[Fegemiembendy]

And now this "sanctuary" tragedy:

Attorney: Sanctuary Owner Left $575,000 For Animals, Not Self - West Palm Beach News Story - WPBF West Palm Beach

I've been very concerned about both of these groups for awhile but every timed I voiced my concerns, I was never taken seriously. I really hope these tragedies are a wake up call to the rescue community.

This does not surprise me as it happened in Georgia a few years ago. A woman based out of Dallas, Georgia ran a horse "rescue." Yes, she was licensed with the State. No, she was not 501(c)3, but she told people if they donated money, she would give them a form for her taxes because she was 501(c)3.

Needless to say her "rescue" was 4 acres on the side of a hill with muddy areas full of roots, debris, etc. Multiple horses crammed into these "pastures" and a known-aggressive (as in sending several people to the hospital) wandering at-will because "she could."

After our visit to the facility (per request of a licensed rescue group that had filed a complaint with the State,) we were shocked.

She had THOUSANDS of dollars worth of "Parelli" equipment people had "donated" to her, and she had sob stories for all of her "rescue" horses. She had us going...until her rescue was shut down...and horses were being euthanized/given away on CL left and right before the State got there.

Not only had people left her money in their wills for her "rescue," but four of the horses that were there were sent there for "retirement." (When will people actually VISIT these places before sending their animals?!) These same four horses were to be pasture horses, etc. Needless to say, three were sent out on breeding leases, and the one was leased out to a riding stable for lessons. I don't know what the owner ended up doing or if she got her horses back, but the rescue director's story on those were as follows:

There was this man in North Georgia that had these four horses. He had AIDS, and he died. He left us these horses in his will. We had to back our trailer up to a barn and scare them into it as they hadn't been handled. Through Parelli (big name Kool-Aid 'trainer') we were able to gentle them.

BZZZZT...wrong! Two of the horses were retired show horses, and the other two were broodmares.

[insoneeri]

We also had a cruelty case in Polk County with over 200 dogs mostly Pomeranians and Chihuahuas and some goats. And one in Chipley area near the panhandle with pit bulls (supposedly fighting dogs). I believe most all of them were pulled by rescues and will be put up for adoption once treated for whatever is wrong with them (demodex/heartworms/underweight) and spayed/neutered.

Keith has like around 30 dogs left that needs homes. He does have one deaf Dogo, Shredder that needs to be an only pet or with a female Dog. I would really love to see this dog get out. He has spent the last 2 years in a rotted wood floor kennel and no real shelter (one of his violations). He is just locked up b/c he is food aggressive with other dogs. A very common Dogo trait.

[CuittisIL]

5 of the dogs in his words that he "stocked the adoption center with" were euthanized over the weekend.

[Quality4Qty]

He is a piece of shit and he knows what he is doing! I am so upset that he is allowed to do this!!

[CuittisIL]

And now this "sanctuary" tragedy:

Attorney: Sanctuary Owner Left $575,000 For Animals, Not Self - West Palm Beach News Story - WPBF West Palm Beach

I've been very concerned about both of these groups for awhile but every timed I voiced my concerns, I was never taken seriously. I really hope these tragedies are a wake up call to the rescue community.

[varrozans]

No one should be training a rescue dog to attack. This guy is an idiot.

ClipShack - Roc

[CuittisIL]

I have seen countless Facebook posts where people have paid this rescue to take unadoptable dogs, many of the human aggressive...


