Seven months after allegations of poor conditions for animals and a hostile work environment prompted an independent investigation and a change in leadership at the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA, a newly resigned volunteer is calling fresh attention to issues at the shelter while an anonymous group is also calling for change from the shelter’s new leadership.

“I cannot allow my mental and emotional health to continue being negatively affected by a management style to which I am vehemently opposed,” wrote former CASPCA volunteer Hope Szczyglinski in an email announcing her resignation sent Sunday, August 20 to Interim Executive Director Sue Friedman and members of the CASPCA board.

In that email and in a subsequent interview on Charlottesville Right Now, Szczyglinski described arriving at the shelter on Friday, August 18 and discovering kenneled dogs sitting in their own feces and urine.

“I liken it to being in prison, locked in solitary for 23 hours and 45 minutes for a crime they didn’t commit,” she wrote. Her decision to resign was sealed that same day when she learned that Jacco, one of the dogs she’d been caring for, would be euthanized. She alleges that a lack of a behaviorist on staff at CASPCA is the reason some of the dogs aren’t adoptable, and that conditions for the dogs has worsened appreciably over the past several months.

“I’ve seen dogs go from friendly, bubbly, fun to just downhill because they haven’t been socialized with one another in, gosh, the past year,” she said on CRN. “With a little bit of behavior modification, he could have been a great dog,” she said of Jacco.

CASPCA Interim CEO Sue Friedman disputes Szczyglinski’s claims.

“We are providing all of the care that the animals need and deserve,” Friedman said in an interview on CRN. A consultant hired by the shelter after the independent investigation has experience with behavior management, she said, and CASPCA is actively recruiting a manager for the behavior department. The shelter, Friedman said, is being run according to “best practices.”

Friedman discounted allegations of unnecessary euthanasias and poor conditions for dogs that were also made in an anonymous email that claims to be from a group of concerned community members, some former and current volunteers, and some current and former staff.” 

“Anonymous complaints are really not very transparent,” Friedman said. “We are being asked to be transparent, and I believe we are being transparent.”

Szczyglinski alleges in her email to Friedman and the board that the dogs suffered after Friedman ordered 12 dog-walking volunteers to take the summer off. Friedman notes that eight new dog walking volunteers recently signed on, and said a decision about whether the previous volunteers will be allowed to return will be made at an August 30 meeting.

Click here for full interview with Hope Szczyglinski.

Click here for the full interview with Sue Friedman.