Today at noon I flipped on the news and finally heard the news teaser I have been waiting for since last August.
CT Attorney General Investigating CT Humane Society
Thanks to the efforts and courage of a group of current and former employees, volunteers and animal lovers, as well as the help of consumer reporter extraordinaire CT Watchdog, George Gombossy, investigations are being made, questions are being asked and hopefully permanent changes will be made in the way employees, volunteers and most importantly, ANIMALS are treated.
Here are what other media outlets are saying about the allegations:
Coalition for Change
Heat Turning Up on CT Humane Society Management
Humane Society Leader Investigated
CT Humane Society Under Investigation
OSHA Inspection Obstructed by CT Humane Society President, Workers Claim
If any of this sounds vaguely familiar, you might have read the column I wrote in the NE NEWS about my personal experience volunteering for an "animal related charity" last summer. For those of you who didn't see the column, please check it out below.
September/October 2009 NE NEWS Column
I talk a lot in this column about making time for things
like writing or volunteering because you LOVE doing them. There is a wonderful
energy that manifests in your life when you’re actively pursuing something
you’re passionate and excited about. Today however, I’d like to explore the
flip side…being motivated by bumping up against something you HATE.
Now I know hate is a strong word that we generally try to
teach our kids not to use, but sometimes, you run into circumstances that are
just so wrong, so depressing, so bad, there is no other polite word to use to
describe it. This summer unfortunately I ran head on into just such a situation.
I thought I was doing a good thing by volunteering to work for an animal
related charity as part of their summer program. I had heard whispers around
the pet owners community that this wasn’t a good place, but there was nothing
tangible, just rumors and a few seemingly incredible allegations.
The program was six weeks long and by week two I began to
realize that the rumors weren’t even the tip of the iceberg. This was truly a
bad place masquerading as a good place. Yes, good things did happen, some
animals were adopted, some lives were saved, but this seemed almost incidental
to the way the place was run. The staff and even volunteers seemed to live in
fear of bringing down the wrath of the administration for even the slightest
error, or appearance of error. Rules and policies were put in place and
discarded faster than anyone could keep up, the questioning of policy or
administrators was not allowed and people were treated with complete disregard
and disrespect.
The only reason I stayed as long as I did was because I had
given my word to the two wonderful and talented teachers who were running the
program. And they weren’t the only good, passionate, well-meaning people who
were trapped working under these terrible conditions. I won’t even go into the
things I witnessed or had direct knowledge of happening to the animals.
The worst part of this, the part that will haunt me (along
with the eyes of a beautiful German Shepherd, now lost) is that while I was
there, I did nothing. I saved no one. I changed nothing. I hated what I saw and
felt and experienced, but I ended up being as shell-shocked and impotent as
everyone else who knows what is going on inside this organization. That’s the
bad news…the better news is that shock wears off, and that’s where being a writer
motivated by anger and injustice comes into play.
Andrew Vachss was so motivated by the crimes and attitudes he
witnessed as a lawyer specializing in child welfare that he developed a
character named Burke and wrote a series of novels about him. He also heads a
child protection mission called The Zero and is one of the founders of a
national association called PROTECT. This is alongside his law practice that
consists of only children who need his help. Vachss has always been a personal hero of mine, now perhaps
is the time to follow his lead and let my awful experience lead me to positive
action.
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