KING COUNTY, Wash. -- It's another black eye for the King County animal shelter, and this time it's from the veterinarians who volunteered to help.

Those vets have quit, calling the care at King County Animal Care and Control "absolute malpractice or neglect." The new shelter management is stunned by the allegations.

At first glance, a lot at King County's Kent animal shelter has changed. There are new, more spacious cat cages, and dog runs are cleaned every day -- all according to protocols established by an outside university.

There are new procedures in place that keep the cat isolation room truly isolated. And a brand new management team was brought in to clean things up.

"We changed out over 110 cages," says interim manager Wendy Keller, "and as you can see they're much larger and that's an improvement in overall health."

All that action came after a pair of reports last winter blasted the shelter and called the care "deplorable." Eight veterinarians volunteered to help. Now, they've quit.

Dr. Brad Crauer, who started the volunteer vets, says even with the changes, the care of the animals there amounts to "malpractice or neglect."

Keller says she was caught off-guard.

"I was stunned," she said.

In their resignation letter, the vets stated they saw "no changes made", that they were met with a "pervasive negativity.... and suspicion, hostility and divisiveness." They also said "many at the shelter are in denial and think everything is fine."

Dozens of extra cats are still housed outside in some of those old "too small" cages. And isolation of dogs is still an issue.

Brownie, a 5-month-old puppy, survived parvovirus and is now healthy and adoptable. But because he could still be contagious for a few more months, he's out in the back lot and far from the view of a potential new family.

Shelter management acknowledges there is still much to do. And now they'll have to do it without the help of those eight volunteer vets.

The King County shelter also has a plan for all those cats still in cages outside. They'll have a new modular building in place by the middle of next month to get those cats inside before cold weather hits.