On deadlines and coverups .....

I love the drive home down my little country road!  It is tree lined and winds past lovely old farmhouses pretty enough for a postcard.  It is just country enough to often see deer in the fields and young pheasants gaggling after their mothers crossing the road.  Best of all, it is comfy and familiar as my favourite old slipper!
Does that mean there are no surprises?  No big events?  No sirens and flashing lights?   Of course not!   It simply means that those things are so rare as to be remembered for years instead of becoming yestersdays' news.
For instance, the year before I retired we were all treated to quite the sideshow next door!   I came home from work to find a collection of police vehicles in their yard that would have done any big city drug dealer proud!
Why were they there?   The short version is that the little old lady next door flew off to the fairies in spectacular style ... threatening to shoot the fellows who came to disconnect her power ..  along with the police / neighbours /etc
People in the country tend to be pretty pragmatic.   Once the entire incident  was digested and discussed, general consensus was that the whole thing happened because she was a "(insert family name here)" !
Familiarity does not always breed contempt.   We very seldom get to know all aspects of the lives of those in our communities.     People who hurt spouses / harm children or abuse animals can seem completely normal to their friends and family.   There are no bumper stickers on the back of their cars or signs on their stoops!   Nothing is tattooed on their forehead.
In other words, people who only know them outside of the context of the cruelty being committed cannot possibly imagine that one of their friends / neighbours / family / etc could be capable of any crime!  
In a blog post last month, Nathan Winograd said "All across this country, individual people are collectively putting to death millions of animals every year, and often allowing their staff to neglect and abuse them in the process, then going home to their friends and families who embrace them with open arms. It is hard for some to reconcile this. But change won’t happen if we ignore the fact that the difference between lifesaving success and the status quo of killing comes down to the choices made by individual people running the shelters. They must be judged and held accountable to those very weighty choices, and not by any other criteria."  
We are galloping up to the noon hour deadline in the Letter of Demand that the Society's solicitor sent to the legal counsel for the dismissed Shelter manager and the disbanded branch board.
I would love to be pleasantly surprised ... to see a peaceful resolution to this situation that does not involve frittering away Cape Breton donor dollars on lawyers and security guards.
Here in the real world, where the dismissed shelter manager and the disbanded branch board have already served notice they intend to "Occupy the Cape Breton SPCA building", odds are they will still be there ...at least for now!
It would seem that the former shelter manager and the dismissed board need to bone up on the society bylaws and regulations.   They are certainly free to open their own 'humane society' ... as long as this is not done with SPCA resources. ( new to this thread ... click here for the Open Letter from the Society to the good people of Cape Breton)
What time is it?   Apparently it is not time yet for common sense to prevail :(
PS ... It might also be time to remind the CBRM Mayor that historically, politicians who participate in cover ups do not get reelected.