http://www.facebook.com/settings/?ta...00001041032273

This will be the ONLY thing I have to say publicly regarding Keith and his "Rescue". I will not answer comments or PMs nor will I argue with idiots that spend thousands of dollars to transport and "rehab" a deemed non-adoptable dog, when there are so many adoptable dogs dying in their own community every day, that they apparently have turned a blind eye to. The only reason I can think of why they do this is to feel good about themselves for "saving" a dog that would not have a chance. But what about the perfectly adoptable dogs that don't exhibit any behavior issues that die ONLY because they are HOMELESS?? Who is saving them??
I am not a "Keith hater" but a friend of DOGS. Just so you know a little about me - I have been a Professional Animal Shelter Manager since 1992 and am also a Veterinary Technician. I have also assisted and done Doberman rescue locally since 1987. I am a Manatee County Sworn Cruelty Investigator and Florida State certified Euthanasia Technician (having worked at a few high kill shelters). I have a DEEP compassion for animals but am not a humaniac. I am antisocial, preferring the company of my own dogs to people.
I became involved with Keith and Buddies in the early part of October 2010. I immediately saw Keith was in over his head. The rustic kennels didn't bother me and as a matter of fact, I thought he had done a good job constructing them. But the appearance (and the sheer numbers) of the dogs DID bother me. The dogs were thin, standing on wet wood with no dog houses or blankets. Their water was either close to empty or green with algae in the rigged containers. The ground surrounding each kennel was thick with feces like they don't scoop but just hose each run out with the dog still in it. Keith took me into a Tractor trailer that was filled with homemade wood boxes and small crates. He called this place "his embarrassment". The smell of ammonia was extremely strong in here since there was little ventilation. There were approximately 30 crates (open wire and closed airline carriers) with dogs in them. Keith's own Rottweilers occupied the wooden ones. Their water bowls sat on top of the crates so they didn't spill their water and sit in it, I am assuming. Keith mentioned that he had too many dogs and would really like to downsize. I told Keith before I left that day that I would do anything I could to help the dogs and would even put them on my Petfinder page and help with adopting them out. He told me he would think about it but by the time I drove the hour back to my home, he had emailed me 12 pictures of his dogs to place for adoption, which I promptly did.
Since that day in October, I have driven that hour back to Keith's at least once a week. Either taking prospective adopters out, delivering donated food that I had gathered, or to take more pictures of dogs to place on Petfinder.
In my time out there I have seen dogs with many injuries from dog fights, dogs so skinny and anemic from fleas that I wasn't sure if they were going to live, and the condition of the property itself go downhill with more feces and junk littering the property. When I asked Keith why the dogs were so thin, he told they have Hookworms and Whipworms going around and couldn't seem to get a handle on it. I spoke with my vet regarding treatment and since the conditions were such that the dogs were going to continue to re-infect themselves, he suggested oral Ivermectin to be given once weekly for 6 weeks so I personally bought Keith a 250ml bottle. He did treat them for 6 weeks and their appearance seemed to somewhat improve. If Keith told me one of the dog's had a wound that was infected, I brought him antibiotics. If Keith called me and told me he needed food, I would scurry and call in favors from friends, coupled with my own money to bring him out 500 to 1,00 pounds of food at a time, always with several boxes of Milk Bones.
Now to address the pictures that were recently published of the dogs I pulled from BUDDIES rescue -
Those pictures were not taken for "evidence". They came from albums that Terri and I were putting together for "happy" stories of adoption success. But every picture told a STORY. Each dog that I took out of Keith's was very thin, if they had long coats then they were severely matted, all had long nails and smelled so much like feces and urine, that we would have to bathe them twice with Dawn dish soap and then a deodorizing shampoo, and even after that, they would still smell, just not as bad. 3 out of the 17 dogs I pulled were heartworm positive and I had them treated at my own expense. They ALL were in mental shut down. We would take them to to Terri's house for her to foster and you could watch them bloom over a couple of weeks. It was like they were slowly remembering what it was like to sleep on a blanket or bed, that they had been housetrained in a different life and did not have to sleep where they pottied anymore. They would hoard all the dog toys and put them in a pile and guard them. And they all would eat and drink like there was NO tomorrow! It would take an average of 2 to 8 weeks for them to realize that the food/water would always be coming on a regular basis now. I took them all to my own Vet and he would literally holler at me about the poor condition of each dog and I would try to explain it away by saying Keith was doing the best he could. He would quickly correct me that apparently that wasn't good enough by looking at the dogs.So there IS documentation but we will NOT get into that. And testimonials from the adopters but I will NOT drag them into this either.
Now for the dogs that didn't make it out of Keith's. There was a sweet wht/blk Pittie girl that has a severe case of Mange (Keith wasn't sure if it was Demodex or Sarcoptic because she has never seen a Vet) and she had a secondary infection of the skin. Keith asked me how to treat it so I told him but when I asked a couple weeks later if he had started treatment yet, told me NO. About 1 month after that, as I was leaving, Keith came up to my truck and told me that after one of the freezing nights we had the week before, he had found her dead in her run when he got up that morning. I tried to downplay how upset I was at this news, but had to pull over to the side of the road when I left. That poor sweet girl! I wish now I would have pulled her and gave her the care she needed. Recently, when I was at BUDDIES adopting out one of the Boxer/Pit mix puppies, Keith asked if I remembered their Mom "Gypsy" and I said yes, of course, where is she? He said she would get out of her kennel at night and roam the woods and he would try to find her but this particular time it was really cold out so he said to hell with it and let her roam. When she returned in the morning he said she had a wound on her side that he believed to be a gunshot and she died soon after. Those are only two personally I know of. But isn't that ENOUGH? Keith has told me on several occasions that he does not have a REGULAR Vet and even asked if my Vet would vouch for him as a reference.
I have tried to help the dogs at BUDDIES Rescue all I could: Going out there to take pictures, putting them on my Petfinder page, returning phone calls and emails of inquiries (sometimes up to 5 a day), checking references on adoption applications, home checks and reference checks, either taking the adopter out to BUDDIES or picking the dog up and meeting them, doing the foster paperwork until the dog is vetted, picking the dog back up from the foster and taking it to my Vet, listening to my Vet bitch/complain about the physical and mental condition of the dogs, paying for ALL the vetting including: 3 heartworm treatments,spay/neuter, Rabies and Distemper/Parvo vaccs, heartworm and fecal check, microchip, tapeworm meds, flea and heartworm preventive, and then actually adopting the dog out for an adoption fee of $75.00. Now I am not complaining but Keith lives 1 hour from me so that is 2 hours of gas and I have not worked in a year and half. I was doing it FOR THE DOGS. I have also taken him over 3,000#s of donated food that I have begged/borrowed/stole. The final straw for me was he was out of food AGAIN and when I asked him if having 17 less dogs had made a difference, he told me not really because he had taken another 10 or 12 in!!! He also will not return any phone calls when adopters have questions that I don't know the answer to, and he seemed to purposely sabotage the adoption if I don't go out there with the adopter. So I can't even send people to him, I HAVE to go out with them. I am always embarrassed when I take people out there and they are always shocked and appalled, so I have to do a LOT of explaining. Keith and Laurie see nothing wrong with the way they keep the dogs. They think it is perfectly normal to have 60 - 90 dogs locked up in cages with no toys, blankets and just enough food to barely live on. I cannot keep up the work I have been doing for BUDDIES and it tears my heart out to just walk away. But what good does it do if he justs keeps taking dogs in???
I just found out today that Keith signed 25 of his dogs over to our local high kill Animal Control, and I was told that he has done this once before, a year or so ago. I am glad that he is trying to get the dogs in his care down to a manageable number, but I am now scrabbling to try to save as many as these dogs as I can. The shelter has put 4 of them into their adoption center, but 2 out of the 6 dogs they tested so far are heartworm positive, 6 are small puppies and 1 dog is too old (Sheba) for their adoption program, and 1 is severely dog aggressive (Ziva) so these dogs WILL NOT be adoptable. They are testing the rest late tomorrow afternoon and will be calling me then to let me know which ones needs to be transferred out or will be euthanized. If you can help me save any THESE dog, please contact me at dobesgalore@aol.com.
DO NOT contact the Animal Control! They have asked me to be their liaison because they do not have time to answer 500 phone calls or emails.
PROOF:
From:
dobesgalore

