Non-profit requests takeover of Animal Shelter

A group of volunteers and former supporters of the Healdsburg Animal Shelter have taken aim at shelter management, saying that a newly formed non-profit should take over and that the current board should resign in its entirety.
The Green Dog Rescue Project, formed by the co-owner of King’s Kastle Dog Rehabilitation and Socialization Center Colleen Combs, says they have the proven methods to run the Healdsburg Animal Shelter — more so than a board that they say doesn’t have the experience necessary to care for Healdsburg’s animals.
“Green Dog asks that the HAS Board of Directors vote to dissolve the organization known as the Healdsburg Animal Shelter, and then transfer all asset and properties to the Green Dog project. We ask that you support Green Dog in our efforts to serve the animals and this community,” Combs told the Healdsburg City Council during its meeting Monday night.
Volunteers and interested community members attended the meeting with the original purpose of hearing a report from new Shelter Board President Bill Anderson. But an announcement was made at the start of the meeting by Mayor Gary Plass that the item had been removed from the agenda and would be rescheduled, causing further anguish among some in the crowd who have repeatedly called on the shelter board for increased communication with the community.
“Apparently only one person is capable of speaking — the one person with one month of experience,” said Carol Noack, who has been vocal with her criticism of the shelter’s leadership and policies over the past four months.
Noack and former shelter volunteer Toni Lisoni both spoke in favor of Green Dog Rescue Project’s proposed takeover of the Healdsburg Animal Shelter.
“It’s not rocket science to understand why people who have no formal training in the very enterprise which they endeavor to lead aren’t able to do an adequate job. The people currently overseeing and operating the HAS aren’t animal behaviorists and they aren’t trained as to best practices in either housing or assessing and rehabilitating the animals who come into their care.”
Lisoni went on to say it wasn’t the fault of the people operating the shelter, but that it’s time for a change.
“We don’t need another band-aid fix, with yet another uninformed board chair, looking to hire yet more building designers and another “old paradigm” shelter director and a bunch of paid fundraisers and consultants to do what an adequately skilled and educated director should already know how to do on his or her own.
“What we need is Colleen Combs and Green Dog.”
Combs said the non-profit would take over fundraising efforts to complete the building of the new animal shelter, and that immediate changes would take place under the direction of Green Dog.
“With your support, this proposal will prove to be less costly and more effective than the current approach. I believe that the new facility can be operational in about 6 months, and in fact, immediate changes would occur with minimal expense, to adequately house the animals in the interim, at the current facility,” Combs said.
The Healdsburg Animal Shelter has faced months of public scrutiny since December when volunteers began sounding alarms about a local dog, Cash, that was scheduled to be euthanized.
After threat of a lawsuit and intense public pressure, the animal shelter turned Cash over to the Combs’ business King’s Kastle. According to Combs, Cash continues to thrive, along with four other dogs who she says would have been euthanized had they stayed at the Healdsburg Animal Shelter.
Criticism over the Cash case, as well as the unfinished new animal shelter building, and a volunteer contract all led to the resignation of Shelter Executive Director Julie Seal in mid-March.
Since then, the board re-organized and says they are moving forward in a positive direction.
The Healdsburg Animal Shelter board and staff is scheduled to hold its first community forum on Wednesday, April 5 (after press time). The group is tentatively re-scheduled to make its presentation to the Healdsburg City Council on Monday, April 16. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Healdsburg City Hall.
Kerrie Lindecker can be reached at [email protected].