Courtesy of the Humane Society of Southern Arizona
The Humane Society of Southern Arizona stated throughout a Nov. 30 press convention that the findings of their unbiased investigation into the Aug. 6 switch of greater than 300 small pets confirms lots of the animals have been possible became animal feed.
Former Humane Society Chief Programs Officer Christian Gonzalez orchestrated the switch of 323 guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters and extra in August to Colten Jones, a Maricopa County man who runs an unaccredited reptile business. A couple of weeks later, 62 of them have been returned to the Humane Society.
Independent investigator Terry Flores says that whereas Jones denies the animals have been became feed, there may be proof on the contrary.
“While no definitive evidence was found that Gonzalez or HSSA knew Colten Jones intended to freeze the small animals for sale at a reptile show, the text message discovered by KVOA investigative reporter Chorus Nylander creates a reasonable believe Jones may have used some of the animals for those purposes,” Flores stated.
The textual content message, which was despatched from Jones to a different person within the reptile neighborhood, requested for assist to freeze guinea pigs and rabbits.
The animals initially got here from the Humane Society of San Diego who had been caring for the animals for a lot of months. Former Tucson Humane Society CEO Steve Farley was fired and Gonzalez resigned over the incident.
Flores’ report on the incident discovered it was a results of: a failure of management, an absence of communication and due diligence, ignoring insurance policies, a push to simply get issues finished, and an setting the place workers feared for his or her jobs if consumption numbers didn’t enhance.
The report discovered no proof of any money change within the switch, however supplied as a attainable rationalization for why it occurred, a tradition created primarily by Farley that made some workers concern for his or her jobs.
Many workers advised Flores through the investigation initiated by the board that they have been anxious about their jobs as a result of Farley and Gonzalez advised them that if adoption numbers didn’t go up, the board was prepared to begin terminating workers, an assertion Board Chair Robert Garcia stated isn’t true.
The report additionally discovered that the directive to extend consumption and adoption numbers was a efficiency measure metric that might have certified Farley for a bonus.
As effectively, Gonzalez advised the investigator that he agreed to and organized the switch as a result of he believed it could be one thing Farley wished.
