Legacy under attack: Chilliwack Animal Safe Haven charity members battling attempted hostile takeover by Richmond interlopers

Cat rescue's board of directors compromised by folks from 100 kilometres away & sights on a $2.5-million property

An increasingly acrimonious fight about cats is underway in Chilliwack. 

At stake: a multi-million-dollar five-acre property, one great woman's legacy, and the mental health of people who have been bullied, fired, or driven to resign.

Ena Vermerris founded the Chilliwack Animal Safe Haven nearly a quarter century ago. She passed away at 86 in August 2023, already displeased by the direction her organization was moving – becoming a bureaucracy and losing focus on the cats. 

What's happening in 2026 is worse by orders of magnitude.

It's hard to pin down exactly when the meltdown began, but after a new board of directors was installed in September 2025, things went badly fast. Veterinarian and vice-president Nicolette Joosting resigned, citing a board that had become "progressively less professional and more dysfunctional." Then vet tech Chloé MacBeth resigned after being bullied by the board. 

"I have never in my professional life been spoken to in such a disrespectful and aggressive manner," she wrote in her resignation letter. 

The Board president resigned. Staff were fired. The assistant shelter manager was demoted in what arguably amounted to constructive dismissal. And the shelter manager who had run the facility successfully for four years, Christy Moschopedis, went on medical leave because of the stress.

All of this appears to trace back to those left on the Board inviting a fox into a henhouse.

Meet Eyal Lichtmann.

Echoes from Richmond

Those who witnessed what Lichtmann did after taking the reins at the Richmond Animal Protection Society (RAPS) a decade ago see direct parallels, and they are warning Chilliwack what's coming.

Carol Reichert founded RAPS in 1989. Like Ena Vermerris, she ran it as a true charity – hands-on, blood-sweat-and-tears, everything from trapping cats to serving as CEO – until stepping down in 2014. At its peak, RAPS had up to 800 animals in a well-maintained sanctuary and held the City of Richmond's animal shelter contract.

Lichtmann became RAPS CEO in late 2015. Problems surfaced almost immediately. Board members resigned. Allegations of workplace bullying prompted a protest in front of the RAPS animal hospital in October 2020. 

"Over the last five years there's been excessive firing and bullying," Reichert told the Richmond News. In RAPS's first 20 years there had been one dismissal. In five years under Lichtmann, there were several dozen, she said.

Former RAPS board member, journalist, and newspaper publisher Martin van den Hemel spoke with Something Worth Reading this week. He admits he was initially fooled by Lichtmann, something that still bothers him.

"In my entire career, Eyal is the only person who set off zero alarm bells," he said. It wasn't until the third or fourth concerning incident – questionable accounting, allegations of in-camera coercion on legal matters, sketchy fundraising – that van den Hemel finally understood what Reichert had been saying for years.

"She was screaming bloody murder about Eyal for a long time and wasn't getting traction. 

“Eyal did what he did at RAPS. Who knows what he's going to do in Chilliwack?”

What is happening now?

Since the new year, the Haven has seen the kind of intimidation that became normalized at RAPS. After the most recent board was constituted in late 2025 and early 2026, Joosting, MacBeth, and board president Camilla Coates all resigned. Secretary-treasurer Katherine Lemond became board president.

In January, Moschopedis couldn't take it anymore and went on stress leave. The assistant manager was demoted. A new interim executive director, Bernadette Maguire, was hired and began stripping access to the Haven’s social media accounts to anyone raising concerns, liberally blocking and deleting comments on posts. Staff were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements. One employee who asked to take an NDA home over the weekend to review it was fired without cause the following Monday.

Then came a four-page letter, dated Feb. 3, 2026, sent to Moschopedis while she was on medical leave. Signed by Lemond on behalf of the board – and obtained by Something Worth Reading from a lawyer – the letter is a laundry list of accusations without evidence or basis: destroying records, diverting funds, breaching confidentiality, interfering with governance. The letter even implies Moschopedis was being surveilled during her leave, noting she had been spotted trapping cats for spay/neuter, something she has done for years, both before and during her time at the Haven. She was ordered not to speak to any single person about anything related to the organization.

Without member consultation or a proper election, on Jan. 21 three new board members were appointed: People who do not live in Chilliwack and who have ties to RAPS. With three original board members gone, the board was down to two. The remaining members appointed three interim directors, some of whom stepped down from the RAPS board to come onto the Haven’s. Within weeks, another four were appointed without member consultation or a proper election.

Among the new appointments: former RAPS board member Ayelet Cohen-Weil, described by van den Hemel as a Lichtmann loyalist; animal rights lawyer Rebeka Breder, a former RAPS board member and RAPS's own legal counsel; and longtime RAPS supporter Chris Kamachi. None of them live in Chilliwack. Three local residents were also added to round out the nine-member board thereby contravening the bylaws that only allow for appointments to replace existing seats.

