Aug. 16—SANBORN — A group seeking reforms at the SPCA of Niagara has taken its demands to the streets, staging protests Wednesday at the places of employment of two of the organization's board members as well as its Lockport Road shelter.

Wednesday afternoon, between six to a dozen protestors stood on the shoulder of the road in front of the shelter displaying signs that called for the resignations of the SPCA board and the firing of its executive director. The group has organized under the banner of a Facebook page titled Niagara SPCA Demand Reform.

It announced its existence in a half-page ad published in the Aug. 8 edition of the Gazette. That same day, the group also delivered a letter to each of the officers of the SPCA of Niagara board demanding their resignation.

"This is one of our next steps," Matt Frankino, who paid for the Gazette ad, said of the street protests.

Frankino also said that members of the group had filed complaints about the shelter's operations with the New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets and the New York attorney general. He did not specify what claims were made in the complaints.

The Department of Agriculture & Markets is the state agency that oversees the operations of animal shelters.

"It's on them (the Department of Agriculture & Markets and the attorney general) now to investigate (the shelter)," Frankino said. "If (SPCA Executive Director) Amy (Lewis) would have walked away, it would have been fine. But now we want her investigated."

Later Wednesday, Lewis said the shelter welcomes a review by the state agencies.

"We go through annual inspections by the Department of Agriculture & Markets," Lewis said. "So we'll let them inspect anything they want. We're not hiding anything."

Frankino said more pickets and protests are planned. As it turns out, this is his second campaign against the shelter.

In January 2022, Frankino led a similar campaign seeking to oust Lewis. A petition at the website Change.org, calling for the executive director's resignation gathered more than 1,000 signatures.

At that time, SPCA Board Chair Jennifer Pitarresi said the petition was part of a "social media campaign," conducted by disgruntled ex-employees of the shelter, who were taking advantage of Frankino's grief over the loss of a pet during a surgical procedure at the shelter.

Frankino, at that time, expressed unhappiness with the spay and neuter program as well.

In its newspaper ad, the group accused the shelter of not being transparent with the community and said the board "has not addressed community concerns about the animals currently and previously in their care." The group also claims that the shelter made dubious decisions to euthanize some dogs, doesn't do an adequate job of adopting out stigmatized breeds of dogs, restricts visits to its kennels and is making an ill-advised decision to no longer enter into service contracts with local municipalities.