The Park County Animal Shelter in Cody is looking for a new executive director — and seeking to calm the fears of some volunteers and donors — after the previous leader resigned in …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
The Powell Tribune has expanded its online content. To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free web account by clicking here.
If you already have a web account, but need to reset it, you can do so by clicking here.
If you would like to purchase a subscription click here.
Please log in to continue |
|
The Park County Animal Shelter in Cody is looking for a new executive director — and seeking to calm the fears of some volunteers and donors — after the previous leader resigned in protest last week.
Jona Harris, who’d led the shelter since November 2023, largely cited policy changes in stepping down. For example Harris said she disagreed with the oversight and control from board leadership and took issue with a policy on spaying female stray cats without verifying if the animals are pregnant; that can lead to any kittens being nonviable.
“My decision to step down is not a reflection of the mission or the animals — I remain deeply supportive of both — but rather a necessary response to ongoing governance challenges that hinder long-term progress,” Harris said as part of a statement sent to the Tribune and later posted on Facebook.
With her resignation, the Cody shelter is now searching for its fifth executive director since 2018.
This change comes soon after the board changed its leadership model to institute two directors, as opposed to having the executive director over the operations manager.
The nonprofit’s decision to switch to co-directors — having an executive director who’s primarily responsible for fundraising and an operations director who runs the day-to-day operations — was intended to bring more stability to the organization, said Park County Animal Shelter Board Chair Joelyn Kelly.
“We believe that the shelter will always have a risk of turnover in [the executive director] position if we don’t consider alternate organizational models,” Kelly said. “We learned of other shelters that have multiple directors, co-director positions, so we wanted to give it a try.”
For roughly half of last year, Harris essentially filled both roles, after the prior operations manager departed. In looking for a replacement, Kelly said the organization wanted to find a more stable, experienced person for the position and make them a co-director.
They hired Ryan Johnson, who’s worked as an animal control officer and director in Cheyenne and chief of animal control services in Kansas City, Missouri.
Johnson brought experience that the shelter’s never had before, Kelly said. “So rather than relying on his personal preference and passion, he’s got formal education and formal training.”
Johnson started in the revamped operations role in January, and it wasn’t long before disagreements arose with Harris, the executive director.
Cat spaying
A major sticking point for Harris and at least a couple volunteers relates to the way that Johnson has clarified the shelter’s policies for spaying feral cats.
The shelter’s longstanding policy is to spay or neuter all stray animals if they aren’t already fixed. Johnson clarified that the organization will generally spay all female feral cats unless they are clearly pregnant. If it turns out that the cat is pregnant, the procedure can lead to the abortion of the kittens.
“Park County Animal Shelter uses thoughtful discretion and consultation with veterinarians before deciding on any procedure for the animals under the Shelter’s care, including spay abortions,” the shelter board wrote as part of a statement. “We partner with fosters and other nonprofit organizations to avoid using this procedure on visibly pregnant cats, but it is considered safe and humane by industry professional associations to spay a cat at any stage of pregnancy.”
Kelly said that’s happened before, but Harris described the clarified policy as “an unprecedented step.”
“I raised concerns regarding the shelter’s no-kill designation, public transparency, and donor expectations, and requested board-level discussion and guidance,” Harris said in her statement. “I was told by the board chair, ‘how would the community know we were doing spay abortions?’
“As the face of the organization and primary contact for community members and donors, I could not support this direction without transparency and oversight,” Harris added. “Ethics and accountability are critical to public trust. These concerns were not acknowledged, and the decision proceeded without broader input.”
Johnson said the clarification aligns the Cody facility’s policies with best practices issued by the Association of Shelter Veterinarians. He said the goal is to prioritize care for the animals already at the shelter.
“It’s a tough decision,” he said. “We look at our capacity for care. It’s very important we prioritize our care for animals here.”
Johnson said that if the shelter took in a lot of female cats in early pregnancy that then give birth, the facility could reach capacity and have to turn other stray cats away.
Further, “it can be very expensive,” he said. “Even if we’re talking about five cats that came in and they’re pregnant, that’s 30 additional surgeries we have to pay for.”
