The Real Truth About Greyhound Friends
This document was created by the Greyhound Friends Board of Directors to inform the public about the status of Greyhound Friends, Inc., how we got here, and our current objectives for the organization.
Quick overview: who or what is Greyhound Friends?
Greyhound Friends is a Hopkinton based, 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to the welfare and adoption of dogs, focusing specifically on greyhounds. The organization was founded in 1983 by its former Executive Director, Louise Coleman. Its office and shelter have been located at its present site on Saddle Hill Road in Hopkinton, MA for over 30 years.
In addition to operating the adoption kennel, Greyhound Friends’ mission also includes informing and educating the public about greyhounds and other breeds, promoting responsible pet ownership, and generally doing whatever is necessary to prevent cruelty to animals. Consistent with this mission, over the past 35 years Greyhound Friends has grown to include a community of staff, volunteers, adopters, greyhound rehoming advocates, and dog welfare supporters working locally, nationally, and internationally. Through the dedicated efforts of its staff, volunteers, and supporters, the organization has rehomed over 10,000 dogs.
What is the current status of Greyhound Friends?
Greyhound Friends is licensed by the Town of Hopkinton to house up to 15 dogs. We are open for adoptions as of December 2019. We are open Saturday & Sundays from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. and also by appointment. Please feel free to visit or contact the kennel for more information: email info@greyhound.org or call and leave a message at 508-435-5969.
How do I adopt from Greyhound Friends?
The first step for prospective adopters is to download and complete a Preadoption Application and bring it along when visiting the kennel. (Please call ahead to schedule your visit by appointment.) After submitting the application, potential adopters are invited to come to the shelter and meet the dogs whose needs and personalities best fit the adopter’s situation and home environment. If a match is made, the adopter signs an Adoption Contract and makes a donation of $375 to help cover a portion of our dog care and vetting costs.
Greyhound Friends staff and volunteers are knowledgeable about the greyhound breed. We spend time talking in depth with prospective adopters, providing information about the breed and the individual dogs in our care, in an effort to make a good and lasting adoption match. We check references and work with adopters to help ensure that the adoption is successful. In some cases, despite best efforts the adoption doesn’t work out; and in those instances we require that the dog be returned to us. Dogs who are returned are often adopted out again very quickly, having the advantage of prior home experience as well as insight into their specific quirks and needs.
Why was Greyhound Friends kennel closed for adoptions?
Greyhound Friends’ kennel and adoption operation were recently closed for a period of time. Here’s a summary of what happened:
Between November of 2016 and January of 2017, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural resources (MDAR) made several inspections to the kennel and recommended a number of repairs. These included some worn, unsealed cement areas; damage to the kennel chain link; some pipes and doors; and a few smaller repairs. The Board of Directors agreed that the repairs would be made, and contractors were contacted to schedule the work. The nature of the chain link repairs required all the kennel dogs to be moved so all the chain link structures could be replaced. This is why significant preparation time was needed to do the work, along with the significant cost (over $50,000).
However, when MDAR’s inspections in January 2017 showed that the November recommendations were scheduled but not yet completed, it issued a “cease and desist” order, prohibiting Greyhound Friends from taking in dogs from outside Massachusetts for adoption. Soon after, based on the MDAR’s unsatisfactory assessment of Greyhound Friends’ facility, the Town of Hopkinton suspended its kennel license.
The MDAR’s reports also led to a criminal investigation and charge against Greyhound Friends’ founder and director, Louise Coleman, by the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office. At this point Louise withdrew from any operational or decision-making role at the shelter. At the conclusion of Louise’s trial in November of 2017, the judge found her not guilty, commenting that the problems noted at the kennel were merely regulatory in nature, and that Louise was to be commended for dedicating her life to helping dogs.
Greyhound Friends is and historically has been in compliance with the annual financial reporting and auditing requirements of the Attorney General’s Division of Public Charities. In 2017, the Division undertook a review of Greyhound Friends’ financial transactions over the last five years. The Board of Directors fully cooperated with this inquiry, which concluded with an agreement in August 2018. We are confident that current board governance practices are fully compliant with the law, with regulatory best practices, and with best practices for nonprofit adoption kennels like ours.
