Page 4 The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch November 8, 2013 Shelter Director Stepping Down Amid Controversy By SHAWN J. SOPER NEWS EDITOR ########### In Gratitude To America’s we are offering a complimentary lunch to all military veterans on Veterans Day VETERANS VETERANS DAY - MONDAY, NOV. 11 Anytime Between 11 a.m. & 3 p.m. 60th Street In The Bay 410-524-5500 www.fagers.com ########### WEST OCEAN CITY – Amid hints of coercion, long-time Worcester County Humane Society Director Kenille Davies last weekend announced she was stepping down after 37 years on the job at the West Ocean City facility during an impassioned speech at an annual fundraising dinner. Davies announced last Friday at the dinner at Adolfo’s she was stepping down as director of the Worcester County Humane Society but made it clear it was a not a voluntary decision. According to Davies, two Board of Directors members and their attorney are forcing her out and replacing her with an unnamed individual at a salary of $50,000. Several sources close to the situation maintained this week an internal in- KENILLE DAVIES vestigation into the shelter’s finances revealed numerous concerns and serious questions, and, as a result, Davies has reportedly been offered a two-year severance package to retire at the end of the month. No specific allegations of any wrongdoing by the long-time director have been made public. The humane society’s Board of Directors declined to comment on the situation this week, and attorneys have reportedly been hired by Davies as well as board members. Davies told those assembled for the annual fundraising dinner that she is essentially being forced to step down by the board. “This is what happens when you have a bunch of a certain kind of people who want you out and they can afford to pay you to get out,” Davies told those assembled for the fundraising dinner. “I have been forced to leave as of Nov. 30 because I don’t have the money to get a lawyer involved.” During the dinner, Davies did not go into the circumstances surrounding her decision, but hinted it was not of her own volition. “When you get a seven-page letter of slander from two people and a lawyer from the other side of the bridge and the last line of the paragraph reads ‘when you leave the shelter, please don’t harm the animals,’ that hurts me more than anything because I can’t imagine myself ever harming an animal,” she said. “That’s the kind of commotion I’ve gotten from these people and I hope the public here can help in some way, because I feel sorry if that shelter is going to be run like that. It’s just awful. I can’t describe it in any other way than that because I did it for the love of the animals. I SEE PAGE 38