Rockland Green dumps Hi-Tor as animal shelter operator for another pro-animal group

RAMAPO − Another changing of the guard has occurred on who will care for animals sheltered at the often turbulent Hi-Tor Animal Care Center.

The shelter's operator, the Rockland Green board, terminated the two-year contract with the volunteer Hi-Tor board to run the shelter on Thursday, dismissing the executive director, board members, and staff.

Rockland Green officials cited multiple contract violations, such as withholding information about a potentially fatal disease infecting cats, failing to care for the animals, and not properly staffing the facility.

Rockland Green then hired Four Legs Good, a nonprofit cat rescue group that operates out of the South Mountain Road home of the late Dr. Martha "Bobby" MacGuffie, known for her humanitarian work.

Overseeing the shelter's day-to-day operations starting Friday morning will be Nixie Gueits, founder of Four Legs Good and once a Hi-Tor board member, and Michael Sanducci, a former Hi-Tor shelter manager. Four Legs Good is part of a Rockland Green program to capture, neuter, and release feral cats.

Hi-Tor: Rockland Green takeover of Hi-Tor animal shelter completed. Here are the details.

Rockland Green Executive Director Gerard Damiani cited the following contract breeches by Hi-Tor administrators:

-- Failure to prevent and appropriately respond to feline panleukopenia virus outbreak (35 cats died).

-- Failure to operate the Animal Shelter in accordance with Applicable Law and Best Management Practices.

-- Failure to maintain sufficient resources

-- Failure to ensure the proper care of animals.

-- Failure to keep the Animal Shelter premises in a neat, orderly manner and in accordance with Best Management Practices.

-- Failure to accept dogs and other animals found in the County or surrendered by a County resident.

-- Failure to provide policies and procedures following at least 9 requests from Rockland Green.

-- Failure to provide a staffing plan following numerous requests from Rockland Green.

Ousted Hi-Tor Animal Center executive director challenges takeover

Brett Yagel, the ousted executive director and board member, questioned the legality of Rockland Green's ousting of the Hi-Tor board and voiding the contract.

Yagel, the former mayor of Pomona said Rockland Green failed to provide 30-day notice to void the contract. He said the administration moved to correct the problems and the animals were properly cared for.

"They changed the locks and pulled the contract in violation of the provisions allowing us time to cure the violations," Yagel said. "We’re exploring our response with legal counsel."

Yagel said he took over as executive director in mid-August. He replaced fired attorney Rick Tannenbaum, hired in January and fired by the board on Sept. 1 apparently over policy disagreements.

Tannenbaum, an attorney who said he helped negotiate Hi-Tor's contract with Rockland Green, challenged Rockland Green's claims in an article for a local business publication.

He wrote about the ouster, "There are so many problems with this that it is hard to unpack everything that Rockland Green has done both in violation of the contract with Hi Tor and with the law."

Rockland Green contract with Hi-Tor failed

Rockland Green, the former county waste management agency, contracted with Hi-Tor board to run the facility in January. Rockland Green is leasing the dilapidated shelter in northern Ramapo from the county government for $1 a year for the next two years until a warehouse in Haverstraw is converted into a new shelter.

The marriage with the volunteer Hi-Tor administration lasted eight months. Rockland Green provided a $1.4 million budget for the care of hundreds of stray dogs, cats, and other animals, and repair the 60-year-old shelter.

"We went into this agreement looking to partner with the current operator, Hi-Tor," Rockland Green Executive Director Gerard Damiani Jr. said. "It became a contentious battle over time. They were given every opportunity to succeed. They were given the necessary funds. They failed to live up to the contract."

Damiani and Rockland Green board chair Howard Phillips, the Haverstraw supervisor, said the violations included failure to provide an adequate number of staff; refusal to accept all surrendered animals from residents; and failure to properly care for the animals and provide medicine.

Phillips said the Hi-Tor administration was not hiring people to tend to the animals. He complimented the volunteers who keep the shelter running and said Hi-Tor is a no-kill shelter despite rumors being spread.

"Even though they had vacant positions every month we started to give them the money to fill the positions," Phillips said. "We gave them sufficient funds for employees and veterinarians. At the end of March, they had more than $100,000 they never spent."

