At a Total Loss

I am at a loss for words regarding the latest actions taken by the Board of Directors.

Before I go into the latest details, I need to get caught up on what transpired one week ago at the OAG.

As you may recall, the OAG requested a meeting to discuss the sanctuary’s current economic conditions. Prior to this meeting, the board president resigned shortly after speaking with the board member living in Florida. That left only two board members serving on the sanctuary’s board: the Florida board member and the woman who has designs of taking over the sanctuary. Shortly after this was announced to me, I submitted a very qualified candidate to join the board. This individual is aware of the sanctuary’s current financial condition and the problems with the current board and staff. Despite this disclosure, he still believes the sanctuary can survive and prosper—but it would take the entire board and staff working together to ensure the animals have a safe and secure place to live at the sanctuary.

When the OAG learned the former president of the board resigned, they requested this person travel with the sanctuary’s CEO to discuss why he resigned and who would take his place as there were currently two board members on the board. As you may recall from previous postings, the board, by law, must consist of three board members at all times.

According to the new sanctuary director, the meeting was a complete waste of time and could have been held via telephone rather than a face to face with the OAG/Charitable Trust Division and the former board member and sanctuary director. Interesting enough, the Florida and the vet tech board members were allowed to call in for the meeting. In my opinion, both members should have traveled to Austin for the meeting.

Since I was not present at the meeting, I cannot comment on what was said. I can comment on what was supposedly said that was of interest to me. For example, the OAG apparently made a comment that the former directors write to them often, lamenting on the current status of the animals!

Apparently, the former directors are trying to re-write history by charging the animals are receiving substandard feed, no vitamins, and the workers are quitting because of the new director. For the record, the chicken and other meats provided by way of HEB and Wal-mart is good meat. Last Friday and the weekend before last I went personally into the meat locker and saw good raw chicken and other meats available for the animals. I did discover one major problem in the meat locker and outside the meat locker, but I will discuss the findings later on in this posting. I also checked on the vitamin powder and both locations have powder as I also traveled to the second site and checked on the meat there as well. The “rantings” on the internet regarding the meat quality and the administration of the vitamins is completely false and were placed out there by ex-employees hell bent on destroying the organization.

Anyhoo, I digress, back to the main point of this posting: The OAG was forced to acknowledge, despite initial protests, the current director on the board of directors so the sanctuary could continue to operate. The OAG left the responsibility to reform and designate individual board seats.

The OAG brought up the financial difficulties and lo and behold, to cover their asses, the board members feint surprise over the low bank account balance and amounts over due to vendors.

Surly the former president of the board communicated regularly with the other members regarding the sanctuary’s financial situation before he resigned? Wouldn’t that have been his job, especially since he kept the books as Treasurer?

Plus, the current director asked the board member in Florida permission to go to the public and announce the possible closure of the sanctuary if finances did not pick up very soon. I was told the board member said no, he did not want to publicly announce the sanctuary’s financial troubles and he did not want the current director to contact the gentleman in Colorado, who went through a similar experience in 2006, at his sanctuary.

In my opinion, the board made a fool out of themselves for not knowing the financial situation before the start of the meeting. Instead, the board apparently pushed the lack of communication blame onto the current director.

On top of it all, the resignation of the sanctuary’s president/treasurer could not have come at a worse time because in about two weeks, the 2009 990 is due at the IRS!

Some good news for a change—the Red Cross would like to partner with the sanctuary in starting up again the pet first aid classes. On Friday (April 16th), the sanctuary’s office manager and I visited the Red Cross and discuss the program with the training director. I believe we could have an amazing program at the sanctuary and we are working closely with the Red Cross to get this program up and running.

After the meeting, I stopped by to pickup materials and was planning on leaving when I received a call from the director to check on the quality of the meat. I went into the meat locker and examined the meat. It looked very good to me – all fresh.

