Ex-Employees Claim No-Kill Animal Shelter Euthanized Healthy Pets

SALEM, MA -- The Northeast Animal Shelter violated its own no-kill policy and euthanized healthy animals, according to social media posts by former employees and volunteers that caused a noisy back-and-forth in the animal rescue community over the weekend. But a director for Northeast said in an email Sunday the shelter had only euthanized one animal in all of 2017 while not responding directly to the specific accusations raised in the social media posts.

"In 2017, over 5,200 pets were adopted from Northeast Animal Shelter. During this time only one dog was euthanized by the shelter for aggressive behavior," Donald Shapiro said in an email to Patch. "That dog (who could be wonderfully affectionate with some people) was adopted and returned twice. He had 15 documented bite incidences. Six months after the time the dog was first admitted to Northeast Animal Shelter, a committee of shelter employees made a difficult and heartbreaking determination – the dog was unadoptable and a danger to the public. It would have been cruel to let him spend the rest of his life at the shelter."

Much of the debate took place on a Facebook post by an Acworth, GA animal rescue group that said it was no longer sending pets to Northeast. "We just wanted to clarify that there is [sic] a lot of posts going around on Facebook about Northeast Animal Shelter euthanizing dogs at their shelter in Massachusetts," Southern Journey said. "We absolutely do not support this and we do not support this shelter. We are no longer affiliated with Northeast Animal Shelter and do not transport dogs to this facility."

Shapiro said Northeast cut ties with Southern Journey because it had not followed Northeast’s pre-transport protocols on screening pets for behavior and health issues. On Sunday, in an email to Patch, Southern Journey Animal CEO and founder Chris Bishop walked back the original post back and said it had stopped transporting animals to Northeast six months ago but that decision was not related to any recent events, onlcuiding the allegations that Northeast was violating its own no-kill policy.

"The reason I posted this post concerning Northeast Animal Shelter is simply because our followers had seen a post about the euthansia [sic] at Northeast Animal Shelter and was contacting us to see if we had heard about this. We had not heard about this post at the time refering [sic] to the euthanasia," Bishop said. "So, as it began to grow and more people contacted us I wanted to post just a simple clarification that we acknowledged the post and that we did not transport or support them (northeast animal shelter) anymore. A lot of people simply did not know that we no longer transported to Northeast any longer.

On its Facebook page, Northeast Animal Shelter calls itself a "no-kill organization" that "will never destroy an adoptable animal entrusted to our care." Such shelters usually do have a policy that allows them to euthanize pets that are determined to be "unadoptable," but determining whether or not a pet is unadoptable is often a subjective decision.

Former employees and volunteers took to Facebook over the weekend to confirm that the shelter had euthanized pets they believe could have been adopted. Scottie Meuse said the shelter had started to view the animals it cared for as "four-legged dollar signs."

"There is no defense. Everything that is being posted is credible because it’s coming from former staff and volunteers who wanted nothing but the best for the animals and who refused to be quiet about unethical practices," Meuse said in a response to the Facebook post by Southern Journey. "To be clear, we all would love for the shelter to continue to save animals, but the management is ruining it for everyone, people and animals alike. The only thing that benefits from anything the shelter does is the pockets of upper management."

Julie Orsillo posted videos and photos of animals she said had been euthanized by the shelter, even though they were healthy. Rukia, pictured above, was deemed unadoptable after being returned by a family that had lost its home, Orsillo said. "I doubt they know she was killed," she said.

Orsillo posted video of another dog named Abby that she said was euthanized by Northeast. In his email to Patch, Shapiro said the dogs had had a history of biting and were "deemed a danger to the public."

"I am in by no means claiming these were perfect dogs. These 2 healthy dogs had a bite history, as did & do many dogs at the shelter. Some are sent to 'boot camp'. Some are not. But many (more than I realized) were euthanized quietly," Orsillo wrote. "My point with this is about transparency. Their mission statement states they do not destroy any animal in their care. They get $2.8 million from donors. If they euthanize, don’t pretend they don’t."

According to tax documents that nonprofits are required to make public, Northeast Animal Shelter collected $2.87 million in donations in 2016. It also collected $1.28 million in program revenue, which includes adoption fees and fundraisers.

Orsillo's videos of healthy dogs she claimed were euthanized by Northeast Animal Shelter are posted below. In her post, she claims she has been threatened with legal action:

Subscribe to Salem Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Photo of Rukia by Julie Orsillo.

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