Several former staff members and volunteers at the Humane Society of Lebanon County claim the organization has been adopting out animals that are dangerous and at-risk for contagious diseases.

Some of the seven people interviewed by the Lebanon Daily News permitted us to publish their names, while others privately confirmed the accuracy of these on-the-record accounts. The Lebanon Daily News previously reported on problems with animals adopted from the humane society in February, but these former workers say the problems are only getting worse.

The issue is not a lack of compassion, but rather a philosophy among Humane Society board members that all animals should be saved and eventually adopted, regardless of their health or temperament, critics say.

“The shelter is so full of unadoptable dogs that nobody can walk,” former kennel technician Pam Spong said.

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One of the most disturbing stories comes from Karen Campbell, a former volunteer foster cat mom for the humane society.

Campbell – who personally owns three cats, one of which has health problems – said she agreed at the end of June to foster four 5-week-old humane society kittens in her home.

When she began to foster them in June, the cat adoption room at the shelter was closed to the public for reasons she didn’t know, she said.

The following week, she returned to the humane society so the kittens could receive their vaccines. A staff member told her that they were out of the vaccine because of an “outbreak,” but did not give details on the nature of the problem, and said they would have more soon.

Two weeks later, she approached Spong, who was the facility's foster coordinator, about the vaccines. At Spong’s suggestion, another employee came out to her car and administered the vaccines, but would not tell Campbell why she could not bring the cats into the cat section of the facility at 150 N. Ramona Road in Jackson Township.

She started asking questions, and Spong admitted that the shelter had an outbreak of feline panleukopenia virus, better known as pan leuk, a contagious and deadly disease among cats. Spong, who quit her job on July 21 because of her concerns with humane society operations, claims she was breaking orders by letting Campbell and other foster parents know about the outbreak.

“They wouldn’t let me tell any of the fosters what was going on,” she said.

The cat portion of the shelter only reopened to the public on Sept. 10, after “receiv(ing) the ‘all clear’ from our staff veterinarian,” according to a public notice on the humane society's website. A previous notice while the shelter was closed said only that the cats were “currently being monitored for a virus.”

Board of Directors President Maria Bojarcheck acknowledged the shelter had been closed for pan leuk, but said the infected cats were being cared for and were not kept in public places. When asked by a reporter several times if the humane society had directed staff to not tell the public or foster volunteers about the pan leuk virus, Bojarcheck did not answer the question.

Fostered kittens were placed directly with a foster home, so the pan leuk would not have been spread to those kittens, she said.

Other claims made by former humane society volunteers and employees include:

The humane society is routinely adopting out dogs that have been known to bite people and have failed temperament tests.

A dog known to have the contagious and life-threatening disease parvovirus was kept in a men’s bathroom at the shelter.

The shelter suffers from overcrowding. At times, adoptable and unadoptable animals have been housed together and animals have been housed in the “meet and greet” room.

Critics had previously raised the concern in the winter that there was no veterinarian on staff, but a veterinarian was hired in late June, according to Bojarcheck. However, Spong and other critics say operations have not improved now that there is a veterinarian on staff.

“Overall it truly does not matter that the humane society of Lebanon county is the (only) shelter in the county. It is time that the public knows the truth that animals are not being properly cared for and known-aggressive dogs are being adopted out to unsuspecting adopters instead of euthanizing them,” Spong wrote in an email.

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Dangerous dogs

On Sept. 28, the humane society posted what appeared to be good news on its Facebook page: a dog named Amaru had been adopted.

“After many months in the shelter, this princess found her forever family,” the Facebook post read. “We are so excited that she will be in a loving home this evening.”

But it wasn’t the first time someone adopted Amaru, who Spong said is a pit bull mix. A previous adopter returned her to the humane society after she bit that first owner, according to Spong. The humane society had considered Amaru so aggressive that she was kept away from other dogs and only trained dog walkers were allowed near her.

Several times in the past year, dogs were adopted, bit their new owners, were returned to the shelter, and then were again put on the adoption floor, according to Spong and other former humane society employees.

A pit bull named Church bit another dog and a staff member, broke out of his kennel, and Spong heard staff members say, “I hope he doesn’t hurt and kill something,” she said. Spong said employees were also forbidden from telling anyone that Church had bit an employee and another dog.

On Sept. 30, the humane society posted on Facebook that Church had been adopted.

A chocolate lab named Yoda was taken to a “doggy boot camp” because of temperament problems, but the boot camp eventually told the humane society to take him back because he bit one of the trainers, Spong said. He was adopted out anyway.

“A few board members have their ‘favorites’ and can’t look past their personal feelings for certain dogs. Instead, they jeopardize the safety of the public by adopting out aggressive dogs with a known bite history which is not documented in their system (or) made known to potential adopters. Blatant disregard for the safety of the public is unacceptable,” Spong wrote in an email. “I am a huge animal advocate but not when it comes to aggressive dogs that have already bitten someone or have the potential to (maim) or kill a person or another animal."

Bojarcheck acknowledged that some of the dogs have had issues. However, “we are not, 'not disclosing' that these animals have had issues” and the person who adopted Yoda was fully aware of Yoda’s history, she said.

Yoda had come from a difficult situation as a puppy, kept in a basement with limited food and water, and therefore was a very resource-guarding dog, she said. Amaru also came from a very bad situation and was terrified when first brought to the humane society, she said.

