March
13, 2025
Open letter to the community, board members, staff and
residents of the Harford County Humane Society,
As a private
veterinary practice owner, previous volunteer at the shelter and compassionate
advocate for animal welfare I would like to open a productive discussion to
assist in providing transparency and preventative/interventional care for the animals
in your care. This letter is a direct result of the current parvovirus outbreak
that occurred the week of March 9, 2025 and my previous experiences with the
shelter.
I, and the staff at Jarrettsville Veterinary Center, want to
offer our support and acknowledgment of understanding with the impossibility to
remain free and impervious to infectious disease. No shelter, hospital, or
organization can be vigilant enough to remain disease free. Infectious disease
outbreaks, and the subsequent turmoil they bring, cannot be underestimated or
overstated. It is a reality that every pet care professional lives with and
fears regardless of our fastidious efforts to avoid it. The shelter has been,
and will always be, the most vulnerable and fragile environment for our
companion animals. What the shelter also needs to be is the most proactive,
prepared and educated resource for this inevitable vulnerability. I have great
doubt that the current executive personnel and board members provide adequate
care for the pets inside the shelter. I also believe this example presents
significant deficiencies in the current decision making for companion animal
welfare and infectious disease outbreaks for the shelter residents. Further, these
cases provide an example for how the current ethos affects the shelter staff.
It is unknown how many animals were at risk, (i.e. not
current on vaccinations to protect against parvovirus), tested, tested
positive, sick, or euthanized, (and in what condition as examined by a licensed
veterinarian), upon euthanasia. It is also very difficult for me personally to
know that there were any dogs euthanized without first being offered care at no
cost. Did the Board, executives, (whomever made this decision to euthanize),
even know that there is an FDA approved treatment option? Did you know it was
being offered at no cost? If so, why was it not provided?
Trust and transparency are the foundation to compassionate
care in the shelter system. It is with these in mind that I would like to
highlight the following;
Transparency is closing the shelter when infectious disease
becomes apparent. It is also notifying and assisting the recent adoptions who
may have been impacted.
Trust is including all members of the team so that their
input, emotional investment and exposure which might subject their own family
pets to disease contracted in the workplace feel valued and protected.
To have the degree of trust the community deserves, and the
degree of compassion the pet residents warrant can only be done with a licensed
veterinary doctor at the forefront of all of the medical decisions these pets
face.
The financial risk at the shelter has always felt like it
was paramount to the pets, the staff and the community. I say this with the
following examples as points of concern;
The last executive director was removed and
placed out of view, without explanation. It appears this was done after an internal audit occurred. The shelter has a chronic epidemic of
losing, firing, removing personnel at alarming rates. As a volunteer
veterinarian, and knowing previous Executive Directors and veterinarians there
are consistent concerns that pet care is never at the forefront of life and
death decisions. Currently it is speculated that pets are being euthanized for
behavioral concerns at an alarming rate. Are there any checks and balances to
these pets being put to death? Is there more than one credentialed person who
is not related to one another making these decisions?
The Board should never be making medical decisions without a
veterinarian’s advice as the guiding influence from the onset. The Board has
instead consistently chosen to protect liability above the resident pets lives.
It has been my experience that the financial face is consistently placed above
the faces of the pets that you care for. It is possible to be honest,
vulnerable and maintain integrity that the pets are our purpose.
The timeline as distributed by representatives appears to
insinuate that parvovirus was present before the March 10th press
release. Was there a veterinarian overseeing the residents, intake and public
interactions at the first positive case? Has anyone taken responsibility for
these decisions?
Timeline for assistance as provided by JVC is as follows;
Monday March 10, 2025 immediately after I was notified
of an outbreak, I called and offered assistance of any kind needed. The
veterinarian on staff given full access to veterinary representatives for
parvovirus monoclonal antibody use at no cost.
Tuesday, March 11, 3 pm called Executive Director, no call
back as of Thursday afternoon when this was sent.
Wednesday, March 12, 1047 am, XXX, shelter vet care assistant, called to
notify that 4 positive dogs had been euthanized. She stated that their
condition “deteriorated rapidly.” I would like to know who made this decision,
what their veterinary credentials are, and if any of these pets were considered
for free care with the monoclonal antibody offered.
It is my understanding that a dog was adopted out and then tested
parvovirus positive due to exposure at the HCHS. Were these adopters notified
before their dog became sick? It was also relayed to me that the newly adoptive
pet parents were given two options from the HCHS; return to be euthanized, or,
seek care at their own cost. If this is true I find the response unacceptable.
It is so upsetting that I took it upon myself to reach out to the ER they were
at to offer treatment at no cost to them in your absent responsibility to do
the right thing to a family who deserves support and compassion at this time.
To summarize I am asking for full disclosure on the current
ethos that guides this shelter. I am seeking accountability, responsibility and
appropriate credentialed experts to be guiding these pets lives. For all of the
donations, dollars, fund drives, and face put forth there is not a degree of
trust that personnel dismissed for (alleged) embezzlement, neglect and political
reputation preservation are made public. Why have the past directors been
dismissed/fired/let go? Where are the dollars the community has worked so hard
for gone? When will your staff be given the reigns to care for the pets in your
care without liability and cost used as the reasons to sacrifice their
emotional well-being? When are you going to be honest about why the budget is so
tight that it does not allow the pets in your care the treatment they deserve. It
appears to me that you are more interested in covering up than caring for.
While I recognize the degree of difficulty inherent in a
public county shelter, I also recognize integrity and responsibility to all
that the shelter employs and houses.
It is time for hard self-reflection, honesty and putting the
pets back where the public expects them to be; first.
It is time to protect the pets of our community better.
As always, we are here in any capacity that we can assist in
the health and well-being of the pets of our community. All you have to do is
ask and we will help.
Sincerely,
Dr Magnifico
Jarrettsville Veterinary Center
P.S.
I was asked to not publish this while we, (I will just say I, because at this point it appears as if this is a singular effort in namesake), sought the appropriate chain of command channels. This resulted in the others (credentialled, established, embedded members of the HCHS) tried to decide what their responsibilities and personal preferences were. This should have been sent weeks ago.
