The Sant John SPCA Animal Rescue is the most avoided SPCA to adopt from in the Maritimes, and, after experiencing the adoption process myself and hearing others' horrible stories, I am not surprised when people state that they'd rather go to Oromocto or Florenceville to adopt a cat or dog.

Aside from it's poor adoption process, the shelter has a terrible reputation, in general.

The reasoning behind the shelters' bad reputation is the shelter's management.

The staff are wonderful people who dedicate their time and energy to caring for the animals and keeping the facility running. They are the backbones of the shelter and deserve recognition.

The shelter manager, however, is a horrendous person to deal with and cares more about control than placing animals in good, loving homes.

My experience with the Saint John SPCA Animal Rescue is a long one, but I've been waiting to share it.

I was a student who had an interview with the manager here, sometime in May. This was an opportunity for me to do my Veterinary internship for the next 8 weeks.

My internship was unpaid.

My interview went swimmingly and I shared a lot of common interests and views with the manager on animal welfare and care. What was supposed to be a short, 15-30 minute interview, turned into approximately an hour long interview just because we chatted so much. I felt good about the opportunity and was excited to begin. After all, I had always wanted to work at a shelter and now I was given the chance.

At the time, however, I worked (and still work) as a healthcare worker, and so my schedule was a little hectic. I made the manager aware of this without going into too much detail, and she was knowledgeable of my work schedule and accommodating—at first.

I worked there as a Veterinary intern for almost 2 weeks. I didn't work under the manager; I was assigned to work with two other staff members whom I enjoyed working with. I took pride in my work and tried to do as much as I could.

Scheduling conflicts came up a couple of times in the following week, and I was very communicative of them.

On one of the days where I was at my healthcare job, I received an email from my career coach at my college, informing me that the manager had decided to terminate my internship there with no reasoning provided at the time, and had also noted for me to "not contact" or come back. This was harsh and I was very upset and the way things were worded made it sound like I had made a deadly mistake with an animal or person...

...but I hadn't.

A day or two later, I received an email directly from the manager at the SPCA, explaining to me that my scheduling conflicts weren't working for her. She fought me on the fact that I did "not" provide her with the information of my scheduling during my interview, stating that, "had you disclosed that during the interview I most likely would not have granted the field placement because it doesn’t work with our schedule.", but I did. She was aware of my job and unfortunately, at that time, my job came first as I needed to survive and care for my patient(s).

During my internship at the SPCA, however, I fell in love with an older cat. "Doug" is a very special boy. While he was at the SPCA, I spent my breaks and lunches with him and spent a lot of time petting, holding, and talking to him. I grew very fond of this cat and was devastated when I wouldn't be able to see him again.

I wanted to adopt him so badly, but I had kind of given up on that idea, given the circumstances (and I had also been aware prior to all of this, just how difficult it is to adopt from this SPCA).

My partner and I both put in adoption applications. My partner had moved in with me, recently, and he fell in love with Doug, as well, just through my photos/videos and talk of him.

My application was not heard back from, but he heard back from the SPCA on his.

A lengthy process that took 2 weeks, multiple hiccups and bumps in the road, frustration, tears, and my hopes going up and down and up and down... and he got the go-ahead to go and meet Doug.

My partner met him and fell in love with him, just as I did. The next day, he was told he could bring him home. After 365 days on the dot, Doug was being adopted and a celebratory post was made on the SPCA's social media pages.

We booked Doug a vet appointment and he came home shortly after.

Doug quickly settled in and showed us both so much love in the process. He recognized me immediately and clung to me, sleeping with me every night and licking my face every morning.

He began to play with toys and the other cats and I saw a whole new version of him be revealed. He was (and still is) so, so happy.

We posted videos and photos of him on the celebratory post about him by the SPCA, and our comments were removed and the post was taken down. When I asked why, I was blocked on their FB page. This was so unprofessional and unnecessary.

The next morning, my partner had several missed calls from the manager, starting at 8 AM. When he finally returned the call and got the manager on the phone, she spoke in a hostile manner and raised her voice. She claimed that he gave her false information about his application and she was angry. She threatened that she was going to take "the next steps" (whatever that meant). When she became more hostile, he hung up on her and went to work for the day.

Shortly after her phone call with my partner, she called our landlord and got very hostile with him, stating that we had "too many cats", and just being ridiculously rude and obnoxious. My landlord confirmed he signed the landlord permission form and told her that our home is clean, our animals are well cared for beyond basic needs being met, and that if there was an actual issue he could help her with, he'd be happy to, but since she was just complaining and being hostile, he advised her he had to go back to work. This made her more angry, and he ended up hanging up on her, as well!

This entire situation was stressful and just plain disgusting. I was worried she was going to try to take Doug back (over my dead body) and so I reached out to the Board of Directors for the Saint John SPCA Animal Rescue and spoke to (essentially) her "higher up" about the entire situation—from the beginning of my internship, to the adoption of Doug, and the aftermath.

In no way did my partner falsify any information, nor did he violate the adoption agreement, and this was confirmed.

Doug is a happy, healthy boy and has become an entirely new, youthful version of himself in our care and we love him to pieces and wouldn't trade him for anything in the world.

Any time I have had to speak to the manager at the SPCA, she has always sighed and changed her tone dramatically when she finds out who I am. Every single time I have spoken and given my name on reports or calls, she has responded with the exact same response, "Oh. (My name).", and after reporting a dog bite at a seniors complex yesterday, I was met with the exact same response and rude, ignorant demeanor.

This SPCA needs an entire new manager. It needs one who cares about the animals and getting them adopted to loving homes that are more than capable of carding for them, and it needs one who treats people with respect, regardless of whether or not they like those people or not. The current manager cares about control and lacks any sort of compassion or professionalism for adopters/potential adopters and it is sad to see.

The Saint John Geeky Book Club is heading into month three after a fantasy-focused August and is always accepting new members!

Join the SJGBC facebook group to RSVP for our next read: Starter Villain by John Scalzi, author of Redshirts and the Old Man's War series

Sunday September 27 | 2pm-4pm

SJ Library Central Branch | Market Square | Meeting Room #2

Meeting Room Capacity: 12 (RSVP required)

Hope to see you there!

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