SPCA closed their Hearing Dog program in a very poor way

[Guest guest]

If you are involved with SPCA in any manner, and love animals, you might want to

know about this.  Most SPCA folks are really good people but once in a while you

hear bad news.... (and believe there's a few out there for themselves, that's

why some people don't want to get involved with SPCA anymore)

I was one the Hearing Dog volunteers there, during end of April, the main

decision maker, Dora the vice president ABRUPTLY closed the Hearing

Dog department.

SPCA Hearing Dog Employees were escorted out of the door without a thank you, a

good bye party or anything.  20, 7 year employees were let go with this type of

treatment.  

 

Dogs that were in the middle of training or almost finished with their

training were adopted out as regular dogs.  What a waste of training time!

  People who were promised a hearing dog got the SAD news that there WON'T be

any hearing dogs for them. 

These are all the facts laid out to you.  I'm too emotional to give you further

details.  People are shocked.  We are told to contact the Board Members on how

we (volunteers) feel, but I do not have their contact info.  Anyway, just want

to give you as much facts as possible.. it's all laid out for you to know. 

Again, this is not rumour, it's all facts we all should know.

Below is the official letter on their web site on the closing of the

department.  There is a link to their communications department if you want to

write to them.

Some folks should learn to have compassion with not ONLY dogs and cats but with

HUMANS too. 

I know a lot of folks are very much involved with this organization.

here's the site

http://www.sfspca.org/home.shtml

==

Letter from the President of The San Francisco SPCA, Jan McHugh-Smith

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Monday, April 21, 2008

To Our Family of Supporters,

The SF/SPCA is dedicated to saving the lives of homeless animals.  As a

nonprofit agency, we continually evaluate our programs for effectiveness, and

alignment with our vision. We believe it is important to stay focused on our

mission, and to utilize our financial support to help as many animals as

possible. Our best practice is to provide animal sheltering and veterinary care

services.  In this regard, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue

the Society's Hearing Dog Program. During the past 30 years, the program has

successfully placed nearly 800 Hearing Dogs with clients throughout California

and Nevada. However, over time, there has been a considerable expansion of

similar programs within the service dog industry; there are now organizations

that have facilities and instructor-to-dog ratios that far exceed those that The

SF/SPCA can offer.  These agencies are able to focus solely on enhancing the

lives of people with disabilities by

providing highly-trained assistance dogs and ongoing support to ensure quality

partnerships.  

Our vision is to improve animals' quality of life through wellness care,

compassionate veterinary services and exemplary shelter management. The current

construction of the Leanne B. Roberts Animal Care Center is a reflection of our

commitment to this endeavor.   The Center will enable us to significantly expand

our spay/neuter services and the availability of medical care for our community,

including low-income clients.

We envision a future where all animals in our society will receive the care and

treatment they deserve.  Working with our community, we will continue to

strengthen the human-animal bond through veterinary care, education, adoption

and compassion.

I hope that the many, long-time friends of the Hearing Dog Program will continue

to support the many important, lifesaving programs which the Society provides.

 Please don't hesitate to contact our Communications Department with any

questions that you may have about the future of The San Francisco SPCA.