Throughout the closure period Greyhound Friends has continued to make improvements to comply with MDAR and Town requirements in order to reopen and resume working toward our core mission. In addition to physical and procedural improvements, we have also made procedural and organizational changes, to improve accountability and oversight. It is our goal to meet or exceed current best practices in shelter management and operations. In September of 2019 we regained our Hopkinton kennel license as well as MDAR’s approval of our isolation unit for dogs coming in from outside Massachusetts. The Board of Directors, along with a core of dedicated volunteers, has mounted a successful funding drive to enable a commitment to reopening the kennel, rehiring staff, and resuming operations.
How does oversight work at Greyhound Friends?
As a nonprofit corporation, Greyhound Friends is assisted by a committed Board of Directors. Working closely with a lawyer experienced in nonprofit governance and corporate law, we have reviewed and updated our policies and procedures and have engaged in board training to ensure that Greyhound Friends’ governance reflects best practices for community-based charitable organizations like ours. Greyhound Friends’ operations and kennel manager will manage staff and volunteers and day-to-day operations, reporting to the Board on an ongoing basis. As required by law, the organization will continue to be monitored periodically by state and local inspectors and to file financial reports with the Public Charities Division of the Attorney General’s Office.
Kennel protocol compliance is overseen by the Kennel and Operations Manager and the Compliance Officer who comprehensively report on dog adoption status and dog-care activities to the Board.
How is Greyhound Friends different after its relaunch?
Previously, Greyhound Friends was licensed to house up to 35 dogs in its kennel. Now, having expanded many of our kennels to double size, we are licensed to house 15 dogs at a time. This lower number of dogs at the facility will help to ensure that each receives more than adequate care and attention from staff and volunteers, so that all aspects of their activities, sanitation, socialization, housing, and comfort are healthy and appropriate. This reduction should also provide kennel workers with ample time to complete the necessary documentation and paperwork for each animal.
In recent years Greyhound Friends had expanded its adoption efforts from greyhound dogs to other breeds and mixes, including hounds and terriers. Unlike greyhounds, those types of dogs are generally less accustomed to kennel life and present different challenges in their transition to adoption and home life. After much consideration, Greyhound Friends has decided focus on its core mission and skill set: rehoming greyhounds (and greyhound type dogs including lurchers, Spanish galgos, and salukis). Of course our public education efforts, while focusing on greyhounds, will continue to include animal welfare and kindness in general – especially when we present to children.
Requirements for all staff and volunteers will be carefully guided by new protocols, worksheets, checklists, and training that have been developed over the past year between MDAR and Greyhound Friends’ new compliance processes, overseen by a volunteer Compliance Officer. This position is filled by a PhD who brings high-level compliance experience from Harvard, MIT and MGH.
What specifically has Greyhound Friends done to improve its shelter operation?
Renovations
Starting in January of 2017, Greyhound Friends adopted or fostered out all dogs that had been housed in the kennel and commenced physical repairs and renovations. Since the kennel had to be emptied for the chain link replacement, the entire kennel was renovated and repainted. Extensive renovations were completed in February, 2017. Because funds to pay for all the work were not available at the time, Greyhound Friends’ longtime contractor agreed to perform the work and wait for payment. More recent upgrades include the expansion of individual kennels, including those in the Isolation Unit; new laundry equipment; new pea stone gravel in the turnout pens; and important upgrades to the fire protection system..
Protocols & Documentation
We have thoroughly reworked our existing staff and volunteer protocols, not only to ensure compliance with state regulations but to go above and beyond the recommended best practices in ensuring proper treatment of the dogs in our care. Greyhound Friends has established a customized, comprehensive system to track the dogs throughout their stay in the shelter and make sure that any behavioral or medical issues are promptly addressed. Greyhound Friends has also developed a compliance process and added the volunteer position of Compliance Officer to ensure consistent compliance and monitoring.
