Members of the Animal Welfare League of Kosciusko County are rallying to force the Humane Shelter to open up its membership.

But the effort might be moot because the Humane Society plans to disband within a few months, said Humane Society spokesman Jim Butts.

Butts said the organization will cease to exist after a controversial $208,000 trust fund is established within a few months.

"At that point, the purpose of the Humane Society is over. We don't see any benefit in continuing," Butts said today.

He said he "sees no purpose" in re-opening the membership and re-generating interest.

Butts' strategy, though, could lead to a court battle and sparked an immediate strong reaction from veterinarian Richard Sasso, who founded the Humane Society in 1980 and is leading efforts to re-open membership.

"If he wanted to disband, he should have done it a long time ago," Sasso said.

"What he says doesn't hold any water," he said. "He's trying to dictate everything. It's not his to dictate.

"What he doesn't want is the bad publicity."

Sasso said he's prepared to go to court to block the Humane Society's intentions.

The fray is the newest development in an ongoing battle by former members who don't like what's happened to the society.

At one time, the Humane Society had a membership of about 100 people, including a handful of lifetime members.

But through a series of legal moves at the hands of Jim Butts, the group has been closed for nearly 10 years and now consists of Butts and two other people.

The organization's lone task in recent years has been distributing coloring books as part of an educational program.

AWL, with a growing membership of more than 100 people, has organized a petition drive that would force the society to open its membership and refocus its mission back to its original intentions.

AWL hopes to line up at least 1,000 names on the petition in hopes of convincing the Humane Society to change.

The petition takes direct aim at Butts, referring to him as a "dictator," and reads in part: "The Humane Society should be put back in the hands of the people as it was originally established: to prevent cruelty to animals, assist in population control programs, place animals for adoption (and) all activities that a humane society would and should be doing."

Although the Humane Society membership has been closed for nearly eight years, the issue recently surfaced after a local couple willed $208,000 to the society. People familiar with the couple, Frank and Virginia Putts, say the will was prepared nearly 15 years ago when the Humane Society was open and active.

The Humane Society has said it will put the money into a trust fund. Interest from the fund would be used for programs such as neutering, animal adoptions and and assistance to abandoned animals.

"The bottom line is that nobody was interested in this organization until there was a perception that we had money," Butts said.

"We are using that money for a proper purpose wholly consistent with what the Putts would want," Butts said.

But AWL members are not satisfied with the plan.

"This was a very, very beloved organization and he (Butts) has absolutely destroyed and strangled it," Sasso said. "We're not going to allow him to control and confuse the public."

Sasso takes exception to several points made in Butts' paid advertisement that appeared in the March 3 Times-Union outlining the Humane Society's perspective on the trust and the group's history.

In the letter, Butts claimed nobody showed an interest in being members in recent years. But Sasso has two letters that show otherwise. The letters from people asking the group to open membership resulted in a warning of legal action by the Humane Society.

Sasso said he doesn't believe the Humane Society is involved in any financial wrongdoing, but said he wants to look at its finances.

Butts said he has no interest in opening up financial records other than those available through the state.

The Humane Society was involved in a series of moves in the late 1980s in which it turned its animal control operations over to Dan Riffle and later shifted the property and all control over to the county.

The organization's original articles of incorporation stated its main purpose was to oversee the shelter. With the shelter no longer under its domain, Sasso contends the organization no longer truly has a purpose.

Membership and control of the board became smaller and more centralized through a series of meetings, some of which Sasso contends were secretive in nature.

Other members left the society because they were disillusioned by the direction of the organization.

"He closed the membership up slick as a whistle. I just don't understand it," said one AWL member who was active in the Humane Society years ago.

Existing Humane Society board members are Cathy Teghtmeyer and John Bauman.

Sasso also takes exception to Butts' claim that the society "used substantially all of its funds to make improvements to the shelter" following the shelter's transfer to the county.

Sasso contends the educational program has been nothing more than a "smoke screen" to keep the organization alive.

AWL's petition sheets were distributed late last week and will be solicited for about three weeks.

AWL formed in 1990 after the Humane Society closed its membership. Most of the members were from the Humane Society, but membership began to dwindle. The group reorganized in September 1997 with a new sense of enthusiasm, said Linda Mullins, current AWL board president.

Only about 10 people from the old Humane Society are involved in the new group.

"It's almost all new people who have seen that there is no form of animal welfare going on," Mullins said.

The group's main activity has been financial assistance for neutering pets for needy families.

AWL is also engaged in numerous fund-raising efforts and has generated more than $5,000 for future use. [[In-content Ad]]