Sauk County WI Animals Need Your Help Right Now!

We are petitioning the Board of Directors of the Sauk County Humane Society in Baraboo, WI. We are requesting that the person acting as both the Executive Director and President of the Board be removed from all positions immediately. 

Description:
Under the current Humane Society Executive Director / President of the Board, troubles at the shelter have been frequent, rampant, and egregious. We call for the current Executive Director/ President of the Board to be replaced immediately by a more compassionate and loving leader.

Under the current administrator:

*Citizens with loving homes have been denied the right to adopt for outrageous reasons. Some of these include:


-The citizens looked too poor.

-The citizens had young children.

-The citizens were in the military.

-There was someone in the home with dementia.

-There was a child in the home with behavior issues, issues which would not have
affected a pet at all.

-The citizens were deemed too old.

-The citizens lived in a rental unit.

-The citizens had outdoor animals at home.  Some were denied adoptions because they took care of feral cats at their home.

-The citizens had animals at home that were not fixed even though the adopting animal would be going home fixed. Some were denied adoptions because their only rabbit back at home in a cage was not fixed.

-The citizens had animals at home that were not up to date on their shots even though the animal going home would be up to date on its shots.

-They intended to let the animal go outside for part of the day, even if the animal would have been in a kennel or on a farm with hundreds of acres.

-The citizens did not speak English.  ED claimed  could not tell them how to care for a pet because they did not speak English therefore they were not worthy of a pet.

-The citizens were told they could not adopt because they hadn’t grieved for their recently deceased pets long enough.

-The citizens were told they could not have a pet because they worked full time.

These discriminatory practices are happening in the shelter even though it is on county land, in a county-owned building, and funded with taxpayer dollars.

*Currently the Sauk County Humane Society does not adopt to 18, 19, or 20 year olds. It is the only animal shelter in the state who refuses to adopt animals to individuals of these ages. Even though these individuals are old enough to perform military service and defend our country, they are not old enough to care for even a kitten in Sauk County.

*Under the current Executive Director/President of the Board,  the Sauk County Humane Society does not adopt dogs to hunters.

*Under the current Executive Director/President of the Board,  the Sauk County Humane Society does not adopt dogs or cats to farmers.

*Under the current Executive Director/President of the Board, potential adopters are put through the ringer, sometimes being put through grueling interrogations for more than two hours.  Shelter volunteers report citizens often leave in tears because of the hostile treatment they experience.

*Under the current Executive Director/President of the Board, all feral cats are killed at the Sauk County Humane Society.

*Currently the Executive Director/President of the Board holds BOTH of the highest positions at the shelter. This is a HUGE conflict of interest.  This gives her full authority on all levels to do whatever she wants without a proper system of checks and balances.

*Under the current Executive Director/President of the Board, there is no team deciding which animals really do need to be euthanized. The Executive Director/President of the Board makes most of those decisions independently without team consultation.

*Under the current leadership the euthanization rates at the Sauk County Humane Society are completely out of control. In 2012, 1,064 cats were euthanized there, while only 220 were adopted. That is a 77% kill rate for cats that year. In 2013, 1053 cats were euthanized, only 245 were adopted. That is a 77.84% kill rate on cats. In November of 2014, the shelter only adopted out 7 cats for the entire month.  In June of 2014, they only adopted out 12 cats the entire month.   40-58% of all animals that walk through the door of that shelter on a daily basis are being euthanized. These rates are astronomical compared to other open admission shelters. Shelter volunteers claim undocumented animals are now being euthanized in order to make the kill rate appear to be lower.

*Under the  Executive Director/President of the Board, the shelter barely adopts out any animals at all.  Surrounding counties with much less citizens adopt out more animals in a few days than Sauk County Humane Society adopts out all month.

*Under the current Executive Director/President of the Board, the shelter refuses to have life saving "clear the shelter" events, events which are standard practices in shelters across the nation.

*Despite claims to the contrary, the Executive Director/President of the Board frequently calls for the euthanization of animals that are adoptable for ridiculous reasons including a fox with mange (mange is treatable), kittens with colds, cats with urinary tract infections, cats that are black, animals that are overweight, elderly animals, and animals that may be frightened by the shelter environment upon arrival.

*There is currently an utter lack of transparency at the shelter. The public is not allowed to see bylaws of the shelter board, an absolute violation of Wisconsin’s open record laws. Meeting minutes are unavailable. All shelter board meetings have been closed to the public. Memberships of people who raised concerns have been revoked. Cease and desist letters have been sent to people who tried to bring about positive changes. Accurate euthanization rates are difficult to obtain.  Annual reports do not come out until October from the prior year. 

* There are no more elections for the shelter Board of Directors nor term limits. Any new members are appointed by the current Executive Director/President of the Board. This flies in the face of policies and procedures that non-profits are to follow.

*The Sauk County Humane Society utilizes outdated and inhumane euthanization methods. Animals are euthanized without sedation causing them excruciating pain and suffering.

*The current Executive Director/President of the Board makes statements such as this:
"The more shelters are pressured to focus on "live release" rates and abandoning adoption criteria, the more these people will have access to their victims." SCHS, September 8th, 2015, in reference to an animal abuser in the news.

*Under the current Executive Director/President of the Board, the Sauk County Humane Society Board of Directors does not represent the community they serve. They do not respond to letters and messages. They refuse phone calls. They won’t take people’s contact information.  They are afraid to meet without the Executive Director/President of the Board present.

*Under the Executive Director/President of the Board the adoption fees at the shelter are astronomical. People are frequently asked to pay between $350-500 to adopt animals or to get their animals back.

*All of the other area shelters post found animals on their social media websites… they have online pictures and catalogs of animals that have been found and turned into them. Found animals are never posted anywhere at the Sauk County Shelter. People will frequently come into the shelter to see if their animal is there and they are not even allowed to view the animals that have been turned in. 

Please help us save the animals of Sauk County. We appreciate your signature and support. Please share this petition with your friends on social media. Thank you.

We encourage you to read the comments left in the petition already. We tell our children not to put up with bullies; we need to do the same.  The Executive Director/President of the Board can not euthanize us all or kill our desire to protect innocent victims.  So what are we afraid of?   We need to support each other to remedy this now : please contact:  SaveSaukAnimals@gmail.com for more information.