If you sent a

[Kim Sellers]

Originally Posted by Buddy's Mama

Sweet Zack could have gone there--thank God he didn't!!!

So, so terrible!!!!

Yeah this just goes to show you for sure that NOT ALL rescue groups are what they want you to think they are. I searched and saw other labs from here that could have gone there, yikes- glad they didn't!!

[Kim Sellers]

Just told from someone with authority that there is more then likely going to be more emails. I am told to please ask everyone to NOT send anything to this group and sounds like they will be shut down. I am told it is very sad

[Kim Sellers]

Originally Posted by Shaqpuppy

The owner surrender card is now attatched to the email. It also shows a blk lab - surrender date 3/31 euth date 4/6.

Kim B - you do have the labs name right?

[Shaqpuppy]

I have the surrender card - it does not show either dogs name - just a description. It also has the sig of the person that surrendered.

[Shaqpuppy]

Kim, I just emailed the O/S card to you.

[Shaqpuppy]

The person that signed the form is the adoption coordinator for Lassie's.

[Kim Sellers]

Originally Posted by Shaqpuppy

Kim, I just emailed the O/S card to you.

Thanks- that is the one I saw to. If you look you will see the labs name.
Sounds like there is more bad stuff to come

[2labs4us]

Are you kidding?? Like you don't already work hard enough to get these dogs to a safe place. I'm so sorry to hear this. I had never heard of this rescue before, thanks for the update.

I get emails about this daily

This controversy started over a deaf white Pittie that has the most crystal blue eyes.. She has now past 2 temperment tests from 2 shelters with flying colors. She was on Transport for 10 hours with a woman in her car and was a pleasure the whole time. Then was changed with another woman that said the same thing for the second part of her first trip. This pittie was tattoo'ed in the first shelter she was in and was ID'ed in the second shelter by this tattoo.


What happened and how this precious dog ended up in this shelter is where the problem lies.... How did this poor deaf pittie end up in a high kill shelter after she was taken to Lassie's Friends Animal Sanctuary??? The story will unfold as the days pass, what are the secrets no one knows about?


From Marc Sayer
Sent: Sunday, April 12, 2009 5:00 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: The latest from Karen and LFAS





Permission to crosspost, folks need to know and understand.

Okay, so now LFAS is threatening the people who are exposing them. No surprise there, Karen tried the same thing with me last fall, in fact she launched a rather vicious attack on me. Someone calling themselves Donald Underwood is posting as a "friend" of LFAS and emailing folks threatening them with law suits and all sorts of silliness. It is clear from "Don's" emails they don't know what they are talking about. Here is the quote from "Don" threatening one of the people who has been exposing LFAS' problems:



Do not publish or send letters like this again. If you continue this course, and I see them anywhere on the net, then legal action may well be taken against you.

Remember: People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. This is not a threat but fact.

I don't know, it sounds like a threat to me. A hollow one, but a threat none the less. Granted it is just part of a bunch of misinformed and inane ramblings, but still the intent is pretty clear, stop saying bad things about LFAS or else... As someone who has been attacked unfairly on the net, I have to say, that this sort of threat is not the tactic an innocent person would generally use. This is the classic tactic of the hoarder/bad rescue/puppymiller. A reputation as a bad ***, with lots of threats to sue and a few real cases filed, is something these types like to cultivate. It often scares people off and saves you from having to actually defend your actions. Most innocent people react differently when attacked unfairly, I know I did. I talked to a lawyer and got the facts. If there are grounds for a suit (and that means financial losses caused by what people have said about you) and if the attacker has any money to sue for (no point to a suit if you can't get at least your legal fees paid for), then you file. You do not threaten to file. You certainly do not send out (or allow to be sent out) rambling, inane emails like this.


