a free benefit concert to honor Tucson's companion animals. The event is family-oriented, for all ages, and very pet-friendly.

Saturday, August 30
5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Udall Park Amphitheater
7290 E. Tanque Verde Rd.

The benefit will feature excellent music, information booths, and even a vegetarian hot dog cart! For more information, go to http://www.tucsonanimalconcert.info/

AWASA is the Animal Welfare Alliance of Southern Arizona, an umbrella group that includes 36 different animal rescue organizations of all sizes, and individual people, which work together. The Hermitage has long belonged to AWASA, and is listed as being a voting member. Pima Animal Care Center (PACC), for whom the Hermitage is now adopting out cats, and the Humane Society, who now provides veterinary care for the Hermitage, also belong. There is a lot of diversity in the overall group, and all the individual goals and missions don't necessarily match. So there is a certain element of agreeing to disagree about some items, and working together on issues that all agree are for the common good. Rather mature, I think. I've heard informally from two sources that Mary Jo Spring, the Hermitage Executive Director, has resigned from the group. Emails to the Hermitage from a former volunteer asking for a confirmation or denial were met with the unsigned response that they had heard nothing about it. As a tax-exempt organization, the Hermitage's membership in other groups is a matter of public record, and should simple enough to confirm or deny. It would be both informative, if they have withdrawn, to read an explantion why, on their blog.

Gyspy was recently the Hermitage's Cat of the Week. Gypsy is extremely photogenic, a declaw, and hugely loves being petted. She's on a lot of the Hermitage promotional material, and a favorite with volunteers, and has multiple sponsors. So it was not too surprising that she was the cat that the Executive Director chose to be photographed with during her most recent publicity show. Unfortunately, Gypsy also refuses to use a litterbox, probably as a result of her being declawed (some cat's feet are so sensitive following surgery that they cannot bear to use the litterbox, and they start relieving themselves on soft materials, and it becomes a habit they cannot break). Prior to the "new vision", Gypsy had been adopted out twice, and returned twice, for spraying. The adopters really, truly, liked her, and tried a great variety of methods over several months to try to stop the behavior, but to no avail. I have recently received communications from Hermitage sponsors, not involved in the coalition, who were appalled to overhear the new staff assuring potential adopters that Gypsy's previous refusal to use a litterbox was not a concern. There is a difference between encouraging adopters to be open to cats with potential problems, trying new programs and expressing a willingness to work adopters, versus denying there's a problem at all.

The latest item on the Hermitage blog is a piece on what a no-kill shelter is. I have two questions I think are highly pertinent that the article did not attempt to address:

First, if the Hermitage really believes in being a no-kill shelter, why did the Hermitage file papers with the Arizona Corporation Commission to remove "No-Kill" from its legal name in 2004, and then publish the change in 2005, and not bother to mention that in the article? The papers for the name change are on file with the Arizona Corporation Commission, and whenever you change the name of an organization, it involves a lot of time and work, so there must be a strong reason. What is it?

Second, there is a great deal of controversy in the animal rescue community about what no-kill does and does not mean, and pretty much anyone can pick someone's definition and claim to be no-kill. This is because the definition of what is considered treatable, and what defines quality of life are subjective. When determining whether the time has come to euthanize a pet, my vet has 7 very specific questions for pet owners to ask themselves in making that determination. I have found that list to be very thoughtful and helpful. Since the Executive Director makes those decisions for the Hermitage, I think it is important that the public know what her criteria are, especially since she does not have veterinary training.

A copy of the published name change is below. The Ajo Copper News is a small newspaper commonly used by many organizations and individuals to inexpensively and quietly fulfill publication requirements for legal filings.

Several people who have gone to the Hermitage in the past two weeks have told me about some rather jaw-dropping conversations. One visitor related that a male staffer said "The reason you aren't seeing more cats around the shelter is because we adopted out 100 cats just in June and July." That's double even the Executive Director's grossly inaccurate claim. A second visitor was informed by the Administrative Assistant that the previous staff were professional hoarders. I can't wait to see the new brochures.

From the Hermitage's own blog entry, dated July 23, and entitled "Hermitage Cats Doing Better Than Ever"
Amos, Panda, Roxy, Claudius, Tiny & Pookie--some of these kitties have the “Manx Syndrome”, are tail-less cats who have GI problems, and some of these kitties with tails have constant diarrhea. These cats have been re-evaluated and are on special diets. In just a few weeks, their GI problems have improved dramatically!

Claudius, a very nice cat, was also known as a champion sprayer. He was adopted out May 29 as part of the new Piddle Program, not as a special needs cat with GI tract problems. He was not a manx cat who dribbled urine, he was a sweet but territorial cat who held his fluids quite nicely for special application. He was returned within 5 weeks. And put down less than two weeks after the glowing health report cited above. He was a particular favorite of the volunteers, and I'm sure many people who had personal knowledge of exactly what his health was and was not would like to know why he was put down. But the Hermitage doesn't make that information public under the new vision.

