Closed for roughly a month, the Ulster County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) spay/neuter clinic is in trouble, suffering from the resignations of three members of the board of directors, as well as numerous key staff members: former executive director Hope Brustein, veterinary technician Genna Ebeling, and veterinarians Avery Smith, Lorraine Cleary, and Liz Higgins. Their resignations come as a result of accusations and conflicts between themselves, who manage the day-to-day operations of the spay/neuter clinic and the no-kill shelter, both in Kingston, and the board of directors, headed by Louise Cutler. According to a Kingston Times article, the resigned staff quit due to "interference from the board of directors with day-to-day operations at the shelter and conflicts over issues, including what to do with un-adoptable dogs."

Cutler is fighting the bad press and allegations levied against her and the rest of the remaining board. According to Cutler, these accusations misrepresent the truth, and are counterproductive to running the shelter in the best interests of the animals.

"The current board has been more competent, and has done more for this organization than has been done in many years. It has been more responsible, has looked into more things and has been engaged in board training twice a month," said Cutler. She cites a grant the board received from the Dyson Foundation as proof of their efforts.

Cutler went on to say, "Our detractors have sent out an anonymous letter and made statements in the newspaper that are derogatory and accusatory of all sorts of things that the board has done and neglected to do. The fact is that we are fulfilling our mission to be a 'no kill' shelter. We have done nothing wrong. We've been charged with overriding medical decisions. The only thing that we've done is to ask questions — which is within the realm of our responsibility — to determine what is working well and what needs change, and that is in accordance with the attorney general's Bureau of Charity's directives toward non-profit organizations. Actually, what we've done is to be more responsible and more hands-on than previous boards that had no oversight of the clinic; who had very little oversight of what went on in the shelter. When we started looking into things, we found many areas that needed improvement."

Cutler intends to send out a letter to members of the SPCA addressing the many positive policies instituted by the current board of directors under her tenure as president, which began in October, in order to counteract the aforementioned letters sent out to members.

When asked about just what it was that began her detractors' accusations and departures, Cutler simply says that they were being asked questions. "They would've preferred to just continue as they were without any oversight. The clinic operated without any oversight previously."

Cutler then lists the various actions of the board that she feels has led to the current conflict, saying, "We started making more policies, and we were fulfilling our obligations to check into backgrounds of people to make sure they were qualified to do the job…there were people who preferred not to be questioned. We've been accused of not responding to veterinarians' concerns. Well, the fact is that the veterinarians and the vet staff did not respond to our concerns." In regards to Brustein's resignation, she says, "We had concerns about the fact that she had not written any grants. We were depending on our executive director to get grants to support the spay/neuter clinic. No grants were obtained while she was employed with us. There were some concerns about her performance and she resigned before she had her annual review."

Despite the current conflicts, Cutler remains optimistic about the organization's future. "We will be reopening the clinic. We are advertising for a licensed vet-tech. We did not have a licensed vet-tech, and we thought it was in the best interests of being in total legal compliance to have one. And we are looking into who we need as an executive director who can better fulfill the needs of the organization. As it is now is we have a wonderful staff who are still running the shelter, who are very happy with who's running things now and with the board around."

However, Susan Clarke, Cragsmoor resident and volunteer cat rescuer, doesn't see things as brightly. Until now, Clarke has tried to remain neutral as an unbiased third party, but at this point, after the month-long closure and Cutler's board's inability to rectify the situation, she has been forced into thinking that the board may need to be replaced with new members.

"When it first happened I was listening to every side and thinking that if they could come up with some other solution and have the clinic open up again, that would be just great," she says.

"It didn't have to be the same people that were there, but they did run a very good show—they ran it very, very well…I'm just a volunteer, but I am pretty involved in what goes on there, and they've never had a clinic run as well and as efficiently as [vet-tech Genna Ebeling] has run it. I know that Louise has taken a different side on this, but I don't agree, and I'm not alone in this," she says, referring to other rescue groups in and around Kingston. "My main concern is for the cats. Every day the clinic is closed, at least twenty-five cats are not being neutered, which means at least twenty-five cats are out there making more."

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