Dutchess County SPCA Executive Director Resigns

The executive director at the Dutchess County SPCA stepped down. The nonprofit also fired back over allegations that over 72 animals were wrongly put to sleep.

On Tuesday, the Board of Directors of the Dutchess County SPCA announced that Donna Angiolillo resigned as the Executive Director effective immediately.

As the nonprofit looks for her replacement, Angiolillo will provide consulting support during the transition period.

In a statement DCSPCA Board President Wayne Mabey thanked Angiollio for her time as a board member and as the executive director. He added that allegations brought against the DCSPCA from “disgruntled former employees, cast a negative cloud over the organization, making it increasingly difficult for her to continue in her role as executive director.”

This fall, Dutchess County Animals Deserve Better sent a letter to the DCSPCA board, volunteers, donors and the press claiming at least 27 dogs and 45 cats were euthanized since Donna Angiolillo assumed the role of executive director of the DCSPCA.

On Facebook Mabey denied the claims.

“They even created a Facebook page filled with ‘fake news’ designed to elicit sympathetic reactions from well-meaning animal lovers throughout the Hudson Valley,” he wrote. “They carefully crafted a false storyline that had people believing that DCSPCA had suddenly veered from its mission of the last 145 years and was indiscriminately killing dogs and cats without good reason. Nothing could be further from the truth. ”