September 16, 2012 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Where he’s going: After nearly a decade leading the nation’s oldest animal-welfare charity, Ed Sayres, 63, is stepping down as president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals by the end of this year.
Why he’s leaving: Now that he has met the twin goals he came to New York in 2003 to achieve—building a better system to save homeless animals and getting law-enforcement officials to give animal cruelty greater priority—Mr. Sayres is ready for someone else to lead the charity.
Background: Mr. Sayres, whose first word as a toddler was “doggie,” has spent his 38-year career working in animal welfare. Before his tenure at ASPCA, which included a stint at the San Francisco chapter, he helped establish PetSmart’s corporate charity. He previously ran St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center, in Madison, N.J.
Biggest accomplishment: “Implementing the no-kill shelter model in New York City, which now has the lowest euthanasia rate in the country,” says Mr. Sayres. He believes that if this could be achieved in New York amid a bleak recession, “it can be done in any city anywhere.”
Biggest challenge: Building collaboration and trust between competing, and sometimes even hostile, animal-advocacy groups at a time when New York’s animal euthanasia rate was as high as 80 percent. He worked at “teaching them that, yes, sometimes someone will get a headline or a big donation that you don’t, someone else will get an award and you do not. But nonetheless, you need to keep the visual: Here is the daily list of dogs and cats citywide that will be euthanized in the next 24 hours if they don’t find homes. There is not time to get in a snit.”
Salary: $566,064 in 2011, according to the most recent figures provided by the organization.
What’s next: Mr. Sayres will spend the next year consulting for the ASPCA, aiding the transition to new leadership. After that, he says, “I want to look at some of the international endangered-species issues—jaguars, mountain gorillas. The urgency of some of those situations is the kind of challenge that I like.”
Dog person or cat person?: “I’m a dog person,” says Mr. Sayres, who owns one of each. “Though the first animal I rescued was a kitten and I love cats, dogs have the deeper part of my heart.”
