High Desert Humane Society Board President Cheryl Haynes shows off the new Cat House, located on the same property as the dog rescue near Globe Cemetery. Haynes spoke for the HDHS Board about recent actions the board has taken.
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Cats Caught in the Crosshairs

A relationship that was touted as “incredibly exciting” in 2022 is in the rearview mirror, as High Desert Humane Society (HDHS) starts the process of reorganizing while it juggles care for animals in its rescue facility near the Globe cemetery.

In a very public display that blew up local social media for several days, HDHS volunteers and board members went to the cat rescue on Broad Street and in broad daylight took possession of the cats residing there to move them to a semi-temporary location next to the dog rescue.

Citing the cost of operations and issues with employees, the HDHS board decided it was time to make radical changes in order to establish financial stability and will likely put the old building and some of its assets up for sale in the near future.

Now that the cursing, tears and Facebook eruption has died down, it’s left to the HDHS board to pick up the pieces and provide care for the animals in its possession.

We are committed to transparency and will continue to communicate with our community as we navigate these changes,” the organization posted to Facebook on September 25. “Our mission to protect and care for animals remains unwavering, and we are hopeful for a brighter future for both our organization and the animals we serve.”

According to HDHS Board President Cheryl Haynes,  some of the issues with the rescue had been going on for years, but due to rising costs and issues she says the Board had with the way the facility was being operated, the situation came to a head in recent months.

We were spending $5,000 a month on the cat house, including the wages, a $437 mortgage payment, and the utilities were the highest out of all our buildings,” Haynes says. “We don’t make any money on cats, so believe me, there’s no money.”

New board, old problems

Haynes is a member of a board that has been together for less than a year and is comprised of Haynes; former Globe Councilmember and Vice-President of the Board, Charlene Giles; Co-Vice President, Monique Perez; Secretary/Treasurer Pamela Osborne, and Board Members Brianna Beck, Tom Haynes, and Globe Councilman Jesse Leetham.

Haynes and her husband, who also serves on the board, became involved with the organization in 2023 and donated money to the rescue, overseeing the installation of new flooring in the old building.

She said when she joined the organization, there was already a history of disagreements with the cat rescue managers, but the board was really focused on looking at what needed to be done “in order to survive, to not have so much outgoing money.”

We felt like we needed to probably have fewer buildings,” Haynes says. “[The Thrift Store], we need, because it’s our moneymaker, and the furniture store, I think, has potential.”

Haynes, outside the HDHS building on Mesquite, says this facility is their “money maker.”

But the Cat House, Haynes says, is a liability due to ongoing complaints about the smell and the City’s mandate to repaint the building, which would cost about $15,000 because of the need to use a licensed contractor for the work.

Haynes says the board was also concerned about mounting operating costs and expenditures.

HDHS and the ‘Cat House’

The High Desert Humane Society was originally incorporated in 1969 as the Gila Humane Society, according to documents obtained through the Arizona Corporation Commission website. In November 2010, the 501c3 nonprofit had reorganized and filed an amendment with the AZCC, becoming what is currently the High Desert Humane Society.

The cat rescue facility on Broad Street, known affectionately as the “Cat House,” was in a 100-plus-year-old building purchased by the Humane Society in 2012. According to local lore, the building at one time was an actual “cat house” in the historical sense of the word.

The rescue opened in April 2012, with Debbie McGallion serving as director. McGallion oversaw an expansion of the facility in 2013.

By July 2019, McGallion had stepped down and Cheryle Mariscal took over as director and was faced with a number of problems, from massive cat overpopulation to a spate of complaints about odors from neighbors. There were also problems with keeping volunteers, lack of oversight and no policy guidelines. The City even threatened to shut the shelter down at one point.

The board that existed then—none of whom currently serve—had been made aware of ongoing issues with the burgeoning cat population at the shelter, but failed to step in to address problems.

In 2021, Mariscal resigned and was replaced by Megan Chism, who left the position in September after only six months on the job.

