Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA Leadership Concerns
From: A coalition of former employees and current or former volunteers of the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA
To: Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA Board of Directors
CC: Susanne Kogut, former Executive Director of the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA and current President of Petco Love; current CASPCA staff and volunteers
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See follow up letter sent Jan 23: https://medium.com/@caspcaconcerns/further-charlottesville-albemarle-spca-concerns-d70f7dad2f81
NOTE ADDED ON JAN 21:
We are appreciative of all those supporting us and sharing our stories. If you would like to directly email the board, here are their email addresses:
Please cc our group at caspcaconcerns@gmail.com when emailing the board.
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NOTE ADDED ON JAN 20:
A current employee has submitted an anonymous quotation describing their experiences. This quotation was added to the addendum late yesterday.
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NOTE ADDED ON JAN 19:
We are very grateful to the Charlottesville-Albemarle community for expressing their concern for Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA employees, volunteers, and animals.
We’d like to clarify that we fully support CASPCA’s current staff and volunteers. They have been charged with an impossible and heartbreaking task — to provide for many more animals than they adequately can. They work incredibly hard and do their best to make the animals’ time at the shelter as brief and as pleasant as possible. Chief Executive Officer Angie Gunter’s unreasonable expectations and poor management set them up for failure. We want to thank them for their service.
We also want to update the board and public on the responses we’ve received since sending the letter. Since January 17, we have received dozens of communications in support of our claims. We have included a sample of those additional letters in the original list below. Another former employee contacted us with a copy of a letter she sent to the Board after her resignation in 2018 describing worse personal abuses than we were aware of before.
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ORIGINAL JAN 17 LETTER:
Date: January 17, 2023
We write to you as former staff members and current or former volunteers of the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA. Fifty-seven people contributed to this effort, but we chose to send this letter anonymously as many participants fear retaliation. Some of our members have been involved at CASPCA for over a decade, while others joined its community more recently. Some of us have worked as directors, managers, and front-line staff. Others have volunteered, fostered, and donated to this organization. We submit this letter to build on numerous previous efforts to make the Board aware of the organization’s mismanagement, which has already caused serious harm and which puts the organization’s future success in jeopardy.
We want to alert you of two core problems.
- Angie Gunter as Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer has created a hostile work environment.
- The organization’s current animal care practices are deeply concerning and merit investigation.
CASPCA’s official reports mask its internal dysfunction, as historically high spay/neuter rates in the area, the financial resources of the Charlottesville-Albemarle community, and overworked staff and volunteers have kept key metrics high. CASPCA had a banner year in 2022, placing a record number of pets in adoptive homes and achieving a 99% live release rate for dogs and a 98% live release rate for cats. Yet that success is built on a crumbling foundation, one we fear cannot sustain even the organization’s most basic programs much longer. Furthermore, an organization of CASPCA’s resources, history, and location should achieve these numbers easily. It should now be positioned to lead the industry with innovative programs that support pet retention, reduced lengths of stay, sustainable transfer efforts, behavior resources, advocacy, and accessible veterinary care beyond spay/neuter and routine vaccinations. Instead, the organization has stagnated, overemphasizing its adoption totals and live release rates to measure its success, and relying on what are often poorly managed transfer efforts to bolster those numbers. We ask you to address the problems described here so that CASPCA can achieve its full potential to support pets and their caregivers.
We will first describe Ms. Gunter’s workplace practices and then identify those practices’ negative impacts on staff and volunteers. We will then list our concerns with current animal care standards. We will conclude with a call for change. An addendum includes direct quotations from former and current employees and volunteers describing their experiences at CASPCA as well as photos and videos taken at the shelter..
If you would like to engage with this group further, we can be reached at caspcaconcerns@gmail.com.
Ms. Gunter’s Workplace Practices
Ms. Gunter’s management style is demeaning, divisive, and punitive. She creates a culture of fear among her staff and volunteers.
- She weaponizes employees’ and volunteers’ passion for animal welfare, telling them “you’re only hurting the animals” when they express legitimate concerns about animals’ wellbeing and the workplace.
- She fuels in-fighting among her staff, forcing them to compete for resources unnecessarily and prompting them to work against rather than with each other.
- She regularly calls employees to gossip and complain about other employees’ work performance.
- She brags about surveilling employees.
- She interrupts constantly and belittles or rolls her eyes when someone voices an opinion she does not share.
- She considers all problems as rooted solely in individual behavior, without a willingness to examine contexts or invest in staff development.
- She ostracizes staff who share feedback or otherwise offend her, refusing to discuss the issue at hand or anything else, sometimes for weeks at a time.
