By David DeCamp and John Martin, Times Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
SPCA Tampa Bay fired its new executive director this week, less than two months after he was hired to help improve the image of the county's largest shelter for stray and abused animals.
Gary D. Thorud, 71, was hired in August after a long nationwide search. SPCA officials lauded his decades in non-profit management, most recently as president of a hospice organization in the Washington, D.C, area.
He was supposed to ease last year's tumult at the Largo shelter after a St. Petersburg Times report revealed the agency euthanized animals instead of being "no-kill" as many thought. The agency was chided for not being transparent about its operations, and the former executive director resigned.
But Monday night, the SPCA board fired Thorud after learning of an issue in his past that wasn't previously disclosed, according to state Rep. Bill Heller, past president of the non-profit.
In e-mailed statements to the Times, board president Jeff Fox said Thorud "was not working out." Like Heller, he declined to disclose details.
Civil court records in Maryland show a domestic violence protective order was imposed on Thorud in November 2008. The order, which lasted until June 2009, required him to participate in a domestic violence program and vacate the house. No further information about the order was available Wednesday.
Thorud could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
He moved to Pinellas to run SPCA with his wife, Lonnie, SPCA noted when his hiring was announced by Fox as leading to "a re-energized and strengthened executive team and a great SPCA."
But internally, Thorud created tension, volunteers and animal advocates said, noting he had a fund-raising background but not much of an animal background.
"I saw he was a braggadocios man, telling me about all his various backgrounds he had. He was a charmer," scoffed Marilyn Weaver, a feral cat advocate who sought SPCA's help in an Aug. 17 meeting with Thorud.
She said Thorud discussed how he helped grow the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals — a claim Weaver found exaggerated.
Then he shot down her bid for assistance, irking her more.
Meanwhile, Thorud had changed protocol at the shelter, no longer giving volunteers access to euthanizations or other "outcomes," according to an Aug. 11 internal memo. Any staffer giving out that information would be fired, it said.
Fox said, via e-mail, that the memo was meant to "protect animal owners" if they mistakenly believed animals would be kept alive no matter what. The policy has been revised to allow disclosure of adoptions, he said.
Still, it was a step in Thorud's tenure that rattled volunteers. His firing now adds to SPCA's discord.
Two board members, real estate investor Mark Taber and James Lutz, a veterinarian, will act as co-executive directors while a replacement is found.
"It's a wonderful organization. I think it's well-intentioned," said Dan Hester, a donor and former board member. "They obviously have had some leadership issues that they were trying to resolve."
David DeCamp can be reached at ddecamp@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8779.