The Weekend Drama

The juvenile antics of the former directors are escalating. I've been warning as many people as I can these horrible antics are escalating to dangerous proportions.

The new director reports the former directors are now throwing garbage into the patas monkeys enclosure and the former director reported finding a a garden hose pushed from their property line through the fence into the cougar enclosure. This is very upsetting because the former directors may administer poison into the cougars' enclosure (i.e. anti freeze as the former directors have been known to use this poison animals) via a hose.

That explains why the new director wants to move the patas monkeys and cougars so quickly. I thought it was because of the heat situation, but the primates are receiving heat. The sad thing is, if they want to hurt or kill the animals, they could when everyone leaves the property. Again, is shows these people have no compassion for the animals. The are evil and vindictive.

Meanwhile, the former directors called the USDA/APHIS inspector again last week to report the sanctuary is not receiving heat or water. Needless to say, this was a complete lie and continued harassment on the part of the former directors. The new director responded to the USDA that arrangements were made to keep the water holding tanks full and the sanctuary rewired the electricity lines so all the primates are prepared for the freeze starting tomorrow night.

The commercials have been airing regularly (which must be driving the former directors nuts)! I have seen the commercial several times myself! On Sunday, many folks came to the sanctuary, saying they saw the commercial on TV! This is excellent news!

On Saturday, (2/20/10), the juvenile work crew came out and mulched Bubba's enclosure (he loves his new mulch for he was smiling up a storm!) and the tigers' run-off area in between Apollo and Mac's enclosure. The day was cloudy and for the most part, it lightly rained. Despite the weather, the grounds looks so much better!

There was an incident on Saturday which occurred around 2:00pm. The second juvenile team was preparing to leave, when the former male director revived up his motorcycle and proceeded down the road in front of the sanctuary. He laid on the horn, staring at all the workers. When his eyes hit mine, he appeared surprised, his face hardened and he stopped honking. He resumed his juvenile honking as he passed the main office. Five minutes after the honking stopped, an ambulance arrived with the lights and siren blaring as it passed the sanctuary and entered the former directors' driveway. I was told a small blond woman was taken by stretcher into the ambulance and it drove away. A few minutes after the ambulance departed, the male director drove his motorcycle back home!

About five minutes later, the first police car showed up at the sanctuary. Before I could find out what was going on, the officer entered into the office. When the second police car arrived, I thought it prudent to direct the officers to the correct address. The gentleman, a wonderful person who fixed the sanctuary's water system, so now it can remain on well water and not from the city, thereby saving the sanctuary a ton of money), was ahead of me and joking with the officer saying his shirt was torn by the monkey and that he may have been intoxicated! The officer joked back, that if he could identify the monkey that tore his shirt, she would take him in for drunk and disorderly behavior! They both laughed and that is when I asked if she was here in response to the incident that occur ed next door.

The officer said they were there because of a report that a woman was drunk and disorderly. I told her no one made the call from the sanctuary, but there was a incident next door whereas an ambulance reportedly took the female director to the hospital. One of the officers asked why the sanctuary was listed as their property, and I mentioned they had operated the sanctuary for many years, but were no longer in charge. The officer asked if they had been fired and I said it was something like that. I was asked why they were fired and I suggested they read the XXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX magazine on-line and enter the sanctuary's name into the search engine on the magazine's web page so they could read about what happened at the sanctuary. One of the officers said something like "0ooh, I see."

The first police car departed for the former directors' residence, and before the second car left, I was able to tell the officer that the male former director had returned home. The officer thanked me and departed. About 10 minutes later, both police cars departed from the former directors' residence, waving to us as they passed by.

This was the second police report made against the former directors' as the first one dealt with the malicious damage to the water pipes which occur ed last week.

Good news -- OAG is preparing to close their case against the sanctuary. Bad news is they are fining the sanctuary $25k because the board members were responsible for the actions and in actions taken by the former directors and should have removed them long before they did in 2009.

So the former directors are getting off Scott-free and the animals get penalized by their illegal actions! This is outrageous. I never wanted the animals to be punished. I wanted the board to be held accountable for their behavior. Each board member, from 2006-2009 (with the exception of one person who quit and tried to tell the rest of the board she saw the same problems as I), should have been charged $5k each!!!

