Pets and petty people
by Mike Kroll
The Zephyr, Galesburg, Ill.
August 19, 2010
Five years
ago this month the Knox County Humane Society (KCHS) began an organizational
civil war when its former president and co-founder Cathy White was ousted by
the board. There was nothing delicate or elegant about the process and Cathy
took a number of her strong supporters with her to start a local alternative
humane society called the Guardian Angels (GA). Everyone involved will tell you
it is all about the animals and what is best for them but the fact is one
well-meaning but under-funded do-gooder organization was split in two with both
resultant entities in worse shape ever since.
If they are
being honest, I strongly doubt that today's members of either group would claim
the antagonistic and still confrontational split did the animals much good. There
are still plenty of unhealthy, unwanted, neglected and abused pets needing the
services of these people. The local shelter (operated by the KCHS) is
overcrowded, under-funded and under-staffed. Donations of food, toys,
medications and many other things needed to operate the shelter; though
desperately needed, are frequently in short supply. The KCHS regularly requests
members of the community to donate such needed items or their time to help keep
the shelter going and while many generous people exist there still is never
enough.
Meanwhile,
the Guardian Angels also became a state licensed humane society, but without a
shelter. Members of this group continue to donate their time and money toward
the care of needy animals and even house some of those animals in pet foster
homes. Both groups promote adoption of shelter animals and other unwanted pets.
Both groups strongly support pet owners humane care and treatment of pets and
getting their dogs and cats spayed or neutered. Both groups work to ensure that
sick or injured pets receive proper veterinary services even if they are
owner-less or their owners just don't have the financial means to do so
themselves.
But despite
all these groups have in common emotions still run high and petty battles
between the groups and their members get in the way of the mission they share.
Case in point: on Saturday a member of the GA and the groups treasurer, Tina
Guardalabene, purchased approximately $120 worth of pet food from Walmart and
took it to the Prairieland Animal Welfare Center as she has regularly many
times over the past five years. When Tina arrived home later that day she found
all of the donated items stacked on her front porch and a neighbor told her
that the KCHS van had driven up and put the items on the porch.
Why did an
animal shelter not only refuse the donation of brand new badly needed pet food
products but go the the extreme step of physically returning the items to the
front porch of the woman making the donation? Because when Tina signed the
donation clipboard at the shelter counter she didn't write “Tina Guardalabene”
as she typically does but instead wrote “Guardian Angels.” As is stated on the
orange signs prominently posted at the shelter: “These shelter pets receive NO
financial support from the Guardian Angels. We are the ONLY licensed shelter in
Knox County.” It is official policy of the KCHS not to accept any donations
from the Guardian Angels; but they will gladly accept donations from
individuals who are members of the Guardian Angels.
“We take
donations from anybody, except them [Guardian Angels], because they are
competitors with us,” explained KCHS spokesperson Erin Buckmaster. “We're
better off buying our own biscuits than accepting their small donations. They
think they can make meaningless donations like this and then claim that they
help support the shelter. They have been a burden to us for years and our board
decided not to accept any donations from them.”
But,
according to records kept by Guardalabene the Guardian Angels have been making
similar donations of food and supplies for years. Excluding the food returned
Saturday the records show non-medical donations totaling $1,483.93 so far this
year. The 2009 total was $2,169.67 and in 2008 the total was smaller but
certainly not trivial at $924.14.
“It's sort
of like a silly game,” said Guardalabene, “the shelter staff has even told me
specifically some of the things they need and I use Guardian Angel funds to
purchase the items. As long as I sign my own name everything is okay.”
White showed
me a letter she received just last week from Harry Rogers, president of KCHS
that reads in part: “It has come to the attention of the board of the Knox
County Humane Society that the Guardian Angels organization has made claims
stating that your organization donates to the 'shelter.' Thee is no record of
our facility, which is the only licensed facility in Knox County, ever
receiving any donations financial, or otherwise. We feel this is false
advertising and if this is not stopped immediately we will proceed with legal
action.”
To
illustrate just how petty and disingenuous this whole argument is Buckmaster
reiterated to me that she is fully aware of individual members of the Guardian
Angels making “personal donations” to the KCHS and they continue to be welcome,
so long as they aren't credited as coming from the Guardian Angels group.
“Yes, we
have had our differences,” acknowledges White. “We want to be a animal support
group for all the animals needing care within our community, including those
housed at the shelter. We want to get along for the sake of the animals and we
serve more than just Knox County. Just last year the Guardian Angels raised
over $6,000 that we spent to help meet animal needs across four or five
counties.”
Buckmaster
counters that the fund raising conducted by the Guardian Angels actually
interferes with fund raising efforts of the KCHS. “They purposefully hold their
'Bark in the Park' just a few weeks before our 'Doggie Jog' and when they tell
people that they also serve animals in Knox County they receive donations that
would otherwise go to us. We don't even want these people coming to our shelter
because they are disruptive.”