The Worcester Animal Rescue League's success story leaves some nagging questions

By Noah R. Bombard

At first glance, the story of the Worcester Animal Rescue League looks like one of those troubled tales with a happy ending. The financially strapped 95-year-old animal shelter on Holden Street was close to shutting its doors a few months ago. When word got out, largely due to a Telegram & Gazette story in October, donations came flowing in. Now the shelter -- which saves thousands of dogs and cats in the Worcester area every year -- seems to be getting back on track.

But there's more to the story -- as well as unanswered questions that could leave donors wondering where their money has gone. Questions such as: Why did the organization claim a $20,000 embezzlement loss on its 2005 tax return? What happened to the League's $2 million endowment? Why was the former director asked to retire? And what skeleton is the League's current director hiding in her closet?

Financial woes

When it comes to saving the lives of dogs and cats and placing them in loving homes, the Worcester Animal Rescue League is, bar none, the largest driving force in Central Massachusetts. It's the place where abandoned animals get a second chance at life. But for years, it's been bleeding to death.

Executive Director Doreen Currier (pictured) hit the pavement last fall in a desperate plea to save the organization, which serves as a destination for stray or abandoned cats and dogs in 17 towns in Central Massachusetts and was financially falling apart. The reasons for the organization's decline are complex. There are, of course, the increased costs a large facility faces when energy and insurance prices are on the rise. Then there's the $2 million endowment the organization was once entrusted with that was supposed to provide a steady income from interest — that endowment, according to Currier, shrunk to around $60,000 as the organization failed to run fundraising campaigns and ate away at the principal to pay for everything from capital expenses to budget deficits.

Once Currier, who was promoted to executive director in 2005, got the word out about the League's financial crisis, the public's reaction was swift. Donations started coming in. Other organizations began partnering up and, according to Currier, 11 of the 17 towns that send animals to the League are even discussing establishing a financial arrangement to support the organization. Currently, the League bills towns quarterly for each dog brought in but there is no steady financial support from the towns to the shelter, which on any given day houses about 160 cats and dogs. Worcester, she says, is the largest user of the shelter, contributing 40 to 50 animals a month.

But there's more to this story than simply the need for more money. And there are questions about the League's past financial practices — as well as Currier herself — that could prove troubling to those wanting to support the vital work the League does.

The missing $20,000

Running the largest animal shelter in the region isn't cheap. Just take a look at the organization's numbers. According to their report to the Internal Revenue Service, the non-profit Animal Rescue League took in $609,408 in the form of grants, services and donations from the public in 2004, the most recent financial data available to Worcester Magazine. It's a hefty chunk of change — but not quite as hefty as its expenses. In that same year, the League claimed $865,000 in expenditures — leaving the organization running at a $255,645 deficit in 2004. And it's not the first year that's happened.

In 2003, the League ran at a $93,000 deficit; and in 2002, the reported deficit was $255,000. The 13 paid staff members necessary to run the busy shelter constitute a large part of the organization's budget — although none of them are very highly paid. Utilities are pricey, too — a typical electric bill can run $4,000 a month, Currier says. In the world of non-profit charities, every dollar counts. Therefore, one line item on the organization's 2005 tax return stands out: "Embezzlement loss, $20,000."

In the context of the League's overall budget, it's not a huge sum, but it's difficult to ignore. The idea that $20,000 worth of money intended to help save cats and dogs was stolen is information of interest to those who've donated to the organization in the past — and who may be considering doing so in the future. Currier says each animal costs an average of $200 during its stay at the shelter — by that reckoning, $20,000 could have cared for 100 animals.

Finding answers to this $20,000 question, however, isn't easy.

According to Warner Fletcher, president of the Worcester Animal Rescue League, the money was taken by an employee, the person is no longer there and the matter was handled internally. They money, Fletcher says, was never recovered.

Currier says she filed the embezzlement loss statement with the IRS for former executive director Harold Currier, who she was married to at the time. In addition, Currier says her ex-husband was asked to retire around the same time.

But Fletcher says the former director's retirement was an amicable agreement.

"We had a whole bunch of improvements to the facilities we had to make at the time due to a bunch of issues with a neighbor," Fletcher says. "Hal [Currier] came in and led us through that and his experience was more in the construction end. But he had not had the training nor had he spent his life dealing with animals. Doreen had [that experience] and we felt she had the skills we needed to move on. Hal didn't have those skills and was ready to retire."

Worcester Magazine was unable to locate Harold Currier for this story.

The term "embezzlement" is one Doreen Currier knows a bit about.

A hidden past

Ask Doreen Currier about her work experience and she'll tell you that she spent years in the hotel management business before coming to the Worcester Animal Rescue League. But there's a little piece to Currier's employment history sandwiched in between those two jobs that people working with her today don't know. That's because Currier has spent the past decade trying to put it behind her.

In the late '90s, Currier worked for Abbot Animal Hospital on East Mountain Street — until she was fired and charged by the Worcester County District Attorney with embezzling $9,000 from her employer. In July 2000, under her maiden name, Doreen Scallin, she admitted to sufficient facts and agreed to pay back the $9,000. In addition, the court ordered that she be placed on probation for one year and that she also perform 100 hours of community service.

For those who know Currier, trying to reconcile this information with the dedicated animal activist they know is difficult. Indeed, according to Dr. Wayne Rocheleau, who co-owned Abbot at the time of the incident, it was difficult to grasp then, too. According to Rocheleau, Currier was more than just a good employee.

"She was an exemplary employee," Rocheleau says. "One of the most trusted people that we had. We had actually paid for her to go to some in-depth educational seminars in Colorado to become a practice manager, leaving me and my partner to do what we wanted to do most, which is practice medicine and not have to deal with the business aspect of it."

