Showing posts with label This Is Houston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label This Is Houston. Show all posts

Saturday, June 12, 2021

Living off Animal Suffering - Retail Rescue Exposed

Retail Rescue is really just about the money, not 'saving' dogs.   This is an issue I've been writing about for over 20 years.  That rescue in your community with the heart rendering sob stories that open your wallet?  Is probably run by a secret millionaire.  Most of them are.  Rescue is a dirty rich business in all tax-free untraceable cash.  

Let me introduce you to "Elliott," a desperately suffering and dying dog deliberately kept alive so that a Retail Rescue could profit. 

This is Part 3 of a series on "This Is Houston" rescue in Texas.  A rescue formed in 2019.  They originally caught my eye when I saw them posting that they were looking to resell a brucellosis positive dog.   

You can read Part 1: Could Your Neighbor's Dog Kill Your Child?  Or Part 2: Another Brucellosis Positive Dog Sold In Virginia of this series here. 

According to their social media posts they are pulling in money hand over fist and saving an astronomical number of dogs all miraculously hit by cars. Every dog they have for sale has some outrageous story attached to it.  Shot, used as target practice, hit by cars, hit by a train, blah, blah, blah.   Every dog has literally beaten death if not had their hearts stop outright while valiant rescuers stood by and cried.  If you listen to Laura Forma, all of Cleveland and Houston, Texas is one wide open sewer filled with stray dogs humping each other senseless and having puppies in the gutters.  Those that live are all used as sport while everyone in Houston seems to get their jollies off of hitting them with their cars.  

Yeah, right Laura.  

In fact, here's a fiction of the century story from Laura and Tom from May 2020 to explain how they got their hands on 15 highly resellable puppies: 






Did ya catch that?  They want you to believe that some unnamed SPCA left a bunch of intact dogs running free on some property in Cleveland, Texas.  They want you to believe that these dogs were intact and just humping each other senseless and whelping their puppies in farm fields while daddy was eating birds to survive.  Yet none of the parents starved to death and mom had enough milk to raise puppies?  Meanwhile, they only managed to 'catch' the dogs when the puppies were grown up, CUTE and miraculously ready FOR SALE.  Oh, and notice they caught the puppies but no mention is made of the parent dogs.....  IF you believe this story, I have a bridge to sell you. 

These people are really some of the best masters of rescue porn I've ever seen.  Dozens of individual pictures of sad and suffering dogs, every post has a plea for money.  HELP US.  Give us your money!!  By attaching fundraisers to individual pictures they obscure how much money is pouring in. 

Remember Ozzy, the dog withbrucellosis that they were attempting to sell to the public?  They claim they have spent over $25,000 on his care already and that he is in a $40 a day boarding kennel.  Yet the most recent IRS filings available for them claim that they received just $51,298 in donations in 2019. This Is Houston is a circle jerk of just three people:  Amanda Hulebak, Tom Heller, and Laura Forma (calling herself Laura Jean on social media).  They call claim to not make a dime off their efforts.  Not a single dime. (though they are revising their website AS I'm posting these articles to make themselves look much bigger.) 


Tattooed Tom the "security expert" bad ass (I'm laughing in my cornflakes on that one) lives here:

Here's where it get's really interesting... their IRS 990's claims Amanda Hulebak is one of their Board of Directors but she is not listed on their website.  In fact, she claims to be both the founder and president of this rescue but also 'quit' less than a year after founding it.   


In this post, she's responding to an allegation that she was misusing donations for her own personal benefit.

Remember that figure.  $51K.   Cuz Laura and Tattooed Tom are masters of the Retail Rescue Heartstrings Pulling Blackmail Stories. 

I literally cannot keep up with screen capturing the 'donations' heart string posts begging for cash constantly.  Every dog has a outrageous sob story.  The majority of them all hit by cars.  (what's the odds?).  To jerk your heart strings even more, some of these sad eyed dogs were HIT HEAD ON BY A CAR.  Really?  

There is no way this couple is only pulling in $51 grand a year.  It wouldn't shock me if they were pulling in $51 grand A DAY.

The "Save them All" savior complex hurts dogs more than it saves.  Let's meet Elliott.  

"This Is Houston" ran multiple separate fundraisers for a dog named Elliott. They claim his vet bill is over $10,000 to 'save' his life. 

Before you see the hysteria, here are the facts.
1.) Elliott ate a sock.
2.) When Elliott became sick and started losing weight, his owners took him to the ER.
3.) After discovering the sock, the ER said it would cost $$ to 'try' and save his life, or another option was to put him down because the damage was too extensive.
4.) Elliott's owners signed him over for euthanasia.  
5.) A 'vet tech' at the ER funneled Elliott over to This Is Houston to 'save.'

