Texas Spca President and CEO Karen Fröhlich, who was at the center of controversial decisions to end animal welfare activities in Dallas, immediately resigned from the nonprofit.

“We respect Karen’s decision and thank her for her seven years of service to our organization,” Judith Dumont, vice president of organizational development, wrote Wednesday morning, notifying volunteers of Fröhlich’s departure.

In early October, Fröhlich notified the Dallas Police Department that the SPCA would no longer be able to conduct forensic examinations for the DPD Animal Cruelty Unit. Last month, the SPCA closed a low-cost veterinary clinic that had been operating in south Dallas for 19 years.

Both decisions received public attention through my reporting on exactly what services SPCA provides in my hometown. Until I raised this issue with Fröhlich, the SPCA website continued to carry the message that its “Animal Cruelty Investigation Unit is focused on the city of Dallas.”

A few days after my columns were published, local philanthropist Ian Rees-Jones, long featured prominently in the local SPCA’s branding, was removed from the nonprofit’s website and promotional materials.

The Rees-Jones name remains on the front of the building, but according to internal messages I shared with me last week: “At the request of a sponsor, the name of our facility at 2400 Lone Star Drive will now be called Dallas Animal Care Center. We will no longer refer to the building inside or outside as JRJ. We are working to fulfill the donor’s request quickly and respectfully.”

Rees-Jones, through her family’s charitable foundation, has long been a major contributor to the Texas SPCA. I called Rhys-Jones and sent an email through her foundation on February 13 requesting an interview with a philanthropist, but received no response.

The internal memorandum to remove the Rhys-Jones name is one of many documents, records, and updates shared with me over the past three weeks by staff and volunteers concerned about the Texas SPCA’s decisions.

Another major donor, Stacey Kivowitz, contacted me after my first column and said that for some time she had been deeply concerned about the direction the nonprofit was taking.

Kivovitz, who served for many years on the board of the Texas SPCA, said the Stacey and Donald Kivovitz Charitable Foundation has given “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to the nonprofit.

Among the projects funded by the foundation were two mobile surgical vans equipped to provide neutering and neutering procedures and basic veterinary services.

Fröhlich’s departure is “a huge victory for the four-legged people of Dallas,” Kivovitz told me Wednesday morning. “This organization must regain its footing in its mission of saving lives.”

Don Lindsley, SPCA’s vice president of finance, will serve as the nonprofit’s interim director during the search for a new president and CEO.

In September, Froehlich withdrew the SPCA from its long-standing agreement with the Dallas police to help with animal cruelty cases after negotiations stalled over the nonprofit’s demand for payment for forensic services it previously provided free of charge.

She also told Dallas assistant chief executive Lonzo Anderson that the SPCA would no longer provide housing and care for animals involved in these cases.

The SPCA’s decision left detectives, according to an internal DPD memo, without the support and expertise needed to get justice for abused and neglected dogs and cats.

Separately, on January 13, the SPCA closed its Mary Spencer Spay/Neuter & Wellness Clinic, which has been providing free, low-cost pet care to south Dallas residents for 17 years.

Located in a city-owned building near Interstate 35E and West Ledbetter Drive, 4830 Village Fair Drive is in what is otherwise a veterinary wilderness in Dallas.

During my 40-minute interview with Fröhlich on Jan. 24 about the DPD’s anti-cruelty work and the closing of the Village Fair, she said that people in need of the clinic’s services can easily get to the SPCA headquarters 8 miles north for help.

After I wrote that the Dallas Police were left without a partner in their work to combat animal cruelty, Carrollton-based Operation Kindness partnered pro bono with the department to meet its forensic needs.