If one takes a look at the dismal performance of SPCA Tampa Bay, it is easy to recognize that anyone who donates to the agency or is a cheerleader for its CEO Martha Boden must be ill-informed.
The SPCA Behind the Kennel Doors organization has been vigilant to document the progression of the agency’s decline on their Facebook page.
move to ACT has also reported on how Boden systematically dismantled the infrastructure of the Humane Society of Indianapolis and left in it financial distress. Now she has again successfully hoodwinked a board of misdirectors into letting her turn SPCA/TB into her own personal cash cow. An honorable animal welfare organization has become a gold mine for Boden’s $118,000 salary and healthy compensation for an oversized administrative staff, while the budget for animal care is virtually marginalized.
Let’s break down the 2014 numbers posted for SPCA/TB and see how this $118K “leadership” is performing.
Dead dogs: 964
Dead cats: 1,363
Total dead dogs and cats: 2,327
Dead “others” 1,046
Total dead dogs, cats and “others” 3,373!
The agency transferred in 547 dogs and cats, displacing 547 other dogs and cats from the community who were then killed. Death by displacement.
Who are the “others”?
Shelter software can handle many definitions. Why then are animals who deserve the dignity of recognition — like rabbits, gerbils, hamsters, birds, and lizards — identified as “other”? Ah, they’re just “other”. Easily incinerated by the crematory operation, “Pet Angels”.
Why, at a private facility with an intake of 7,664 animals and a staff veterinarian, do 125 animals “die in care”? Compare that to the Pinellas County Animals Services with an intake of 12,908 and 47 animals “die in care”. Stats here.
And why do the Pinellas Co stat sheets mirror the categories of the SPCA/TB? Because Boden found, when she arrived in Florida, an administration at the Pinellas Co Animals Services that was easily manipulated. They soon embraced her illusion that she was knowledgeable in the field of animal welfare. Charlatan.
Take a look at SPCA/TB’s statistics over three years. Notice the steady decline in live outcome rates.
A new cash cow joins the herd
(Pictured above: C1 Bank President Katie Premble, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, SPCA Tampa Bay CEO Martha Boden, SPCA Tampa Bay board president Marilyn Hulsey and SPCA Tampa Bay board member John Ralph
Wednesday’s Tampa Bay Times and St Pete Patch announced SPCA/TB’s latest venture:
SPCA Tampa Bay buys St. Petersburg building to open veterinary hospital
SPCA officials took as big step toward that goal Wednesday with the announcement it had paid about $1 million for the vacant St. Petersburg office building at 3250 Fifth Ave. N, and plans to spend another $1.25 million renovating the property. When it opens in mid-2016, the hospital is projected to bring up to 20 jobs to the city from entry level animal caretakers to full-time veterinarians.
The decision to open a veterinary hospital is the latest sign of a philosophical change in the organization, said Martha Boden, SPCA Tampa Bay CEO. In the past, the SPCA had concentrated on taking in stray and unwanted animals and trying to adopt them out. Now, the focus has shifted in part to ways to keep animals in their homes.
Boden said the SPCA found that one reason animals were given up was owners’ inability to pay for care. So the new hospital, while charging fees comparable to those in the private sector, will make sure that care is available to all. That could take several forms — payment plans, sliding fee scales, or something else. Boden said the SPCA is studying what works elsewhere.
Newsflash for those drinking her Kool-Aid: “comparable fees” do not “make sure that care is available to all”. Do we hear any mention of anything low-cost?
Care is already available to all. How about the Pet Pal Clinic
just 2 miles away? In the Pinellas Co area actual low cost spay neuter clinics exist at SPOT and the Humane Society .
There are also several affordable mobile veterinary clinics and an affordable clinic in nearby Hillsborough County.
“Payment plans” and “sliding scales” are already offered by veterinary clinics. As far as “something else?” Seems that with a multi-million dollar project, “something else” should be more clearly defined. Or this is a little dangle to intrigue?
Behind the smoke and mirrors
There is nothing innovative about this initiative.
What remaining donors, the mayor and other Boden cheerleaders need to study is her track record of failure in the animal welfare industry. The Humane Society of Indianapolis became a death camp and imploded under her “leadership”, donors withdrew their support and she was terminated with an undisclosed severance package.
The SPCA/TB has become a death camp characterized by documented abuse, neglect and donors have withdrawn support.
What’s the real purpose of this veterinary hospital? The record shows that it has little to do with keeping animals in their homes. It is all about assuring Boden a healthy salary and using the SPCA/TB as a cover to run a business that competes with those already established in the neighborhood.
What kind of care can we expect from a facility run by Boden, when we already know that 250% more animals die at the SPCA/TB than at the municipal facility, which takes in nearly twice as many?
And the “philosophical change”? “Recent” it is not. It started the day Martha Boden came to the SPCA/TB. It was the intention to disembowel an agency that once pulsed with warmth and caring and morph it into a for-profit, self-serving business.
Spend some time Behind the Kennel Doors.
SPCA/TB = Screw People, Critters & All / Too Bad
FTM = Follow the Money
mtA = move to ACT