Cyber Rescue Scams

As the National Animal Interest Alliance and others have been reporting for years, the United States does not have an over-population problem of dogs. In fact, we hit ground zero back in about 2005 or so. Ground zero means, more dogs die than are born each year, meaning eventually if this trend is not reversed we will run out of dogs. Run out of good quality, excellent tempermented, healthy and well bred dogs that is. Thanks to massive problem of retail rescue importation we will never run out of untrained, badly bred, half-feral street dogs imported from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the middle East, Puerto Rico, and others. In fact, people in these countries have jumped on this scam and are deliberately breeding dogs for the American rescue trade to give Americans something to buy and feel moral "superiority" about their purchase when really they've just been had and are now stuck with what could end up being a seriously bad situation when that feral street dog from India attacks their child.

That brings me to the topic of my last blog, Eric Bellows of "Pack Ethic Rescue, Inc." A man that if you read his various Facebook postings seems to live for nothing more than posting frequent selfies of himself looking pensive and "worried" (I thought he just looked constipated) Plus begging for attention and cash for his "rescue" efforts to save animals that do not need saving.  In fact he has posted several pleas for donations to his "cause" (ie:  his pocketbook) in the past 24 hours alone capitalizing upon the cyber lynch mob he sent after a dog breeder who was doing nothing wrong.

His hundreds of Facebook posts feature many heart tugging pictures of him posing with dogs around his house and talk of how much he "cares."  You know besides all the pleas to pay his heating bill, pay for his truck repair, pay for his fencing, animal feeding requirements, and hey man, GIVE ME MONEY!!!   Doesn't this man have a real day job like the rest of us? You know, one that would require him to get his pensive self off that sofa and go out and work for a living?    Or in this picture below, his sad pensive self is simply leaning up against a wall surrounded by animals to show much he has given of himself for his "cause."  Immediately after that was another post asking for cashola, 'er donations.  I want to know just what he's holding (package of hot dogs in his pocket?) that is causing all these dogs to line up and stare at him in this way so yet another attention seeking post can be uploaded to show what a soft-hearted savior he is. 

Oh wait, we can't see what he makes/does for a living as his "rescue" because he hasn't reported it. If that isn't a red flag, I don’t know what is.  This New York link is even more interesting.  His "rescue" is one year old and makes no income. I wonder who's paying for his health care for those 13 concussions and 11 specialists he says he has. Or are the funds for that coming out of his "rescue" as well? After all, this is the guy who claims he can't even raise gas money and needs cashola from the public to repair his truck.   Here's his internet plea for money to pay for a new truck for himself and his girlfriend.

And who's paying the mortgage on the 25 acre "rescue" he runs. 25 acres of land runs to quite a bit of cashola no matter where you are.  Who paid for that?  He posted endlessly that his cyber target, Flat Creek Border Collies owns 1.2 acres of land and how he was 'breeding for profit' but this so-called rescuer owns 20 times that much land.  He also gets the gullible public to pay for all his fencing costs.  Here he raised over $3,000 in donations for fencing and pea gravel at his home, 'er Sanctuary.  I love how his "Spring Cleanup" lasted until August 15th.  Last I checked, August isn't in the spring time but what do I know?  And did anyone notice that this donation request ends the exact same day as his fund raiser for a new truck?   That's not all.  He had four different internet fundraisers all ending on August 15, 2013.   Another one of his fundraisers ending on the same day raised $5,000 for "farm improvements" on his land.  Between his "Spring Cleanup" and "Farm Improvements" fundraisers ending on August 15th, he raised over $8,000.  The fourth fundraiser ending that date asked for $1,300 so he could afford to feed and care for 6 chickens and 2 goats he "saved."  Maybe he should have had enough money on hand to save them before he took them in.  Ever think of that?  

You know, Eric Bellows reminds me of a rescue scam I mentioned in my previous book on animal rights terrorism, Staring the Dragon in the Eye.  When the "Hearts for Hounds" so-called rescue was busted in Tennessee, they had some interesting financials as well.  On one hand, they were busted with over 140 dogs in a U-haul all going up for sale that weekend at an "event" they promoted on the Internet.  They collected dogs in California and were making multiple nationwide shipments to Virginia because the "sales climate for rescued dogs" was so much better there.  Because you know, every single one of those dogs had been rescued from something.  None of the dogs they were caught with were being shipped across country legally. They hadn't filed IRS tax returns in years but their last return claimed they made $0 income. Their website bragged that these two women had sold off, ‘er rescued, 10,000 dogs. TEN THOUSAND DOGS.  In a media interview after her arrest for animal cruelty when the U-haul shipment was discovered, Bonnie Sheehan claimed to have personally "rescued" and resold off 20,000 dogs.  Yes, that's TWENTY THOUSAND.   A profit level in the millions.  Even worse, one of the dogs in the filthy U-haul was proven to have been stolen.  If a dog breeder dared to claim they had sold ten thousand dogs, Eric Bellows would be frothing at the mouth and setting up a cyber lynch mob to take them down.  But for "rescuers" product sales of this volume is applauded as 'heroic.'  And you know why they had ZERO income? Turns out that between the two of them, they owned at least three houses in Virginia while both of them still lived in California. Multiple millions more are made in dog rescue from scam artists like this than are ever made in dog breeding.

