More on Toronto Humane

One Bark At A Time has a nice analysis of the differences and similarities between Toronto Animal Services and Toronto Humane Society.

To me, there's another big difference and yes, it's about the money and reporting lines. Toronto Animal Services is answerable to city council and ultimately the taxpayers of Toronto. TAS has a budget which it has to answer for. Toronto Humane Society should (note the qualifier) be answerable to its members. It doesn`t appear to have any form of financial control, nor be answerable to its members; I know of one member who asks hard questions every year at the AGM and Timmy just screams at her and refuses to answer. I`d like to know if the members receive the financial statements of THS with their annual meeting mailing.

THS seems to suffer from abdication of responsibility starting at the top, the board of directors, and the attitude has permeated down through the ranks. One board member is quoted as saying that she knows Tim Trow lacks management and people skills (paraphased) but supports him while the euthanasia rates are low. Huh? Stop drinking the purple Kool-Aid and give yourself a shake, lady. Insulting, haranguing and alienating staff, volunteers and donors is acceptable? Watching the debt-to-assets ratio sink annually until the organization vergss on insolvency is acceptable? Letting animals die in their cages is acceptable? Not working with rescues, and keeping animals incarcerated for most of their lives is acceptable?

None of those are acceptable to me. Perhaps I am holding THS to higher standards than the board of directors, who seem to have set the bar very low.

Addendum: My deepest thanks to the Globe and Mail and Kate Hammer for the series of articles on THS. People have tried over the years to get some light shed on the dark goings-on at THS, and the media have resolutely refused to investigate. Is this the start of a new trend in Toronto journalism, real investigative reporting? I'll be thrilled if it is.