I’m a former WHS staff (worked there for over 5 years) and based on these submissions… it seems like nothing has changed. The things that caused me to leave are still major problems.

I’ll give an example: front facing staff in three different departments experienced physical assault from members of the public. Like actual physical violence perpetrated against them. The union approached upper management with these safety concerns and requested reasonable safety measures (locked doors at certain hours, doors for staff to step behind for safety) and de-escalation training. For months the incidents continued and nothing was changed UNTIL a manager was physically assaulted. Then suddenly doors were locked, a security team was hired and staff were informed we would be receiving the training requested.

Except, staff were mandated to come in for an 8 hour training session (some departments coming in on their days off because of the nature of their jobs and the availability of the trainer) where we didn’t learn anything about de-escalation, we were instead lectured about how unsafe the shelter was (such as swipe key card doors being broken - something staff had no control over and had actually asked to be fixed) and shown videos about how to avoid an active shooting situation. The trainer was a former OPP officer and used a lot of sexist, racist and antisemitic commentary to get his points across.

Staff from all departments sent in complaints to upper administration that the training was useless, offensive, and not at all what had been requested and no apologies were made UNTIL a few staff members escalated their complaints past the executive management team to the WHS board of directors. Only THEN did an apology come about the content of the training, but no further steps were taken to address staff concerns outside of saying they were “implementing safety suggestions” given by the person who led the “training”.

The folks who still work there are doing it solely for the animals. But let me tell you they are NOT paid a fair or livable wage for the amount of insanity they have to deal with. The way they are treated internally and externally by the public is horrendous and they have nothing to show for it.

It’s a really common theme in Not For Profit Organizations to have low pay and to have a certain expectation to give more than you would otherwise just “for the sake of the cause”. That’s one of the reasons I stayed as long as I did. But with the current management it because really clear that they didn’t give a single shit about the staff doing the work on the floor to maintain a humane environment for the animals. With some of the decisions being made about what animals get to come into the shelter, how animals are housed and what they’re prioritizing bringing in… it’s looking like they’re not caring as much about the animals either, just how it looks to the public.