Penny Stone, manager of the Victoria SPCA shelter for the past decade, was let go on Tuesday.
“I’m going to really miss the animals,” Stone said Tuesday in a brief interview. “I loved my job.”
Stone’s departure comes on the heels of the July 20 resignation of the shelter’s assistant manager, Cory Bond, who left over changes the SPCA’s head office wanted to make at the Victoria shelter.
Regional manager Graeme Wright is filling in as interim manager, said B.C. SPCA spokeswoman Lorie Chortyk. She would not comment on the circumstances around Stone’s departure.
Stone was passionate about the animals in her care and for that reason will be hard to replace, Bond said Tuesday.
“You just can’t replace her passion — you can’t just get somebody in who has manager’s experience and knows a bit about animals,” she said.
Bond said she is concerned that the B.C. SPCA appears to be going in a different direction than the Victoria shelter.
Unique to Victoria is the Friendly Neighbour Fund, which Stone set up as a way to pay veterinary and other large bills that could not be covered by the shelter’s medical budget.
Stone regularly appealed for donations to help abused or neglected animals that needed extraordinary — and therefore expensive — care.
“The Victoria branch has always had great community support, and Penny’s been the face of that branch,” Bond said.
“You can’t cookie-cutter all the shelters. Victoria is a unique branch because we were able to take in animals that required special care, and the community was always willing to support these animals.”
The decisions to take on these difficult cases were made by Stone or Bond in consultation with veterinarians.
Last October, the B.C. SPCA took control of the Friendly Neighbour Fund and incorporated it into the shelter’s monthly medical budget, Bond said.
The change makes the Friendly Neighbour Fund unsustainable, said Bond.
“My concern for the last year and my opinion is that [the B.C. SPCA] is a big organization that doesn’t respect there’s a uniqueness with the shelters and how Penny knew the community,” Bond said.
“She knows what the Victoria community is wanting in animal care and welfare, and that’s not consistent with what [head office] wanted.”
The 150 active volunteers who help with animal care at the shelter will feel the loss the most, Bond said. “They’re very, very passionate, bright volunteers who are extremely dedicated.”
Bond said the management changes will take a toll on the branch staff, volunteers and animals.
“I’m not oblivious to the fact a non-profit organization needs donations. The focus has [been] so heavily on money, money, money that sometimes you lose perspective on the animals that we’re actually looking after,” Bond said.
“It’s not the organization I started working for three years ago.”
