LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — As The Animal Foundation deals with one crisis after another, former employees say the troubled shelter continues to be the victim of its own mismanagement.
13 Investigates exclusively obtained a secret audio recording that shows the two faces of The Animal Foundation: one put out to the public, and another face that staff sees behind closed doors.
"I really want to say to you personally, I know it's on me at the end of the day and I'm so, so sorry that you all felt like you had no alternative but to take the action that you did," said Animal Foundation CEO Hilarie Grey on an audio recording of a meeting with eight former members of the shelter's admissions team (including three supervisors) who quit en masse on a recent Sunday morning.
"That day, Sunday, we came into a full room--Blue room full--our overflow room. The cat room was full too. And then we already had Animal Control coming in asking for space and we were scrambling while Animal Welfare is just barely starting to clean kennels," the former employees told Grey.
Some of the staffers who walked out had been there for less than one year while others had worked at the shelter for seven years or more.
"We've been struggling for a while. We've asked for help. We've asked multiple different people for help. Nothing ever got done," one former employee said.
Fed up with being overworked, underpaid and unheard, they recorded the meeting without telling Grey.
"When we ask for help, it falls on deaf ears," a former employee said.
After the group of eight quit, there were only two Admissions staffers left and The Animal Foundation was forced to temporarily close, then plead with the public for help.
In a press conference, Grey said, "We're placing an urgent call to the community for temporary foster support, to get animals out of the shelter environment and to free up space for new intakes and for the animals that really need our help the most."
"I'm not surprised that they're in the spot that they're at. I'm surprised that they haven't listened to the warning signs," said former Chief Operating Officer James Pumphrey, who is speaking publicly for the first time to 13 Investigates.
He says he warned shelter management months earlier that Admissions staff would leave if working conditions and wages did not improve.
"We had a meeting with the chief executive, with the operations leaders of the shelter, and we very clearly articulated, 'We will lose the Admissions team. They will walk.' And two months later they did."
In July, Pumphrey submitted a report documenting the staff's struggles and other systemic problems.
He was fired days after sending the report to Board Chairperson Kevin Murakami and to CEO Hilarie Grey.
"They didn't want to give staff pay raises that the board had already approved. That was the most troubling of it all. And I didn't understand, and I still don't understand why that was the case. It was quite avoidable," Pumphrey said.
The former Admissions staffers say Pumphrey was the only top-level executive who worked to help them with a very demanding job.
Admissions employees are the front line at The Animal Foundation. They deal with the public turning in strays, owners surrendering their pets, and people reclaiming lost pets.
They intake animals from City, County and North Las Vegas Animal Control, processing, even vaccinating every animal.
They work shifts that often range from 12-16 hours a day and are paid about $13 an hour.
In the press conference Grey held after they quit, she said their departure came as a surprise, telling the media, "I was shattered, personally."
The former employees who recorded the meeting say they felt that was disingenuous.
They all claim Grey could and should have seen it coming due to conditions that occurred on her watch and were documented by Pumphrey in his July report.
They say The Animal Foundation is failing to be transparent with the public and the government entities they contract with by failing to admit the shelter is often at capacity and constantly playing catch-up to intake animals.
"They're suffering because they're still in those dirty kennels," said one former employee.
"And you don't really have people in the morning," added another. "We all come in at 11 am when the doors open, and we don't have time to process any dogs to make room for the public. We have the public waiting in a line, holding dogs, and we don't have room."
One employee said dogs often sit in cages in Admissions for 15 or more hours before being moved into the shelter, some in desperate need of medical care.
"There was a dog that was bleeding out, basically, there was blood all over its kennel," one former employee recalled.
Another former employee detailed threats they got from the public, "Stating they're either gonna abandon the dog or tie it up to a pole--those are just the very common ones we get. The bigger threats we get is they're going to come in with guns, they're going to come in and threaten us to take their dogs back or to fight."
Again, those are scenarios then-COO James Pumphrey documented in that July report.
Former employees say nothing changed.
"Everyone kept leaving or getting fired but we never replaced those roles," one former employee said. "And everyone expected us to do the jobs of three other people and get paid just $13.50. That's another reason they're not staying. You could go down the street to Panda Express and they have a sign that says hiring $16-17, $18 or $19."
To the public in the press conference, Grey said of the employees who quit, "So, we're speaking to them. I'm hopeful that some of them might consider coming back as well."
In private, one former employee asked, "Would you rather us return back to The Animal Foundation?"
Grey responded, "Right now, you all have made your decision. And we're going to be looking to staff back up."
Former Employee: "With the 'staff back up' we could have used that a long time ago. What would be different to hiring now?"
Hilarie Grey: "I can't answer that question for you right now."
She offers no raise to bring them back. They ask what the plan is for new hires.
Former employee: "Do you think they'll actually get paid more or actually be set off with $13.50 or less?"
Grey: "I mean, we're going to look at everything but it's like, you guys made your decision that you felt like you needed to leave."
She added, "Individually, if you want to look at coming back, there will be processes for that, for sure."
Pumphrey has also heard the audio recording of that meeting.
"And at no point in time did she ever say, 'you're valuable, you're experienced, we want you back. What can we do to bring you back?' There's the public face, and there's what she said to those people in that meeting. What do we make of how divergent those paths are?" Darcy Spears asked.
"I think that private face is what the staff and the volunteers are encountering. And it's callous," Pumphrey said. "And it is forcing people to work in unsafe conditions."
Hilarie Grey did not respond to our repeated requests for comment.
We spoke to the former employees after they met with her and they called the meeting "Useless."
We'd like to note that the audio recording in this story was obtained and published legally. In Nevada, two-party consent--meaning people on both sides--is only required for telephone conversations.
