Former Aztec animal shelter worker settles whistleblower case with city for $95k

For most of the 17 years she worked at the Aztec Animal Shelter, Kellie Willits says she used to make a habit of assuring every person who surrendered a stray or unwanted animal at the facility that the shelter staff would fight to generate a good outcome for it.

But over her last two years at the shelter, Willits said she didn’t feel like she could make that promise in good faith.

“When that became not a true statement anymore, that became a big issue for me,” she said. “ … Staying silent wasn’t an option for me.”

Willits, who was fired from her position as a veterinarian technician at the shelter in 2022 after she said she expressed her concerns about some of the facility’s procedures, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the city of Aztec and the shelter in September 2023, alleging her termination was a violation of the New Mexico Whistleblower Protection Act. Months later, in December 2023, the parties settled the dispute with the city agreeing to pay her $95,000.

“It was never about the money for me,” Willits said, explaining that if she had simply walked away from the job without trying to expose what she characterized as the mistreatment of some of the shelter’s animals, no one would have known about those issues.

“The settlement was, for me, about bringing attention to the matter,” she said, adding that she hopes that news of the settlement will lead to change in some of the shelter’s procedures.

Aztec City Manager Jeff Blackburn said the city had no comment on the settlement.

Willits’ attorney, Albuquerque attorney Daniel Apodaca, said he and his client both believe the settlement is a fair one, and he hopes Aztec citizens will take the opportunity to ask questions of city officials and look further into the allegations.

Questioning the treatment of cats and dogs

Willits, who began her career at the shelter in 2006 as a kennel technician before being promoted to animal control officer and eventually veterinarian technician, said she spent her last 14 years at the facility serving as a surgical assistant to the shelter’s veterinarian, working in the spay and neuter program and on injured animals that had been brought in as strays.

For most of her career, Willits said she never had an issue with the shelter’s treatment of animals. But in 2020, when the shelter was awarded a Community Cat Grant by the Best Friends Animal Society, she said things changed.

The grant was designed to fund efforts by the shelter staff to humanely trap feral cats within a defined geographical area, spay or neuter them, then release them in the area from which they were captured, according to the lawsuit. Those cats then are able to roam and protect their “territory,” preventing other feral cats from encroaching on their turf.

But Willits alleged her lawsuit she noticed some of those cats were not being released and were instead being kept in kennels at the shelter in apparent violation of the terms of the grant. When she asked why, she claims she was told the city lacked the resources to transport the animals back to their original neighborhood.

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Later, Willits said she learned many of the spayed and neutered feral cats were simply being let out the back door of the facility, “ultimately causing an extreme overpopulation of feral cats near the Aztec Animal Shelter,” the complaint states. “By releasing a large portion of cats into a single area, the Aztec Animal Shelter was undoubtedly causing the long and prolonged death of multiple cats due to lack of prey, and thus starvation, or due to fights over territory.”

In an interview with The Daily Times, Willits said she was aware of approximately 160 cats being impacted by that alleged practice. She said she expressed her concerns over those alleged practices to shelter officials, but she said she was ignored.

The Community Cat Grant was a multiyear grant that could be renewed annually, and Willits said shelter officials were afraid they would lose the funding if officials from the Best Friends Animal Society learned of what they were doing.

In 2022, according to the lawsuit, Willits learned that shelter officials were wrongly labeling many of the shelter’s stray dogs as aggressive or temperament severe during the intake process, which allowed them to euthanize the canines without having them count against the shelter’s euthanasia rate. That allowed the facility to retain its status as a “low-kill” shelter, she charged.

Willits said she was aware of 20 to 30 instances in which dogs that had not exhibited any aggressive behavior being mislabeled and euthanized. Again, she expressed her misgivings to the shelter’s managers, Willits said, but her concerns were dismissed.

In May 2022, Willits said she was charged with insubordination and issued a verbal reprimand by Tina Roper, the shelter director. When Willits asked why she was being reprimanded, she said the tone of her conversation with Roper began escalating, leading her to conclude it would be best if she simply left for the day, approximately an hour early. Willits alleges in the lawsuit that shelter employees who had completed their work for the day, as she had done, routinely were permitted to leave before the end of their shift.

The next day, Willits said she was fired, with city officials claiming she had abandoned her job the previous day.

Still caring for animals

These days, Willits said she spends her time serving as a foster caregiver for bottle-feeding, neonatal kittens.

“I’m giving them the help they need, the start in life they need to be healthy, happy and well adjusted,” she said.

She said she has no desire to return to work in an animal shelter environment, preferring to provide direct care for animals in distress.

“I see the difference in every single animal,” she said, explaining her participation it the foster program allows her to do the most good for the most animals.

Willits said she was happy to have the lawsuit settled, and she hopes her decision to speak out encourages others to pursue her allegations.

“Now, it’s up to the public and the taxpayers to decide how they feel and if that’s how they want the community to be represented,” Willits said.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Fired veterinarian tech settles lawsuit with city of Aztec for $95k