Head of Nevada Humane Society steps down amid mounting complaints, criticism

RENO, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — The man heading the Nevada Humane Society (NHS) in Reno is stepping down in the middle of tumultuous times filed with mounting complaints, questions and criticism.

Greg Hall announced he was resigning on Wednesday just days before he was set to address concerns surrounding operations and management at the Nevada Humane Society.

The complaints cover a range of issues including shelter operations, personnel issues and finances, according to members of the Advisory Board. '

Hall joins the board president and two other members in stepping away from their post at the humane society in the last two weeks.

“As of May 9, 2023, the Nevada Humane Society Board of Directors has accepted the resignation of CEO Greg Hall, effective immediately. Hall’s resignation follows recent allegations pertaining to the staff, resources and operations within this organization. The board is considering all allegations with the utmost gravity and enacting appropriate investigations, including a third-party investigation into animal welfare and husbandry practices scheduled to begin May 22." according to a statement from NHS.

During the May 9 board meeting, the board voted to approve the following actions:

• Third-party investigation of NHS' management practices to understand what breakdowns might exist and how to correct them.
• Review of staff compensation to identify opportunities to improve current compensations.
• An ad-hoc bylaw review committee to evaluate current bylaws for potential improvement.
• Search to identify a third-party service to enable staff and volunteers to make anonymous reports regarding ethics or compliance concerns directly to the board, to be reviewed at the board meeting directly following the reports.

The public meeting is still scheduled for May 15 at Reno City Hall at 9:30 a.m. and is open to the public.

News 4 first started sounding the alarm back in March 2021 when several former and current employees turned to us in hopes of bringing changes to the organization. Each of those we interviewed told us they've seen too many cases where cats or kittens did not get the kind of care they deserved.

Examples provided to us by those who worked behind the scenes at the Humane Society include a tiny, a one and a half pound kitten named Tootsie Pop which died after three surgeries for eye infections.

The animal was too small and weak, sources told us, to withstand that many surgical procedures.

We did ask management about the case and they tell us they looked into it and they stand behind the care Tootsie Pop received.

There's also the disturbing story of a cat in declining health which died, our sources say, laying in its own waste, too weak to move, after being left overnight unsupervised in the NHS clinic.

Another former employee describes the animal's final hours.

"They deemed it was okay to leave the cat overnight," she recalled. "That cat passed on his own covered in diarrhea and his own vomit, unable to move out of that waste."

In this case also, management says it stands by the actions of its medical staff.

But another cat which was treated for a leg injury after it was rescued from a house fire had to be euthanized when the unimaginable happened.

"Sadly the wrong leg was prepped and amputated," a former employee told us.

Management confirmed to us that in this case the veterinarian did in fact amputate the wrong leg and the animal had to be destroyed. The CEO says disciplinary action was taken against the veterinarian and the assistant who were involved.

"The animals under the Nevada Humane Society remain our first priority and we commit to ensuring their continued welfare. We appreciate your continued trust as we undertake the process of identifying and correcting any issues that may be identified through external audits within the organization,” NHS added.

But stories like these still haunt the employees, past and present, that we spoke with.