Since Martha Boden has taken over leadership of the SPCA Tampa Bay, the following has occurred: 

Due to the appointment only relinquishment policy in 2013, 1048 LESS cats and dogs were surrendered to SPCA, BUT, 1044 MORE cats and dogs were surrendered to Pinellas County Animal Services ("PCAS") because people did not want to wait up to a week for an appointment to surrender their pet. PCAS' live release rate is only 56% putting these animals at a higher risk of being killed. By doing this, it has allowed SPCA to choose the more desirable types of dogs they wanted to transfer in, mainly small breed dogs and puppies, which in turn increases their live release rate and turns a profit. They transferred in 373 MORE dogs than the previous year.

Profiteering  at the expense of animals has become a priority:

About 50% of the volunteer force have left out of frustration or were fired.

Revenues are up 11.1% (contributions up 17.4%).

Total salaries and employee expenses are up 10.9%.

Amounts going to specific manager salaries are up 85.5%.

The CEO salary is $115,500.00.

Amounts going to animal care is down 25.8%.

The share of total expenses going to employee and manager salaries has gone from 5.3% to 9.3%.

The share of total expenses going to animal care has gone from 12.2% to 8.5%.

Even though SPCA has taken in less animals, the amount of animals that “Died in Care” for SPCA TB in 2012/2013 was 136/121 respectively.

Considering PCAS had to take in MORE animals, the amount of animals that “Died in Care” at PCAS was only 50/41 respectively. 

The 20 year veteran behavior manager was replaced with someone with little to no experience of animal behavior in a shelter environment. She has been seen by volunteers dragging terrified dogs down the kennel aisle with the dogs legs splayed out and the slip lead choking them. She has been seen hitting dogs in the nose hard with the assess-a-hand during food bowl tests causing the animals to fail. She has failed dogs in their kennels without even taking them out of their kennels for evaluations. She has been seen kicking at dogs to keep two friendly dogs from greeting one another.  A dog once used as a demonstration of this person's training skills before a fundraising group was killed 2 weeks later due to lack of enrichment.

The mission statement which once was: "Protect and shelter the sick and the injured, the homeless, and the unwanted animals; find loving, new homes for homeless animals; educate the public concerning the humane care of all animals; assist in the enforcement of laws and ordinances for animal protection."

Is now: "We improve our community by promoting humane care, preventing animal cruelty and reducing pet overpopulation.

The Chihuahua puppies pictured here were killed due to "resource guarding issues."  The reason, according to Ms. Boden, is that they must be certain that an animal will not pose a danger to the community. These are just two of the hundreds of animals needlessly killed by SPCA Tampa Bay each year.

More can be learned by visiting https://www.facebook.com/pages/SPCA-Tampa-Bay-Behind-the-Kennel-Doors/541883669224768