Vet to step down over issues with Horry Humane Society board

The Conway veterinarian who performs surgeries and provides vet services to the Horry County Humane Society’s animal shelter tells News13 she’s calling it quits.

Dr. Stephanie Fotorny started working at the shelter a few days a week in October 2007 and has continued, even through a deadly Canine Distemper Virus outbreak that closed the shelter for a month in December 2008.

Fotorny said she plans to notify the board that she will no longer work at the shelter after February, as long as the current board is running the facility, which is located off Highway 701 North just outside Conway.

Fotorny said if the board goes, she would continue working at the shelter, but plans to submit her resignation at the end of the month, “I’ve already felt bad about it. I’m hoping things turn around and that I can get back over there as soon as possible,” Fotorny said.

If the current board steps down, the county continues running the shelter, or if a new organization takes over are the only conditions under which Fotorny said she’d return to provide vet services.

“They were the ones who did not, when the show had to go to them, they did not run it correctly and ask the right questions, so it doesn’t show me that their leadership was there to actually get to the bottom of the story and to actually find out what went wrong,” Fotorny said.

No one on the HCHS board contacted Fotorny or the other vets who worked with the shelter about the distemper issue to find out what happened, according to Fotorny.

“If they would just step down, they’d realize that they’re doing better for the animals because there are a lot of people who just don’t trust them right now. I think that if they just ate a little humble pie and accepted some of the mistakes, versus trying to find out it wasn’t their fault,” Fotorny said.

At the Feb. 2 HCHS board meeting, president Kate Philips handed out emails between board members that she said would show the board didn’t know about the distemper crisis until Dec. 5, 2008—three days before the shelter closed.

On Nov. 3, the shelter closed after a couple dogs showed up at the shelter with signs of the distemper virus.

The next day, HCHS vice president Suzer Sachs went to the shelter and found the shelter was closed to the public, then found out it was because of concerns over a possible distemper outbreak.

The shelter was re-opened the next day.

In an email to former shelter executive director, Renee Macklen, Philips asks for an update on the closing, then goes on to write, “Hope it is not distemper. Lord help us.”

The HCHS board fired shelter executive director Renee Macklen on Dec. 17 after the distemper outbreak because Macklen never notified the board of the outbreak and worked to cover up the outbreak, HCHS President Kate Philips told News13.

The shelter received confirmation from a Clemson University Laboratory on Nov. 24 that a dog inside the shelter had the highly contagious and lethal distemper virus, but the shelter continued adopting dogs out until the shelter closed on Dec. 8 after News13 made the closing public.

During the closing, shelter staff euthanized 117 dogs believed to have been exposed to the virus.

Shelter documents show the HCHS adopted 36 dogs out that were later returned and euthanized from Nov. 24 until the shelter closed.

On Dec. 19, the HCHS board appointed former board member Andree Frohmann as the shelter’s interim director, but just 20 days later, Frohmann stepped down.

Frohmann was appointed and charged with the responsibility to have the shelter cleaned, sanitized, and re-opened after the distemper outbreak.

Frohmann said the shelter could have re-opened, but the HCHS board refused to open the shelter.

News13 uncovered emails and a voice message that showed HCHS President Kate Philips delayed the re-opening in an attempt to get $175,000 in tax dollars the county set aside for an off-site adoption center in 2006.

In the voice message left on the shelter’s general voicemail, “Don’t let the staff pressure you. Don’t let the press pressure you. We will open the shelter when we know it’s safe to open the shelter. It’s best to take our own sweet time than to do it. We can use this in order to try and secure some county money,” Philips tells Frohmann in the message.

Since then, several members of Horry County Council have called for Philips to step down.

On Jan. 8, Councilman Al Allen sent a letter to Philips asking her to step down from the board because of the voicemail and the boards handling of the distemper outbreak.

Philips told News13 she refused to leave.

The HCHS has narrowed their search for a new executive director to three finalists, a search that garnered nearly 300 applications, according to the board.

The board will decide on its new executive director by the end of this week.

The Horry County Council’s Public Safety Committee plans to meet on Feb. 23 to look at the results of an audit performed by the county and to look at proposals from two other organizations interested in running the county shelter.