Tony and Elaine La Russa co-founded ARF when he was the manager of the Oakland As in the early 1990s to help find loving and permanent homes for stray and abandoned pets.
, rife with bullying, favoritism, retaliation, and ageist and racist comments. In April 2021, La Russa initially joined with his wife, ARF co-founder Elaine La Russa, and daughters Bianca and Devon La Russa, in resigning from the board of directors, saying they could no longer “support or participate in ARF’s current leadership.
”, longtime ARF executive director Elena Bicker and board chairman Greg McCoy, telling this news organization that they had been unfairly targeted for complaints. He also said he would continue to support ARF and its mission, as he had done the past 30 years. It was not immediately clear if La Russa or other family members returned to work with ARF in some capacity over the past two years. In its announcement Monday, ARF also did not refer to those leadership issues as a reason for the parting of ways, only saying that the change marks “ARF’s evolution and response to today’s challenges in animal welfare.” The announcement also referred to ARF as “an independent entity” and suggested that the La Russa name eventually would be dropped from the organization’s title. “In the coming year ARF will create a new brand to reflect the organization’s values, mission, and vision,” the statement said. “We take this path with gratitude for all that the La Russa family has contributed to ARF’s advancement and extend our warmest wishes for success in their future endeavors,” CEO Susan Lee Vick said in the statement. “At the same time, we’re tremendously excited about ARF’s expansion and new directions.” McCoy, the board’s president, also said, “This organization has never been stronger. We look forward to ARF’s next lifesaving, life-enriching innovations.” Vick replaced Bicker as the organization’s top executive in January after Bicker announced her retirement. In a brief statement, ARF’s marketing manager Cole Kuiper said Bicker’s departure didn’t have anything to do with the leadership controversy two years earlier. “Elena Bicker’s retirement was solely related to the fact she and her husband both planned to retire in 2022,” Kuiper said.in October that he was retiring from his job as manager for the Chicago White Sox, Kuiper said. Then the oldest manager in Major League Baseball, the 78-year-old said he was retiring for good, citing health concerns that kept him out of the dugout for the final five weeks of the season. La Russain October that there had been an issue with a pacemaker he had implanted the previous February. During those weeks away from the game, a second issue was diagnosed, EPSN said. La Russa previously retired from baseball after leading the Cardinals to a win at the 2011 World Series and refocused his attention on ARF, at one point volunteering up to 25 hours a week, according to a 2018 IRS financial disclosure form. La Russa’s origin story with ARF and his family’s dedication to the organization helped grow it into a mainstay of the East Bay nonprofit community. The La Russa family founded the organization after a stray cat wandered onto the playing field during a 1990 game between the Oakland A’s and the New York Yankees. After La Russa and his wife learned the cat would likely be euthanized because the East Bay didn’t have a no-kill shelter, they established an organization to rescue dogs and cats from high-kill shelters and help them be adopted into loving homes. The organization’s mission and La Russa’s connections won ARF support from enthusiastic volunteers and famous friends in sports and entertainment, who helped with annual fundraisers like its annual Stars to the Rescue. ARF soon grew grew into a preeminent Bay Area animal welfare nonprofit, responsible for more than 47,000 animal adoptions and operating out of a gleaming animal shelter, veterinary hospital and community center in Walnut Creek. In 2019,
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