It was reported that the board met on Friday and it was another explosive meeting. The board members, with the exception of the President/Financial Officer, rarely visits the organization. I have never seen the new member and the one who continues to underhandedly try and take over the facility, visit (let alone work) a Saturday or Sunday at the sanctuary. Did they work the rodeo event? I'm willing to bet the board members will not even help with the sanctuary's big open house which is to take place on the last Saturday of March.

Instead, it was my understanding from witnesses that the board trashed the new director for not finishing the bear enclosure, even though one new member was supposed to take the lead in finding free help to finish the enclosure! Instead he called the new director a liar and ineffective. The new director was then told to leave the room at the behest of this male board member (whom we found out later was working in concert with the only female board member desiring to seize the organization with the help of her criminal husband). That is when the board attacked the new Prez/Treasurer, claiming his financial actions are just like the ones made by the former directors. Insulted, the board member (holding two seats) quit.

Now from what I understand the new director is going to talk to him to see if he will stay on as a board member. I did see him on Saturday with family or friends and he didn't seem too happy, but under the circumstances, who could blame him. The board is completely dysfunctional and they should all be fired and new members added who truly supports the organization (as its current mission statement states). I cannot STAND board only members who have no clue as to what they are talking about when they meet. One board member can barely write a sentence and wants to take over the organization with her criminal husband and apparently the other board member wants to turn the sanctuary into a "theme park." This is unacceptable.

I truly feel horrible for the new director, because not only does she have to worry about the former directors escalating problems, she has to deal with employees that want to do thing their way, water and electricity challenges, an increase of animal related health issues (Sierra and Ecketrina were not feeling well this weekend, so today the vet visited the animals to determine the root of their lethargic behavior), fundraising as the funds are really low, and so forth.

Now I'm beginning to understand why she just doesn't have time to talk with me (and I can be a talker). I just wonder how long she can continue on this fast paced lifestyle. Between her family issues and her work issues, I have to admit I'm worried about her, but she is holding her own!

I guess the best thing I can do is to be here in case she needs help and try to come up with more ways to help the animals.

So I end on a plus note that I can finally make changes to the sanctuary's web site without crashing it! So have I have posted driving directions, corrected some image problems on the site, and added a page where folks can sign up for the sanctuary's monthly newsletter! Speaking for which, I'm spotlighting the two new tigers at the sanctuary, Giszmo and Borris! The two tigers are older animals and they are both adorable! Even though they arrived with no money (which IFAW I believe initially said they would sponsor the animals), I think they can be worked into the sanctuary's budget without sacrificing health care for the rest of the animals. Fortunately, they appear to be healthy and they both came up to me for greetings, so they appear to be well acclimated to be around humans. I'll post their story later in the blog, as my fingers are starting to hurt with all this updated information!

Hang in there new director! You are not alone!

Later:

The former directors have been up to their juvenile antics today. Apparently, the former directors, with the help of one of their former employees with a criminal record, purposely frayed and ripped electrical wires in/around the box. Then the directors called the city's code compliance and requested an investigator to investigate the damage. Clearly, this was a set-up for there was nothing wrong with the wires until after it was reported. Plus, how did the former directors even know there was problems with the wiring? And why would they even care -- especially if the assumption is even to be believed that this was normal wear and tear, why wasn't this corrected before 10.01.09, the time frame when the former directors were in control?

So to keep out prying eyes, a new cheap privacy fence, painted hot pink on the former director's side, will be installed. Love it! Don't mess with the animals!

Bad news, Sierra the white tiger is not feeling well and she had problems coming out of her sedation administered by the new vet. Blood and urine was taken and the test results should be available tomorrow. God Bless Sierra--please heal her Jesus!

Good news, the sanctuary's bank has agreed to overdraft protection and the television commercial appears to be successful (God is Great!). Just today, the sanctuary received a $6k donation!! This covers the commercial and the radio event next month!

Back to the former directors -- clearly the former directors are escalating in their activities. I am concerned for the safety of the animals and staff. Fortunately, there was enough money available to hire a night guard. I just pray evidence can be shown to a court of law what these "people" are doing to the sanctuary, which they professed at one time, to love. I will continue to pray the directors are forced away from the sanctuary for the protection of the staff and animals.

On a good point, I am expanding the website to include donations for t-shirts and the announcement that the sanctuary is available for kids' parties! So many ideas, so little time!