Facts
On May 28th, 2008, a group of concerned employees, volunteers, and donors attended a board meeting in an attempt to get information about recent radical changes in policy and staff. The board members refused to address the questions. Within a week, all but one of the staff members had been fired or resigned. Simultaneously, the majority of the volunteers and donors were turned away and denied access.

By June 5th, 2008, there was no medical staff that could identify all the cats. There were 80 medications dispensed daily at that time. We don't know how many of the cats failed to receive their daily medications, or how many became ill because of lack of adequate medical care.

The current shelter management has admitted to putting down over 50 cats in the following six weeks -- more cat in six weeks than the yearly totals in the past three years. We believe that most of those euthanized were based on financial reasons, not for medical or quality of life concerns. This is a violation of one of the stated missions of the shelter.

Long-term, special needs, and reclusive cats continue to disappear, unannounced, from the shelter. Meanwhile, the shelter's incoming population is almost exclusively quickly-adopted kittens from the Pima Animal Control Center.

The hermitage's new barn relocation program may be considered an option for ferals already living outdoors, but not cats already living for a long period of time indoors. Many of the non-euthanized ferals have been at the shelter for 5+ years and have become semi-socialized, i.e. volunteers were able to feed and pet these shy cats. It would be cruel and inhumane to relocate them to a strictly outdoor environment.

What Can You Do?
--Adopt an adult or special needs cat from the Hermitage to ensure its survival
--Ask the Hermitage board to stop the killing and relocation of cats that are not highly adoptable
--Share this information with anyone you think would be interested in saving cats

Back when I first started working at the Hermitage, staff were given free tickets to the yearly fall fundraiser dinner/dance, the Litterbox. We were permitted to bring a spouse or date at a reduced cost which covered their meal. While working at the shelter was a labor of love, it was also an icky labor, what with feeding, cleaning, scooping, and caring for the medical needs of hundreds of cats, and no cafe or bar was exactly going to encourage us as a group to stop in and linger after work. So it was always nice to see everyone at the Litterbox event all dolled up and looking good, some folks going all out in formal evening attire. We would joke about how we all "cleaned up good" and it was nice to see everyone in a social role other than coworker. None of the workers made much money, there were not exactly loads of benefits other than free parking, so getting to go to the Litterbox event was a big deal to the staff.

At the last Hermitage event I attended, the 2007 Cat's Meow, initiated by Executive Director Mary Jo Spring, staff were permitted to attend the event, but only if they agreed beforehand not to eat or drink anything. So I purchased tickets for myself and a friend.

According to the Hermitage website, the new cleaning staff is being paid minimum wage now. The business manager has sent out an email to hundreds of donors and sponsors thanking them for their donations and support. I receive anonymous emails claiming the dollars are rolling in. So I hope the Hermitage will resume its practice of paying for its own employees to attend its big yearly event, and I don't mean the office staff, I mean the medical and cleaning staff, the ones who are out there in the 105 degree heat and monsoon humidity doing the physical work.

Sister Seraphim was the founder of the Hermitage over 40 years ago. It was a sanctuary, although she welcomed those who came looking to adopt. All her life, she was told a variety of reasons she should not care for the sick or unwanted or old creatures that came her way, and yet, she persevered. When she retired, a patron donated a house to her, and she devoted her remaining days to her animals' care. She financed much of what she did by writing about her experiences. Sister's remains are on the property, and staff would make occasional jokes when especially good things happened, that Sister's spirit was still there looking out for her animals. I haven't heard any comments like that in a long time now.

Here's an article on Sister Seraphim, taken from the Arizona Daily Star, last month.

Sister's framed photograph has been removed from its focal place of honor in the main room where visitors enter the Hermitage. It is now sitting in a closet. I guess there wasn't room for it in the new vision.

Are you a Hermitage cat sponsor, donor or former volunteer frustrated by the Hermitage Board's failure to even listen to the people who are concerned about the recent events? Unsure whether your contributions are being spent in the way you intended, but afraid if you withdraw your support, the cats will suffer? Purchase a ticket for the Litterbox fall fundraiser! The Board will be there. The Executive Director will be there. It's not at the shelter, so they can't claim heat stress and lock you out. It's a public event, so they can't go into executive session while they eat. It's a publicity event, so they can't prevent you from photographing yourself and others at the event wearing protest buttons, t-shirts or other expressions of disagreement. If you're uncomfortable going alone, then contact one of the other sponsor/donors that the Hermitage emailed last week, and go together. You won't have any difficulty contacting other sponsors or donors, because the email address of hundreds of them was included in an email the business director sent out last week.

