In stark contrast to the Clallam County Humane Society of 2001, members of the newly reformed private animal welfare group were smiling and lighthearted Wednesday night.
County Administrator Dan Engelbertson, who pitched in his $15 to become a society member and stocked up on baked goods at a silent auction, observed the difference himself.
“It’s really so nice to see people here who are actually talking to one another,” Engelbertson told about 50 attending the society’s annual membership meeting at the Port Angeles Library that ended with the election of eight new board members.
Engelbertson said he recalls past annual meetings where he was the only one who showed up.
When things were at the height of divisiveness, Engelbertson said, “I can remember when there was this side of the room and this side of the room — and no one in between would speak.”
98 members
The regrouped Humane Society, with an entirely new board, had 98 members as of Wednesday night — down from 600 before the former board dissolved the society’s guild and a jail trustee overdosed on an euthanasia drug at the shelter.
That incident resulted in a cover-up that led to the firing and prosecution of three animal shelter employees, including its former director.