By then, many of the facility’s problems had been addressed, but there were still ongoing issues with odors. The interim director after Chism’s departure was Laurie Manzano, who often stepped in to help during times of crisis.

Manzano, a longtime cat advocate in Globe, housed and cared for High Desert’s cats in her art gallery, the Blue Mule, in downtown Globe for 14 years before the cat house was established.

In the summer of 2021, HDHS attempted to establish the dog rescue at its former site, the Gila County animal shelter, on Hackney Avenue near the Globe Cemetery. The City of Globe temporarily halted the move until questions about the lease and land ownership could be addressed, but the issue was eventually worked out and construction eventually commenced.

The little shed which now houses the cats sits next to the dog shelter. There are plans to expand on both sides of the building, providing an outside area and a secondary enclosed facility.

HDHS holds a 99-year lease with Gila County which does not expire for another 45 years or so.

In October 2021, Carr joined the board, bringing national experience and a wide range of contacts in the animal rescue field, including an association with the Humane Society of the United States. The move was seen as a major win for the organization.

Carr became president of the board when longtime board member and president Cheryl Brazell stepped down from the nonprofit she had championed for many years. She proceeded to work to bring the organization into the 21st century with record keeping and updating facilities.

In March 2023, Carr became Executive Director of the nonprofit. Under her leadership, HDHS made improvements to what became the dog rescue facility and the ancillary businesses that help financially support the organization. She began creating protocols and training for volunteers, as well as an attempt to provide living wages to full-time workers.

She also ramped up the spay-neuter efforts through the purchase of a mobile veterinary unit and entered into partnerships to provide supplies and in-kind donations for mutually beneficial relationships throughout the region.

But the new board saw things differently and growing tensions between members of the Board and Carr led to an abrupt split in March. 

Haynes said the Board believed Carr’s focus was not local enough and was too far-ranging, adding She had a passion: She wanted to save all dogs,” says HDHS Treasurer Osborne. “In Maricopa, down in Tempe, Tucson … the focus wasn’t here, and it wasn’t working with the community, which is what it was supposed to be.”  

In response to Haynes’ comment that Carr wasn’t focused on the local community and local needs, we reached out to Rescue Me Tucson, one of the organizations Carr worked with regularly while at HDHS to provide insight into the multi-faceted approach Carr took in managing the rescue. RMT was able to confirm the MOU they had with the High Desert Humane Society (and others), which involved taking animals in from HDHS and adopting them out through their location.

“The rescues and shelters we work with are all focused on the bigger picture of interchangeable animal and resources ‘puzzle pieces.’ We’re engaged in trying to figure out who can help where, when, and with what, to stretch our resources. From our view, when we collaborate and cooperate, more lives are saved. Both the animals and the people searching for the right adoptable animal, vs. buying one from a breeder, win.”

The MOU calls for 70% of the adoption proceeds to go back to the originating rescue (HDHS), with RMT keeping 30% of the fees for overhead etc. Records show that from September of 2022 through March of 2024, RMT paid HDHS over $58,000 for adoptions that originated through HDHS. “

Cynthia brought grants, volunteers and veterinary resources to help the Globe-Miami community from both Phoenix and Tucson. She delivered dog and cat food and tons of thrift store items. (She drew on ) resources from outside the area, which provided vet care, vaccines, low cost and free spays and neuters for the residents of the area. I’m not sure how much more anyone could do, especially as a volunteer, to help.” By Linda Gross

Reaching back two years, the HDHS board is also questioning the purchase of their mobile pet clinic used to expand services both locally and to neighboring communities. Haynes questions whether the board had approved the $70,000 purchase or if this was a unilateral decision by Carr, but the Board minutes were unavailable to GMT to confirm or deny if this was the case. Haynes says they plan to put it up for sale.

To further add to tensions, Haynes and VP Charlene Giles filed a fraud complaint against Carr with the Globe Police Department on March 7 after discovering she had withdrawn $12,000 from its money market on March 6. The complaint is still under investigation. 

