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Middletown, NY, 10940

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I’ve been sitting on this letter for a couple of weeks waiting to see where the chips would fall. I had hoped that by letting the Port Jervis Humane Society have some time, that positive change could be made. Unfortunately a lot doesn’t seem to have changed for the better and I’m now sharing this information to once again try to force some change. I am sure you all remember our blogs about what we considered the heinous and tremendously inhumane conditions and cruelty at the Port Jervis Humane Society:

eyeinfectionAfter we revealed the conditions there and posted those blogs, they posted on their FaceBook pages how everything was changing and my blogs were referring to an old regime (while even at the same time denying all the allegations) and that there was a new shelter manager now (Katrina) and we needed to “give her a chance” that she was going to change everything for the better.
So what positive changes has Katrina made since we wrote those blogs? Since our last blog they are down from 15 board members to 7, as multiple board members have walked away and resigned and will no longer work with the Port Jervis Humane Society. Katrina is currently faced with impending criminal charges, illegal activity, and the inhumane treatment of a dog at the time she killed it. At least according to a letter recently put out by Dr. Roeder.
Screen Shot 2013-04-15 at 1.10.14 PMFor the record, Dr. Roeder has been the veterinarian caring for the animals at the PJHS for 25 years. According to her, she does this care for a tremendous discount, what she has referred to as pretty much her cost and very little above that. That’s quite an amazing deal for them. So let’s be clear that this is a very deep, ongoing and established relationship that they have had.
On March 9th, she sent the following letter to the board of directors at the PJHS.
You can read the full text here.
The jist of the letter, is that not only will she no longer work with them, but that she is actually pressing legal and criminal charges against them as well as reporting them to Ag & Markets. I’ll analyze a bit of the letter (as it appears to me) below:
In Nov 2012 she says she certified their new shelter manager, Katrina, as a euthanasia tech. How sad that they need a person there to kill their animals. Do you know how many certified euthanasia techs Pets Alive has at our three locations? None. Because we choose not to kill our animals and if one is suffering and needs to be euthanized for irremedial medical, it is like the loss of a family member to us, and the vet comes onsite, we all gather, and we weep and mourn their passing. So we’ve never had a need for any certified and licensed euthanasia technician. Sad that they feel that they do. But I digress.
nonoDr. Roeder writes that on Jan 16, Katrina used a controlled substance to sedate an animal. The dog came in and was bleeding from a laceration. RATHER THAN TAKE THAT ANIMAL TO A VETERINARIAN FOR PROPER TREATMENT, Katrina appears to have decided to treat a serious medical condition on her own, and used illegal (to her) drugs to do so.
Katrina is not a vet tech. She is not a veterinarian. She is not a doctor. She is not a nurse. She has absolutely no business treating an animal’s wound. She is NOT permitted to use controlled substances, according the the letter. That is NOT part of what her certification allows. Dr. Roeder explains that Katrina was well aware of the law in regards to this and seems to have ignored it. Dr. Roeder was extremely upset and immediately went to the board of directors in regards to this incident (remember HER license is at stake here). She says the board took no corrective action against Katrina, nor held her accountable for her illegal actions. Dr. Roeder revoked Katrina’s certification license. At that time, Dr. Roder says she advised the board that the license was revoked and clearly told them and Katrina that they could NOT DO ANY EUTHANASIA there.
On March 4, while the shelter was closed, Dr. Roeder states that Katrina went ahead and killed at LEAST 4 animals. So sad that they didn’t reach out to Pets Alive before killing those animals as we have asked them to do, but worse than that, they completely ignored what appears to be a CLEAR directive from the veterinarian who had her own license on the line…but this is the attitude we have come to expect from the staff and board of the Port Jervis Humane Society.
nokillDr. Roeder goes on to say that the killing of at least one of those animals was inhumane. She states that a lay person (not a vet tech, not an employee of the shelter, not a veterinarian) held down a struggling dog to be killed, while all the other dogs were barking and agitated. She advised that in the past they did their killings in the back rooms, with the doors shut – far away from the barking of other dogs and undue stress. Possibly due to the intense stress of the animal as they held him down and killed him, the lay person was bit.
According to most shelter policies I am aware of, all bites must be reported. This bite was not reported (per Dr. Roeder). In addition, per Dr. Roeder’s letter, they failed to adminster the correct amount of medication and like I reported in past blogs about this, the animal was left to flop around and die a terrible death. It appears they never even administered any pre euthanasia drug to this poor dog named Storm. RIP Storm. I’m sorry you had the misfortune to wind up in the hands of the Port Jervis HUMANE Society.
