CATAWBA COUNTY
The Humane Society of Catawba County has a new director and an old problem: Residents don't trust the person in charge of protecting the county's animals.
The shelter's former director, Jane Bowers, was fired last year after an investigation into whistleblower complaints that she led a toxic and abusive workplace. The humane society's board of directors recently announced they'd found her replacement: a longtime Colorado humane society director, Doug Rae.
Dozens on social media and several in conversations with The Charlotte Observer have said that Rae's past — which includes being fired from at least two shelters and whistleblower concerns about animals suffering under his watch in Colorado — makes it clear he's not the right fit for a humane society that is struggling to regain public trust.
"I had real hope that those people [on the board] would make the right decision now that Jane was removed, as far as the next step. The more I learn about Doug Rae, the more I'm just absolutely appalled," said Alicia Blackburn, the humane society's former marketing director. "I cannot believe they are bringing this man in from Colorado to our community, where there's already so much hurt over what has happened with this organization."
Nearly 80 residents had signed a petition asking the board to reconsider Rae's hiring.
Rae says problems at past shelters have long been resolved. He said he has experience leading shelters that need help, and he plans to meet with residents to hear their concerns.
The Catawba humane society's board has also pushed back on residents' criticisms.
"The board conducted a thorough vetting process and is fully confident in this hire," interim shelter director Erin Stratford Owens wrote in an email to a Hickory resident. "We ask that the community reserve judgment for now."
Controversy, accusations follow incoming shelter director
Rae has a history of leading troubled organizations. He took over Indianapolis Animal Care and Control in 2009 after the city's previous director resigned amid allegations of animal abuse and neglect. But Rae led the city department for only eight months in 2009 before he was fired amid employee criticism and concerns about slower response times, an increase in overtime pay and fewer animals impounded, WTHR reported.
After a brief stint at a Rhode Island shelter where he was also let go, Rae was in 2014 hired as the executive director of the Humane Society of Fremont County, based in Cañon City, Colorado. That shelter was weathering controversy when it brought Rae on board: it had been cited for nearly a dozen deficiencies by the State Board of Veterinary Medicine the previous year.
By 2019, Rae had been leading the Humane Society of Fremont County for close to five years when former employees and staff said publicly that Rae's policies were causing animals at the shelter to suffer.
There, Rae championed a "no kill" policy that meant animals wouldn't be euthanized for space or at an owner's request. But those who worked in the shelter said the policy was taken to an extreme that led to difficult-to-adopt animals going crazy from prolonged cage stays and dogs with bite histories going to families with children.
An inspection by Colorado's Department of Agriculture confirmed the accusations, including of improper animal care, dirty kennels, adoption issues and that the shelter used long-expired euthanasia medicines when it did put down animals.
Rae publicly apologized for the problems and promised to rectify things at the shelter, and the humane society's board stood by him.
"He stepped into a situation that was not the best when he came in, and I think he has made the shelter a better place, not only for the animals but for the people that go in there," a board member told the Canon City Daily Record in 2019.
The 2019 shelter violations were an isolated incident, Rae told The Charlotte Observer in an interview.
"Prior to that, the state never came in and even gave me a hand slap on anything, and after that everything's been great," Rae said.
Since Rae's hiring, the Fremont board has pointed to a string of successes and prestige that Rae has brought the shelter. Those include being one of only two shelters across the country to receive the Henry Bergh Achievement Award from the No Kill Advocacy Center in 2017, a formal declaration by the Colorado State Senate the same year celebrating the shelter's achievements, and annual recognition from No Kill Colorado "every year since Doug took on his role."
But some Hickory residents say Rae's hiring has sewn further distrust in the community about animal shelter leadership.
"The board … hired someone with a WORSE track record than the director they fired," Hickory resident Charlynn Payne told the Observer in an email.
In Colorado, some controversy surrounding Rae's leadership has persisted.
From July 2022 to early 2024, Rae and Fremont County leadership engaged in a public spat over a funding contract with the sheriff's office for animal control services. Rae had asked for much more than the sheriff's office paid for services prior to his tenure and had never produced a copy of the shelter's budget despite annual requests to do so, the Fremont Board of County Commissioners alleged.
Those accusations were false, Rae told the Observer — he'd show the shelter's budget "to anybody who asked."
The contract lapse meant the humane society temporarily stopped housing strays picked up by the county.
Those issues have since been resolved, according to Rae.
'No-kill' policies polarize animal welfare groups
No-kill shelters don't kill healthy animals based on space constraints and often focus on rehabilitating strays that might be put down at other shelters. Many animal welfare groups tout no-kill philosophies like Rae's as saving strays from unnecessary euthanasia.
But other activists allege that such policies lead to the unnecessary suffering of sheltered animals.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has said the policies can lead to strays in need of medical care dying in cages, ending up in abusive homes because of a focus on clearing space in no-kill shelters, and sheltered animals deteriorating mentally and physically after spending months or years in cages.
That's similar to what Rae's former right hand, shelter manager Kelly Ramos, said she saw happen at the Fremont shelter. Ramos was among a group of former employees and volunteers that went public with concerns about how the shelter was being run under Rae in 2019. She'd worked with him for almost five years before resigning.
