Residents voice gripes with PSPCA in Montrose

Name-calling, accusations and bad feelings dominated a meeting between concerned citizens and officials from the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals at the Susquehanna County Office Building in Montrose on Wednesday night. 

Erik Hendricks, executive director of the state SPCA, established the meeting as a public forum to allow residents to vent frustrations over the professional practices of the Susquehanna County SPCA manager, Elizabeth Anderson. 

Ms. Anderson was hired by the Susquehanna County Humane Society in 1998 and retained by the SPCA when it took over the humane society that year. 

For almost two years, a group of local residents has attempted unsuccessfully to have Ms. Anderson dismissed from her position for various incidents that have taken place at the Montrose SPCA location. 

The group has staged letter-writing campaigns, called the police, written letters to various media outlets and signed petitions -- one contains over 800 names -- to have Ms. Anderson replaced. 

During the 2-hour meeting, some of the incidents local residents thought were inappropriate were mentioned, including an incident in April where a cat brought to Ms. Anderson's facility was euthanized on the same day it was brought in. 

The cat was put to sleep because the employees at the facility had been told the cat was "feral." The cat was also wild in its cage. 

As it turned out, the cat had recently given birth, and the killing left a new litter of four kittens without a mother. 

The incident was one in a line of mistakes over Ms. Anderson's tenure at the facility, to which Mr. Hendricks admitted knowing. 

"In her time with us, Elizabeth has made some mistakes, about 25 or 30," he said. But she's also made "about a thousand" good decisions. 

Mr. Hendricks said there is no formal evaluation process done by his organization for its managers, but it has performed surprise inspections.