The event is usually in early to mid-September, and I'm sure that with her fundraising background, Executive Director Mary Jo Spring has the time, date, location, ticket price, everything about the event all planned. Call or write the Hermitage today for details! 571-7839 hermitagecats@aol.com

From the Hermitage website, on the History page, which was last updated June of 2007 (I know, because I'm the one who did it):
We have grown from just a few cats adopted each year to over 3000 adoptions since 1997. Currently the shelter adopts out 200-300 cats annually..

300 divided by 12 is 25. 200 divided by 12 is 17. So the shelter's own website, as of June 2007, is saying there were 17-25 adoptions per month. And yet, in the July 2008 Tucson Citizen article, according to the Executive Director,
"Adoptions have jumped from an average of six per month to 30 in June alone".

So, either adoptions experienced a sudden drop under the new Executive Director's hand over the past year, or the numbers being touted to the press as evidence of success are wrong.

Chris is a tuxedo cat at the Hermitage Cat Shelter. Chris was featured as the Hermitage Pet of the Week on February 2, 2008. Here's his photo from that submission:


Chris was also featured as the Hermitage Pet of the Week on July 18, 2008. Here's his photo from that submission (second thumbnail from the left):

The first few lines of text accompanying the two photos is identical.
Chris is a 7 1/2-year-old handsome domestic short hair black and white neutered male. He came to the shelter several years ago, shy and somewhat neglected...
Unless the shelter is now performing plastic surgery, the cat in the July photo is actually Blizzard, who was adopted out several months ago. So, I think the shelter's identification problems with the cats is still pretty serious. What that means if you are adopting a cat and getting medical records, or if a cat requires medications, I leave to you to decide.

Wonder how the cats at the Hermitage are doing under the new vision? Ask the cats! In the two-and-a-half years I worked at the shelter, I was the only person who had to have medical treatment for an injury caused by a cat, and I just had an infection on my thumb. Medical personnel treating animal-caused injuries are required by law to report them, and PACC has to decide if/when/how the animal requires quarantine. In the less than 2 months since the old staff was replaced, three cats at the Hermitage have had to be quarantined for biting. Two of those cats were ones that need to have their bladders manually expressed, which is a process that takes know-how, and an understanding of that particular cat's body and behavior go a long way.

"The desert is a harsh place for cats to be outdoors."

--Mary Jo Spring, interview with Tucson Weekly, February 2008

The shelter will no longer take in feral cats and is moving the remaining ones to a trap-and-release program, Spring said.

-- Interview with Arizona Daily Star, July 2008

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum sent out an email today inviting members to visit the website to see the 2007 annual report. The email includes a direct link to the report, and a phone number for questions. The condensed version of the financial section is 3 pages, clearly presented, and includes detailed numbers on finances, operating revenues and operating expenses. It lets members know that the audited, detailed documents are available to them. The report includes updates on the status of individual projects. Other items of note include the board composition: the board has 21 members, two of them veterinarians, including the chair. One member is specifically designated as the docent (volunteer) representative. Lastly, they have a large and very active list of corporate donors. Clear communication, transparent financials, broad-based leadership and support; thumbs up!

Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum Annual Report

Of the 54 adoptions the Hermitage is claiming for the months of May and June, 17 are for PACC cats, the vast majority of them kittens. What is the nature of this new financial relationship between PACC and the Hermitage? Is the shelter being paid a certain amount for each cat? How is this not a conflict of interest in placing the Hermitage's own cats? There have been several adoption events at PetsMart this month--are these events featuring PACC cats, Hermitage cats, or both?

What is the nature of the new financial relationship between the Humane Society and the Hermitage? Will the Hermitage be housing and adopting out Humane Society cats as well? Is there a fee for this, or is it in exchange for a discount on the veterinary care? How is this not a conflict of interest in placing and caring for the Hermitage's own cats?

How is the shelter financing the new "free vet care for life" program that was announced to the press earlier this month? How can this possibly be a cost-savings for the shelter?

The Hermitage is paying its current in-house cleaning staff minimum wage. They are also paying an outside cleaning company to spray patio areas, and it must be paying considerably more than minimum wage for these services, in order for the outside company to make a profit. How is outsourcing this cleaning cost-effective? Why are there continual ads running on Craig's List for new cleaning personnel? With greatly reduced numbers of volunters cleaning, and fewer cleaning staff, how is the shelter being cleaned to the same level?

The number of volunteers cleaning and giving tours has declined dramatically over the past three months. What impact has this had on the shelter's cleaning costs? What impact has this had on the amount of overtime wages paid to hourly supervisory personnel? How is the Hermitage compensating for these additional costs?

Last year a number of public announcements were made about the Hermitage building a new facility, and the purchase and management of a mobile Neuter Scooter. The Neuter Scooter was projected to have been in operation by now. The land for the new shelter was supposed to have been obtained. What is the status of these two projects? When will they be completed, and what will be the cost? What is the source of money for these projects?

