Shelter director is fired

SPANISH FORK — The director of the South Utah Valley Animal Shelter has been fired over recent employee mistakes resulting in the erroneous euthanasia of six dogs.

The decision to fire Shirley Bybee was made Monday evening in a closed-door meeting of the board of directors of the South Utah Valley Animal Services Special Service District, which operates the shelter.

Bybee was informed of the board's decision Tuesday morning and left the shelter shortly afterward, said John Borget, Provo's representative on the special service district board.

Former director Mike Morgan has been named interim director until a permanent replacement is hired. At the request of the board, Morgan returned to the shelter earlier this month to assist Bybee in training employees and finding ways to improve procedures.

"It's been a tough period, and it was a real difficult decision," Borget said. "In an effort to improve conditions and operations at the shelter, we felt we needed to make a change."

The board also has announced a staffing increase effective July 1. The budget for fiscal year 2006-07 approved last week includes $47,600 to fund a second full-time animal technician and a fourth part-time attendant and increases all part-time employees' hours from 20 to 25.

"We're not saying there's just one problem," Borget said. "There were multiple problems. We think that one of the components was staffing."

Bybee had been the Spanish Fork shelter's director since Feb. 2, when south Utah County cities participating in the special service district took over operations from the county.

She and the shelter had come under fire over three cases of mistaken euthanasia in the past five months.

Calls to Bybee for comment Tuesday were not immediately returned. After this month's most recent fatal error, Bybee told the Deseret Morning News she accepted full responsibility for mistakes made by her employees.

"It still comes back to me," she said. "It's my responsibility that things go smoothly."

The first reported case of mistaken euthanasia under Bybee's watch happened in February, when a volunteer from an Orem-based rescue group said four dogs she was planning to place in homes were euthanized.

In that case, employees did not note the rescue group's plans to take the dogs in the paperwork and instead attached notes to the animals' cages, shelter workers said. Those notes mistakenly were removed.