Undisclosed cat disease outbreak at Hi-Tor shelter the last straw

Damiani and Phillps said the contract-breaker with Hi-Tor became the operator not disclosing to Rockland Green the outbreak of feline panleukopenia, a highly contagious, often fatal, viral disease of cats. The symptoms include high fever, profound depression, and anorexia. Many affected cats vomit, and some develop diarrhea.

Kittens died from the disease shortly after their arrival at the shelter.

Damiani said Rockland Green got tipped off by a good samaritan that cats had the disease in July. He said protocols were not followed, including examining and vaccinating cats on intake to lessen the risks of the spreading of the virus into the shelter environment.

He said Rockland Green had the ASPCA and Catskill Veterinarian Services investigate and both recommended closing the shelter for two weeks to intaking cats and non-essentially visitors.

Yagel, then a board member, said the feline virus was extremely unfortunate as someone had dropped off kittens with the disease. The Rockland Green contract required the shelter to accept animals regardless of their health and physical condition.

Yagel said if the right people had known about the disease it would not have happened. He said ASPCA determined the shelter was "doing things right" after managing the outbreak when the problem was discovered.

Yagel said the shelter was adequately staffed and the animals properly cared for, a position he said the ASPCA noted.

New operator says the animals come first

Gueits said Thursday that she and Sanducci plan to follow the protocols that were in place five years ago with the mantra: "The animals come first."

"A lot of people said, "I am an animal lover. When you have a level of love and high expectations regarding care, you have to live up to those expectations. These animals live in crisis, they live in stress," she said. "Hi-Tor had high expectations and they didn't live up to them."

She said the focus will be on community involvement and opening up the shelter to residents. She said people will no longer need to make appointments to visit the shelter to adopt or surrender an animal.

"The gates will open at 12 and this will again be a place for the community, not an isolated island," she said.

She said she and Sanducci will depend on volunteers, many of whom left the shelter, and hire people who will be cross-trained, and able to conduct tests on the animals, like drawing blood. She said they would have veterinarians for the animals.

At Hi-Tor on Friday, the driveway was lined with vehicles. Gueits, Sanducci. Damiani, Rockland Green personnel, and volunteers had been cleaning up the grounds, and tending to the animals. Rockland Green hired contractors to make repairs and added a shipping container that will be converted to house small animals, with climate controls

Gueits has been a longtime critic of the Hi-Tor policies on animal care and administration. She filed complaints with the then-board and the County Executive's Office.

"We will have people who know what they are doing.," she said. "I am willing to be unpopular to get the work done - caring for the animals."

Who will help Hi Tor help itself? Animal shelter needs top-to-bottom review

The Hi-Tor board fired Sanducci in 2018, leading to an exodus of volunteers and an exchange of charges of poorly running the shelter.

The towns are responsible by law for animal control, but the county has allowed the shelter to operate for decades on county property off Route 45 and across from the Rockland Fire Training Center.

Rockland Green, a public authority comprising the five town supervisors, several legislators, and the County Executive's Office, took over the shelter planning last year.

The change occurred when some Rockland legislators balked at financing the new shelter after the projected cost jumped from $8 million to $18 million to $20 million due to rising costs for construction and other economic factors.

Phillips and the other supervisors have questioned the quality of the financial oversight of the shelter and want an independent operator to run the shelter for Rockland Green. The Hudson Valley Humane Society, Four Legs Good, and Hi-Tor have shown interest.

Phillips has estimated the costs of the new shelter at far less than the $18 million for a new animal shelter on county property.

Phillips said Rockland Green will sign a lease-buy agreement with the warehouse owner in early 2024 and respects the new shelter to open in early 2025.

"What we guaranteed the people of Rockland is transparency and accountability," Philips said. "We're very sad our experience with the Hi-Tor board didn’t show any improvement to the situation. We made a promise to take care of the animals."

Steve Lieberman covers government, breaking news, courts, police, and investigations. Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com. Twitter: @lohudlegal.

Read more articles and bio. Our local coverage is only possible with support from our readers.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Rockland Green removes Hi-Tor as county animal shelter operator