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Kauai Humane
Society staff quits
to protest firing
Some employees return to
By Anthony Sommer
work at the request of their
dismissed boss, who wanted
the animals tended
Star-BulletinLIHUE -- All 10 paid staff members of the Kauai Humane Society walked off their jobs yesterday, padlocked the county animal shelter and left a message directing anyone needing a dead or stray animal removed to call the Kauai Police Department.
The walkout was to protest the firing of Sherry Hoe, the society's executive director.
The shelter, located in Hanapepe, reopened today after some staff members came back to work at Hoe's request.
"I want the best people on the island to take care of the animals and that's the staff that has been working there," Hoe said."This was not my plan to have them walk out," she said.
The shelter cares for between 100 and 170 animals each day.
Two weeks ago, Laura Wiley, president of the Humane Society board, issued a terse announcement saying Hoe had "left her position" as executive director.
The Kauai Humane Society also serves as the county's animal control agency and is supported by about $500,000 in taxpayer funds.
The shelter workers are not county employees, however.
Wiley accused Hoe of presenting inaccurate data to the Kauai County Council, inflating the number of animals housed at the shelter.
Wiley, a certified public accountant, said a review of the society's books showed it would be impossible to provide accurate data to the Council for the years 1995 through 1999.
In an interview this morning, Hoe said that there never has been any mismanagement of the shelter's finances, and that annual audits of the society's books bear that out.
The letter from the Humane Society staff said that Hoe did not personally compile the data given to the Council and that the board should share in the blame for any errors.
"We are finding it extremely difficult to maintain the necessary enthusiasm and motivation here without Sherry," the letter from the staff stated. "Therefore, unless Sherry is returned as our executive director, we choose to leave."
Kauai police reported numerous calls yesterday concerning dead and stray animals.