At the public meeting this past September, Tom Tulowitzski, the Board President, said the shelter was going to be addressing its financial problems by applying for large grants to fund projects. Eleven months later, the board member who was responsible for this area has resigned, the shelter 2007 tax return was not audited, the shelter remains in an unauditable state, and donors visiting the website are greeted by financial data from 2006. Without an audit, the Hermitage is ineligible to apply for substantial grants. It would appear to the casual observer that the Board has failed in its fiduciary responsibilities. Please explain why the Board should not be expected to resign.

On the outside shelter wall, facing the street, is a large, white wall. Painted on it are the words "Paws to Remember". A volunteer painstakingly painted large teal-colored paw prints around the words and wrote on each paw the name of a deceased pet, and the date the pet died (went over the Rainbow Bridge). Nearby is a small planted area. It is next to the outside patio of the Sonic Zone, where visitors can see the shelter mascot, Sonic, and his Shyster friends sunning themselves. It was intended as a little contemplative area, and fund raiser for the shelter--donors paid $100 for each paw print on the wall. When the volunteer who painted the paws saw what was happening at the shelter, she, like so many others, left. She told me she recently drove past the shelter, and could see that no one had added any paws since her departure some time ago; I have to wonder whether the shelter has stopped receiving donations, or is it more failing to follow through?

In talking to the press recently, the Executive Director of the Hermitage was quoted as saying the feral cats would be placed in a trap-and-release program. The vast, vast majority of the feral cats at the shelter have in fact been there for years, and I am unaware of any trap-and-release programs where there is a gap like this between the two events. TNR is used as a method of preventing growth in established feral colonies, not as a tool to remove sanctuary cats who are "taking up space", as Ms. Spring so eloquently put it, in her interview with the Arizona Daily Star.

I feel safe in assuming these cats will not be released back to wherever they came from, and before her dismissal, Paula Smith heard discussion of a barn relocation program, and included questions about it in a letter to the board. Two banned volunteers have told me about overhearing a conversation about this as well.

So then, let's discuss barn relocation. We live in Arizona, and anyone who has lived here for any length of time will tell you that if you have a small pet, and you leave them outside, you will not have Puff for very long. This is not some rural eastern community where the predators were all hunted out 75 years ago; this is the desert southwest, and we have coyotes in abundance, mountain lions, owls and hawks. For this very reason, the Hermitage has a long-standing policy of not adopting cats to people who intend to let the cats outdoors. And the Humane Society of the US says on its website, "on average, cats who are allowed to roam outdoors often don't live to see age five. Cats who are always kept safely confined can live to be 18 to 20 years old."

Barn relocation programs are designed as a last-ditch effort to help feral cats who are facing imminent death because the place where they live is threatened with demolition, or the property owner is removing them and they have nowhere else to go. The idea is to try and at least give them a chance at living in a somewhat protected environment, rather than put them down. The cats are being moved from one feral living situation into another, and the people working with them are essentially trying to do the best they can to maintain the cat's status quo.

The Hermitage cats, on the other hand, have been living quite happily in a sheltered, urban environment, many of them for years and years. There are no predators, no parasites, no cars, they have been spayed/neutered, have ready access to clean water and good food and medical care. Many of them have become quite tame. Taking a Hermitage cat and placing it in a barn relocation program would not be a step up or in parallel in quality of care; it would instead be a dramatic, and for many of them, fatal, step down.

The next Hermitage Board meeting is on Wednesday, July 23rd, 6 PM at the Ward 6 City Council offices near Speedway and Country Club. I'm sure the barn relocation program will be part of the discussion, and it would be interesting to see how the board justifies going into executive session to discuss and vote on that--it certainly can't be considered a personnel issue. It will also be interesting to see whether they will send letters to the sponsors of feral cats before relocation, or if they will wait until after the deed is done, as they did with the nearly 50 euthanasias reported in the paper this month.

I would again like to appeal to those in the general public who are able to do so within their budget and lifestyle, to adopt special needs and shy cats from the Hermitage, since the level of organizational dysfunction is now clear. At this point, I would not personally view adopting a cat from there as supporting them, or helping them financially, but as rescuing from a bad situation a loving and lifelong companion.

I wrote the "In the News" section on the Hermitage website in June of 2007, and they have not updated it since. There are no links to the articles, letters to the editor or editorials in the Tucson Citizen or Arizona Daily Star, and no links to the Channel 4 or Channel 9 video or transcripts. There is not exactly a dearth of material.

The Hermitage has, however, place a blog link right in the middle of its website, finally realizing that the internet is a dynamic, not static communication instrument they should have been using all along. Unfortunately, it totally sidesteps the current problems, media coverage, and euthanasias. Note the complete omission of the word "volunteer" from the website. It lauds the Food for People's Pets Program (in which the shelter acts only as a collection site, the donations come from the public), the Piddle Program (which was the idea of a now-fired staffer) and falsely claims record adoptions. FIV+ "cats are now located in an area within the adoption area and are now visible to people coming to the shelter to look at adopting a cat." What is not mentioned is that the FIV cats were already located in an area adjacent to adoption, and clearly visible to the public before the move. The cats have been moved maybe 10 feet across an open walkway.

