NIAGARA FALLS — Charges exploded on New Year’s Eve that the executive director of the SPCA of Niagara has presided over the killing of hundreds of animals.

John A. Faso is also accused of routinely failing to provide the minimal amount of medical care necessary to treat the injured or surrendered animals placed in his care.

From Oct. 1 to Dec. 15, the local SPCA euthanized 473 cats and 100 dogs, a staggering total of killings, according to sources familiar with the situation at the Lockport Road shelter.

“The SPCA is supposed to be a humane shelter and there is nothing humane about what’s going on there,” said SPCA board member Kathy Paradowski.

Faso also has presided over the mass departure or firings of most of the shelter’s veteran staff, leaving the operation functionally unable to meet its mission.

Contacted Saturday night, Faso said he had no comment and directed all questions to the SPCA board’s president, Bruno “Brandy” Scrufari. Efforts to contact Scrufari were unsuccessful Saturday.

Faso, a Grand Island resident, was hired in April 2010 to replace longtime SPCA Executive Director Al Chille, who had retired in a cloud of controversy over shelter operations. Faso had been the former Conference Center Niagara Falls director of special events and held a similar post with the Buffalo Sabres.

When he was hired, Faso admitted, “My animal care experience is very minimal.”

At the time, many members of the SPCA staff, who are charged with caring for the animals, questioned Faso’s qualifications and commitment. Former employees of the shelter, who spoke to the Gazette, say Faso has shown little interest in caring for the animals placed in the SPCA’s care.

“We gave him time to get his feet wet,” said Kari McAlee, the shelter’s former longtime veterinary technician. “Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out very well.”

McAlee and others tell horror stories of animals brought to the shelter for surrender or picked up on the streets and in need of medical care, who are then left to suffer in their cages.

In one case, a cat that appeared to be suffering from a broken jaw was brought in and allowed to stay for a week in a cage without treatment. Finally, a concerned staffer took the cat to an emergency veterinary clinic where it was treated and then returned to the shelter.

When the cat then developed a common respiratory infection, rather than provide further medication for the animal, Faso directed that it be euthanized.

“This is just one example of the neglect of animals in the shelter,” Paradowski, the board member, said. “I don’t believe that Mr. Faso has addressed the problem of euthanizing animals instead of caring for them.”

McAlee left the local shelter in November because she said she was convinced that Faso was “running the place into the ground.”

She was only recently replaced, and board members say Faso has used that as an excuse for the need to increase the number of euthanizations.

Other sources tell the Gazette that cats at the shelter have been injuring themselves in out-dated display cases and that a donor offered to fund the replacement of those cages. Faso, reportedly, refused to accept the donation.

At the time of his hiring, SPCA Board President Bruno “Brandy” Scrufari said that despite Faso’s lack of animal care experience, he had “fundraising skills, which we need to run this facility well.”

The board at that time, rewarded Faso with a contact that pays him $70,000 a year. That was a $17,000 pay raise over Chille’s annual salary.

Yet, while Faso has reaped the cash windfall, he has reportedly told board members and others that the local SPCA will “never be a no-kill shelter because it’s too expensive.”

Paradowski said she and other members of the board are asking SPCA members and donors to call for Faso, and some board members who support him, to step down.

“A number of board members have concluded he’s not right for this job,” Paradowski said, “But he has some political connections that have kept him employed.”

Contact reporter Rick Pfeiffer

at 282-2311, ext. 2252.