When the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA board announced last week that an independent review of conditions at the shelter has concluded and that the board has placed shelter CEO Angie Gunter on administrative leave, the statement “committed to restoring the community’s trust in all that we do to serve the animals in our care.”

The announcement hasn’t restored trust for the more than 100 former staff and volunteers who have signed their names to concerns about conditions at the shelter and allegations of a toxic work environment under Gunter.

“… the gravity of the allegations against Gunter alone should have warranted her immediate suspension or resignation in January,” the group wrote in a statement of its own, which criticizes the board for “resisting transparency, defending inexcusable conditions, outright lying, and retaliating against whistleblowers at every turn…”

The SPCA controversy became public in mid-January with a letter signed anonymously by 57 former volunteers and staff at the shelter, which serves as the public pound for both Charlottesville and Albemarle. The situation escalated over many weeks, with additional staff resignations and the firing of at least one volunteer by a Richmond-based attorney representing the SPCA board.

Former staffers have continued to speak out since the conclusion of the review, including Emily Halaszynski, who worked as a pet promotion expert at CASPCA in 2021.

Halaszynski says she knows only a “handful” of people who were contacted by the McGuire Woods law firm investigators, and she says those people claim they weren’t contacted until recently and were given a short period of time to respond.

She believes the SPCA needs new leadership immediately and says the fired staff and volunteers should be rehired.

“They need to welcome the people who want to help, and the dogs need to be walked,” she told Charlottesville Right Now. 

CASPCA Board Chair Jenn Corbey agreed to an interview Friday. April 21 on Charlottesville Right Now to discuss the review and the future of the shelter. This story will be updated following that conversation.

Listen to the interview with Emily Halaszynski here.