A Yukon Supreme Court judge has ordered the Humane Society Yukon to reinstate banned members and accept new memberships from anyone else who wants to join.

Justice Leigh Gower ruled Friday afternoon that the humane society, which runs the Mae Bachur Animal Shelter, must hold an annual general meeting and elections Thursday to replace its current board of directors.

The decision ends a lengthy fight over management of the shelter.

The crowd in the courtroom Friday broke into applause after Gower's decision was read.

The judge ruled the society breached its duties under the Societies Act a number of times, including by:

• improperly denying memberships;

• refusing to act on a petition calling for a new election;

• failing to provide a membership list; and

• failing to act on orders by the territory's registrar of societies.

The case landed in Supreme Court after the humane society refused to follow similar orders from the territory's registrar of societies.

This is only the second time in its history that the registrar has had to go to court to have orders enforced. The last time was in 1994.

Much of last week's court case surrounded whether the board had the authority to kick members out of the society, in some cases banning them from the shelter.

In court, 23 memberships were in question.

Some had been denied while others were "on hold” pending the judge's decision.

Without those, the humane society has a membership of about 50 people, the court heard.

Each member will get a vote in Thursday's elections.

A lawyer for the current board argued they should be able to screen possible members to ensure they would act in the society's best interest.

Rebeka Breder pointed to many newspaper articles, letters to the editor and posts on social media sites where these former members were critical of the current board.

The government countered that the ability to screen is nowhere in the humane society's bylaws.

In the end, Gower ordered the members to be reinstated and any pending memberships be processed in time for the AGM.

He also ordered that any adult willing to pay his or her dues at the time of the meeting be accepted as a member.

Thursday's AGM will be held at 7 p.m. at the Thomson Centre's Fireside Room. The building is adjacent to Whitehorse General Hospital.

The registrar is to appoint a neutral person to chair the event.

The judge also ordered the board's current president, Shelley Cuthbert, to hand over all financial information she has to the newly-elected officials.

The registrar's investigation found that financial statements for the last fiscal year had apparently not been completed even in draft form.

Those financial records are supposed to be available in time for the AGM, but may be a challenge.

At Friday's hearing, the court heard the records had not yet been completed by a newly-hired accountant.

Even with the Supreme Court case in the past, the 14-year-old shelter is far from out of trouble.

Unless more money is found soon, it will be lucky to pay staff through the end of the month, the court heard.

Five more employees have lost their jobs, bringing the total of laid-off staff to nine.

The Tlingit Street facility is no longer accepting animals.

It's currently having nearly $40,000 in funding withheld by the Yukon government until it clears up the problems with the registrar.

In the past, Cuthbert has said it costs approximately $450,000 annually to run the shelter.

Among those costs are $20,000 a month in staff wages, $4,000 a month in building utilities and $5,000 a month in vet care bills.

The current board members have also been charged individually in territorial court under the Societies Act.

That case is scheduled to be in court later this week.

Gower read his order in court and told the lawyers he expects to release written reasons later.