When Dr. Roeder found out about this, according to her letter, she immediately notified the board president, and again she states nothing appears to have been done.
illegal-drugsLater that same month, the office manager asked Dr Roeder for authorization to order samples of a new prescription drug. Dr. Roeder denied the request. Dr. Roeder advises in the letter that Katrina went ahead and ordered it ANYWAY (under Dr. Roeders license) and then posted on their facebook page offering the drug for sale. It is ILLEGAL to resell drugs like this (for multiple reasons and also there are serious tax related issues)….and the letter says the manufacturer saw the post and demanded it’s removal.
The letter ends with statements from Dr Roeder that she planned to file complaints and/or charges with the state police, with the department of agriculture, with the NYS dept of Education Division of Professional Misconduct, and the insurance company for the Port Jervis Humane Society. She also has refused to ever work with them again.
WHEW!!
Pretty intense.
So why didn’t I release this when I first heard about it and read it last month?
Well, because I respected Dr. Roeder’s request to NOT publicize it yet as she was hoping that a board meeting that was held this past Tuesday would result in some positive change. There used to be 15 board members. We understand that 8 have walked out (?) and there are only 7 remaining. Without a quorum the board CAN NOT CONDUCT BUSINESS. Yet, they continue to do so. Dr. Roeder felt their bylaws allowed members of the org to VOTE for new directors to fill the vacant seats, but the board claimed that they had amended the bylaws and now this was no longer permitted. I was a little shocked at that.
MY understanding of bylaws is that you MUST abide by your by-laws, and if you amend them it must be done by a QUORUM VOTE of the board (of which they have none) and that they must then be submitted to the State Attorney General’s office, ACCEPTED by the state attorney general, and PUBLISHED by the state attorney general. I believe that there is then a waiting period for any board members to speak up that they did not vote for these amendments or to protest them, and THEN and ONLY then they become the legal by-laws of an organization. None of this was done. I could be wrong, but this is how MY organization has always done things when we had to amend or change or by-laws. This was brought up to the board on Tuesday night along with MANY other questions and the board responded that they did not have to answer any questions, they would only take comments.
Is THIS what we want to run our local humane societies?
“We don’t have to take any questions?”
Don’t question us? We can do whatever we want regardless of state or local laws?
bickeringSo donations are down, funding is down, they can’t afford food (I’ll get to that in a moment), half the board has walked off, the veterinarian has walked off and is filing criminal charges against the management, their own volunteers are attending “secret” meetings to discuss how to overthrow the present board. We attended one of those meetings and at the second the name of a volunteer here was suggested for nomination to the board. Even the people now FIGHTING the PJHS said “NO, we don’t want HER, she is associated with Pets Alive”. So the OLD regime doesn’t want our help, the potential NEW regime doesn’t want our help…they are all bickering and fighting amongst themseleves…how much longer can this last?
I will add that the current board president Lisa did call us last week (note, correction, Lisa has pointed out that she called me a FEW weeks ago, she is probably right).
I have not called her back, but I will.
I’m interested in what she has to say and if she will want to bridge this vast abyss and try to resolve the issues there.
Because we CAN Help fix this.
We have done it before.
We CAN help work with them and restore their reputation, their donations, their view in the community.
We can help them save lives.
We did it here in Middletown after we took over Pets Alive when it was a hideous place and animals were not in good condition.
We did it when we took over Elmsford and we had to rebuild that whole organization in the communities eyes and restore their faith down there.
We did it when we took over Manos Por Patos who had no money, no funding and only a glimmer of a plan.
We have done it before. We can help.
Will they take our help?
I have strong doubts that will happen, as it seems they are unwilling to work with any organization like us, but surely now, in light of everything that is happening they will see that the path they ARE on isn’t working and things are NOT going well.
Scruffy_Warden RoomIn the ensuing weeks and months after our previous blogs, we heard rumors that donations dried up as people started learning of the situation there, and that many people had removed the PJHS from their wills and trusts. We don’t know what is true really, but we did see the PJHS send out an appeal to the community begging for food and stating they didn’t have enough food to care for the animals.
On 4/5 the Times Herald Record ran an article quoting shelter manager, Katrina: The shelter was completely out of cat food, dry and canned, and almost out of dog food. It had $200 to replenish cat food, but the new shelter manager, Katrina Roloson, said that would last maybe five days.