She also disputed the level of concern about Church, saying that he was only a young dog who needed to learn manners.

“He was fine around people. He has not bitten anybody,” she said.

"Every animal deserves a chance"

The main problem is not with the staff, but with the humane society’s board of directors, the former employees said. The board is reluctant to refuse or euthanize animals and is inclined to think every animal is adoptable as a pet, they said.

Two former employees, who asked not to be named, said when a dog would fail a temperament test, the test-giver would be blamed or asked to redo the test until the dog passed.

Bojarcheck, on the other hand, criticized one former staff member for provoking and being mean to animals she perceived as aggressive – “an animal knows that you don’t like them” – and said staff should not have given temperament tests immediately after dogs were brought in. “When an animal comes in, whether it’s a stray or a surrender, that animal needs to decompress,” she said.

Megan Stanley, chair of the board of directors for the Association of Professional Dog Trainers, said temperament tests are useful but aren't an exact science. Behavior is also situational, so it can be difficult to measure the likelihood that a dog will be dangerous in the future.

"However, extreme aggressive responses demonstrate more serious concerns in the dog that can identify the dog as a safety concern and should not be available for adoption," she wrote in an email.

Still, it is valid to question the results of a temperament test taken just after a dog is taken from a difficult situation, and decisions should not be made only on the basis of one evaluation conducted by one or two people, she said.

Bojarcheck acknowledged that there may be occasions in which animals need to be humanely euthanized but said that “every animal deserves a chance."

She also said that one former employee who had contacted the Lebanon Daily News had “burnout” and “wanted nothing but to put animals down.” In general, she said, concerns about humane society operations may be coming from “disgruntled employees.”

In an ideal world, Stanley agrees that every dog deserves a chance - but that may not be realistic given the volume of homeless pets taken to shelters.

"Decisions on the adoptability, moving the dog to another organization or euthanasia, should be made by a group of dedicated people within the organization," she wrote. "The best case scenario to be able to give every dog a chance and explore all avenues to improve the behavior would be to first address the huge numbers of pets in shelters and reduce that. At this point, many groups are doing the best they can, with limited resources, to make the best decision for the dog and the general public."

Parvo problem

An equally disturbing incident began when the humane society agreed to accept a dog despite knowing that he had parvo in mid-May, Spong said.

Spong told the Lebanon Daily News about the incident, and said that as a result, a former receptionist's dog in her home contacted parvo. The Lebanon Daily News then contacted the former receptionist, who confirmed the details Spong provided.

Hope - who asked that her last name not be reported - said she was not working on the Sunday when the dog was brought to the humane society and placed in the men’s bathroom. She returned on Tuesday (the shelter is closed Mondays) and performed duties that required her to walk throughout the building.

When she arrived for work, she was told that there was a dog in the men’s bathroom, but was not told that the dog had parvo until that afternoon, she said. While the bathroom was closed to the public, the warning signs did not alert the public to the fact that a dog in there had parvo, she said.

Bojarcheck said the dog was only housed there overnight the first day it was brought in, before it was taken to a veterinarian the next day and determined to have parvo. Spong said the dog’s stay in the bathroom was “three or four days,” and Hope said he was left in the bathroom until Wednesday or Thursday of that week. After the dog was removed, the bathroom was not properly cleaned, Hope said.

That same week, Hope’s Bichon Poodle mix, Bailey, became sick with diarrhea and lethargy, and on the seventh day tested positive for parvo. Bailey eventually got better, but Hope had to take three days off work for vet appointments and to care for Bailey. Bailey’s treatment cost about $1,000, she said.

“The whole entire time I was off, not one person (from humane society leadership) contacted me about the dog. Not one person asked how my dog was doing,” she said.

The humane society also did not offer to offset any of the costs of Bailey’s treatment for parvo. When she raised the issue with one board member, the board member (not Bojarcheck) simply said that “working in a kennel those things can happen,” she said.

Hope is certain Bailey contracted parvo because she brought it home from coming into contact with a hair or other item from the dog at the humane society who had parvo. “There was nowhere else she could have gotten it,” she said.

Bojarcheck isn’t so sure. No other staff member owned a dog that became infected with parvo, she said, and Bailey “could have picked it up from anywhere."

She also said that a state dog warden approved of where the dog was housed after it was determined to have parvo.

Hope quit her job June 30 because she was moving to Kentucky.

Joan Linn, another former employee who left in July 2017 but has continued fostering animals as a volunteer, said she would not recommend adopting an animal from the Humane Society of Lebanon County because of the possibility of disease or other problems. She’s concerned about “the well-being of any person who walks in that door” and their pets, because of the possibility of spreading contagious diseases, she said.

Overcrowding

The board of directors at the humane society never refuses any animals brought to them, and they bring in animals from outside the shelter when certain board members take trips to the southern United States, according to Spong. As a result the shelter is overcrowded, with unadoptable animals in the adoption room and animals at times held in the "meet and greet" room.

“They have cats in metal dog cages under tables, on top of tables,” she said.

Bojarcheck admitted the humane society has sometimes accepted animals from other areas.

“We have gone and rescued animals from other shelters and other facilities, and we also do the same of getting some of our animals that come in to (other) shelters or rescues,” she said.