Over the past couple of days I have watched Mr. Pensive incite a cyber lynch mob to frothy proportions from across the Internet. The cynics among us who have watched the animal rights terrorism movement for years believe that the Flat Creek Kennel has simply been set up in order to pressure Governor Cuomo to sign the anti-dog breeder bill AB 740 currently on his desk. That makes the destruction of this family by activists even more sad and tragic. These activists care absolutely nothing about these dogs. This entire situation is nothing more than a set up to destroy ALL dog breeders in New York by legislation and gain money and market share for themselves. You can see this by reading the thousands of comments on the internet on this case at least 50% of them are claiming that New York needs MORE legislation. I wonder why that is? New York already has to deal with people like ex-NYC Mayor Bloomberg who outlawed giving food to the homeless and tried to take large sodas away from everyone.  Did you know that bagels and donuts in New York City do not taste as delicious as elsewhere because of outlawed ingredients? Do you honestly think in an environment like that, that New York state doesn't already have EXTENSIVE laws against dog breeding? Extensive laws that regulate the hell out of dog breeding? Laws that are already destroying American families who just want a nice well bred pet? Of course it does! There is no state in all of America that needs "more laws" about anything. Dog breeding is regulated to hell and back already on the federal, state and local levels. Read the law yourself, not some anonymous internet post by a blowhard with an agenda before you fire off that email to the media/politicians/special interest groups.

But then again, Bellows is not the only one profiting off this case. A local photographer has also jumped on the bandwagon and taken pictures of the breeders private property (did she trespass? Or use a long range camera?) to promote the idea that "animal abuse" is occurring. There are two problems with this (okay more than two). The first is, the pictures this photographer took show good looking dogs that look happy and comfortable and nothing shows any "abuse" of any kind. Secondly, her name is all over everything embedded in her photos advertising her business. Can you say, publicity stunt? As a young photographer she needs some sort of media campaign to direct more people to her business and jump start her portfolio. Here the media is giving her reams of advertising all for free because it's for a "cause". Even a radio show interviewed her and spot lighted her business for free to give her a voice in this "issue." What an absolute racket! How can I get reams of free advertising without paying a dime just handed to me like this chick has done?

But back to the real victim in this case, Flat Creek. After several animal rights activists petitioned the court to declare the care this breeder was providing was inadequate and force the State Police to act (whom had already investigated the breeder three times and found nothing wrong), the breeder was called into court to defend themselves against a largely anonymous mob that have never been to this county in New York state in their entire lives.  After one week of 24/7 relentless harassment from thousands of internet stalkers, they won. They destroyed a family they could care less about. They caused tremendous stress and economic devastation to someone they have never met and know nothing about. They destroyed someone’s life. They rejoiced in the family’s misery and danced on their graves. At the same time as thousands of people from as far away as Germany destroyed one single family because they were raising working dogs born for centuries to live and work outside (with access to insulated dog houses if they wanted it), homeless and poor Americans suffered in the record breaking cold and not one of these frothing at the mouth activists cared. There are families in America who must choose on a daily basis between food and heat, children who go hungry, yet thousands of animal rights activists ripped apart a dog breeder they have never met, never seen, and know nothing about because they thought his animals were "freezing" based upon internet propaganda.

In a heartbeat the breeder lost all but 4 of his adult dogs when the shelters he provided were absolutely correct for the breed.  Many working sheep dogs live 100% outside among the flocks they guard their entire lives.  That is what working livestock dogs DO. The hay/straw filled round plastic barrels he was using as dog houses are highly recommended in the industry and a hundred times superior to wooden dog houses that the court ordered that he build.  Wood cannot ever be sterilized and appropriately cleaned.  Wood is nothing more than vector for disease and parasites.  Thanks to these ignorant activists fueled by an even more ignorant internet lynch mob interfering in a dog breed that they know nothing about, this breeder is being forced by court order to provide inferior substandard housing for his dogs.  How is this better?  The answer is its not.  But then, that was the animal rights activists goal all along.  The true goal of the animal rights movement is to remove animals from our lives, one law at a time, one breeder at a time, one lynch mob at a time, until there are no more animals left.  

For more information, please see my upcoming book.  Stay tuned.