So the PJHS spends $200 every 5 days JUST for cat food?
That surprised me for a few reasons. First I’m unclear how a budget is not set in place for food orders. Why would they not have the funds to purchase food? Their 990’s state that they have 1.6 million dollars in assets. I would think food, medical care and staff salaries are your very first priorities, food being the very first.
So to say there was not enough food is troubling and concerning at the least. Everyone appeals for food donations, of course we all do, and donations help alleviate this financial burden…but to state that they only had $200 alloted to buy food and that they were COMPLETELY OUT….that’s frightening. You let your shelter get COMPLETELY OUT OF FOOD??? Secondly they also posted on their website that it costs over $3400 a month to feed the animals there.
It DOES??????
$3400 a month?
They say they have about 80 cats and 40 dogs. So if $200 lasts five days for cats that is $1200 a month to feed cats and $2200 to feed 40 dogs? Um. Really? Who the heck is doing their books?? As shelter manager, I would expect this falls on Katrina’s shoulders. Is she really spending $3400 a month on food? Then she needs to be educated on WHERE to buy food and HOW to set up wholesale accounts! We could help them if they would accept our help.
Screen Shot 2013-04-11 at 4.31.56 PM
What the heck are they feeding?
PJHS houses roughly 100-120 animals.
Pets Alive Middletown houses roughly 250-300 animals.
Our monthly food bill for dogs and cats (if no food is donated) TOTAL is about $1800.
It costs us $300 a month to feed our cats and about $1500 to feed our dogs (we also feed goats, horses and pigs not included here). So add in some wet food there and some special diet food, we are looking at about $1,800-$2000 a month in dog/cat feed. So how in the word with 60% less animals than we have, is the Port Jervis Humane Society spending $3400 a month?
I think whoever is managing that place needs to set up some wholesale accounts or re-evaluate what they are spending, but that seems very excessive to me and we feed our animals pretty well! Who manages the finances there if this is what they are spending? Why is there no money for food? If they think they spend $3400 a month on food, how did they run out of food by March 5? Only five days in? How did they only have $200 for food five days into the month when they think their needs are $3400? How is a shelter manager allowing the shelter to run out of food, and how can it cost so much to feed so few animals? And what are they doing with their 1.6 million in assets, (as claimed on their 990’s) if the priority is not to keep the food pantry stocked? These are just a few of the questions I have.
According to last years 990’s (the last year filed which is 2011) they have 1.6 million dollars in assets and brought in $554,000 and spent $378,000, leaving them with a little over $176,000 at the end of the year in the bank. And yet they have no money for food to feed the animals? Anyone else seeing a disconnect with this? (Click image below to see full size and more legible).
Screen Shot 2013-04-11 at 3.39.35 PM
By the way. Out of the $378,000 spent, over $200,000 of that went to salaries.
Yikes.
MORE THAN 52% of their annual expenses were salary.
Out of the $176k left, only $88,000 went to the actual animals care.
Those numbers are not great.
The news article goes on to say that they want to start a TNR program and I very much support them in this. I am thrilled to see they want to start this program and it says they have put aside money for this: “Park said the shelter has $2,700 put aside for the program.
So you have $2700 sitting somewhere for a program that isn’t started yet, but there is no money for food?
I’m really confused here.
This is not making any sense at all.
Just how is that shelter being managed?
Are they ready yet to reach out and ask for help?
I hope so.
We can do so much if we work together.
Alone, how many lives can the Port Jervis Humane Society save in a year?
How many could they save if we all worked together toward saving lives, saving money, sharing resources and working toward a common goal?
Think about it.
United we are all far more powerful and effective than alone.
This one tiny shelter currently beseiged by unrest, corruption, illegal activities and disension can still be saved.
Will they be smart enough to save themselves, or will they go under?
The time to ask for help and to rebuild is NOW Port Jervis.
Give us a call.
Let’s work on a fresh start and a new beginning for your organization.
Let’s work together to get rid of the bad, fix the broken, and save and enhance the good.
Our door is open and we WANT to help.
Let us.
Your community is counting on you to make this right and you’re too critical in your area to go under.
But if you continue along this path – that is exactly what will happen.
We have experience in saving and working with organizations like yours.
Let’s work together to keep you alive, and to fix the plethora of problems and ills that have marked your organization for the past few years.
It’s salvageable.
YOU’RE salvageable.
Your staff is salvageable.
We can help.
Let us.

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