I think, rather than putting time and effort into creating a bland blog with no meat, a better use of time would be to post the Tax Form 990s for 2007, with an actual analysis, rather than the pie-charts currently showing 2006 information. Mary Jo Spring was hired for her qualifications as a fund raiser; let's see the results.

Lizzie is a nice tuxedo cat with a white caste-type mark on her forehead. She's listed on the Hermitage website, under the eminently adoptable section, fourth cat down. What the new staff does not realize, in their continued confusion about which cat is which, is that Lizzie is not at the shelter, and was in fact adopted out several months ago.

Here's her info as listed on the website. They're getting better at taking down incorrect information, once members of the public spot the factual errors, and let them know.



"Lizzie is a domestic short hair, spayed female, black and white kitty, born 2002. She came to the shelter 9-03 when her guardian was no longer able to care for her. Lizzie is a sweet girl who enjoys attention from people and gets along with other cats."

The questions that I and many others have been asking have finally been answered, and are out in print and on air for all to see. I would like to thank the local press for pushing for answers, and encourage them to continue, particularly for current financial data. Due to Wednesday's article in the Arizona Daily Star, everyone in Tucson now knows:

--The Hermitage has in fact euthanized a large number of cats; on Monday at their KVOA press conference, it was announced as over 40. In Wednesday's article in the Star, the number quoted was "nearly 50". So it would appear that the number euthanized continues to increase.
--The Hermitage euthanized cats which had sponsors, but did not notify the sponsors.
--The Hermitage is moving the remaining feral cats to a trap-and-release program.
--In referring to the removal of feral cats, "The decision was made because the feral cats were taking up space at the shelter..."
--The long-time cat care manager was fired May 31. But it wasn't until six weeks later, immediately after the publication of two newspaper articles focusing on unhappiness over changes at the shelter appeared, that The Hermitage claimed the euthanasias were due to medical neglect, and filed an animal cruelty complaint with the police. According to board member Taylor Heidenheim, "They were not paying attention to where all our cats were, some cats weren't looked at for four years." As the reporter wrote, "Why it took so long to notice medical neglect is unclear. Spring has been with the shelter about 18 months."
--The Hermitage has stopped doing home checks.

I invite you to reread the letter from Cholla Eaton which appeared on this blog several weeks ago. Cholla is a certified vet tech, with 14 years work experience with animals, including SPCA and Humane Society shelters outside Arizona. She assumed the cat care manager position three days after the long-term cat care manager was fired. She left after 2 days. And she did not find hidden, untreated or suffering cats; she found bad management.

http://savethehermitage.org/index.php?itemid=47

In talking to a KVOA reporter, Hermitage Cat Shelter Executive Director Mary Jo Spring said that due to the neglect, dozens of cats got so sick, they had to be euthanized. The article states the disease the cats had is common, and Spring relates "It's called stomatitis. It's a mouth condition. If treated early, it can be taken care of, but if it progresses to a certain degree, it gets so bad that the cats aren't able to eat."

Stomatitis is indeed a common condition in cats; it is an inflammation of the mucous membranes in the mouth. And yes, severe stomatitis can prevent cats from eating. But you don't put a cat down for having bad gums and plaque. You clean the teeth, give antibiotics and/or steroids to remove any infections or swelling, and in extreme cases, remove the teeth. I googled "cat stomatitis treament", and have listed below the first page of links. Not a single one lists euthanasia as being necessary in severe cases.

http://www.mypetsdentist.com/site/view/110772_FelinecatStomaitits.pml
http://www.cat-world.com.au/StomatitisInCats.htm
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_plasma_cell_stomatitis.html
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/9352/stomatitis.html
http://www.petwellbeingblog.com/2006/10/lymphocytic-plasmacytic-stomatitis-in.html
http://www.vetinfo4cats.com/cstomatitis.html
http://www.petplace.com/cats/stomatitis-in-cats/page1.aspx
http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=162427
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=998

Mary Jo Spring, Executive Director of the Hermitage Cat Shelter, had another press conference today. If you get a chance to see the video, look at the background and notice how empty the shelter is. It was a very warm day, which means the cats would all have been out on the patios, but there were only a few lonely souls high on shelves.

Mary Jo has publicly accused Paula, the cat care manager, of animal abuse and neglect, by hiding cats, failing to treat sick cats, and failing to euthanize cats that were suffering. She has also accused Encanto Vet Clinic and the volunteer vet of failing to report this abuse and neglect. I don't think Mary Jo thought these statements through before she made them. If Paula were truly hiding cats, and was not taking them to the clinic, or showing them to the visiting vet, then how exactly were the veterinarians supposed to be aware of this alleged abuse and neglect? Mary Jo has told the press that 40 cats had to be euthanized due to failure to provide medical care, that many cats had to be euthanized for stomatitis, and that this condition had been allowed to go on for a long time. That means over 10% of the cat population was walking around suffering within a few feet of her office door, and she didn't notice for a year-and-a-half? And what about the other vet techs, assistant vet techs, cleaners and volunteers? Was Paula supposed to be fooling all of them too, or were they all supposed to be in on it?

