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So, this is a long, twisted dramatic story, but I felt the need to write about it somewhere and vent. My mom and I spend a great deal of time volunteering for the local animal shelter, trying to get dogs adopted, rescued or fostered. We began doing this in November of last year. My mom and I both have five dogs, and we both live in the city limits. Neither one of us allows our dogs to be outside constantly. We have had a few people offer to foster for the shelter, and it is about one of these people that I am going to vent.
To make a very long story short, she ended up fostering 21 animals. Some came from our city shelter, some from a shelter in our neighboring city and some she took from individuals. We all told her she needed to slow down and that we could find other fosters for the animals, but she was adamant that she could handle it. She became upset with my mom because after the current Animal Control Officer (who is our friend) was fired, my mom sort of took up the reins and became the "head" of our little group, fielding calls about adoptions and such. One person called my mom and inquired about several dogs that the other woman was fostering, all of them pit bulls or pit mixes. My mom was suspicious, so she told the woman on the phone that she could not adopt one of our animals. The woman got hostile and somehow contacted the woman who was fostering these animals and complained that mom was hateful and rude. So the foster-woman called and chewed my mom out. Mom stood her ground though and it was dropped. Then, the woman started adopting out unaltered kittens that she was fostering for a woman we volunteer with (who was going to have them spayed at a low cost clinic.) My mom told the woman that this was unacceptable and she could not do this again. And all hell broke loose. The woman accused my mom of being hateful, rude and abusing members of the group and denying people adoptions for no good reasons. The entire time, my mom was nice and polite and never accusatory. She only tried to defend herself. That eventually died down though and we had a week or two of peace.
Then someone in the woman's neighborhood (we found out later) called the cops on the woman because of the dogs. Now, keep in mind, this woman has 4 personal dogs, and at the time had at LEAST 15 foster dogs. She has her dogs at her house, and the fosters stay in the backyard of the house next to her (which they own and are renovating.) The woman calls my mom, yelling and threatening her because she believes my mom called the cops on her. My mom never would have jeopardized the dogs that way, and she called the Chief of Police later that day and asked him who had complained, and he told her it was the woman's neighbor. But of course the woman wouldn't believe us. She also told everyone in the group that, since someone complained, they had to get the dogs adopted out or they would be taken to the pound and killed (not true.) So, all of the volunteers over the next week worked their butts off and got all but two of the dogs adopted. And then the woman goes and gets 6 more dogs to foster. When everyone in the group found out about that, a huge fight happened and the woman was kicked out. Now, none of the rescues in our area are going to allow her to foster dogs and the city shelters in our county are not going to allow her to foster either. She still fosters for individuals though. This all happened the night before last, and today I found out that "someone" in my mom's neighborhood called the cops and complained that my mom's dogs were barking all the time.
My mom is on good terms with all over her neighbors, and none of them would complain about her dogs, because they all have dogs of their own. Not to mention that my mom crates her dogs inside her house at night. And she and I were both out of town from 9am to 4 pm today and all of the dogs were inside. So, we believe that the woman is just trying to get my mom in trouble. My mom is scared that the woman is going to try to hurt her, her property or her dogs. So we are going to the police tomorrow to explain the situation and file a report. This whole situation is really stressing my mom out. She is in poor health and can't work, so volunteering is the only thing she has. She only wants to help the animals and this crazy woman just keeps on trying to screw that up.
And I'm done.
To make a very long story short, she ended up fostering 21 animals. Some came from our city shelter, some from a shelter in our neighboring city and some she took from individuals. We all told her she needed to slow down and that we could find other fosters for the animals, but she was adamant that she could handle it. She became upset with my mom because after the current Animal Control Officer (who is our friend) was fired, my mom sort of took up the reins and became the "head" of our little group, fielding calls about adoptions and such. One person called my mom and inquired about several dogs that the other woman was fostering, all of them pit bulls or pit mixes. My mom was suspicious, so she told the woman on the phone that she could not adopt one of our animals. The woman got hostile and somehow contacted the woman who was fostering these animals and complained that mom was hateful and rude. So the foster-woman called and chewed my mom out. Mom stood her ground though and it was dropped. Then, the woman started adopting out unaltered kittens that she was fostering for a woman we volunteer with (who was going to have them spayed at a low cost clinic.) My mom told the woman that this was unacceptable and she could not do this again. And all hell broke loose. The woman accused my mom of being hateful, rude and abusing members of the group and denying people adoptions for no good reasons. The entire time, my mom was nice and polite and never accusatory. She only tried to defend herself. That eventually died down though and we had a week or two of peace.
Then someone in the woman's neighborhood (we found out later) called the cops on the woman because of the dogs. Now, keep in mind, this woman has 4 personal dogs, and at the time had at LEAST 15 foster dogs. She has her dogs at her house, and the fosters stay in the backyard of the house next to her (which they own and are renovating.) The woman calls my mom, yelling and threatening her because she believes my mom called the cops on her. My mom never would have jeopardized the dogs that way, and she called the Chief of Police later that day and asked him who had complained, and he told her it was the woman's neighbor. But of course the woman wouldn't believe us. She also told everyone in the group that, since someone complained, they had to get the dogs adopted out or they would be taken to the pound and killed (not true.) So, all of the volunteers over the next week worked their butts off and got all but two of the dogs adopted. And then the woman goes and gets 6 more dogs to foster. When everyone in the group found out about that, a huge fight happened and the woman was kicked out. Now, none of the rescues in our area are going to allow her to foster dogs and the city shelters in our county are not going to allow her to foster either. She still fosters for individuals though. This all happened the night before last, and today I found out that "someone" in my mom's neighborhood called the cops and complained that my mom's dogs were barking all the time.
My mom is on good terms with all over her neighbors, and none of them would complain about her dogs, because they all have dogs of their own. Not to mention that my mom crates her dogs inside her house at night. And she and I were both out of town from 9am to 4 pm today and all of the dogs were inside. So, we believe that the woman is just trying to get my mom in trouble. My mom is scared that the woman is going to try to hurt her, her property or her dogs. So we are going to the police tomorrow to explain the situation and file a report. This whole situation is really stressing my mom out. She is in poor health and can't work, so volunteering is the only thing she has. She only wants to help the animals and this crazy woman just keeps on trying to screw that up.
And I'm done.