Now you have the players.  This Is Houston are the saviors.  Elliott's owners, evil monsters so lacking in care for their dog that they can't even keep their house clean.  


This is because Laura and Tatooed Tom think they are better than you.  

Elliott sadly ate  sock that bound up and obstructed his insides.  In the Social Justice Warrior Halo Polishing world that makes his owners cruel and abusive people who don't deserve their dog.  Yes, you heard that right.  His owners signed him over to be put down and depending upon whether or not they paid for euthanasia services, that veterinarian could have broken the law by not doing it.  Now Tom and Laura are fundraising like mad off the situation while posting picture after picture of suffering Elliott to get people to open their wallets. 

The real animal abusers in this situation are not the family that didn't pick up a sock that Elliott got a hold of.  Yes, people have attacked Elliott's family as being 'too lazy' to pick up their home when they have no idea how Elliott got ahold of the sock.  They just believe the constant rescue porn posted by Tattooed Tom and Laura.  The real abusers are the people keeping Elliot alive day after day as he suffers from a blood pressure drop to 50, raging infections, more surgeries, etc.  It is cruel and inhumane to put Elliott through this just so Tom and Laura can brag on how great they are.  After making him suffer from procedure after procedure, barely alive for days, Elliott took matters in his own hands and passed away.  


Years ago a very similar situation happened to a poodle that I bred.  He never spent a moment of his short life alone.  He was loved and pampered by a large family who took him everywhere and trained him for obedience and agility events.  One December day he ate a Christmas ornament while they weren't looking.   The glass shards punctured his intestines.  They took him to the vet 3 times before the vet finally figured out why he was sick and what might be going on.  Just 4 days later they had to make the same decision that Elliott's owners faced.  The veterinarian at the emergency room told them that even after thousands of dollars in surgery, he could not guarantee that their dog would live.  They made the sad humane decision to put him down and end his suffering instead of rolling the dice on a 'chance' he might make it.  Just as Elliott's family did.  They made the right choice. 

"This Is Houston" did not.  They kept a dog alive that should not have been so that they could have another rescue porn story to fund-raise endlessly off of.  Then there's Koda. The dog that Laura and Tattooed Tom Tom shipped from Texas to sell off in Vermont at the same time as the Elliott saga was playing out.  Unfortunately for them, "Koda" dropped dead in Virginia on the transport run.  

"This Is Houston" wants you to believe that every pet owner is irresponsible and only they are ethical and only they are saving animals.  I've never seen such a massive ego ride from a 2 year old rescue group.  They even have the nerve to ask for 'prayers' for the sick and injured dogs they are promoting.  Anyone who posts on their page to say that the same situation as Elliott happened to them and how much it cost them or anyone who dares to speak up for Elliott's owners is immediately shot down by their deluded followers as cruel and abusive.  Yet after days of intensive procedures and surgeries to remove huge parts of his intestines, Elliott DIED.  He died after spending days in agony while the majority if his intestinal tract was DEAD.  He suffered so people like Laura and Tattooed Tom could polish their halos. 

They are so good at pushing their narrative that all animal owners are cruel and abusive and only people Laura and Tattooed Tom as 'saviors.'  It's mental sickness like this that has America in the state it is today.   All of these mentally ill posters are completely clueless that in the "rescue" world, they are considered to be just as abusive as Elliott's owners.  






Do you see the mindset of these people?  Only "rescuers" love animals.  Animal owners do not.   This is YOU.   You can support rescue all you want but you are one swallowed toy, towel or sock away from the cyber lynch mob coming after YOU.  


Keeping dogs like this alive is no different than a recent story in Slate magazine about putting a vicious dog down.  The columnist relates how she purchased drove to New Jersey to buy a dog from a shelter and it started biting everyone in sight.  After investigating the dog's background she found out it had bitten 7 times before she bought it, yet in the article, she grieves for the loss of this dog and put off putting it down as long as she could.  Blackmailed into believing that love and training can 'cure' any dog.  The dog should never have been sold to her in the first place.  The shelter should be sued and shut down for negligence.  What is even worse is the author mentioning a Facebook support group exists with over 11,000 members for people who have had to put dogs down for the same reason.  It is absolutely outrageous how many rescues and shelters are selling off vicious dogs on an unsuspecting public.  

Here's where it gets really fun.  In this fluffy feel good media story about their origins, "This Is Houston" (really Laura and Tom) bragged that they transferred a dog named Thomas (allegedly their first intake) to Wags to Wishes Animal Rescue in Illinois. It's like a circle jerk in the animal retail rescue field.  

I've previously written a 3 part series about the dirty retail rescue named Wags to Wishes in 2014.  The first called When Christmas Puppies Bring Jail Time was quickly followed by Part 2:  What Makes A Good Animal Rescue which led to Part 3:  Running For Cover In Waukegan.  