This is contact information for all the current board members. This information is required by the IRS to be made available to the public on the organization's Form 990 tax returns, so publication of this information is not a violation of anyone's privacy.

Tom Tulowitzki (President)
11645 E. Quiet Valley
Tucson AZ, 85749

Taylor Heidenheim (Vice-President)
8445 E. Ocotilla
Tucson, AZ 85750

Ron Zack (Treasurer)
1826 N. Hayden Dr.
Tucson, AZ 85715

Kenna Smith (Secretary)
7320 N. La Cholla
Tucson, AZ 85741

Judith Showers (General Representative)
7660 E. Desert Ar.
Tucson, AZ 85715

Shelter Contact Information, listed on the website:
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 13508
Tucson, AZ 85732

Shelter Address:
5278 E. 21st Street
Tucson, AZ 85711

Email:
hermitagecats@aol.com

Telephone:
(520) 571-7839

These are photos of cats in the "Village" area of the shelter (Shyster area to old folks like me). These cats are free-roaming throughout 8 enclosed rooms and patios, and do not have collars. If you had a knowledgable person to point out the differences to you, and time to get to know them as individuals, you wouldn't have any problems. But if you didn't have another tech to teach you, and the cats were moving continually, and you needed to give some of them medication, what happens? This is the situation the vet tech staff is in, because there was over 100% staff turnover in the past month. So, which one is Black Beauty? Is that Leila on the third row, or Jerry? How do you tell Tasha from Carol? Digger regularly escapes from the House into the Village area, can you tell if he's one of these? He only has two white hairs in a specific location.

Mary Jo Spring started out by telling people that the problems at the shelter were due to personnel problems with a few staff who didn't want to adopt out cats. When the shelter went through a 100% staff turnover last month, that explanation lost a lot of its plausability. When problems continued, they were now blamed on malicious gossips, and volunteers and sponsors started being banned. Next, current and former volunteers and staff were blocked from adoptions. Then all adoptions were placed on hold last week. I published here the email from Rosalie saying that all the cats needed a complete check by the vet. My question is: what is going on at the shelter that made it necessary for 270 cats to all suddenly need to get a vet check? If 270 cats get a 10-minute check, without any breaks, that's 45 solid hours of work for one vet. That does not count all the time involved in catching the cat, and the staff is not able to identify all the cats, so presumably that would take additional time. And even with a huge, huge discount, if the vet charged only $15 per cat, that would be a bill in over $4,000. And the vet must have worked nonstop, because suddenly cats were available to the general public again mid-week (although not to volunteers, sponsors, or former staff). So if the shelter did something as drastic as halting all adoptions in order to have all cats examined by a veterinarian, it must have had a very good, very serious reason, because Rosalie would not be intentionally untruthful.

I undertand there have been a number of hasty cosmetic changes at the shelter over the past three days. Again, I'm sure these have nothing to do with a sudden burst of contacts from sponsors and donors, or phone call from a reporter. The serious, basic problems are still unaddressed, and visitors can get a glimpse of why so many are concerned by asking the these simple questions:

"Since the cats are free-roaming, and none of the vet techs or cleaners currently on staff know all the cats, how are the cats that require medications being identified?"

"Is it true that volunteers are having their names checked against a list in order to enter the shelter? Why?"

"Why have adoptions to current and former volunteers and staff been halted?"

"The shelter has a half-million dollar yearly budget, but its tax returns are not audited. Why?"

"There used to be a public euthanasia board listing the date and medical reason for cats being euthanized in the previous month. I don't see that anywhere any more. Can you show me where that is? How many cats were euthanized in June, and why?"

And if you would really like to see what's happening, ask this:

"I contribute money to the shelter. May I have a copy of the shelter's 2007 Form 990, Form 1023 and By-laws, as permitted under IRS regulations?"

About 3 weeks ago, I introduced you to Dexter, the Dead Special Needs Cat. Dexter died in December, but the shelter continued to list him on the website and solicit funds for his special care. Visitors were told he was back in the medical isolation area receiving special treatment. Today, Dexter was finally removed from the website. Unfortunately for the shelter's financial transparency, Louie, the other special needs cat who died around Christmas, remains on the website, and the shelter continues to ask for help with her care (yes, Louie was a female). No one on the current staff knows the identities of all the cats in the shelter, so unless someone from the outside like me identifies cats for them, it's all random. The only reason they knew to remove Dexter is because I pointed out on the blog he was dead. Note that the description says Louie receives daily thyroid medication. Since they can't identify the cats, and apparently think Louie is alive and kicking, I have to wonder if some other cat is now getting her medicine.

