Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Much ado about everything but the facts

It is no wonder that everyone loves a snowy holiday season!  Fresh snowfalls are one of the best bits of Mother Nature's palette .... transforming the plainest of yards into postcard pretty pictures! 
Mind you, when one is out and about in the woods it can make for trickier footing.   That beautiful blanket of crisp clean snow buries all the tree roots and fallen limbs ... making it much easier to be tripped up along the trail. 
To be perfectly honest, I will welcome Wednesday's rain when it will make for safer walking in the woods!
My dear Dad used to say that one cannot argue with the facts.   Is that why supporters of the renegade shelter are attempting a snow job that is long on innuendo and very, very short on plausible facts?
Of course it is!    It is much easier to suggest that the 2011 Shelter Audit was penned by 'power mad' provincial board members from away than to admit that it was the direct result of shoddy sheltering protocols.
When THAT audit was discredited, much ado was made of having local veterinarians in to assess the shelter 'properly'
When THE LOCAL AUDIT mirrored the one from 'away', much ado was then made about the renegade shelter being able to do 'some' of the items on the action list!  No explanation was offered as to why such easy fixes were not done in the past.  Nor did anyone discuss that the 27 items were only a partial list in a shelter that had days to prepare for the inspection!
When whining about having their free IAMS food cut off by the big bad ED from away backfired, silence was briefly very golden before getting back to making much ado about those darned whistle blowing volunteers.
In other words, much ado has been made about everything except the facts.  To date the only facts that the renegade shelter have been able to offer up are that:
  • they were willing to sit down and talk.  About what?   The shelter manager being dismissed?  The board being disbanded?  The results of the 2011 Audit?   The refusal to leave SPCA property?   Ignoring all directives from provincial?   By their own admission they have falsified records.  Maybe they only wanted to explain that, eh?
  • Ms Rose is no longer employed as the Shelter Manager.  She is, however, still employed at the shelter in an administrative position.  Children call this game musical chairs.
  • Mel Neville is no longer the president of the disbanded board.  The "new" renegade shelter board is composed of the rest of the disbanded board.
  • there is still have enough IAMS food to last until March.   No one is discussing what happened to the rest of the five year supply that had been received. 
  • Mr Mombourquette is very happy that Metro is willing to take animals.   No facts are being offered about any other outcomes for the animals ... outside of the suggestive quote from Dr Richardson's report stating that things would be ok for the "short term" at the renegade shelter.  Sadly, no actual spokeseperson for the renegade shelter is talking about No Kill anymore.
  • any visitor to Petfinder can see that the renegade shelter is still holding the Cape Breton SPCA petfinder account hostage
  • the annual meeting for the 'new' renegade shelter was by invitation only of names cherry picked from the Cape Breton SPCA membership.   It was a closed meeting and those who were mistakenly invited were turned away at the door.
  • Directors liability insurance will cover the legal fees to come for the disbanded board.  It is a shame there is nothing to cover the pain and distress of all the broken hearts who adopted sick and dying animals.   And it is a tragedy that there can never be any payback for the very conservative guestimate of at least 100,000 dead animals in 30 years.  In snowjobspeak that is referred to as a blessing that the money won't be taken from the animals anymore :(
  • Last but not least, the renegade shelter was able to assume control of the CBRM AC contract with the Cape Breton SPCA.    (The testy topic of how this was done without a bid for tender is a sticky subject for tax paying CBRM residents to discuss with their own Mayor and Council, eh?)
What time is it?   It is time to hope that justice will not be delayed so that this story can be focused back on the facts instead of speculation and sly innuendo.
And that is how I see it on Tuesday, December 27th .... the FORTY - FIRST day since the dismissed shelter manager and the disbanded board created the renegade shelter.

3 comments:

lynn hussey said...

HERE HERE!Get with it Cape Breton and smell the coffee, it is time for a change for the better!

ROCK the CANINE CASBAH said...

Thank you JY for always hitting the nail on the head - too bad we could not hammer the heads of those that profess to have the welfare of the animals at the front of their brain. The total collusion to cover ass is a slap in the face to those that truly care and are willing to keep advocating for the animals.

diana said...

LOVED the article.... very true, very accurate and something needs to be done ASAP about that renegade shelter.... I cringe to use the word, "shelter" to describe that place, as shelter means to protect. THAT is not being done there..... thanks for posting that blog, it was awesome.
diana