In their ramblings they bring up a couple of interesting points though (and red flags for anyone who is paying attention). According to "Don" (who I am betting is either Karen or someone posting for Karen) things at LFAS are not as rosy as everyone has been led to believe. Despite her assurances that LFAS is not in trouble financially (this was an issue I brought up a number of times over the past 8 months or so, and was attacked by Karen for even asking about), LFAS is in serious financial trouble. Here is the quote from "Don" on that issue:


I saw at times when at months end , and moneys end, where she bought food for the dogs, and went without food herself.

One has to ask, if things have been this bad there, why have they continued to take in more and more dogs? Why not stop taking in dogs and work on getting some adopted, or getting some stable funding (another issue I was castigated for asking about)? Why haven't they put the word out that they are in trouble and need help? The internet and the rescue community are very supportive and generous with responsible rescues that find themselves in trouble. They could easily have gotten offers of aid. Why is it that this is the first anyone has heard of any of this? Is this real, or simply a contrived ploy in response to the allegations now surfacing about LFAS? Whatever it is, it shows a level of irresponsibility and disregard for the animals. Some may not see this right off, instead seeing that she went without, to care for the dogs (I am sure this was the intention). But the fact is, if this is true, anyone who was really concerned about the dog's welfare would not have continued to take in new dogs when they didn't have enough money to feed those they already had, and would not have kept this a secret. And if it isn't true, using the dogs this way, to avoid personal responsibility and to try to garner sympathy, shows a total disregard for the welfare of the animals. Either way, this raises more concerns, it is certainly not an indicator that things are okay at LFAS. Given this info, whether it is true or not, no one should be sending any dogs there Personally I think this is probably in essence true (not that she went hungry to feed dogs, but that they are in financial trouble). The question of LFAS having stable funding has been a concern for a lot of people over the last year, myself included.

The other major issue raised by "Don's" email is that of criminal activity. According to "Don" LFAS has been the target of significant criminal activity. Here is the quote from "Don" on that issue:


I know Dr. Karen personally having volunteered there, living on campus for a few weeks.

I saw what happens there on a daily basis. When people trespass, break in, physically hurt, abuse and poison your animals, throw things into the pens at night, try to sabotage all you do, vandalize vans and break windows. I witnessed all that so she had to live in fear for her health and perhaps life. Now she has friends living on the property to help protect the puppies and her.


Again, this is the first anyone has heard of any of this. If true, why was this kept secret? Didn't rescues/shelters/people have a right to know that by placing dogs at LFAS they were placing them in harm's way? If I had sent a dog there and then found out it had been injured or killed because of this unreported criminal activity, I would be furious. I am sure most would. If, and I stress if because I have serious doubts about the factuality of these comments, this is true, this info should have been made public, shared on the net the same way her offers to take dogs are and her pleas for donations are. There should have been reports made to the police (yet there is no mention of this in "Don's" email), and there should have been some concerted effort to put a stop to this (again no mention of any such thing, just a mention of friends staying on the property). In reality this sounds more like the preparations for a defense against charges of abuse, mistreatment, and missing or dead dogs than anything else (well that and yet another attempt to garner sympathy, which is a recurring theme with Karen). Surely if this has really been going on long enough for friends to move in, the police could have caught the offenders by now, or LFAS could have set up video cameras and caught the perpetrators on video. I mean come on folks, this is SERIOUS, we're talking about multiple felonies here, taking place on a daily basis. Folks can make of this what they want. Even if you believe it, you have to agree, they've had no business taking in dogs until this issue was resolved. The fact that they have not made this info public (this was shared in a private email, they have still not admitted any of this publicly) and have not stopped taking in dogs until it is resolved, has got to be a red flag for everyone, even those who are still unconvinced or who still believe and support Karen and LFAS. Personally I think this one is pure BS, partly something raised to confuse things and lay the ground work for a defense against accusations of abuse, mistreatment, neglect, and dead or missing dogs, and partly the reactions of an unbalanced mind to what they perceive as unfair attacks.


On another note, I got an email from someone today who actually spoke to Karen about Leila. Karen is now admitting that the dog at the pound was the same Leila sent to them from FL. Karen is claiming that:


the dog had gotten out & ended up at the pound but she did not pull it because it was dog / human aggressive.


