The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is in chaos because it can’t find a new leader to replace outgoing president Ed Sayres — despite the $555,824-a-year salary for the job.

Sources tell us ASPCA board members, who include Yankees president Randy Levine, Broadway scion Jimmy Nederlander, Post columnist Cindy Adams, Arriana Boardman and Tracy Maitland, are frustrated with the slow progress in finding a new head after Sayres announced in July that he would step down and leave at the end of 2012.

One source said, “Even after a seven-month search by recruitment agency Korn/Ferry, the board has not been able to appoint a new president because certain socialites, who spend all year worrying what they’ll wear to the ball, don’t agree with the business people on the board who want to get things done.”

After certain board members blocked excellent potential candidates including Bill Thompson’s wife, Elsie McCabe Thompson, and Hearst publisher Valerie Salembier, the board is so divided, some key members are threatening to quit.

We’re told Sayres was pushed out following a series of missteps including the ASPCA campaign against horses and carriages while supporting the Hampton Classic jumping horse show.

Another source said, “Ed was pushed to resign. He wasn’t doing what needs to be done. Some of us on the board care only for animals, we are not interested in the social aspect. It is time to get someone to move the ASPCA forward in a modern world.”

An ASPCA rep said that under Sayres, the organization has upped its “fight to end homelessness and cruelty toward animals, operating and funding some of the most effective welfare programs in the country . . . The ASPCA board is unified in its approach . . . to select the best new CEO. This process continues, and we won’t comment until it is complete.”