In one summer, Morgan Hill resident Evon Dumesnil helped raise
$13,000 for the South County Animal Shelter, led the fight against
county officials who wanted to close it, and got pushed out of the
volunteer group that supports it.
In one summer, Morgan Hill resident Evon Dumesnil helped raise $13,000 for the South County Animal Shelter, led the fight against county officials who wanted to close it, and got pushed out of the volunteer group that supports it.
“It was just three months, and boy what an experience,” Dumesnil said of her time in Friends of the San Martin Animal Shelter, or FOSMAS. “It’s hard enough to fight city hall, but even harder when the group is not cohesive and bickering among themselves.”
In the midst of the public controversy surrounding budget cuts at the shelter, a private melodrama was playing out in FOSMAS. The entire time its members were battling to keep the shelter open six days a week, they were fighting among themselves for control of the group.
And when it was over, the shelter was intact, but the group was fractured. It’s leader and founder, Philip Jewitt, had quit, as had the members who fought hardest against the budget cuts. For three months, a group of passionate, good-hearted adults acted like catty, political teenagers.
“A lot of people had different philosophical ideas,” said Kim McPherson a San Martin resident who left the group in the summer after four years as a volunteer. “There were too many strong headed individuals who forgot what the mission of FOSMAS was. It was almost like high school. There was a lot of cattiness.”
The San Martin shelter, the only facility in South County, houses about 3,500 cats and dogs a year. According to shelter staff, they find homes for 54 percent of the dogs and 74 percent of the cats they take in.
Credit for those figures is often given to FOSMAS, which Jewitt founded in 2001 and helped build to a 60-strong group that is widely recognized with boosting adoptions, cutting euthanasia rates and improving the lives of animals at the facility.
But for all of its success, according to interviews with current and former members, FOSMAS had reached a crossroads as a divided group by the spring of 2005.
Some members wanted to attract corporate money and make FOSMAS a more professional outfit in the mold of the Humane Society of Silicon Valley. Others were content to remain a small, volunteer organization. Board meetings turned into acrimonious, hours-long debates over the future of the group.
“Warranted or not, there was a little mini-hysteria,” said Kim Messina, who was made president of FOSMAS last week. “I think a big part of it was we were growing rapidly and there was a lot of miscommunication. Animal welfare is a very emotional issue and differences of opinion were just blown out of proportion.”
Then in June came news that Santa Clara County Agricultural Commissioner Greg Van Wassenhove wanted to cut 1.5 vacant staff positions from the shelter and close it two days a week instead of one to save the county $90,000.
Jewitt, who also managed the shelter at the time, was publicly critical of Van Wassenhove. In August, he was reassigned to animal control. At the time, he quit FOSMAS, saying that he thought his public dispute with his boss was undermining the group’s goals. In October, Jewitt resigned from the county.
Meanwhile, Dumesnil and Gilroy resident Elaine Jelsema were bombarding county officials and supervisors with e-mails demanding that the shelter be kept open. Supervisor Don Gage was hit with so many calls and letters from residents, animal rights activists and other animal welfare organizations that he asked County Executive Pete Kutras to take another look at the budget.
“The pressure we put on through the newspaper, attendance at meetings and e-mails was why we won the war,” said Penny Noel, who’s now the FOSMAS board secretary. “That was pivotal.”
In August, Kutras came through with $121,000 in state money to keep the shelter open, but rather than celebrate a victory, FOSMAS members were fighting for control.
“It was almost like a power struggle,” McPherson said. “And without Phil, there was a power vacuum. There were too many individual agendas.”
Jelsema, who left the group recently after 18 months as a volunteer, said she regrets getting involved in the letter-writing campaign.
“If I had known what was going to happen, I wouldn’t have bothered to fight to keep the shelter open,” she said. “I truly thought that we were doing what everybody wanted. I’m really sad about the whole thing. I enjoyed working at the shelter very much. The animals are what’s important.”
And some in the group resented Dumesnil, Jelsema and others who had complained loudly and bitterly about the cuts. Some felt that FOSMAS had done irreparable damage to its relationship with the people in charge of the shelter.
“I don’t think it was FOSMAS’s place to be part of it,” Messina said of the budget fight. “Of course, we want the shelter to stay open as much as possible, but we really want to focus on what’s best for the animals and stay out of the political realm.”
Noel, who turned down Jewitt’s request to succeed him as president, said FOSMAS is now regaining the momentum and good will it lost over the summer. FOSMAS is also reorganizing itself into a power-sharing, committee-driven group.
“The worst is over, we’re working great together,” Noel, of Gilroy, said. “We’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing. We’re on euthanasia watch. We’re making sure the county is doing what they’re supposed to be doing. It was a rocky summer, and we owe a great debt to Phil because he lost his job over it.”
The former members interviewed for this article all said they want FOSMAS to be successful because of what the group can do for the shelter’s animals. McPherson continues to volunteer at the shelter, though Jelsema and Dumesnil said they no longer feel welcome there.
“I hope they clean up the shelter so it’s a nice and tidy facility,” Dumesnil said. “I hope they work very very hard to get a new shelter built. The shelter is for the animals. FOSMAS is for the animals.”
Matt King covers Morgan Hill and Santa Clara County for The Times. Reach him at 779-4106 ext. 201 or mk***@*************es.com.