Greyhound Friends has also implemented a new software system called Animal Shelter Manager to electronically track all dogs, medications, donors, donations & adopters in the shelter and provide real time status reports.
With new protocols in place, staff will ensure stricter controls and carefully maintained paperwork to document medical and behavioral issues and interventions. Housing significantly fewer dogs at any given time will be an important safeguard against any potential oversights in recordkeeping or delivery of care.
Behavioral issues were observed in some dogs housed at Greyhound Friends; what does that mean?
Over the years, Greyhound Friends has established a successful national pipeline, moving at-risk dogs to our kennel in Hopkinton, and then on to loving homes. While the adoption effort focused primarily on greyhounds, more recently other breeds from a variety of backgrounds were also brought to the shelter for re-homing. Some dogs came from adequate living situations, simply needing better opportunities to find a home; others were in dire straits: injured, mistreated, older, overbred, fearful, or otherwise “undesirable” or even “unadoptable” in the eyes of some other shelters.
Since its beginnings, Greyhound Friends has been known for accepting and often intentionally seeking out dogs that other shelters overlooked or rejected for a variety of reasons. Sometimes these “special needs” dogs needed costly veterinary care; not every shelter could afford to provide that. Sometimes, due to their histories, they simply needed more time before adoption to recover from their past, acclimate to their new lives, and learn new behaviors.
A criticism we have heard more than once from inspectors is that we did not “choose better dogs,” because “You have to choose the ones that will move quickly.” We disagree. Cherry-picking dogs that will be easiest to place has never been our philosophy. As a result, at times Greyhound Friends has been the target of some resentment and backlash, even from within the dog adoption community, for trying to help dogs who would not have been helped by others.
In recent years, Greyhound Friends began to take in non-greyhound dogs to help ease the critical need reported from rescue organizations in other states, where spay/neuter rates are low and shelter kill rates are distressingly high. Trying to help these dogs also increased the proportion of dogs coming into the kennel with behavioral issues. Greyhound Friends staff and volunteers have worked diligently and successfully to help and ultimately rehome these “special needs” dogs whom no one else wanted. Often that has meant significantly longer stays at the kennel, which may not be the ideal environment for some dogs, but nevertheless is a pathway to adoption.
We continue to believe that dogs with special needs, behavioral or otherwise, are an important part of Greyhound Friends’ rehoming mission. We acknowledge that such dogs require more resources to be invested in their recovery and rehabilitation; that might include greater financial costs, more staff and volunteer time, longer stays at the shelter, special care and training, etc. Our new operational protocols, combined with a plan for fewer dogs at the shelter at any given time, should help Greyhound Friends better attend to the special needs of the dogs we commit to take in and rehome.
Why was there opposition to Greyhound Friends reopening?
Most people are opposed to animal cruelty and substandard treatment. So are we.
Sadly, during our closure many misstatements and misrepresentations about Greyhound Friends were made and fueled anger, especially on social media. The various concerns raised since late 2016 have been addressed, through improvements to the kennel facility and in our expanded protocols, procedures, and checklists which have been reviewed by MDAR, MSPCA, and also by the original leaders in shelter protocols, the Koret Shelter Program at UC Davis.
We recognize that in recent years Greyhound Friends’ capacity was overextended in an attempt to save more dogs than was practical. There was a need for process improvements, better checks and balances on some of our procedures, and more robust oversight. Significant change has been implemented at every level and process.
November 2019 Update: We are thankful that the Town of Hopkinton has taken pains to inspect and evaluate Greyhound Friends’ ability to operate as an adoption kennel, reinstating our kennel license. We are grateful for the expert advice of MDAR and MSPCA. We are enormously grateful to the core volunteers and steadfast donors who have sustained us during the closure. Greyhound Friends is ecstatic to resume doing its part in the effort to save as many greyhound dogs as we can, without compromising the quality of our work on their behalf.
