What can I say about Paws 4 Life and Tanya Parker ? I can say if you have never dealt with this person or this Rescue count yourself as being lucky.
A dog came to my attention, that was being held at Caddo Parrish Animal Shelter. She is a young Labrador/Rottweiler mix and is easily among the worst condition dog's I'd seen in a while. She is HW +, missing part of her rear leg, extremely emaciated, and scared of human contact. At the time she was housed with a German Shepherd that was even worse. The German Shepherd was finally transferred to a vet where she passed away. My group offered to take both of these dog's on December 2 when they were posted, we lined up medical and boarding and contacted people to see about picking them up. We were messaged that the person who makes those decisions was busy, busy and to be patient. A day turns into two and three, meanwhile the remaking dog continues to deteriorate. Day four contact back is made only to be told our information never received, by the third time we set about seeing who else could help.
We contacted the shelter we talked to three different managers were given three different email's but finally reached a manager who said send me your information and I will tag this dog for you. Within 5 minute's they had the information and this dog was officially safe. That's when the drama started, the president of my group was contacted and told that we didn't have permission to talk to the shelter. We were told that no one would get Hope unless she said so, yes Tanya Parker thinks she has that much power. We were told by Tanya that she is the Rescue Coordinator for Caddo, that she has final say, only we found out that Tanya Parker in no way works for Caddo, she's nothing but a liaison, a volunteer who had offered to help line up rescues. She doesn't choose who gets dog's, she doesn't get to disqualify other rescues. When Tanya found out my president doesn't intimidate that easily she started spreading lies and rumor's dug up to attempt to stop the rescue of this dog.
When she found out we didn't scare from that sort of self serving game she went after the local volunteers we had found to help get this dog from the shelter to the vet, repeatedly texting her and telling her that her help wasn't needed, that she needed to stay away from the shelter, and that she better not remove the dog from the building. Thankfully our volunteer ignored her harassment and kept in touch with us and got this dog where she needed to be. When her intimidation didn't work on the young lady who helped get the dog to the vet, she contacted her and told her "Oh I see you had asked about volunteering to help Paw's 4 Life, well I assure you that your help is not needed in anyway, you will never volunteer for us or Caddo Parrish". And yes Tanya Parker thinks she's that powerful.
Rescues all over the country are begging for help, for volunteers, yet Tanya and Paw's 4 Life would talk to a perspective volunteer like this, because they helped save a dogs life, really ?
Rescue isn't about individuals, it's a group effort not a competition, when ego's get involved like this the only one's who suffer are the dogs.
I'd avoid dealing with Paw's 4 Life and Tanya Parker at all efforts. They are only interested in ego and furtheing themselves, not the dogs. read more
