‘Animal Rescue’ star quit over Traveller threats

An animal welfare officer — a star of the RTÉ TV series Animal Rescue — revealed yesterday how she had to quit her job after receiving threats and verbal abuse from Travellers.

Janine Zanon, 56, claimed her complaints were ignored, she had not been properly supported or listened to by her employers, the Galway Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and had, in effect, been constructively dismissed.

The GSPCA contested her unfair dismissal claim and insisted it had gone to significant lengths to assist her deal with her difficulties in the job.

Ms Zanon, originally from Paris, had been a central character in Animal Rescue, the fly-on-the-wall documentary series.

She told the Employment Appeals Tribunal sitting in Galway she had been employed full-time by the GSPCA in 2006 and part-time from 2009 when the recession hit. She left the job in late February or early March of 2012 suffering from depression.

“I was threatened by Travellers over one case I can remember,” said Ms Zanon. “They knew where I was living and they followed into a bog to get an animal. Then they cornered me in the van. They threatened me and I got panic attacks.”

She said there was no grievance procedure in the GSPCA. When she spoke to the association chairperson, Helen Cooke, about being in dangerous situations, she had advised her at all times to “get out of there”.

The tribunal heard that a field officer was later employed by the GSPCA to work with Ms Zanon, but after an initial period, he had refused to continue.

Ms Cooke said that Ms Zanon was passionate about the animals, but on occasion she had to intervene to speak to people she was dealing with in order to defuse situations in which Ms Zanon had become involved. She found Ms Zanon had a lot of problems, including money. Her health was not good and the job had become too much for her.

Ms Cooke said she was constantly trying to support her and had suggested that she take time off when she became stressed.

During one of Ms Zanon’s last jobs, Ms Cooke got a call from gardaí to get her to ask Ms Zanon to leave a tense situation involving Travellers.

When she left in early March, she said she wasn’t coming back. Her job was still open for her for months afterwards, Ms Cooke said.

The tribunal will rule at a later date.