Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I read the article in the March 12 Gazette-Journal concerning the GMS and would like to relate a personal experience involving this shelter. I have been a rescuer in Northern Virginia for 15-20 years and pull from five states. I am involved with three rescues, networking to save 200+ cats from GMS within a six-month period. 

In July 2014, I was in Gloucester participating with a mission program. I asked to tour the shelter and retrieve cats. I waited in the “cat mall” and eventually, the “shelter manager” surfaced. 

During the tour, I inquired of the euthanasia rate, and she abruptly replied, “I have been instructed by [board president] Richard Crowder to insist that you leave the shelter”; threatening to notify the sheriff. I requested to speak with Crowder, but was told he was not in the shelter (so, evidently, advanced orders were given, even though my tour was a “spur of the moment” request?). Her...