Staff At Northeast Animal Shelter Refused To Care For Local Pets

SALEM, MA -- When Maria Pino found a homeless cat in Lynn, her first instinct was to call the Northeast Animal Shelter. She had adopted one of her cats there and knew the shelter's reputation as one of the largest no-kill shelters in New England, so she figured it would be the perfect place for a cat that had an infection on its ear a slight limp after getting hit by a car.

"I thought they’d take him in and find a home for him. I knew he was adoptable because he was extremely friendly," she said. "The woman I spoke with told me to bring him down the street to the kill shelter; that no one would want him."

Pino ended up keeping the cat herself and said it was the best cat she has ever owned. Since publishing an article Tuesday detailing a growing body of concerns by former employees and other animal rescue that work with Northeast Animal Shelter, Salem Patch has heard from a dozen North Shore residents who, like Pino, were rebuffed when they tried to place a lost or abandoned animal with the shelter. In Tuesday's Patch article, former employees said management at Northeast Animal Shelter had focused on taking in pets that were more likely to be adopted.

The shelter collects fees from people who adopt pets, ranging from $150 for older cats and dogs to as much as $445 for "teen" dogs between the ages of six and 12 months. On its Website, Northeast Animal Shelter says adoption fees cover, on average, about half of the expenses it incurs in caring for pets. In 2016, the shelter reported $1.28 million in program revenue, most of which came from adoption fees. By comparison, the shelter collected $2.87 million in donations in 2016, the most recent year for which financial data is available.

Publicly available forms that nonprofit organizations are required to file with the Internal Revenue Service show that Northeast Animal Shelter has dramatically increased the amount of program revenue it collects, from $530,196 in 2008 to 2016's $1.28 million. Donations to the shelter have also grown, from $1.89 million in 2008 to last year's $2.87 million.

"Our non-bequest donation income shows an upward trend. Your [sic] asked if financial considerations have led us to change our policy in recent years. The answer is No," Northeast Animal Shelter Director Donald Shapiro said in an email to Patch. "We have not changed our policy since we were founded in 1976, and we are not now labeling more pets as unadoptable when in the past they would have been considered adoptable."

But the upward climb in adoption fee revenue and the experiences of people like Pino suggest Northeast Animal Shelter has not had to label more pets unadoptable because it refuses the pets before that determination needs to be made.

Another woman who contacted Patch said she stopped making monthly donations to Northeast Animal Shelter in January, after they refused to take a cat she found near her Salem home. The cat was cold and crying, so the woman, who asked that her name not be used for publication, called the shelter hoping they could find the owner.

"It was frozen and obviously belonged to someone but I couldn't keep it as I live in a small condo and my cat was not welcoming," she said. "I was so surprised when they told me they would not shelter the cat. I thought that was their mission! I never gave them another cent."

One day after being rebuffed by Northeast Animal Shelter, the woman was able to find the cat's owner.

Operators of other animal rescue groups told Patch that Northeast Animal Shelter and other shelters are reluctant to work with animals that are less likely to be adopted, as long-term or even permanent care is costly. Such shelters often have dogs shipped from animal rescues in the south. Those animals are often healthier, younger and, as a result, more adoptable. But importing animals from the south, also limits a shelter's ability to serve local animals.

"They do it at the expense of helping their own community dogs. Rarely do they help a stray in MA or an owner surrender in Salem," a rescue operator who is familiar with Northeast Animal Shelter and its practices told Patch.

Shapiro told Patch Tuesday that of the more than 5,000 dogs Northeast Animal Shelter took in during 2017, 1,013 were local pets, including 291 adoption returns whose original source could have been out of state.

"Northeast Animal Shelter is not a pet sanctuary, and we cannot accept large numbers of any breeds that people do not want to adopt. If we did that, these pets would sit in their kennels for the rest of their lives or until we went out of business because we had no room for adoptable pets and no adoption income," he said. "That would surely not be fulfilling our mission. Instead of saving over 5,200 lives each year, we’d save none."

Mariusz Bojarczuk said she adopted a "difficult dog" from Northeast Animal Shelter. While traveling last summer she asked if Northeast could help her board the dog, which was fear aggressive and would have had difficulty in a typical kennel. A staff member at Northeast Animal Shelter rejected her request and told her even if she tried to train the dog it would not bring about results. The staff member told Bojarczuk she should consider euthanizing the pet she had adopted.

"Not only did she say that but she also called my dog's vet and informed her that my dog had bitten someone, which is not true," Bojarczuk said. "(She) simply made an assumption that if my dog's sister is aggressive, the same is going on with my dog. It is a shame that a woman who supposedly loves animals behaves this way."

Bojarczuk said she eventually had to call the shelter and told the woman that had called her vet she would have to file harassment charges if she did not stop interfering with her pet. She is continuing to work with her dog and a professional trainer.

"My dog is still with me. I keep paying for her training with Loyal Canines who have been a great support all the time," she said. "Is it expensive? Yes. But once you commit to it, whether it is an individual person or an institution like the shelter in question, stick to it."

More on this story:

• 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).