OPEN LETTER
(Disclaimer: The editor of this Blog is a volunteer at the HSCAZ Thrift Shop. Responsible opposing viewpoints will be posted.)
Hello fellow animal lovers:
I have resigned my position as Thrift Shop Manager due to the fact that the Board of Directors and the Executive Director of HSCAZ (Humane Society of Central Arizona) have felt the need in the last several months to start trying to "take control" of the thrift shop.
Considering how many hoops they made me jump through before they "allowed" me to open the shop (when I donated two months of my time, and our landlord donated two months' rent, so they really had nothing to lose!), I don't think they have any business butting in now and setting budgets for the shop, requiring me to attend weekly meetings with (HSCAZ Director) Sarah (Hock), and starting to try and tell us how to do things. I believe the $180,000 in sales during our first two years (without their help!) speaks for itself.
They're simply getting greedy and, since they've stopped almost all of the other fundraisers, the thrift shop was their biggest fundraiser, so they felt the need to try and intervene and try for more and more money. They've blamed the thrift shop for "all of the negativity about HSCAZ," when the negativity has come about because of their decisions. It wasn't coming out of the thrift shop - people were coming into the shop and speaking their minds.
The powers-to-be at HSCAZ don't allow anybody to disagree with them; they just get rid of those that do. They have driven away many wonderful, extremely dedicated volunteers because of their decisions. It was only a matter of days before they fired me anyway, because I dared speak my mind. I was ordered to "obey everything they told me to do, or I'd be fired." So, I chose to leave first, and let them try to run the shop on their own, since they obviously think they can do a better job than I was!
I'm going to try and open a new animal rescue thrift shop in the near future, which will benefit Paws in the Park, Rim Country Friends of Ferals, Aussie Rescue (and other rescue groups), and hopefully also be able to help low-income people fund vet bills, spaying & neutering, and monetary adoption assistance for those who can't afford the normal $150 adoption fee HSCAZ charges.
I would very much appreciate all of your support in this endeavor. I started the thrift shop to help the animals, not deal with power-tripping "executives" (and) that's what I plan to do (again).
Penny (McKinlock)
8 comments:
Good for you Penny. We stopped donating to the humane society when we were told that the HSCAZ spent over $750,000 dollars on an ad campaign to stop Prop 109. The prop that would allow hunting in AZ.
Our group leader exchanged many emails with the Director. When it was all said and done, our group of animal lovers decided we would no longer donate anymore of our time and money to HSCAZ. We would support local charities only. HSCAZ needs to stay out of politics.
Keep us posted Penny.
Don't know who it was, but it wasn't HSCAZ that gave money to stop Prop 109. HSCAZ is the local shelter and the money really does go to the animals here. Must have been a state organization, maybe the Arizona Humane Society.
Editor
It was probably HSUS, which masquerades as a "Humane Society" but is only a political organization designed to destroy animal farming if they had their way. Almost none of the donations they get go to HELP ANIMALS, it gets dumped into political causes. They're the ones who have been funding all the farm-control bills regulating the care of farm animals to the point that farms are having to go out of business (driving up food prices) because of the huge cost of compliance with all these feel-good bills they have gotten passed.
I have spoken to our group Jim and confirmed it was with Kari Nienstedt, Arizona State Director of the Humane Society. Hope that clears up any confusion on my part.
Are you saying you confirmed with Kari Nienstedt that our local Humane Society spent $750,000 to oppose pro-hunting legislation? Because if that's what you're saying I'd sure like to know where they got the money from.
I've seen the decline, and frankly it hurts my heart.
I said it was confirmed that we communicated our displeasure with Kari, director for the state. Not HSCAZ.
The Humane Society of Az spent more than 750k in that election. We as a group were outraged that all that money went to politics instead of the animals it was intended for. Now we only donate time and money to local shelter so it stays here.
Thank you for explaining. I don't know who all the names are.
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