Investigations Raised Concerns About Northeast Animal Shelter

SALEM, MA -- In December 2016, Northeast Animal Shelter Director Laurie McCannon wrote the state Department of Agricultural Resources to ask them to inspect newly-built isolation rooms, where animals would be kept for 48 hours after arrival to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. Linda Harrod, an animal inspector with the department, forwarded McCannon's message to two colleagues with an ominous note.

"I am concerned that they can't appropriately manage what they have now, never mind adding more rooms to bring in more dogs," Harrod said.

The email exchange was part of inspection reports from 2014 to 2017 that were released by the department to Patch as part of a records request under the Massachusetts public records law. The inspection reports also show that McCannon admitted to state inspectors that Northeast Animal Shelter altered medical documents that the Department of Agriculture requires the shelter to maintain.

The reports lend credibility to accounts by former and current shelter employees and volunteers, who told Patch earlier this year that the Salem-based nonprofit was being operated as a puppy mill to bolster its bottom line. A series of Patch articles outlined problems at the shelter, including low employee morale, stress caused by Northeast Animal Shelter's rapid growth in recent years and problems with how animals were trained and cared for.

Northeast Animal Shelter sent a response to a series of questions about the inspections after this story was first published. The shelter's responses have been added and the story has been updated since it was first published. In the responses that were sent to Patch late Tuesday afternoon, Northeast Animals Shelter disputed the view that it was understaffed.

"Inspector Harrod’s comment does not say anything about staffing levels, so it seems likely that you drew an incorrect conclusion," NEAS said. "Our clinic, kennel, and volunteers work about 1,400 man-hours every week. We recently hired a consultant who verified that our staffing far exceeds accepted standards for animal shelters."

The shelter did not, however, address Harrod's concerns directly. The inspection reports also show that after parvovirus outbreaks in 2014 and 2015, the shelter continued to accept dogs and cats from southern animal rescues over the objections of the Department of Agricultural Resources's Division of Animal Health.

"I'm not sure we can limit them prior to having another problem," Michael Cahill, Director of the Department of Agricultural Resources's Division of Animal Health wrote in response to Harrod's December 2016 email. Another problem may have come this year; the department began another investigation on March 26 but declined to release those reports to Patch because the probe is ongoing. Employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the latest round of inspections follows another parvovirus outbreak.

The department ultimately ordered Northeast Animal Shelter to submit a compliance plan for the investigation in late 2016 and early 2017. "Based on the recent findings of major paperwork issues including failing to document required entry times, etc. and the apparent alteration of documents I believe that we spoke with them about a compliance plan. Please use the latest reports to send Mike the ammunition needed for an enforcement order requiring a compliance plan," Animal Inspector Lorraine O'Connor wrote in a January 6, 2017 email about Northeast Animal Shelter.

"Behavior is not beneficial to the dogs"

In February, 2016, the Department of Agricultural Resources inspected Northeast Animal Shelter after several cases of canine parvovirus and canine distemper were reported over a period of several months. Inspectors determined that the source of the outbreaks likely stemmed from animals shipped to Northeast Animal Shelter from rescue groups in southern states.

An inspector "informed NEAS staff that she understands how difficult it is to field multiple calls on a daily basis where shelters are asking them to take dogs that will otherwise be euthanized. Unfortunately for NEAS, taking dogs from questionable shelters with no established vaccine protocol leads to disease being spread in their shelter," a report said. "The result being that dogs end up waiting for weeks in the quarantine rooms for the exposure time to pass. This behavior is not beneficial to the dogs or NEAS."

The report concluded by saying NEAS should no longer accept animals "from any shelters that they question are not following adequate protocols." McCannon told inspectors that she planned to send staff members to the southern shelters that send dogs to NEAS. The report also noted that the "facility is neat and clean and all of the animals appear to be well taken care of."

Less than two months later, Northeast Animal Shelter accepted another group of puppies from a Georgia rescue, four of which tested positive for parvovirus. In response to a question by Patch why NEAS continued to accept animals from those shelters, the shelter offered the following response:

"The shelter routinely shuts down adoptions from out of state rescue organizations that knowingly or consistently ships rescue animals with contagious diseases. For example, NEAS stopped taking pets from a Texas group, an Alabama group, and a Georgia group. All animals taken in by NEAS have already been treated for potential diseases and are not placed for adoption until they have been certified to be healthy."

The department asked the shelter to submit an updated action plan after the second inspection in 2016.

"We had previously discussed NEAS drafting and submitting a plan that would outline protocols for reducing the number of parvo cases and distemper cases. The protocols currently used by NEAS do not appear to be reducing the number of occurrences of these serious and deadly diseases," the department's email to McCannon said.

In a May 13, 2016 follow-up email to the department, McCannon said the shelter had taken steps to address the problem.