Carr declined to be interviewed for this report. The Board is trying to move on from the experience and the bad press stemming from the public display in September which was captured on Facebook as they removed cats from the old facility under police supervision.

The Cat House has a long and twisted history of failures and successes. Many saw the current Cat House operation as a success. The Board says it wasn’t. 

Cat removal

In a Facebook post on September 14, HDHS announced that it would be moving the cats to the site of the dog rescue on Hackney Avenue by October 1.

On Sunday, September 22, a group of board members and volunteers showed up with a police escort and began removing the cats causing a stir on Broad Street that led to people on both sides of the issue taking to Facebook to air their frustrations.

While many sided with the board’s decision, others were quick to jump to the defense of Sylvia Smith and her son Daniel Holder, who managed the facility from an apartment above the rescue where they were paying rent to live.

Smith had recently become a veterinary technician, and on the day of the removal was recovering from a surgical procedure she had two days prior.

In a statement to Globe Miami Times, Smith wrote that she was excluded from board meetings where the fate of the cat rescue was discussed and prohibited access to other buildings in the organization. She accused the board of creating a hostile work environment—particularly Vice President Charlene Giles—and called the way the animals were moved “deliberate and calculated cruelty.”

My intentions and priorities were always with the cats and I am devastated,” Smith says. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Smith came to Globe from Southern California to change the trajectory of her life, which had seen its share of ups and downs. She and Daniel were popular with volunteers and members of the public, and she says they did what they could with limited resources.

In the end, though, there was nothing she could do, as HDHS and its board have the ultimate responsibility for the animals.

No matter what happens from here, the HDHS board faces an uphill battle and will have to rebuild a large portion of the volunteer team assembled over the past few years.

Dennis Wiley, who retired after 44 years in the mining industry and who ran a little league organization in Globe-Miami for several years, says his days of volunteering for HDHS are likely over.

Wiley volunteered at the cat house for six years, and says he saw the problems coming when things started breaking down between Smith and HDHS leadership.

He and his wife volunteered seven days a week and he has the utmost respect for Smith and Holder and their devotion to the animals.

They tried their hardest and worked hard at taking care of cats in the community, but were always held back because of money,” Wiley says. “I told Sylvia and Daniel when this stuff was starting to go on and it was getting a little heated, don’t argue with them, because once the yelling starts, the listening stops, and then it’s just fighting all the way to the end.”

Smith and Holder were evicted from the building and their contracts were terminated on September 30 although they will both continue to work with cats as vet techs in various organizations.

Writer David Abbott discussing the setup for cats at the new location with Haynes and Board member Pam Osborne.

Moving Forward

Regardless of what has happened over the past few weeks, the animals must receive care 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Haynes says the cats have largely settled in, and a contractor is expanding the footprint of the portion of the property that will house them. They are currently in a building Carr originally purchased to serve as an office for HDHS administration.

There are plans to “catify” the building with cages built in the original building and build a 26-foot by 26-foot “catio” on a cement pad so the cats have outdoor spaces to enjoy.

Wil Bowen, who now manages the dog rescue, has begun to socialize some of the more amenable cats to interact with the dogs. Bowen will likely manage both rescues, replacing the four people who were being paid to run the shelters: Chance, Bailey, Sylvia and Daniel. He will have the help of Gary, one of the cat volunteers, who has agreed to stay on to help with the cats.

Despite the turmoil in recent weeks, Haynes says the organization is focused on giving the animals the best care possible while serving donors and the community.

We are not going to dwell on the past, but are looking toward the future to bring stability to HDHS,” she says. “We have a commitment to these animals and an obligation to the community that we will not shirk no matter what.”

Wil Bowen shows off the new dog “Meet & Greet” area at the HDHS rescue on Hackney Avenue.

About David Abbott

Journalist, writer and editor who has worked for community newspapers for more than 15 years. After four years at Davis-Monthan AFB and a few years living in Tucson, moved to California to find his fortune. He is happy to be back in Arizona, in the mountains he loves.

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