As I was about to leave, though, I noticed several wet boxes off to the left side of the meat locker complete covered with flies. I opened the lid and discovered defrosted warm chicken (weather was close to 80 degrees outside and over 80 degrees inside the warehouse. I also found chicken pieces that apparently fell on the floor as they contained a lot of dirt and debris. I washed the chicken pieces off and returned them back to the box. The flies were everywhere so I asked the chicken be covered by a tarp. I also found store wrapped meat in a tube on top of the chicken boxes and the meat inside the packaging was almost in liquid form. It was disgusting. Clearly, leaving meat outside the meat locker (refrigerator) was in violation of the AWA. The meat was covered and then moved back into the refrigerator. I also found two open meat “tubes” on the counter next to the sink, opened and covered with flies. Both meat tubes were ½ filled with meat and were just left on the counter for hours. The female worker who only works part-time at the sanctuary admitted to leaving the meat out after giving the animals their medication in the morning. When I discovered the wasted meat, it was late afternoon!

The office manager was with me when I saw the violations as well as one of the facility operations workers. While the office manager and I were walking around the property, the wasted meat rolls were quietly removed from the counter and the counter was cleaned up.

The previous weekend, I asked the animal care staff to try and keep the property clean as they are open for tours on Wednesday - Sunday. My point was that the juvenile CSR and volunteers should not be the only ones expected to clean the property—everyone needs to chip in to make sure it looks presentable to the public. The comment I received was “don’t count on it.” Well, that comment was prophetic because the property was a mess again!

Here is a complete list of the violations observed while walking around the property:

1. Meat left out in the heat and there was a trash can filled with maggots and meat at the back of the meat locker (refrigerator);

2. Barrier boards removed and left on the ground directly in front of a tiger enclosure while tours were conducted;

3. Most of the barrier gates left wide open allowing the general public to go behind the barriers and approach the animal enclosures;

4. Two domestic dogs were found in an empty tiger cage, which was located across of several tigers and next to a tiger enclosure. The dogs were barking at every move the tigers made, running up and down the length of the enclosure;

5. Four pieces of sharp metal (tie wires) sticking into the lemur enclosure, putting the animals at risk of having their eyes and/or other body parts poked by the metal;

6. Several empty bleach (3) bottles were tossed around the cougar enclosure and there were two trash cans filled with maggots, feces, old meat, and mulch left in front of the cougars’ enclosure;

7. Dirty water bowls (back ½ of the shaded tour trail) were found;

8. Wolf-hybrids had a large amount of feces in the enclosure which emitted a foul odor and could be smelled from the touring trail– the area had not been cleaned since Wednesday morning;

9. Domestic liter cat boxes overflowing with cat feces;

10. Housing a domestic cat in the “clinic” which was a previous write-up for the former directors when Noel the cougar was “stored” in this building.

When I called the director at home to let her know that the animal caretakers had placed two domestic dogs on the trail and they had removed the barrier boards for some reason and just left them on the ground while giving tours, I was immediately told she was on her way.

Needless to say, once the workers learned she was on her way into the office, the dogs were moved off the trail and the boards were re-installed. Once the director arrived, she and I walked around and I showed her the violations. She was not happy. The two workers were asked about the issues and instead of saying something like, “you know, you are right, it won’t happen again,” the workers instead blamed everyone for their failings. Disgusted with all the excuses, the director walked off as I tried to get the workers to see where they failed the sanctuary.

I tried explaining to them that they put the public at risk by taking down the board and leaving the gates open. I tried to explain that leaving wires sticking into the enclosures was a safety risk for the animals. I tried to explain that leaving the meat out in the heat is a violation of the AWA and the WAO had been written up within the last 4 years on these very same topics. I asked the two workers if the even read the AWA books left by the USDA/APHIS veterinarian (one set of books for each property), and the workers said they never read the books. When I asked the workers at the other property if they ever saw the books (later that day), the workers immediately took out the books from the desk they were sitting at! The ladies confirmed the workers at the previous property did know about the books and were offered the opportunity to review the books when these same workers worked at the second site.

