Second Chance Rescue Center Timeline

SIOUX FALLS, SD - People in the Sioux Falls area have one less place to take abandoned pets or stray animals.

This Sunday, the Second Chance Rescue Center will close its doors for good. That appears to be the final chapter in the center's five-year history that was always clouded with controversy.

Second Chance Rescue Center started to take in stray and rescued animals in early 2007, but starting those services was delayed when work to the shelter took longer than anticipated. In late December 2006, just days before the shelter would take in its first animal, more than a dozen people resigned from their positions with the center.

"I know I had my vested interest in Second Chance but felt that I was compelled to take the action that I did namely because of irreconcilable differences," Executive Director Scott Nelson said on December 28, 2008.

With Scott Nelson's resignation, founder Rosey Quinn would become the executive director.

"It doesn't affect us at all the city is well aware of everything that is going on and we're ready to go," Quinn said on December 28, 2008.

In January 2007, the shelter started to take in animals. At the time, it had room to hold 45 dogs and 45 cats.

Second Chance then operated mostly out of the headlines, until September 2009. That's when the center coordinated a raid of a Turner County dog breeder.

"The big issue is the conditions they were living in that seems to be the big issue right now. Bad conditions, unsafe conditions, basically for the animals to be in," Quinn said on September 2, 2009.

A week later, Dan Christensen was charged with 173 counts of inhumane treatment of an animal. But in July of 2010, those charges were dropped when a judge ruled that the raid was illegal and evidence from that raid was tossed out. That prompted Christensen to file a five million dollar lawsuit against Second Chance and several others.

In May of 2010, Quinn was fired from the center by the Board of Directors. Board members said they wanted to stop focusing on the past and look for the future.

"We're hoping that the public and everyone will get behind us and help us out with this," Treasurer Kathy Holm said on May 13.

But it appears that has not happened, and come Sunday, the doors of Second Chance will close for good.

The official release from Second Chance says financial and other issues are to blame for the closure. But the most recent manager of the center says Second Chance has been in financial troubles for several years and the closure isn't because of recent problems.