On Jan. 28, the board announced Lichtmann's role as an "experienced organizational consultant." A week later, they issued a release claiming the new leadership had initiated "enhanced financial controls, governance policies, and operational review processes” while accusing Society members, volunteers, and staff of trying to remove a "duly elected" board. 

In fact, only two of the nine board members were elected by Society members. The rest were appointed by the RAPS-loyalists.

The irony is stark. The same accusations the Board levels at Haven staff – financial irregularities, interference, misuse of resources – were complaints that drove mass resignations at RAPS years ago.

Society members issued their own release in response, calling for transparency and documenting the toll. 

"Staff have been taking medical leave, terminations without due cause, and uncertainty of the future of the Society."

An informal public meeting was held Feb. 17 at Evergreen Hall, moderated by RAPS-friendly board member Cohen-Weil. As Society members in the audience began asking questions, some noticed a man on the stage who didn't appear to be a board member. And he was the one answering questions, speaking on the Board's behalf.

It was Lichtmann.

Rocky, Rhoda, and a pattern of troubling fundraising

Van den Hemel and former Richmond city councillor Ken Johnston left the RAPS board in 2021 after Lichtmann mischaracterized their departures as a disagreement over organizational strategy. They pushed back publicly.

"The public deserves complete transparency and accountability from RAPS," they said in a statement. "Sadly, the inaccurate statements made by RAPS management about our resignations is entirely consistent with the troubling behaviour we witnessed while on the board."

Two fundraising controversies stood out.

In 2019, a homeless man's dog named Rocky was injured in a car crash. RAPS ran a fundraising campaign and raised thousands of dollars, but Lichtmann never approved the release of the funds for Rocky's care. The dog died. Van den Hemel learned this from veterinarians he trusted implicitly. He wanted to find the Rocky’s owner to explain what had happened, but couldn't locate him due to his lack of a fixed address.

Then came Rhoda. Robyn Wilson's nine-year-old Chihuahua-mix was nominated for free in-house vet care at the RAPS animal hospital and was diagnosed with an extremely low heartbeat. She needed a $10,000 pacemaker so RAPS ran a fundraiser. 

Between December 2020 and March 2021, Wilson knew of family and friends who had donated thousands of dollars, but not only couldn't she find out how much had been raised, she was told the campaign "wasn't going well."

When she went to the Richmond News, Lichtmann suggested the dog’s owner was a "crazy animal person." 

"She wants to save her dog and I understand that. We get a lot of crazy animal people doing different things when they're distraught."

After the story ran, RAPS then admitted $5,500 had been raised – the first figure Wilson had ever been given – and issued a public apology. To add insult to injury, RAPS had planned to send Rhoda to a Vancouver facility that didn't even have a cardiologist capable of performing the pacemaker procedure.

What's next

An emergency general meeting (EGM) has been scheduled for March 23, at which members seek to remove the board entirely. Somewhat bafflingly, RAPS responded by launching a membership drive in Richmond, urging RAPS members to join the Chilliwack Animal Safe Haven Society and vote to keep the current board in place.

"When animals are in trouble, RAPS has a duty to assist," reads the Feb. 13, 2026, post on the RAPS website.

In response, local Chilliwack members are engaging in a membership drive of their own to ensure residents from the other side of the Lower Mainland don’t interfere in this local conversation.

The more plausible explanation for RAPS to take over the Haven, according to those watching closely, is their five-acre Chilliwack property, valued at approximately $2.5 million. One theory is that RAPS management sees an opportunity to build another money-making pet hospital there, much like the animal hospital that now generates most of RAPS's revenue in Richmond.

Near the end of Reichert's tenure, RAPS cared for up to 800 animals with roughly 18 full-time and six part-time employees and a cadre of volunteers, much how Ena Vermerris ran the Chilliwack Animal Safe Haven for years. Today, RAPS handles maybe half that number of animals in a sanctuary some say has become run down. They lost the municipal shelter contract, focused as they are on the millions of dollars made via the animal hospital. RAPS employs 77 full-time and 31 part-time staff. Multiple employees earn six-figure salaries with at least one, hopefully a veterinarian and not Lichtmann, earns more than $200,000, according to numbers they are required to disclose to the federal government.

Ena Vermerris ran the Haven in Chilliwack for years, helping thousands of animals, spaying and neutering more than 8,500 cats, funding food and medication for pet owners in need, entirely with volunteers, never taking a dime for herself.

Lichtmann did not respond to an emailed request for an interview. Neither did Lemond or anyone else from RAPS current management.

The Chilliwack Animal Safe Haven's emergency general meeting is March 23, 2026. Chilliwack animal lovers have been warned.

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Paul J. Henderson
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