This again raises more questions than it answers. If this dog was human aggressive, how was it transported from FL to AL? I don't know of any transports that will transport human aggressive dogs. And how did LFAS get this dog without knowing it was human aggressive? Did they not ask about this? Are they saying the shelter in FL lied? Are they saying they knew but took it anyway, then decided to give up on it? If so, why didn't they have it euthanized? That's what responsible sanctuaries and rescues do with aggressive dogs. If this dog was human aggressive, why didn't they contact the transporters and the shelter in FL about this and ask for help or a history? Are they saying they did and the shelter in FL denied all of this? Or that they told LFAS they wouldn't take the dog back? If so, again why wasn't the dog euthanized? And all this aside, it was their dog and they knew it was at the pound,so why did they leave it there? Responsible sanctuaries and rescues do not act this way. If the dog needed to be PTS, they were the ones who were responsible to see to that, not the shelter. This was their dog, they admit that. They claim it got loose, and that they elected not to go get it. That is the same as dumping the dog at the shelter. And if this dog was so aggressive, how is it that the shelter was able to handle it and got it into a rescue so easily. Personally, I am sorry but this story just doesn't hold up at all. It doesn't make sense. What does make sense is that they dumped the dog at the shelter to save money, which fits with the claim above that they are in trouble financially and the reports from a number of other sources about what happened.


--

Marc Sayer

[Buddy's Mama]

Yikes!!!!!!

I have another email from someone stating they will no longer be a reference for
Karen/Lassie's Friends and mentions that several people are looking into tax fraud by LF.
This is far from over.

[Kim Sellers]

Originally Posted by deeogee1

I have another email from someone stating they will no longer be a reference for
Karen/Lassie's Friends and mentions that several people are looking into tax fraud by LF.
This is far from over.

I think you are right-it is going to get worse before it gets better!!

[LauraNJ]

What is going on with some of these rescues? I can't even imagine pulling a dog only to surrender it at another shelter. This is the second rescue in the last few months that has done this.

Hopefully, this rescue gets shut down or stopped or there is a consequence for the person responsible. How sad for the dog.

So sad for Leila. I hope this rescue NEVER receives another dog EVER! We can only hope the ones left there will be taken care of.

[Hailey's Mom]

Here are additional details from one of my emails:

I am forwarding as I know this to be very true. I personally picked up this dog from a volunteer who drive Leila to me from Orlando, FL. She drove this sweet pittie girl 9 1/2 hours to meet me for me to drive 3 more hours from Pell City to Athens. This dog was very sweet, very affectionate and just beautiful. I recd and email with her photo attached to "urgents" 2 days ago. I compared my photos to hers and she was the same. I called Karen at 10:30pm and asked where she was..her response was she climbed her fence and must have gotten out. I proceeded to tell her where she was. She immediately said she would get her the next day. I have been there and she has a 6 foot fence with barbed wire inside of another fence inside of another fence. I personally found it hard to believe a 50 lb pittie coudl climb these fences with no one seeing this action..especially when Karen told me, on the day I dropped her off, that she has 24 hour arounf the clock help with tending to the animals. How could this not have been seen? SO then today I get another email from her stating that Leila was mean and aggressive and the they had put her on the euthanasia list. There was the first story change from the original phone call I had with her the previous night. I ask myself how she could tell me she would go and pick this dog up from the shelter, thanks me for letting her know, praises her for how sweet of a dog she is and how adoptable this dog is and then turn around with a completely different story about her & then to turn around and euthanize her anyway??

Now this addtl email in my opinion tell me that she has yet chancged her story again for the 3rd time from when I first spoke with her. I strongly urge everyone to think against ever recommending this place to anyone ever. I will never be a part of any transport sending dogs to this horrible place. She lied to me about this dog I know this to be a fact. I do not want this to happen to another innocent animal.



Natalie