- She makes volunteers who express concerns and ideas feel unwelcome, leading to their eventual resignation or dismissal.
Ms. Gunter’s vision for CASPCA’s operations lacks focus.
- Her stated priorities change week to week, leaving staff unable to meet ever-changing expectations.
- She is reactionary and upends operational processes frequently, without explanation, and without engaging with her employees’ input.
Negative Impacts on Staff and Volunteers
- CASPCA employees experience extremely high levels of stress that often require therapeutic and psychiatric intervention. Many CASPCA employees describe negative changes in appetite, sleeping patterns, and mood. CASPCA occasionally conducts employee surveys but no significant workplace improvements have resulted from these surveys.
- Staff turnover is extremely high. At least 50 employees have resigned since November 2021. At least 30 directors, managers, and other non-entry-level staff have resigned since January 2020. While high turnover rates are unfortunately common in animal shelters across the country, many CASPCA employees resign not for the reasons typical of the field (low pay and compassion fatigue), but instead due to Ms. Gunter’s behavior and the toxic workplace culture. CASPCA conducts exit interviews only inconsistently and so has no complete record of these exit reasons. It also has no system for addressing the concerns raised during the few exit interviews it does conduct.
- As CASPCA does not effectively retain passionate and capable employees, the organization routinely loses institutional knowledge and effective internal partnerships.
- Word of CASPCA’s hostile work environment has reached the Charlottesville-Albemarle community and the larger animal welfare community, hindering its ability to recruit staff and volunteers. Open staff positions remain unfilled for months and sometimes years.
- Staff do not receive adequate training or professional development resources. Even some supervisory staff do not have the necessary experience to train staff and volunteers on safe animal handling practices or to assess staff and volunteer capacity in relation to particular animals’ needs and behaviors.
- Volunteers currently perform essential husbandry duties, causing volunteer stress and turnover. At present, volunteers water and feed animals and clean kennels and cages when there is not adequate staff to complete these essential tasks. While volunteers are integral to CASPCA’s operations and can effectively assist with animal husbandry and enrichment, the scope of their current responsibilities is inappropriate for an organization of CASPCA’s size and resources.
Animal Care
Unfortunately all animal shelters care for pets who exhibit severe stress, behavior issues, and medical distress. Attending to these animals’ needs and achieving positive outcomes can be complicated endeavors. Inevitably some pets will spend more time in the shelter before finding homes than others will, and some pets will experience fatal medical emergencies. While we acknowledge the difficulty of assessing causation for any individual animal’s outcome, we want to make you aware of deeply troubling patterns and examples that warrant further examination of CASPCA’s animal care practices.
- Animals have been found living in unhealthy conditions and exhibiting signs of extreme stress. For example, some large dogs are housed for multiple days in crates that are too small for them to move around in. Volunteers often find these dogs living in their own feces and urine.
- Within the last year, multiple dogs have been found in life-threatening medical distress. Volunteers found one dog housed in a crate bleeding internally after her spay surgery and five dogs who required emergency bloat surgery. One of these dogs died.
- Animals do not receive adequate enrichment, putting them at an increased risk of medical and behavioral problems. Some cats have been housed in isolation for months without any significant human interaction. Dog playgroups are no longer conducted, despite their proven ability to improve canine behavior and adoption rates.
- Dogs with behavior concerns are warehoused for months, often without placement plans. As of this writing, one dog has been on hold due to behavior concerns, unavailable for adoption, for over eight months. Another dog has been labeled as under “behavior modification,” unavailable for adoption, in CASPCA’s database for almost three months. CASPCA has not developed a behavior modification plan or offered any training to this dog.
- CASPCA transfers in animals on the promise that it can provide better care for these pets and find placement for them more quickly than its partner organizations can. When transports are well managed, they benefit the animals involved, the Charlottesville-Albemarle community, and animal welfare efforts nationwide. However, CASPCA’s current transfer practices do not often meet this standard. Recently transferred dogs are housed in crates as there are no available kennels to accommodate them. CASPCA transfers in dogs with known behavior concerns even though it does not have a canine behavior director or other adequate resources to support and place these pets. These dogs with behavior concerns often live in the shelter for months without finding homes.
- Animal housing areas are not adequately updated or maintained. Some cats are housed in single-compartment cages, against the advice of animal welfare experts. The windows in the Small Dog/Puppy Room have rusted frames. Hoses leak and leave standing water on the floor of the Small Dog Isolation room and fill buckets near the Left and Right Side kennels. Some kennels have peeling paint on the kennel floor or chewed marks in the kennel wall. The sliding internal doors that separate dog kennels are often broken. Staff and volunteers have reported these concerns for years.
