By Jessie Weisner

Former SPCA manager speaks out

Feb 8, 2019 | 3:23 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Accusations of forging documents, a lack of transparency and unnecessary euthanasia have engulfed the Medicine Hat SPCA over the last week, and now the foundation’s board has announced it’s bringing in an independent consultant to review the allegations. 

The decision has brought mixed reactions from the public, but a former manager of the SPCA supports it, and says it may bring other things to light as well. 

Nicole Carlson managed the Medicine Hat SPCA from March to December 2017. Carlson says she was terminated without cause by the executive director at the time. 

After witnessing the controversy the SPCA has been facing over the last two weeks, she thinks bringing in an independent consultant could be beneficial.

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“That’s great if they get a completely impartial person or company to come in and look at what’s going on,” says Carlson. “Some other things might be dug up which may need to be at this point.”

One of the issues plaguing the SPCA is its handling of four cats relinquished by their owner and allegedly transferred to APARC as strays.

In the SPCA Board of Directors statement, it says “These cats were never admitted into our system as we were unable to handle the cats for assessment and complete the intake process.”

However, Carlson says every cat that comes into the shelter should be documented, and she wonders why the situation wasn’t handled differently.

“It could have been a simple conversation with APARC and just said ‘Hey look, this is what is going on, we really can’t handle these guys, would you take them?’,” says Carlson “It could have been a simple ‘sure’.”

Carlson says during her time at the SPCA they worked to make positive changes and create a solid relationship with APARC, and it’s disappointing to see that reversed.

“It’s a little heartbreaking after being the manager,” says Carlson. “To now see some of this stuff happening and some of the stuff we worked hard on to kind of be reversed and gone in a different direction.”

The board has been facing major criticism online, but Carlson says they just need to fix how they operate.

“I think there’s some dysfunction for sure,” says Carlson “I don’t know if I would go as far to say corruption but there’s definitely some serious dysfunction that needs to be fixed for sure.”

She adds the only way to fix that dysfunction is through a genuinely impartial consultant.

“At least we know that it will hopefully be impartial and I think in order to do that they have to bring someone in from outside of the city,” says Carlson. “Someone that has no affiliations with anybody on the board, the employees or the SPCA all together and hopefully we’ll get some answers.”

The board has cancelled their annual general meeting until their investigation is complete.

Carlson says that only caused more damage to their public image, but if the investigation goes smoothly, they can come back from this.

“People have come out and say now they are no longer donating to the SPCA, they will take that money to APARC, they will no longer adopt animals from the SPCA, so that is, I definitely think is going to affect the SPCA,” says Carlson. “Hopefully the SPCA rectifies this and becomes a little more transparent and more honest and up front, and takes that action because the public will respect them a lot more than they do now.”