But according to Rocheleau, after performing a surgery on a dog in 1999, he later went into the computer to contact the animal's owner for a follow-up call. It was then that he noticed the operation had been deleted from the system.

"We found one that was wrong and we went looking for others and found there were a significant number of accounts that had information deleted," says Rocheleau.

He says a security camera in the office put Currier at the computer during those times information was removed and showed her taking the cash from the cash register — essentially taking money and removing any evidence that it had been received. Rocheleau says the betrayal was devastating. The police were called and the D.A.'s office pressed charges.

But nearly eight years after agreeing to sufficient facts and repaying the money, Currier says she was innocent. When approached by Worcester Magazine, she was emotionally upset by the prospect of the matter becoming public. The court case was dragging on and she says she agreed to admit to the embezzlement and pay the money "to make it go away." The accusations, by people she says she regarded as friends, were tearing her apart.

"There was just nothing to fight with. I couldn't believe it was happening," Currier says, recalling the case today.

Currier also denies that only she and Rocheleau had the ability to delete information from the computer, arguing instead that someone else could have done it. She says she paid back the money on a credit card and is continuing to pay that card off today. However, Currier says she doesn't recall anything about the requirement of 100 hours of community service and never performed any. A court document dated July 6, 2000, shows the court rejecting Currier's terms of simply repaying the money and added the 100-hour community service requirement to the agreement. If there was a further change to the agreement, it's not listed in the case file at the Worcester District Court. The case was disposed of in July, 2002.

Kennel worker Linda Sustarova makes friends with a new arrival at the Worcester Animal Rescue League.

So how did someone who had once admitted to embezzling $9,000 from her employer wind up as the bookkeeper and later executive director of a major non-profit? At the time of the incident at Abbot, Currier was dating Harold Currier, executive director of the Worcester Animal Rescue League. Harold Currier brought Doreen on board and the two later married. Although there is no evidence connecting Doreen Currier's past with the League's financial troubles — or with the $20,000 embezzlement — for an organization that's had a history of financial woes, it's not the kind of background donors warm up to.

Fletcher, however, stands behind the organization's director.

"As far as I'm concerned, [this] was water under the bridge," Fletcher says about why the organization hired Currier despite her past admission of embezzlement. "There's no one who works harder that I know of or cares more about the business the League is in."

In fact, like several of the shelter's staff, Currier takes her work home with her — literally. She has adopted six cats from the shelter and is currently serving as a foster home for two more until homes can be found for them. Despite her past record, this is the person the people who know her say she is.

And there have been more positive aspects to her leadership than just a love for animals.

Positive changes

Although Currier's past has a pretty glaring blemish, it's also difficult to ignore changes she's implemented since becoming director that have helped to move the Animal Rescue League in the right direction. And most people connected with the League agree — she's been the best thing to happen to it in years.

Aside from finally getting the media to pay attention to the ailing shelter, Currier recently began a mailing campaign to let the public know about the League's work and ask for donations. Following the first effort, $100,000 in donations came in.

"I was able to save 10 different animals' lives with the donations from that first mailer that I wouldn't have been able to," Currier says.

According to Currier, part of the League's past problems has been a lack of fundraising — falling back instead on the organization's endowment. Under Currier, that's changing and the League has moved toward becoming self-sustaining.

And the director's improvements aren't solely on the financial front. Currier has been behind a major push to turn the shelter into what she says will be New England's first open-admission, no-kill shelter — meaning the shelter will never turn away an animal and will never put down a healthy adoptable pet — a daunting undertaking considering the shelter currently takes in around 9,000 animals a year. Although the shelter doesn't kill healthy, adoptable animals now, it does turn them away when it's at capacity. And becoming an open-admission, no-kill shelter could bring in more grant money, Currier adds.

The effort to help more animals received a major boost last year through a partnership Currier formed with the Second Chance Fund for Animal Welfare, a Bolton-based organization, which provides a number of services in addition to its fight to reduce the number of homeless cats in the area. Second Chance founder Jan Beckwith has been working with Currier in arranging pet adoptions, as well as helping people to keep their pets in the first place while offering spaying and neutering services to as many as 2,000 cats in the area every year. Together, the two organizations are starting to make a significant dent in saving animals in the Worcester area.

Beckwith's confidence in Currier is unshakable.

"In the last four years, the changes she has made have been phenomenal," says Beckwith about Currier's involvement at the League. "She is an incredible individual. She is tireless — the animals always come first. The staff adores her; I adore her."

And there are more improvements planned. Currier says she's working toward an arrangement where the League will partner with landlords to try to provide more pet-friendly housing. The League, she hopes, will be able to work with landlords by offering to insure a certain amount over any security deposit should an animal actually cause damage to an apartment. By doing this, she hopes more landlords will agree to accept pets.

A vital organization

Despite nagging questions about the
organization's past, there's little doubt about the key role the Animal Rescue League plays in not only providing homes for stray cats and dogs, but in also keeping them from roaming the streets.

Where would the 9,000 animals a year go if the Rescue League were to go under? No one knows. There aren't any shelters in the area with the capacity to absorb those numbers. Shelters in Sterling and Hopkinton are the closest, but they don't have anything near the capacity of the Worcester Animal Rescue League. Currier says she's been working with other organizations to utilize the Internet more, as well as conducting weekend adoption events at area Petco stores to move pets out of shelter cages and into people's homes. At one such event two weekends ago, 17 pets went home on a Saturday. And when a Burncoat Street fire left 16 people homeless in January, it was the Rescue League that took their pets in until the occupants could find new homes.

With the public becoming more aware of the League's vital work, it may have a better chance at shaping a more secure future — providing it can put the questions of the past to rest. o

Noah R. Bombard may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .