Animal shelter leaderless again

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough is once again on the prowl for a new Animal Care and Regulation chief.

“I’ll be frank, we’ve had more turnover than I’d like to see in that department, and we have a couple of other department heads that we seem to go through faster than we need to,” Borough Manager John Moosey said Monday.

Phil Morgan took the reins at the animal shelter at the end of December in 2011. He was gone by last week.

Clear Creek Cat Rescue, which worked to round up cats abandoned at a Houston area home when their owner left the state, speculated on its Facebook page that Morgan left, in part, because he was trying to make changes that would have improved relationships with shelter groups.

“The fellow who was manager of the shelter has just been let go because, we believe, he was trying to work with rescues and make conditions better for the animals,” the rescue group wrote.

The borough went so far as to write a letter of response to the group, signed by Assistant Borough Manager Don Moore and post a comment on Clear Creek’s page defending the animal care division.

“The shelter is very interested in continuing to work with animal rescue groups. In April, Assistant Borough Manager Don Moore attended an Animal Rescue Coalition meeting on April 25 to connect with rescue groups and hear concerns,” the borough wrote. “In the past, the borough took the advice of a cat rescue leader by removing the small cat enclosures and installing large enclosures so the cats would be more comfortable while awaiting adoption, and the cages easier to sanitize.”

Moore said in his letter that he hopes to get rescue input as animal care works to re-write its policies and procedures.

Moosey said the reason for Morgan’s departure is a personnel matter and therefore not something he can discuss with the media.

“It is strictly a personnel matter, but it is not because somebody is trying to implement changes and there is pushback against changes,” he said. “We are always looking for improvement. Some of those suggestions are good ideas and we’re looking to implement them.”

Morgan took over the shelter after the previous shelter chief, Richard Stockdale, who had to return to Montana because, after almost a year in Alaska, his home in Montana hadn’t sold and he couldn’t afford to maintain two homes.

Prior to that, in 2010, then-chief Bob Haskell resigned. There was no word publicly as to why. Haskell had spent just about two years on the job, replacing Dave Allison, who similarly resigned without a public explanation.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.