I explained to the touring facility workers that the AWA regulations were on the internet and there was no excuse why they could not review the material. Both workers looked angry when I made this comment. The claimed I was calling their work “shitty.” I told them if I wanted to use the words “shitty,” I would! I told them they were violating the AWA and that they needed to pay more attention to their jobs and stop blaming everyone else for their failings. Both workers complained about having way to much work and not enough time to complete the tasks. I told the workers that I and one other employee were able to clean the enclosures, feed the animals, and conduct tours without a problem on Saturdays and Sundays. I suggested they work faster and pay attention to what they were doing, so as to complete their tasks on time. One thing I have noticed is the number of times I’ve seen the workers “texting” and taking personal calls while working.

Both workers told me they were concerned about all the chicken fed to the animals since the beginning of the April. I asked if they were still putting the vitamin/minerals on the chicken and I was told yes they were, but certain animals, like Bubba, had trouble eating the chicken. The touring facility workers accused the non-touring workers at the other property of withholding red meat from the touring facility animals because they did not all get along and the animals at the touring facility were punished because of this conflict.

Ironically, this reminded me of the conversation I had with the ladies at the other property in March. The complaint was the non-touring facility animals did not receive any red meat for over a month and was wondering when they would receive red meat. The ladies made no accusations, they were just inquiring on the status of red meat. I remember seeing red meat given out at the touring facility and I was surprised the non-touring facility did not receive any red meat.

So when Wal-mart provided 500 lbs of brisket this month, the battle for the meat was on! The meat was ultimately given to the non-touring facility since they did not receive red meat for sometime. About 40lbs was taken to the touring facility for the tigers like Bubba, who needed some red meat. I personally saw the red meat loaded onto the vehicle, bound for the touring property.

What bothered me a lot was the Wal-mart donation (the trash can in the cooler) contained a lot of red meat and it was allowed to go to waste as there were maggots growing in the container. This meat could have been given out with the chicken to the tigers having trouble digesting chicken only!

The touring facility workers said a lot of terrible things about the non-touring facility workers, and yet when I confronted the non-touring facility workers, they offered proof in support of their rebuttal. The other employees offered no proof – just accusations.

The good news is the red meat will now be distributed based on a percentage of big cats at each location. This is a fair way to ensure the meat is distributed evenly so the animals do not have to go for a month without receiving red meat.

The same day I visited the second site, I was given a tour of where one of the former workers lived on the property, along with one of the current employees.

I was shocked to see what used to be their rabbit enclosure. These employees used to house rabbits in what looked like a 3’ feet long and 2’ feet wide enclosure on wheels. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say there was about 6” of rabbit feces at the bottom of the entire enclosure! It was horrifying to see! The workers moved out and left the rabbits and turtles behind with no food or water, living in an incredible amount of waste. No one was told the rabbits and turtles were left behind, and it was by chance (or perhaps curiosity) the workers discovered the animals.

When I entered the empty mobile home, fleas jumped up on my legs, preventing me from entering further. Not that I would have wanted to because the smell of animal urine and feces was incredibly strong. Instead I peeked into one of the bedrooms and saw rocks, dirt, and hay in the corner of the room.

When I asked what happened to the monkeys they kept along with domestic cats, I was told they were removed the day they moved out and no one knows for sure where the animals went.

My thoughts are, if you cannot keep your own house clean and care for your own animals properly, then how in the world can this same person expect to care for the animals at the sanctuary. Very disturbing.

I don’t know what to think of the two workers working at the touring facility right now. I cannot help by feel there is some unspoken motive as to why these workers refuse to perform the functions of their job correctly, but feel they have the right to criticize everyone else. Including me, I suppose. I was informed that the worker who left his rabbits and turtles behind made the statement that I found green rotting meat in the meat locker and that I threw up after finding the meat! I confronted him with this comment, as it was a complete lie, and his first reaction was to angrily demand “who told you that.” When I first refused to disclose the person who made the statement, he immediately started in on me accusing me of keeping “secrets.” So I disclosed the name, and he still became angry, at first refusing to address the statement, and then I guess he changed him mind when I would not let the issue go, by saying he would never say something like that. He repeated this over and over again. I have to question his sincerity based on what I saw and learned at the other property. I shall blog this part of the story in the next entry.