She said she remembers several dogs that had gone "cage crazy" from prolonged sheltering and would spin all day in their cages. One dog, Cracker, would spin until his paws bled, local media reported. Another dog, Toy Man, was adopted out to a family with a little boy despite a bite history. Toy Man bit the child in the face and he required 40 stitches, former employees and the shelter said publicly.
"Watching those dogs deteriorate was probably one of the most traumatizing things in my life," Ramos told the Observer in an interview.
Some shelters have distanced themselves from the no-kill movement. Charlotte's own humane society eliminated the term "no kill" from their description in 2024 "as we believe the terminology is divisive in the field of animal welfare and misleading to the public," the society's website states.
Still, many no-kill shelters are beloved by their communities and credited with saving the lives of the hundreds of thousands of strays that are euthanized in shelters annually.
Public records suggest there have been no recent concerns at the Cañon City shelter. A series of state inspections between 2021 and March 2026 found no violations there, according to inspection reports provided to the Observer by the Humane Society of Catawba County's board. The Observer has requested copies of the reports from the Colorado Department of Agriculture but has not yet received them.
Despite his detractors in Colorado, Rae has many supporters there, too. While some community members created a Facebook page to air their concerns about the shelter's management under Rae, many others more recently lamented his leaving when he announced it on the humane society's own page.
At least two fellow no-kill advocates who worked closely with Rae shared letters of support to the Catawba board praising the executive director's character.
"You could not have chosen a better candidate to lead your facility. It is no exaggeration to say that if we had 100 Dougs across the country, the state of animal sheltering in our nation would be vastly different," a letter from no-kill advocate Aubrie Kavanaugh reads.
Catawba humane society board under fire for lack of transparency
Hickory community members and the leader of a local nonprofit have said the humane society board's secrecy has harmed public trust, including around its hiring decision.
Board members have ignored requests from the public to produce documents that reflect how the shelter is being run, including about its financials and board meeting minutes, multiple residents told the Observer.
"This is a whole mess they're not answering for," Newton resident Abigail Sanchez said.
Board chair Laura Burton did not consent to a phone interview but agreed the board would review written questions from the Observer. In its emailed response, the board said that apart from 990 tax forms, internal documents "are typically not shared publicly, like many other private nonprofit organizations."
Transparency concerns have been echoed by other nonprofit organizations, emails among Catawba leadership that were obtained by the Observer through a public records request indicate.
Mark Bumgarner, executive director of the Catawba County United Way, said in emails to humane society leadership and county manager Mary Furtado that talks at the United Way and the local nonprofit Arts Culture Catawba about how to help the shelter had fallen apart.
That breakdown happened because the humane society didn't communicate with the public, wouldn't agree to meet with the United Way, and had not produced financial documents or a budget despite promises to do so, Bumgarner wrote in a Feb. 23 email.
"We … assured [the community] we believed the Board was working intentionally to move forward. However, the agreed-upon communications and financial information were not provided. As a result, we have been left in a difficult position with community stakeholders and without the transparency necessary to continue supporting this effort," Bumgarner wrote.
In a scathing March 5 email to Bumgarner and Furtado, humane society board chair Burton said Bumgarner had "grossly mischaracterized" the two organizations' communications, and that the humane society had been responsive despite being "swamped" with the process of hiring an executive director.
"I can assure you that no one at HSCC considers Catawba County United Way a partner," Burton's email read.
Bumgarner confirmed there is no current partnership between the humane society and United Way, but that United Way frequently consults with organizations in distress. He declined to comment further.
'Just give me a chance'
Catawba's humane society board didn't bring up Rae's past troubles during his interview, he told the Observer. The same was true during interviews for his last two jobs, Rae said. He assumed it was because they'd already spoken with people he's worked with to allay any concerns.
"I figured it was like in Rhode Island and out here in Cañon City where the board read this online and figured 'There's probably not a lot here,'" Rae said.
The board hired a thirdparty agency to conduct a background check on Rae that he passed, the board's email to the Observer said. He was selected from among dozens of applicants based on his experience and his "documented plan for his first year as HSCC executive director."
"Mr. Rae has had overwhelmingly positive reviews from the Humane Society of Fremont community in Cañon City, Colorado. The Board has received multiple unsolicited recommendations on his behalf and his hire was supported by major donors and supporters of HSSC," the statement read.
As for the 2019 scandal, most of the problems found during the state's inspection of the Cañon City shelter were operational issues that would have fallen under shelter manager Ramos' responsibility, Rae said.
"But as director, I 100% take responsibility for it," Rae said.
Those issues haven't recurred since, Rae said. He points to the many accolades the shelter has received as evidence of how it's run under his leadership.
He offered to have the Observer talk with two of his current employees at the Cañon City shelter about their work with him. Crystal Fazekas, a human resources manager at the shelter since 2013, said she's never had any concerns about Rae's leadership or the treatment of animals there.
"Doug is one of the most wonderful men that you would ever come across, the most compassionate," Fazekas said. "I wish I could go with him — I would in a heartbeat."
Susan Fredinburg, shelter manager since Ramos left in 2019, said issues the state found at the shelter weren't Rae's fault.
"I've been doing this for 23 years, and the things that I came in and fixed are not executive director things to fix. Those are your shelter manager['s responsibilities]," Fredinburg said.
Rae says he's planning listening sessions with the Hickory community during his first 90 days.
"It's really important to hear what people have to say," he said.
His message to residents: "Just give me a chance."
