Delco SPCA : Humane or still 'horrendous'?

THE DELAWARE COUNTY SPCA has taken its licks over the years.

Plagued by scandals, disillusioned staffers and occasionally protesters, the shelter had developed a reputation as more of a slaughterhouse than a humane society.

A decade ago, animal lovers were picketing outside the run-down building in Upper Providence, demanding that the SPCA stop killing so many dogs and cats.

Five years later, its board of directors triggered an insurrection by canceling an animal foster program that had helped free up space and reduce its extremely high euthanasia rate. That same year, an outside expert concluded that it was among the worst managed shelters he'd ever seen.

Then, in February 2006, the SPCA was rocked by a scandal that would drive public perception of it to a new low:

A housecat named Whiskers, who had wandered away from its Ridley Park home, was taken to the shelter and euthanized almost immediately, even though its owners had left voicemails and taped a note to the shelter door.

After realizing their mistake, staffers attempted to cover their tracks by saying that the 14-year-old cat had bitten someone. To back the bogus story, they falsified a state report and sent Whiskers' head to a lab for rabies testing.

When SPCA officials finally admitted that Whiskers hadn't bitten anyone and shouldn't have been killed - nor decapitated - they were met with widespread outrage, another round of bad headlines and a new crop of irate protesters. One employee was charged with a criminal offense.

Today, the nearly 100-year-old organization is emerging from what SPCA Executive Director Nicole Wilson calls the "post-Whiskers" era. And it appears that the shelter, under the leadership of a new board, is finally making some of the improvements that critics have long demanded - though not to the extent that many would like.

The SPCA once provided virtually no on-premises veterinary care to the 8,000 animals it takes in every year. Adoptable animals were often euthanized solely because there was no room for them. The reclusive board of directors refused to modernize the operation, running it on the cheap like a "mom-and-pop" shop, according to one expert.

Now, the shelter employs a full-time veterinarian who spays and neuters most animals before they are adopted. Staffers work closely with rescue groups and foster homes when the SPCA reaches capacity. New board members have shown a willingness to change in the face of criticism, rather than hunkering down until the problems are forgotten.

"At the end of the day, we answer to the community that we serve," said Bill Tyson, who was named the SPCA's board president in November. "When we do something less than ideal, we'd like to know about it and try to work to improve it."

Wilson, who took over as executive director in 2007, said that the shelter saved 82 percent of incoming dogs last year - including strays, owner drop-offs and cruelty cases - by either finding them an adopter or foster home.

Only about half of the cats, which stream into the SPCA in unmanageable numbers during the summer, find homes, Wilson said. But she said that the shelter has significantly reduced the cat euthanasia rate in recent years by making more space inside and by relying on foster homes and rescue groups.

"We in the rescue field are quite pleased with the changes they've made," said Kim Butler, of the Animal Coalition of Delaware County, which rescues about 300 animals a year and runs a network of foster homes from the Main Line to Rehoboth Beach.

"The previous management was not that amenable to working with foster and rescue groups, and that has changed," said Butler, a former SPCA volunteer. "They do reach out now.

"By working together we can save more lives."

Yet the SPCA will have a hard time shedding its old image as one of the region's worst shelters if it continues to operate out of a dilapidated building that can't meet the county's demand.

Animal care is sub-par, cages are often filthy and healthy animals who wind up at the shelter get sick because infectious diseases are not contained, according to interviews with a half-dozen current and former staffers and volunteers.

"The biggest problem is the quality of the care that is given to the animals," said John Choate, who volunteered there for eight years before leaving months ago in frustration. "It's terrible. I couldn't take it anymore."

Choate said that the building maintenance is "absolutely horrible," and that he'd sometimes find feces in dogs' feeding bowls.

Kennel inspectors with the state Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement have rated the SPCA's maintenance and drainage as "unsatisfactory." The shelter was directed this year to repair cracked concrete, holes in the walls and rusted pipes and fences, according to state records.

Employees and volunteers say that staff training is inadequate, and animals suffer as a result.

"The staff needs better training in the concept of disease control and a broad-based knowledge of signs of illness in animals," said Karen DiTomo, an adoption counselor at the SPCA, who, like others there, is frustrated by the slow pace of progress.

She said that cages are not properly sanitized and that incoming dogs are not separated from adoptable dogs, which promotes the spread of kennel cough.

"The people that come to the shelter don't see what goes on behind the scenes," said a volunteer who requested that her name not be printed so that she could continue to help the animals.

"If you want to call yourself a humane society, there shouldn't be healthy animals going in, getting sick and being euthanized," she said, describing the shelter conditions as "horrendous."

Wilson said that the staff tries to vaccinate most incoming cats and dogs within 24 to 48 hours, assuming that they are healthy and not pregnant. She acknowledged that there is not enough space to isolate incoming dogs, unless they are showing symptoms of an illness.

"When you're dealing with an old building, you're limited in how much you can improve upon what you're given," she said.

Veterinarian Mark Tyson, owner of Old Marple Veterinary Hospital, which treats SPCA animals, is tired of hearing that the shelter is going to clean up its act.

"They've had all these years to evolve and become something better and they're still back in the Stone Age," said Tyson, who is not related to the board president.

"We've had people whose animals get picked up and go in there for a day or two, they get them back and the animal's sick," he said. "They're not isolating properly and they don't have the facility to do it."

The SPCA's 7,000-square-foot shelter, built in the 1930s and expanded over the years, holds about 75 dogs and 150 to 200 cats on any given day, Wilson said. It's not nearly big enough.

In 2007, a Delaware County judge approved the SPCA's request to withdraw $3.5 million from its reserve fund to renovate and expand the shelter. The project was supposed to be finished by the end of this year, but Wilson said that the plan was scrapped because the proposed shelter would have been too expensive to build and run.

There are other challenges. The land is zoned residential, and a pet cemetery and steep slopes on the shelter property limit building options, according to board president Tyson.

Money is becoming a problem, as well. Once flush with cash and criticized for not spending enough money on animals, the SPCA's reserve fund has been reduced to about $5.75 million after the board paid off old bills, made shelter renovations and began tapping the fund to improve operations, Tyson said.

Built up by years of donations and bequests, the reserve took a substantial hit on the stock market when the economy tanked, he said.

But Tyson is seeking to reassure the public that the board remains committed to expanding the shelter or building a new one on the current site or another site. It has hired design consultant Shelter Planners of America.

"We know in the long term our success really depends on some kind of new facility," he said.

Donna Interrante, president of PurrFect Paws Rescue, which has taken in animals from the SPCA, hopes that the shelter can further improve its operations. The welfare of thousands of cats and dogs a year depends on it.

"These county shelters, we need them," Interrante said. "It's not like we can do without them." *

For more information on the Delaware County SPCA, visit www.delcospca.org