Call for Improvement
As community members who value the work of CASPCA, we fear that the problems identified here, if unaddressed, will lead to increases in animal bites, negative outcomes for animals, staff and volunteer turnover, and community distrust.
We implore the Board to solicit Ms. Gunter’s resignation from CASPCA. Only under new leadership can CASPCA serve its animals, community, and employees with compassion and respect.
We also recommend these additional practices to improve the organization:
- Hire a Chief Executive Officer who has a proven track record of leading collaborative and results-driven workplaces.
- Engage an animal welfare consultant to evaluate CASPCA’s animal care and enrichment practices and develop a plan to enact swift but long-lasting improvements.
- Engage a workplace consultant to evaluate CASPCA’s workplace culture and develop a plan to enact swift but long-lasting improvements.
- Attract, hire, and empower a more diverse set of employees so that CASPCA staff better represent and serve the Charlottesville-Albemarle community.
- Conduct exit interviews with all departing staff and volunteers.
- Provide and mandate management training for the Executive Team.
- Offer a way for employees to express concerns without fear of retaliation.
- Designate one Board seat for a volunteer active in shelter operations.
The Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA has historically been a leader in animal welfare. It has been a champion of the no-kill movement, developing innovative programs and supporting life-saving efforts even outside its jurisdiction. Yet at present CASPCA does not adequately serve the animals in its custody. We submit this letter to the Board with deep sadness, but also with sincere faith in the organization’s capacity for change.
Sincerely,
Fifty-seven former staff members and current or former volunteers of the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA
ADDENDUM
Letters and quotation added on Jan 19:
Letter sent to the Board in 2018 from Tomeka Rhoades, former Human Resources/Executive Administrative Assistant, 2017–2018, added here with her permission
“I am anonymously adding my experience to this collective in fear of retribution from Angie Gunter because she is exactly as these narratives describe. As a leader she is divisive, corrupt, and incompetent. She has no knowledge of the animals in her care and shows no respect for the staff that work tirelessly to keep CASPCA functioning. Her appearance and reputation are all that matter to her. She NEVER walks through the kennels and has often made remarks that indicate she does not know about animals that have been in the shelter’s care for months or even years. Staff constantly hear about the large grants and donations the shelter is receiving (large checks are often placed on display in the lobby for the public to see), but do not see that money reflected in the shelter infrastructure or in any form of staff appreciation or improvements for quality of stay for the animals. She is the reason that the animals are suffering and the shelter cannot retain staff.
Often without any discussion with her staff who are at the shelter daily, Angie will approve transfers of animals from out of state shelters, international shelters, or from the shelter where her partner works. She approves these transfers while local, rural shelters are begging for assistance. All the while, CASPCA kennels remain full of dogs with behavioral needs that are neglected because Angie refuses to hire a behaviorist for fear they may say a dog should be humanely euthanized which would impact her live release rate. Angie would prefer to put dogs in crates rather than let her numbers be harmed.
MANY phenomenal employees who are passionate about animal welfare have come and gone, either because they can no longer stomach working under her or because they were blacklisted and pushed out because Angie decided she no longer liked them. Staff are sought out and harassed or punished if they express an opinion that differs from Angie’s or what she has decided is the stance of the shelter. She emulates a high school bully and as many of these accounts remark, when approached about her tactics will only double down. There are many dedicated employees still working at the shelter who have to go to work everyday knowing their CEO is completely out of touch and unfit to run a shelter. Staff can’t help but feel hopeless and heartbroken while they watch animals sit in their kennels (or often crates) for an inhumane amount of time with little to no intervention. The number of brave individuals who have chosen to contribute to this cause emphasizes this is a significant and pervasive problem. Both the animals and the staff deserve better.” — Current employee
Letters included with Jan 17 letter:
Letter from Taylor Lefebvre, former Director of Operations, 2021–2022
Letter from Tori Cunningham, former Adoption Counselor and Rescue Manager 2017–2022
Letter from Emma Lam, former Dog Care Lead and Animal Care Specialist, 2018–2022
Letter from Shirley Clarke, former Receptionist/Administrative Assistant and Volunteer, 2017–2021
Letter from Morgan Rogers, former Animal Care Specialist and Canine Enrichment Specialist, 2021
Letter from Katie Roche, former Adoptions Counselor, Humane Education Coordinator, and
Adoptions and Intake Coordinator, 2018–2021
Letter from Hannah Meanor, former Animal Care Specialist, 2019–2021
Letter from Willow Cosenza, former Clinic Receptionist, 2020–2021
Letter from Katelyn Durkin, former Volunteer Manager and Adoptions and Intake Manager, 2018–2021
Letter from Allison Wombacher, former Animal Care Specialist and Adoption Counselor, 2016–2018
Letter from Sandy Glennie, former Adoption Counselor, 2017–2018
Anonymous letter from former Adoption Counselor
Quotations included with Jan 17 letter:
