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Correspondence: April 15

staff
April 15, 2010

Claws & Paws has its say

The time has come to inform the citizens of Quincy on the state of affairs between the City of Quincy and the Claws & Paws nonprofit organization. After many years and thousands of hours of volunteer labor, the working relationship between the two entities has ceased to be possible. Our organization has worked tirelessly to provide a clean and safe environment for the many homeless, neglected, abused and needy animals of Quincy.

We have arranged for over a thousand animals to find new, safe and loving homes. All this was done with no compensation other than the joy and satisfaction we felt in our hearts.

From the city, we received a constant lack of cooperation. We were trying to clean, feed, water, provide medical care and arrange for foster care and/or adoptions for these animals. We are people like most of you with jobs, families and busy lives.

Finally, we convinced the city to hire someone to clean 15 hours a week. Claws & Paws would still do the weekend cleaning and go in every weeknight to feed, water and check on the animals. We also took care of the advertising, fund-raising, posting on Petfinder.com and handling adoptions.

This went OK until the city’s employee quit. A new employee was not hired for six months. We did get them to pay one of our volunteers temporarily.

When they finally posted the job in the newspaper, the job description made no sense in relationship to the work needed to be performed. It is no wonder that the first person lasted only two days: the second person only lasted a few hours.

After much frustration, they finally hired a temporary employee. After a few days, we were told that cleaning the kennels and cages were not in her job description. After six months, the Claws & Paws volunteers just simply could not continue to do everything, while the employee we requested sat in the office doing paperwork. The whole situation made no sense.

Then it got worse. The “powers that be” decided that we were too much of a liability and that we would not be allowed to do adoptions. They took our adoption agreement, removed our Claws & Paws logo and inserted the City of Quincy in its place.

When we wouldn’t do their dirty work, like cleaning up urine and feces, they decided we weren’t trustworthy. They threatened to turn the shelter back into a pound, killing animals after 72 hours. We have now been locked out of the shelter.

All we’ve ever done was try to save the animals. We have had to struggle for everything we have received. We bought the computer, the washer and dryer, shelving, etc. Quite often, we even had to buy basics like food and litter. Animals can’t wait until someone gets around to it! We have given it our best shot. But the time has come to move on.

We want the public to know that Claws & Paws will still operate as a nonprofit organization. But on a much more limited scale. the shelter will be run by the city however they see fit. We will still help those who ask us by finding foster home and/or rescues of good permanent homes. Be assured that all donated money will be used exclusively for the animals. Claws & Paws truly appreciates all the support we have received in the last few years.

Thank you and never forget the real purpose for which we exist, this is to relieve the suffering and to save animals.

— Gayla Peterson, Claws & Paws treasurer