I work in rescue, and have met some pretty amazing people through the rescue community. A few years ago I met a lady who spends her time researching missing dog cases online and helps reunite them with their families. She does amazing things and has been a huge advocate for lost and stolen dogs. So when we found out her dog needed a second ACL surgery that she couldn't afford after recently repairing the first leg, we decided we wanted to help her. We wrote up a post about all the wonderful things this woman has done, posted pictures of her and her dog, and shared the estimate from this very vet. With all the scams we've seen through GoFundMe accounts, we wanted to make sure people donating had a safe and secure way to donate to the dog's care, and feel confident knowing their money was truly being used for his surgery. So on our post we offered the name and phone number of this clinic, and encouraged people to make their donations directly to the clinic. I worked with another rescue friend to share this post far and wide. Within a few weeks we were able to help our friend raise enough funds to cover the surgery! She was so excited and called the vet immediately to schedule the surgery. To our dismay she was then informed that the clinic was booked out several months, and would not be able to complete his surgery until at least April. You would think the vet office would have mentioned that during all of the previous phone calls regarding the incoming donations and communicates about his current state, but that I can forgive as a miscommunication. What I can't forgive is that this vet then proceeded for multiple weeks to hold the money hostage from the dog's owner. She decided that not only did the people who donated send the money for the dogs surgery, but also that they ONLY sent it to be done at HER clinic. My friend was originally told that she would be given a check with the funds if she could locate another clinic that could do the surgery sooner. Awesome, mission accomplished, new vet found so we're good to go right? Wrong. The vet then decided that she would not write the owner a check, she would only transfer the money to the other clinic. No big deal, that's where the money needed to go....but of course she wasn't done there. Now the vet decided each person who donated needed to be contacted to "verify" she could transfer their donation to the other clinic. Fine, we can handle that, give us the names of those who donated. Another hurdle, the vet claims she did not record contact info or full names for anyone who donated. So our friend spent another week scouring through the Facebook posts to find comments and likes from people who said they donated. One by one they each contacted the vet to let her know the money could be transferred. During that time the dog had surgery at the other clinic, our friend paid the remaining balance out of pocket, knowing she would soon have the donations back to cover it. But once again, the vet office decided to stall. Now she demanded that each person email or fax a written letter stating the money could be transferred to our friend. We later found out that the vet lied, as more than one of the donators showed us pictures of a letter they received in the mail with their receipts, addressed to their full names...After weeks of contacting the kind people who donated their money, dozens of phone calls, emails back and forth, my friend finally received the check. I am so unbelievably disappointed that someone who owns a clinic dedicated to saving animals would make it SO difficult for an owner to provide the care her dog needs. The donated money should have gone wherever the dog was going to be. It would have been a simple phone call to transfer the money to the other clinic the moment she was told he was having surgery elsewhere. But instead she stalled over and over again, and lost a client who had been going there for over 10 years. Her greed and desire to keep the money within her practice is appalling. read more