Here's what they have about her on the website:

Louie is a domestic short hair, spayed female, gray kitty, born 1995. She came to the shelter 12-06 when her guardian passed away. Louie is a very friendly girl who gets along with other cats and loves attention from people. After coming to us, Louie was diagnosed with a thyroid condition so she is now on daily medication.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to remove her photo now that this has been pointed out. Here's the link:
http://www.hermitagecatshelter.org Click on the photo on the right that shows Sadie Mae, the adoptable special needs cat. Louie is the third from the bottom.

If you are a former or current Hermitage sponsor, donor, volunteer or staff member who:

--would like to have a letter considered for publication on my blog
--has information, photos, video or tapes on the cat's well-being that concerns you
--has copies of the financial or organizational documents that the shelter is refusing to provide, but are public domain under IRS regulations (Form 1023, By-laws, etc.)

then please contact me at TopDog@AnimalHomeBuddies.com.

I remember the "old vision" where there were regularly scheduled big group meetings where everyone, volunteers, sponsors, donors, staff, administration, board members, everyone got to express their opinion, there was an opportunity for input, discussion and open exchange. And there were regular work meetings where the vet tech, cleaning and admin staff all got together to learn about changes in the shelter, upcoming fundraising events, new information on cat health and behavior, and most of all, ask questions and get answers directly from those in charge, so when asked by the public, they could provide accurate, knowledgable answers instead of "I'm not allowed to answer that, you'll have to see Mary Jo."

Unlike the Hermitage Board of Directors, I read all my mail and listen to all my calls, and am willing to listen to all points of view, even and perhaps especially ones I may not agree with. I think that used to be one of the strengths of the shelter, we were such a diverse group of people with so many skill sets, resources, contacts and points of view.

This blog is getting about 250 visits daily now, so if you are someone who has just discovered the site, know that you are not the only person concerned, that interest is high. And Mary Jo & Co are among the 250 reading the blog, so it is one way to be certain your voice will be heard.

One nice thing about having Mary Jo reading the blog is, that even without going in, it is possible to force some small changes through public pressure. Today on the shelter website, Rosalie Torske has been added as a staff member, and the departed board members removed from the list of directors. Rosalie and Mary Jo are management, not actual cleaners or vet techs. Those kind of workers remain unlisted. The new board configuration is now displayed, four fewer people than at the last board meeting, and no new members. Note that there is now only 1 General Representative. The by-laws allow for up to 15 board members, but the three applicants from this spring were all turned down. And the board apparently was not able to convince anyone not already familiar with the shelter to come aboard. There is also supposed to be an advisory board, but that's not listed anywhere, and no one I've spoken to knows if it even exists any more.

Now if only they would put significant and meaningful information on the website, like the 2007 annual report. Or the Form 990 tax return for 2007. Or the minutes of the most recent board meeting. Or any board meeting for this spring, for that matter. Or contact information for the board members.

To see for yourself, go to http://www.HermitageCatShelter.org and then go to the 5th link down on the left that says Who's Who.

Paula Smith, the Hermitage's head vet tech and Cat Care Manager, was associated with the shelter for 20 years. She was fired on May 31. Why did Cholla, the new Cat Care Manager hired June 2 to replace Paula, depart after less than three days? And where is the replacement for the replacement?

Executive Director Mary Jo Spring has been telling anyone who will listen that the problems at the shelter are due to personnel problems with a few disgruntled ex-employees and gossipy volunteers. Those people are now gone, so there should be only sunshine at the shelter now. The new employees were hired by Mary Jo herself, in support of the "new vision". And yet veterinary staff turnover continues. How do these facts support Mary Jo's explanation?

Mary Jo Spring is not acting in a vacuum. She is doing the job the board has directed her to do. Can you name ONE other nonprofit organization, anywhere in the US, in which every single nonmanagement employee was fired or resigned in a three week span? What would you think about the board of such an organization? Would you donate money to it?

When I worked at the "old" Hermitage, not so long ago, there were several large public bulletin boards used to communicate information to volunteers, staff and the public. In an organization that runs 7 days a week, with 20 staff members and even more volunteers, all coming in on different schedules, this was a critical means of communication. There was a board listing the identity of cats waiting for home visits and approved adoptions. A second board listed all the cats with special food needs, with notations. Another board listed all cats who were at the vet that day, and cats which had just entered new areas of the shelter. And one board had information on any cats who had been euthanized in the previous month or "Crossed the Rainbow Bridge", letting people know what had happened medically that had prompted that decision. There would be a thank you to those who had cared for the cat, sponsors who had supported it, and visitors who had come to share time with it. The board was not hidden in the back, but in the front room, and all could see. If staff and sponsors were in the shelter on a day when a euthanasia decision appeared imminent, Paula, the head vet tech, would quietly let them know, one at a time, so if they wished they could say good-bye before the cat was taken to the vet.

