I resigned as the acting President of The Association of Sanctuaries 

today and wrote the following letter. What is funny is that I let Howie edit it and sent his version which is below mine.

 

Dear Board,  I have always held TAOS in the highest esteem and even though I did not wish to serve on the board or be an officer I agreed when Barbara had been abandoned by the rest of the board and had the weight of the conference on her shoulders.  I stepped in to help and learned a lot about why the membership does not support TAOS events or TAOS initiatives.

 

As a member, I saw TAOS as a service provider and was happy to serve the rest of the membership by contributing in ways that I felt would enable all of us to share and have better sanctuaries.  In speaking with the membership these past several days I am impressed with what a wonderful group of people we have who are doing good work and who all voice the same desire:  That we focus on what we have in common and build on that.  I share that sentiment.

 

Those of us on the board have had several conversations about why the membership is not supportive, why there is so much back biting and why the members don’t support the conference or dues increases or any of the financial needs of TAOS.  We could have asked each other that question for ever and never gotten an answer, but when we ask the membership they are answering in unison:  The leadership of TAOS is not their choosing and they feel that they don’t get any benefit from submitting themselves to a governing body that is unrecognized for all practical purposes.

 

We promote TAOS as setting members apart from pseudo sanctuaries but it doesn’t because TAOS is still virtually unknown.  AZA is so much bigger and stronger than TAOS and it faces the same lack of recognition in the general public that causes zoos to wonder why they would submit themselves to all of the politics and onerous paperwork to be a part of something that does not help them.  Any of us who write grants to support our work know that including the fact we are accredited by TAOS doesn’t have any bearing on our ability to secure the funding.

 

The only reason I have tried to keep TAOS afloat is because of its participation in the Captive Wild Animal Protection Coalition, but TAOS cannot afford to even pay its dues there and given the current draft of the standards it is unlikely that they will ever be adopted widely.  I have submitted a considerable body of work only to have it come back to me with revisions that make it impossible for all but 4 or 5 sanctuaries to meet them.  Those sanctuaries can only meet the standards suggested because they are not governed by USDA.  I believe in the concept of standard sanctuary standards but if those standards would require funding that most major zoos couldn’t afford then the only purpose of them will be to eliminate sanctuaries; the good and the bad.  There isn’t a zoo or game farm in the country that meets these high standards, but these standards won’t apply to them.  They only apply to those of us who are left to deal with their carnage.

 

TAOS appears to have lost its founding mothers and has had a recent history of high turnover in its leadership.  To dismiss our Executive Director with no viable plan or person to replace her just smacks of incompetence.  The timing and lack of preparedness for the transfer of documents, credit cards, email accounts and such just further illustrates the emotional imbalance of the remaining board members.  TAOS’ only national acclaim to fame is that it accredits sanctuaries who are not inspected by state or federal agencies and some of those are under fire with allegations of breeding, escapes and substandard conditions.  At a very minimum TAOS should require USDA licensure so that we don’t have to take that sort of heat.

 

There is a huge disparity between what the membership thinks TAOS should be and what the board of TAOS believes it is.  I am told by the board that th