Beyond the costs, “I might have to turn away 30 extra cats in the future and not have the opportunity to help save those, because we’re full,” he said, adding later that, “If we can get animals in and out back into our community faster, then we have more capacity to care for animals in our community …”
Kelly added that the shelter can’t ignore the bigger picture of Cody’s feral cat problem. Under a previous executive director the shelter began a somewhat controversial program in which they proactively trapped and neutered stray tomcats in areas with a high prevalence of feral cats.
Park County commissioners have cited that program, and the shelter being a no-kill facility in general, as reasons for declining to provide funding to the organization in recent years, but the shelter has stuck with both.
Johnson said the spaying does not impact the shelter’s no-kill status.
“Every single intake we try to do the best we can do, but we’re doing so for the community and not necessarily for that individual cat,” Kelly said. “That’s where pet owners and people who love animals like pets struggle with that — and it’s a hard position to comprehend, but necessary to run an effective animal shelter.”
Reaction to departure
Some volunteers and donors have been taken aback by Harris’ departure, with dozens of comments made on social media after Harris posted her statement to Facebook.
Lisa Kness, a recurring donor from Alaska, wrote a letter to the shelter expressing outrage at the “spay abortions,” calling it “a horror that you would even consider it an option.”
Kness asked that the board revoke any new policy approving the practice and reinstate Harris to her role.
Some other volunteers have also criticized Johnson, including his involvement in a 2018 incident at the Cheyenne shelter. At the direction of that shelter’s then-leader, Johnson held down a dog while another employee pepper sprayed the animal; the dog had bit another shelter employee the day before. Cheyenne police recommended that Johnson, the director and the other employee be charged with animal cruelty, but the Laramie County district attorney declined to prosecute the case.
Kelly said the board was aware of the 2018 incident and said they heard from Johnson and others to learn more of the story before deciding they were comfortable with hiring him.
“That was a horrible deal. It was a mistake, a call that our CEO made that should have never been made,” Johnson said. “I think we all have choices when mistakes are made. And so my decision was to learn about this industry and become an expert in it, so that that sort of thing never happens at a shelter ever again. That’s my motivation for continuing to do the work that I’m compassionate about.”
In his interview with the Tribune, Johnson also said it can be tough when someone comes in and makes a lot of changes. However, he said the shelter is already seeing the dividends from implementing best practice policies on everything from cleaning materials to intake diversion. For example, he said the average time that dogs and cats spend at the shelter before finding a home has dropped from around 100 days to 30.
Johnson added that the shelter is “focusing a lot of our programming on supporting pets out in the community.”
Last year, 122 animals were surrendered to the shelter for reasons that weren’t related to the pets — such as a lack of pet-friendly housing, financial insecurities or unaffordable access to pet care.
“And so we’re trying to build some programs around supporting people out in the community so that they don’t get to that point where they think the only thing left to do is to give their pet to us,” he said.
Harris’ tenure
Harris, a Cody native, said she had hoped to be able to end the high turnover in the executive director position, which had previously been held by a number of women who came in from out of state.
“Over the past year and a half, I committed fully to supporting the mission of PCAS and the animals in its care,” she said.
Harris said she raised over $800,000 and grew recurring monthly donations from 56 to more than 200. She also said adoption numbers also reached new levels.
“I leave with pride in what was accomplished: The shelter is cleaner, more financially stable, better connected to the community, and more visible than it was when I arrived,” she said. “I deeply value my time at PCAS, especially the animals, volunteers and supporters who made the work so meaningful.”
Kelly praised Harris’ work at the shelter and her willingness to step up when the operations manager position became vacant.
“I give Jona [Harris] a lot of credit. She got us through it. I’m very appreciative of many of the things Jona did for the shelter in her tenure,” Kelly said. “But we have to look forward now. We have to figure out the best thing for where the shelter needs to go, and we don’t want to look back.”
In a statement, the Park County Animal Shelter said it’s grateful “for the unwavering support of our community, and together, we will continue advancing our mission …”