Anyhoo, I discussed my findings with the director, letting her know that the two workers at the touring facility have absolutely no respect for her or authority. I asked if I could address these issues with the Florida board member seeing how he does not understand the challenges the director had to face, in light of the workers refusing to do their jobs correctly, even after receiving verbal corrections. She thought it might be a good idea if I spoke with him—letting him know about the good and the bad events transpiring at the sanctuary.

So the next day, Saturday (April 24th), I contacted the board member after spending the entire day at the facility with the CSR workers and volunteers. For you see, Saturday was the animals Fiesta party where they received new toys and treats!  

The event was successful – there was a large group of folks on this tour. Needless to say, the workers did not want to speak with me, but then I was not there for them, I was there to make sure the animals were taken care of and the event went off without a hitch.

After the Fiesta event, one of the volunteers noticed a vervets with a dollar-sized wound on its’ inner leg. When this wound was shown to the two animal caretakers, they told me that the vet would be coming out Tuesday and she would be notified about the monkey’s wound at that time. I told them this was unacceptable and that the vet needed to be notified much sooner so a determination could be made regarding treatment. I was told by both workers that the primate would receive, before they left, medicine (pain killer and antibiotic). When I asked when the primate would receive the medicine, I was told they wanted to finish feeding the animals first, and then they would treat the monkey. The workers got back into the gator and drove off. I made a mental note to make sure the primate received his medicine before everyone left.

Fortunately for the monkey, one of the ladies from the other property volunteered to work the office as the receptionist was out due to illness. At around 5:00pm the other workers left and that left just me and the non-tour facility worker to make sure the property was clean and safe to close. After we finished the cleaning the water bowls, the lady wanted to check on the primate requiring medication. Turns out, as the workers were leaving, they told the female worker that they “tried” to provide the vervet with his medication, but they gave up and would try again the next day. I don’t’ know how hard they “tried” because the primate was originally found with the wound on his leg sitting in front of the enclosure and when we checked on the primate, he was still sitting in the exact same place!

The animal caretaker retrieved the vervet’s medication and the primate took the medicine from her without any problem. He ate the bread soaked with antibiotics and the pain pill without any issues. So for that day, the monkey received his meds, no thanks to the other two animal caretakers. It is my opinion; they never even tried to provide him his medication.

I told all of this to the Florida board member on Saturday. We were on the phone for about 2 hours and I thought, based on his follow-up questions; he understood the urgency of the issues pertaining to the two workers and the challenges the new director has to face on a daily basis. We talked about the two candidates interested in joining the board and he seemed interested in reviewing their resumes. I thought we had a really good conversation. I explained the importance of everyone performing “by the book” at the sanctuary, so as to avoid future problems either with the OAG, USDA, or the public.

Turns out, on the same day, while the Fiesta Enrichment party was taking place, the two remaining directors had a secret board meeting without the new director (and 3rd board member) present. The two board members decided to make the vet tech “president” and they added the wife of the Florida board member to the board!!! This action was illegal!

Now I don’t know what is going to happen with the new director, as the new “prez” does not like her and she certainly does not like me either. I asked the new director how I could help her with this latest challenge and she said she would work on this issue today. Sadly, this appears to be one problem I cannot help her fix as this is an internal battle. A battle that will ultimately lead to the demise of the animals if it does not cease immediately. My hopes are sinking fast as I see all this destructive and illegal behavior going on at the sanctuary. It starts at the top, so it’s no wonder why the workers feel they can do anything they want without retribution. If the board does not stop all this fighting and start operating in a legal manner and focus on raising money for the animals, which incidentally, should be the only thing everyone should be focused on right now, I will be forced to leave once again and resume my investigations into the facility. The board needs to go and a new hard working supportive board needs to be instilled as soon as possible.

I guess I’m not at a loss for words after all – but I am still in shock over what the workers and board members are doing to the sanctuary. Why is it so hard to get everyone to perform their jobs correctly, not to mention, legally?  Why are board and workers' egos more important than the well-being and survival of the WAO animals?  Why?