LIHUE, Kauai (AP) — Two managers at Kauai Humane Society have been fired after speaking out about problems at the organization, including euthanasia rates higher than those publically reported. ADVERTISING LIHUE, Kauai (AP) — Two managers at Kauai Humane Society
LIHUE, Kauai (AP) — Two managers at Kauai Humane Society have been fired after speaking out about problems at the organization, including euthanasia rates higher than those publically reported.
The employees told Hawaii News Now in May that the shelter was under-reporting its euthanasia rates, that some animals were not properly cared for and that unqualified people were being hired. They called for the ouster of its executive director.
That executive director, Penny Cistaro, fired field services manager Mana Brown and outreach manager Brady Varvel on June 22.
Varvel said 12 employees have signed a petition calling for Cistaro’s removal.
“Mana and I were the only ones quoted in the media,” she said, “and it appears our firing is a warning to anyone else who’d like to continue to speak out.”
“We gave a lot of time to the Kauai Humane Society and all of a sudden, we’re out of a job now for doing the right thing,” said Brown, who worked at the shelter for more than five years.
Cistaro said she can’t comment on the charges because personnel issues are private.
“All KHS employees are at-will employees and their employment was terminated,” Cistaro told Hawaii News Now on Friday.
Brown and Varvel said they and other employees took their concerns to Cistaro first but were rebuffed. They said they met with the society’s board of directors in April and provided a 50-page document detailing their allegations.
But the society didn’t correct its euthanasia numbers until the day after Hawaii News Now’s story.
The shelter had incorrectly claimed between 47 and 52 percent of animals there were put to sleep. The actual euthanasia rates published the day after the first media report were in the range of 68 to 75 percent.
Cistaro said the inaccurate numbers were the fault of previous management. She said the system used for calculating euthanasia numbers hasn’t been accurate for the two years she has been in charge.
Since taking over the shelter two years ago, she said, “our numbers are trending down in euthanasia and we are increasing the number of animals that are either getting back into the community or transferred to the mainland.”
The president of the shelter’s board of directors, Emily Larocque, told Hawaii News Now in late May that “the board stands 100 percent behind our executive director.”