“Everyone who works here comes with hope and gets tricked until the hope is choked out of them.” — Current employee
“This is a dream job in animal welfare until the leadership team ruins it by targeting you and making every day so miserable that you have to resign. The executive team makes decisions about the animals without even knowing anything about them. They rarely come down from their offices into the cages and kennels where the animals live, nor do they seem to care about the lives of the animals when given concerning information about them. As long as the numbers look good to the community, this will continue. Passionate employees will be forced out and the animals will continue to be treated as numbers instead of sentient beings” — Former manager
“The CEO of CASPCA is so out of touch with the daily operations within the shelter, it truly makes me sick. I am appalled at how much Angie does not know. Not only does she not know our dog and cat population, but she is truly in denial that dedicated and hardworking staff members are leaving simply because of her. We are disgusted at her selfishness and disregard for her staff and the animals in her care. She has no experience running a shelter, no knowledge of animal behavioral problems both in the shelter and in adoptive homes, and no empathy for those of us who dedicate our lives to place these animals. It is safe to assume that those who feel the same way I do are grieving our departure from CASPCA because we know that we are just another number to her and our separation will not send the message we had hoped for.”
- Recently resigned employee
“CASPCA has cultivated an atmosphere of intimidation and fear, that people are afraid, afraid if they say anything seeming to question practices or raise concerns, they’ll be denied the opportunity to continue to help the animals and each other by being told that they can no longer volunteer.” — Former volunteer
“I cut ties with CASPCA after encountering first hand the culture of lying that not only exists, but is encouraged from the top down. People are asked and encouraged to lie when the truth does not feel convenient, pitting people against each other, and putting people in highly uncomfortable positions. I could never support an organization that so freely lies, even doubling and tripling down when confronted. If this is how small issues are handled, what is happening with serious ones? The increasingly negative reputation of the shelter is public at this point. The longer the top level of management remains the same, the more CASPCA’s reputation will deteriorate, and more seriously, the quality of care for the animals at the shelter will further deteriorate.” — Former volunteer
“Current admin has also severed ties within the community and community members.(ie business owners/managers, nonprofits, etc) I have personally talked and worked with community members who felt admin was difficult to work with, admin was not responsive or community members felt unappreciated and discredited, despite their efforts to connect with CASPCA.” — Former volunteer
“I have been a CASPCA volunteer and a foster parent for more than 7 years. In the last couple of years I have grown concerned by what I perceive to be inadequate care for the dogs. Due to staff shortages, dogs spend most of the day in unsanitary conditions. In addition, there are dogs who have been on hold for months without receiving a behavioral modification plan, which makes them unadoptable and a risk to adopters. I have also witnessed great acts of love and compassion from dedicated staff, volunteers, and community members who step up to give our animals a second chance. Unfortunately passionate and hardworking staff leave constantly due to a toxic work environment. Changes in the administration could lead to the shelter reaching its full potential.”- Current volunteer
“Upon researching state and local rules/regulations regarding updated isolation practices and requirements for dogs possibly infected with communicable disease, as there was a dog being isolated for 6 months for the situation. The new information revealed that typical isolation time currently did not have to exceed 3 months vs 6 AND that dogs could be “walked and handled” by “vaccinated” personnel. I passed the updated info on to the volunteer manager who passed it on to a higher level. I received feedback that if I continued with my efforts I would be asked to leave!!!” — Current volunteer
“I was never properly trained to do my job. Angie facilitates animosity between employees at all levels. She also promotes people to positions that she favors and wouldn’t listen when I told her she was violating state codes. She told me she would destroy someone if they went to the press about her. There is absolutely no human resources to go to when issues arise. ” — Former manager
“While working for the shelter, I was constantly reminded that Angie’s concern was quantity vs. quality. She pushed adoptions for uneducated adopters, and never worried what happened to the animals afterwards. As an adoptions counselor, we cared about the animals and their happiness and I felt as though Angie just cared about getting animals out, and not whether the animals were safe once they left. Many times I felt pressured to just process paperwork and I knew in my heart the animals adopted would be returned within the week or found as strays. She didn’t care about the aftermath or the emotional toll it had on the employees or the animals. She only cared about the animals while in the shelter, she didn’t care if they were unsafe afterwards.” — Former adoption counselor
