The Cayman Islands Humane Society (CIHS) would like to clarify the recent events surrounding the volunteer agreement and general release that CIHS volunteers are being asked to sign.

The volunteer agreement and general release is an industry standard agreement that similar shelters have in place and is in accordance with good governance for non-profit organisations such as ourselves. Whilst the document did contain two insurance waivers, it was not in and of itself solely for insurance purposes. To prevent any misunderstanding in the future, volunteers will be asked to sign the volunteer agreement and general release along with a separate waiver specific for our insurance.

We regret that the purpose and intent of the volunteer agreement and general release have been misinterpreted and we apologise to all of our valued volunteers for any inconvenience this may have caused.

The Board of Directors

The Cayman Islands Humane Society

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EDITOR: Upon speaking to Carolyn Parker, President of CIHS about the above release, she said the CIHS had removed a few words from their volunteer agreement and moved the waiver to its own page. Those persons who had complained “have now signed it.”

“That now is hopefully over,” she said.  “We were just trying to place good governance for the shelter and replace our old volunteer agreement with one that had some teeth.

“I have a great new Board of Directors who are really sharp and understand why we must move to toward better control and management of the shelter.

“We currently have over 160 animals in the shelter and management of those numbers alone are a great strain for both the staff and the directors who work hard to raise the funds to feed, house, and pay vet bills.”