"We have suspended shipments from the Texas group which sent us the dogs with distemper. The parvo puppies from Georgia did not meet our protocol requirements," she wrote. "We have advised this rescue group that if they cannot follow our protocols, then we will stop taking pets from them."

"Proper records are not being kept"

In October 2016 state investigators were back at Northeast Animal Shelter following a shipment of kittens from Southern Journey Animal Rescue and Transport in Acworth, GA that had tested positive for feline distemper. Three kittens -- Gandalf, Moody and Snape -- were not held for 48 hours of observation as the Department of Agricultural Resources requires before they were put up for adoption. One of the kittens developed symptoms of feline distemper after it was adopted.

The department requested veterinary records of all the kittens in the shipment, but McCannon only provided some of the records. And investigators found problems with the records they did receive, including:

• No definitive veterinary records were kept on the animals. Instead, McCannon submitted "a series notes written on the edge of the Northeast Animal Shelter Pet Information Report."
• McCannon admitted she crossed out the name of one cat and hand-wrote in the name "Gandalf" on one of the reports. The shelter says that was to correct an error made in the paperwork when it was first filled out by Southern Journey and that it now complies with the department's request that it attach notes to files when such corrections are made.
• The dates on the health certificates were altered to make it appear as if Northeast Animal Shelter had held the animals for 48 hours before putting them up for adoption. McCannon later admitted that the cats were not held for 48 hours and that they were not examined by a vet until 24 hours after they arrived at the shelter. In a written response to Patch, Northeast Animal Shelter said "It appears that someone made an honest mistake about the dates and that the change might have been made to correct an incorrect date. It is unclear if the correction was made by the veterinarian or by an employee of NEAS. In any event, there was no attempt to hide the changed date, so any implication that it was done to circumvent a problem is unfounded."

The shelter went on to say that the inspectors clarified rules that require shelters to wait for 48 hours before conducting testing, while some states, like Connecticut, require the testing to be done within the 48-hour window after an animal arrives at the shelter. "Following this clarification, NEAS changed its procedure so that the time of arrival is automatically entered. By knowing the time of arrival, the veterinarian doing the health check can now accurately determine when the 48-hour period is finished," the shelter said in written responses on Tuesday.

"After reviewing the records, it appears that Snape was never diagnosed or prescribed treatment by a veterinarian and NEAS took it upon themselves to treat the cat with the same medications prescribed to Gandalf," department investigators concluded in their November 10, 2016 report on the incident. "It's impossible to identify, based on the paper records provided, which veterinarian, if any, ordered treatment....Proper records are not being kept."

In its response to questions by Patch, the shelter denied that it had altered documents. Instead, McCannon corrected errors in documents that had been filled out by the Southern Journey when the animals were sent to Northeast Animal Shelter.

"One kitten had the wrong name, and Ms. McCannon crossed out the incorrect name on the Official Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (OCVI) and wrote in the correct name. The OCVI form clearly showed the original name crossed out and the new name written beside it. When the state inspector observed the change, she requested that OCVI documents should not be corrected on the original document, but instead a note should be attached. After being so informed, Ms. McCannon and NEAS’ staff agreed to follow MDAR’s recommendation," NEAS said in a written statement to Patch.

NEAS Responds

Northeast Animal Shelter says it no longer accepts animals from rescue groups that do not comply with the protocols it put in place following the state inspections. It also says it follows all of the recommendations and directives offered by the state Department of Agricultural Resources. It disputed Patch's use of the term "falsifying" as it pertained to changes on the records, as well as Patch's use of the term "outbreak" for the cases of parvovirus and distemper that prompted the state inspections.

"We have had isolated cases of parvovirus and distemper even though the sick animals received the proper vaccinations prior to transport and had signed health reports from veterinarians," NEAS said. "Vaccinations are not 100% effective and do not guarantee a pet won’t still get sick, just like a flu vaccine doesn’t guarantee a person won’t catch the flu."

Like the Department of Agricultural Resources, Northeast Animal Shelter declined to comment on the March inspection but said it expects a report on those inspections soon.

"The mission at NEAS is to rescue animals that would otherwise die or be euthanized and that mission is sometimes complicated by the health of the animals we receive. NEAS does not expect to receive picture perfect animals; it is rescuing homeless animals that come from the rural south and were rescued from deplorable conditions. Even though our rescue partners treat them dewormers, parasite medications, and vaccinations prior to transport, some pets still arrive with common parasites and diseases, NEAS said.

More on this story:

• State Conducting Records Review At Northeast Animal Shelter (04/12/2018)
• Shelter's Punishment-Based Training Techniques Raised Concerns(03/26/2018)
• Staff At Northeast Animal Shelter Refused To Care For Local Pets(03/21/2018)
• Allegations Mount Against Northeast Animal Shelter Management(03/20/2018)
• Northeast Animal Shelter Responds To Allegations By Ex-Employees (03/19/2018)
• Ex-Employees Claim No-Kill Animal Shelter Euthanized Healthy Pets (03/18/2018)

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Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).