“I was repeatedly instructed, verbally and in writing, to discipline staff, in the form of documented write-ups, regardless of hearing out staff’s circumstances that led to them not placing a kennel card on an animal for 30 minutes. I refused to discipline without discussing the situation with my staff first. Once discussed with staff, their delay in performing this task was more than justified as they were juggling more serious safety matters during that time and prioritized well for the pets and community members involved. I was targeted for refusing to discipline staff for the delay in posting a kennel card. The director over me refused to look at the bigger picture.” — Former manager
“As a volunteer, I have experienced the culture of deception that is prevalent under the current leadership and witnessed the distressing consequences of CASPCA’s policy changes (returning to outdated shelter protocols for animal handling and housing as well as limiting enrichment and behavior modification). I used to be a very active volunteer but I have shifted most of my volunteering hours to other animal-related organizations as a direct result of my negative experiences with CASPCA. However, the immense potential that CASPCA has in this community keeps me from resigning fully as a volunteer. With improved leadership and an adherence to current animal shelter best practices, CASPCA will become a much greater resource for our community.” -Current volunteer
“As a former employee who took a low paying job at the shelter out of my deeply rooted care and respect for animals I can say that, after holding multiple positions at the shelter, I will never adopt, foster, or support the CASPCA again. The dedication and work ethic I practiced every single day, despite having a less than ideal work culture, despite feeling the need to appease the unprofessional executive team, left me with chronic stress I still carry today. Yet, I don’t care that I never received any praise, thanks, or even plain recognition, I care that the animals being warehoused are suffering daily.
I cared for 14 dogs in my office in less than a year, some of whom were feral, some were sick, some were too scary for others to handle. Not only was this a safety concern, not only did this create an entire separate set of responsibilities for me, but it also illustrated that an overflowing shelter isn’t equipped to properly care for animals in need. Several of these dogs did not receive the medical care they needed and deserved — care I requested they receive. I worked 50 hours a week for very little pay, I adopted two adult pit bulls because they are the most in need and not enough people are willing to welcome these dogs into their homes. Yet, the treatment I received was the same as others (staff and volunteers alike) — forced resignations, resignations, firings. It would seem the more competent and hard working one was, the more likely that person was to be forced out. I implore the board to take seriously the concerns expressed in this letter, and am grateful so many have taken the time to share their experiences. The ED doesn’t deserve to hold her position for one more day. The staff, volunteers, and animals need better.” — Former manager
“I had to walk away from a job that I loved with every ounce of my being. I refused to allow CASPCA to continue to negatively affect my mental and physical health. Having to watch multiple incredible employees (who inevitably turn into your second family) be mentally abused and treated like they are nothing can really ruin your trust with upper management. As much as I didn’t want to, I did find a new job. Thankfully, I was able to find a company that truly values and are kind to their employees. I knew things were awful, but I didn’t know how truly dysfunctional things were until I left CASPCA. It breaks my heart everyday to think about the passions I had to leave behind because of the toxicity of CASPCA’s work environment. I hope this opens the eyes of the people that can make a real difference.” — Former manager
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“High turnover direct result of ED’s hostile attitude towards staff and complete lack of ability” (Glassdoor review 3/14/21)
“The problem is not the staff. The problem is the culture from the top down. The CEO is paranoid and divisive, and her lack of respect for her staff breeds a horrific workplace culture of fear and blame. It feels like everyone is set up to fail.” (Glassdoor review 11/2/22)
In June 2022, a staff member found this dog left unattended with a mop bucket containing feces and chemical agents in her living area.
Dogs are regularly housed in the basement training room for multiple days. This space is not designed or equipped for this purpose. While most animal shelters adapt spaces intended for other purposes to house animals during emergency situations, CASPCA now routinely uses this space to house dogs. This photo shows one dog who has escaped from a crate and sits atop stacked boxes of bleach and next to other cleaning supplies. Other dogs are housed in crates nearby.
This photo taken September 2021 shows three puppies and one adult dog who all tested positive for canine distemper living in the basement training room. The floor of the puppies’ x-pen enclosure is partially covered with a sheet soaked with feces and urine.
Click the two images above to access videos taken in October 2022 that show large dogs living in crates in a room in the Public Isolation wing of kennels. These dogs are housed in crates that are too small for them to turn around in. In the second video, dirty water covers the floor between the crates. These dogs display significant fear, anxiety, and stress (FAS) as defined by Fear Free. In 2019 CASPCA required its employees to complete the Fear Free Shelter Program to help them recognize and reduce FAS, yet CASPCA’s operations under Ms. Gunter’s direction make severe FAS for many pets both inevitable and unmanageable.
The exterior frames of the window kennels in the Small Dog/Puppy Room are rusted and falling apart. One of the window kennels also has rust on the interior.
