Wybert says animal abuse charges at Safe Harbor unfounded

The former president of a local no-kill animal sanctuary is hopeful the animal abuse charges filed against her will be dropped soon.

Alice Wybert of Safe Harbor Animal Sanctuary said accusations against her in the deaths of two cats, John Otis and Midnight, are misplaced.

"John Otis was a kitten with chronic diarrhea, failure to thrive," Wybert said. "He was happy, he ate, he ran around, he played, he had diarrhea. We were fine with that. We clean up messes all the time."

John Otis was seen by Safe Harbor's regular veterinary clinic, Heartland Veterinary Care, in January 2013, Wybert said. The vet instructed her to put him in a cage, feed him i/d brand food and put him on flagyl to treat the diarrhea. After a month, John Otis had not improved, Wybert said, so they let him out of his cage to play and run around. She said they planned to euthanize him when he declined.

In January 2014, the Department of Agriculture inspected Safe Harbor and said John Otis needed veterinary attention. Wybert said she told the inspectors about the measures taken the year before and said when they didn't work, John Otis was let out of the cage.

Later that year, the Safe Harbor board of directors hired six people without getting input from her or others involved with the sanctuary, Wybert said.

"These people came to the meeting one evening and said, 'This is the way we're going to do it.' And they didn't care what anybody else said. ... And they hired all these people to clean," said Peggy Manning, manager at the Safe Harbor Thrift Store. "And they told Alice to stand back and would not let her do anything."

Meanwhile, the kitten's health took a turn for the worse, Wybert said.

"In July, John Otis started declining," Wybert said. "He acted different. He was still eating, he was still running around and playing, but he was different. So they made plans to have him euthanized."

Wybert said the newly hired people wrapped John Otis in a blanket and put him in a rarely used cage close to the ground without telling anyone.

The next day, July 25, Wybert said, volunteer Montica Babers was looking for John Otis and couln't find him. She walked by the cage and saw John Otis inside. The cat had died.

"I think the whole bottom line of this thing is, we are a no-kill shelter," said Connie Schmidt, who took over as Safe Harbor president late last year. "This is where animals are brought, and they can live out their life here. As long as they're happy and healthy -- relatively healthy -- that's the whole point of a no-kill shelter."

"We don't object to euthanizing, but not for convenience," Wybert added. "We euthanize for intractable pain and terminal illness. And we knew that John Otis was not going to be with us until he was 15 years old. But he was happy."

"Midnight, the other cat, was FIV-positive -- that's feline AIDS," Wybert said. "That means they have no immune system."

At Safe Harbor, cats with FIV and other communicable diseases are separated from the rest of the population, as are wild cats, she said.

The newly hired Safe Harbor employees often worked down the hill at Omega House, where sick cats are kept, she said, but they never mentioned Midnight was sick.

"On Sept. 24 -- which I remember because it was the day (the) Heartland (veterinary clinic) burned -- the Department of Agriculture came out to inspect," Wybert said. "It was a very traumatic day because we lost six of our cats in that fire. So we were a little unnerved."

The inspectors found "Midnight had a snotty nose, and she had sores on her body," so she needed to go to the vet, Wybert said. As Wybert was on the phone, trying to find a vet for Midnight, an employee at Omega House told Babers a cat had died.

"Montica went down, and the cat was not dead. She wrapped her in a blanket, brought her up here [to the main building], and I'm trying to get an appointment, and she died before the appointment," Wybert said.

"Midnight had no immune system," she said. "We would have had her put down because she was not going to get well. When they start crashing, they don't get better. It's feline AIDS."

Wybert said Midnight had been relatively healthy up to that point, even though she was terminally ill.

"Some of these cats have been here for years -- years and years -- that have leukemia or FIV.

"We are a sanctuary. That is different than a shelter," Wybert said. "In a sanctuary, we take in those that are injured, sick, hurt, old, and we work to give them a decent life. We treat them. We give them medicine. We have their leg amputated if that's what it takes. Everybody here is spayed or neutered. They are tested for leukemia and FIV. The dogs are tested for heartworms. Everybody has their shots."

Staffing

Schmidt said the people hired in July "were hired by previous board members," against the wishes of Wybert and others involved with the shelter. "And none of the people that were hired cared about animals. It was just a job to them."

Wybert said the new hires sprayed cats with a hose; turned on an air compressor inside, which upset the cats; and hosed the dog kennels with the animals still inside.

Schmidt said Safe Harbor had a vet who was unrelated to the case, Dr. Walter Branscum, come in to give them his assessment of the facility.

"He said there is no reason why this place should be shut down," Wybert said. "He said these cats would benefit greatly from being adopted and being in a home. He said, yes, some of them have snotty noses, and he said many places would put them down. 'But,' he said, 'that's not what you all do.' He said, 'You take care of them.'"

Schmidt said Branscum compared the shelter to a day care at which conditions such as runny noses can spread from child to child.

Looking ahead

An agreement is still in place between the shelter and assistant attorney general Jacob Westen that no animals are allowed to be taken in or adopted out at Safe Harbor except dogs that have completed Puppies for Parole training.

"We're hearing we're going to be able to adopt out soon," Schmidt said.

The facility has 185 cats in three buildings and about 15 dogs. There are four part-time employees and six or seven volunteers, plus 10 additional volunteers at the Safe Harbor Thrift Store, staff said.

"All the board members now in some way work for Safe Harbor," volunteer Barbara Rauh-Powell said.

Manning's daughter, Safe Harbor board secretary Linda Sebaugh, said her daughter has volunteered for almost nine years, since she was 8 years old, taking photos and working with petfinder.com.

"And she has thought about, as a career, that she might like to have her own animal sanctuary" or work in some capacity with art for an animal shelter, she said.

"Usually when you have a charitable board like this, no one's accustomed to having to stand up to some board members. ... You would assume that everyone's there for the good of the animals," Rauh-Powell said.

Attorney General Chris Koster's suit against Safe Harbor and Wybert alleges numerous violations of the Animal Care Facilities Act, including failure to take sick animals to a veterinarian for diagnosis and treatment; maintain health records for the animals; follow cat housing requirements; maintain clean housing facilities; and properly identify the animals.

The trial in that case is scheduled to begin April 9.

Separately, Wybert faces two charges of misdemeanor animal abuse in the cases of John Otis and Midnight. Online court records show Wybert and her attorney, Patrick Davis, filed a request March 13 for change of judge. Circuit Judge Gary Kamp on Thursday ordered the case be assigned to Associate Circuit Judge Scott Thomsen.

Rauh-Powell said people have asked her when Safe Harbor will be able to adopt out animals again.

The animals get attention, she said, "but it's not the same as being somebody's furbaby. ... They're sitting here for almost a year now without the possiblity of being adopted, and that's not fair to the animals. And the older they get, the less people want them...."

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