[capeAngedlelp]

Please help Buddies. Donate all the hammers you can.They need them.

[highattainlet]

This guy needs to be shut down. I know all to many people who call them selves "rescues" but in fact are animal hoarders on the low to moderate end. I agree that I think he is doing right by the dogs by turning the dogs over to the county animal control and letting them put them down or adopt out. Maybe some can be saved and re-homed, but putting them all to sleep would probably be best.

[Fegemiembendy]

Thank you for sharing that FB post made by Sheila, ABR. How sad "Rescue" he is NOT.

[highattainlet]

Also the facebook post is set to private. Now sure if you posted that or if someone else did.

[insoneeri]

The lady that wrote that is a long time Dobe rescuer. She has been dealing with this guy a long time. He still thinks nothing is wrong with the way he keeps animals and his homepage suckers people in with his whole "dog pack" crap.

Shelter put several dogs up for adoption, good rescues took some and I believe pit bull rescue took a litter of pit mix pups.

Here is the letter from Animal Control

[CuittisIL]

Wow...make sure to read the story about when six of the dogs into a fight....wow...just wow...
Incompatible Browser | Facebook

---------- Post added at 10:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:49 PM ----------

Apparently people pay this guy to train out dog and human aggression...

[CuittisIL]

This story just gets worse and worse Here are some before and after photos of dogs that were taken to BUDDIES, many came with sponsorship money; Incompatible Browser | Facebook

[Yb4bulVR]

OMG, thats horrible!!!

[highattainlet]

Some of those pictures just made me bust out crying. I have no idea how people can do such things to animals. Does this guy still have dogs in his possession? Good lord!

[insoneeri]

Some of those pictures just made me bust out crying. I have no idea how people can do such things to animals. Does this guy still have dogs in his possession? Good lord!

Yes, he has a lot of dogs. He has a large pack of Rottweilers which are used to "rehab" dog aggressive dogs. "Rescue" dogs he has taken in and of course people who are dumb enough to leave their dog there to be trained.

I don't think he did this intentionally in the beginning, I think he does care for the dogs, but he got overwhelmed. But when help was given, it was taken advantage of. Instead of getting down to a reasonable number, he kept taking more.

IMO the county should step up and limit the amount of dogs he can have. They did that with a "rescue" in my county. They had 200 dogs in their house. Now they can only have 50 which I still feel is too high, but at least they are monitored now to keep things from getting out of hand again.

[CuittisIL]

As recently as December he was basically advertising that he was looking for "impossible" dogs to take in that he could rehab for sponsorship money...
Incompatible Browser | Facebook

I wish animal controls would all together stop letting anyone pull human aggressive dogs. In my mind it just can't be justified when there are millions of stable pets euthanized each year. And I strongly believe that HA dogs cannot be "rehabbed."