I remember when Angel died, a sweet, delicate wisp of a kitty, who was strongly bonded to her brother, Homer. Angel and Homer were grand examples of what the sanctuary side of the shelter was for. They were brought in as kittens, with neurological problems that impaired their balance. They were not in any kind of pain, just slow and wobbly and not able to walk more than a few feet at a time without laying down and getting their bearings. They enjoyed being together, and they loved being with people. Angel was usually in the front room, laying on a fancy blanket, where she could socialize with visitors. She was a slow eater, and had a hard time maintaining her weight, so a volunteer or staff member would sit with her at meal time to make sure none of the other cats took her food, and monitor the amount. Homer, on the other hand, was a prodigious eater, and learned how to station himself outside the kitten cage, and if the person cleaning out the babies' area forgot to put the food bowl exactly in the middle of the cage, Homer would reach through the bars and remove the all kitten food one kibble at a time. When Angel was euthanized, the staff called sponsors and also visitors they knew had special regard for the duo, and there were actually people who came in just to see Homer, concerned that he would be sad or confused when he could not find his sister. I remember one man who said he had come to pay Homer his respects. There was a gradual parade that Saturday of people who came in and cuddled Homer and exchanged memories about Angel. It was like a little cat wake, and it was touching to see how many lives two little cats had touched.

If you go into the shelter now, you will see no information posted anywhere on cats who have been euthanized. And believe me, they are not about to let people know in advance a cat is being sent over to the Humane Society to be euthanized. Cats are simply disappearing, and at an alarming rate. The Shelter Board and Executive Director know that if they put this information on a public board, they would have even more trouble on their hands. Because the volunteers and sponsors who have not been black-listed would look at the number of names on the board and be shocked. Then they would look even closer, at the identity of these cats, who they knew very well, and realize for themselves that there was no medical reason for those sanctuary cats to be put down. It would confirm what everyone knows about why the Board took the responsibility for making euthanasia decisions away from the veterinary staff, and gave it to an administrator who was hired as a fund-raiser.

Saturday, a visitor went into the Hermitage Cat Shelter looking for Dexter, a big, lovely orange male tabby with a crippled rear leg. There were, of course, no knowledgeable staff members to ask. But there was a poorly trained, unsupervised volunteer, and they told the visitor that Dexter was having kidney problems and was back in ISO (the medical isolation area). In reality, Dexter died back around Christmas. But that doesn't keep the shelter from posting him on the website as a special needs adoptable cat, or from telling visitors he's back in ISO getting specialized medical care. Here's what they have posted about him on the website:

Dexter is a domestic short hair, neutered male, orange tabby kitty, born 2003. He came to the shelter 8-03 when he was rescued from the streets as a very young kitten. He had been attacked by a dog and a spinal injury resulted in permanent nerve damage to one rear leg which causes him to have a substantial limp. Dexter has also been diagnosed with congenital kidney disease and because of this he is on daily medication as well as a special veterinary diet. Dexter is a sweet boy who likes to talk, loves attention from people and gets along with other cats. He would do best in a home where there are no dogs.

You can see him on the website yourself by going to
http://www.HermitageCatShelter.org. On the right you will see cats displayed. The first one is Dunbar, a kitten who was adopted last year. Third one is Cruiser, who was adopted out ~ 8 months ago. But hey, they photographed well, which means they make the shelter look good, and so people to donate money for their care, so why bother with a detail like whether they're actually at the shelter? Click on the picture of Sadie Mae, the Adoptable Special Needs Cat. Dexter will appear as the second cat from the top.

A shelter volunteer and donor sent me this contact information for the remaining Executive Board members, who are the only ones able to vote, and the Executive Director. This information was posted on the volunteer bulletin board by the board members themselves during the last big confrontation in September, and then removed shortly thereafter.

President Tom Tulowitzki, tomtincal@msn.com , 548-5389 cell
Vice-President Kendra Kent, ksquaredaz@msn.com , 275-0189 cell; 748-7794 home
Treasurer Ron Zack, wsuron@yahoo.com
Executive Director Mary Jo Spring, mspring4@hotmail.com , 981-3849

I am extraordinarily pleased to announce that Fred Yost, most recently the facilities supervisor at The Hermitage Cat Shelter, will become a pet sitter for Amity Animal Home Buddies, starting January 7th. Those of you familiar with the shelter know that he has spent many hours over many years providing hands-on care to untold numbers of cats in need, has fostered many a sick kitty back to health, and has a special interest in TNR. Fred also has an academic background to match, with both a BS and MS in Zoology. While Fred will be specializing in cat care, he also has experience with a variety of smaller pets, including rabbits, ferrets, rodents and guinea pigs, and will be available to care for those species as well. Fred's extensive experience, calm demeanor and sense of humor make him a terrific asset, and we are very happy to have him aboard.