Birds of a feather flock together.

YOU can act to stop this.  Do not ever donate a dime to any 'rescue' that is keeping a horrifically injured or sick animal alive.  Do not support this 'save them all' or 'leave no animal behind' savior complex.  You are doing a massive disservice to the animals you claim to love.  It IS more humane and more kind to the animal to end its suffering than to prolong it 'just in case' it might recover.   Stop satisfying your ego and put the animal first. 

You can also report these retail rescues and their practices to your local and federal authorities.  Any dog shipped over state lines is required to be 100% healthy and have an issued veterinary certificate to prove it.  File a complaint with the USDA using their online AWA Complaint form.

File a complaint with the Virginia Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Any rescue that ships dogs through Virginia OR fund-raises in the Commonwealth of Virginia is required to be state licensed. This Is Houston is shipping dogs through Virginia for resale in the Northeast.

There are many ways you can stop dogs like Elliott from suffering for greed but only if YOU act.  




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Friday, June 11, 2021

Another Brucellosis Positive Dog Sold in Virginia

In my previous article in this 3 part series, I introduced you to Ozzy.   A brucellosis positive dog in Texas that a Retail Rescue named "This Is Houston" was offering for sale to the public.  

In the resulting public backlash from their attempts to sell an infectious dog that is a hazard to humans, some interesting supporters came forward.  One of them is  Jennifer Quesenberry Aufdenberg, the co-founder of Shenandoah Shepherd Rescue in Stephens City, Virginia. 


For those of you following what Retail Rescue is doing these days, it should come as no surprise that her rescue had resold a brucellosis infected dog around 18 months ago to an 'adopter' who has an auto-immune condition. For people like her, its all about the tax-free cash and the social justice warrior halo polishing.  

I had to laugh as one of the first posts I saw on her page was a cross post about allegedly stray purebred German Shepherds outside the FOHA shelter in Aldie, Virginia and begging for help.  In a former lifetime I spent 10 years researching the truly ugly history of FOHA after seeing one of their properties in person.   The cruelty, the abuse, the hoarding, the warehousing.   It just doesn't get much uglier than FOHA's history.  I should know, I FOIA'd the court records of several of their criminal trials over 10 years ago.  I still have the records.  (someone reading this is squirming right now). 

If you are a reputable rescuer in Virginia for any serious length of time, you know FOHA's dirty history.  In fact, it was FOHA itself that put me on the path I am today.  All of my work to expose dirty rescues can be traced back to the horrors I discovered about FOHA.  Turning my back on Retail Rescue itself and becoming a proud American dog breeder for the past 20 years can also be traced back to FOHA.  Thanks rescuers!  You showed me the truth. 

Unfortunately Shendandoah has only been around for less than 5 years according to their records.   Even for such a newcomer though, they have the Retail Rescue blackmail language down pat.  Every dog is in severe need.  Every former owner is 'abusive.' 

If you look at Shenandoah's Facebook page its filled with fundraising statements like, "This dog has 1 hour to live unless you help."   Amazingly enough Shenandoah Shepherd is also sourcing dogs out of Texas.   Which as I pointed out in my previous article in this series, are mostly coming out of Mexico.  Just like "This is Houston" Jennifer seems to make a specialty out of dogs hit by cars.   As if every stray dog in Texas has been hit by a car.  


There's no one's word but Shenandoah's that this story is true.  Stop falling for everything you read.  

Like many Retail Rescues , they charge a $20 non-refundable fee to 'apply' for one of their special dogs.  They sell on average of around 12 dogs a week.   They are nothing more than a rescue mill.   



"They" claim to have resold 2,000 dogs since 2017.   Well really its just Jennifer Aufdenberg.   She's the only one behind the curtain. 


Her cheapest fee to purchase one of her dogs is $250.  That doesn't count her endless fundraising to pay the vet bills of all the dogs.  Just to purchase the dog is $250.   That means she has a base income of $5 million dollars in less than 5 years for reselling dogs that she more than likely gets for free.   Don't forget that each dog had a $20 non-refundable application fee.   That's an additional $40,000 in just application fees that we KNOW about.  How many applied for a dog and never got one? 

Of course her IRS 990's do not match her social media boasts.  To the IRS she claims to have only made $500,911 in 2019, with $88,299 in adoption fees alone.   Poor Jennifer, she only had $66,769 cash in her pocket after the year was over with.  She shares these sad financial facts with her 'president' who is listed as Kaitlin Vazquez.

Funny how these Retail Rescuer's make a living slandering American dog breeders to the public so they can live off of all tax free donations but these rescues sell off more dogs than any American dog breeder could ever be producing.  

What American dog breeder has made $5 million in undeclared income in 4.5 years?  None of us!

Besides all the money she's pulling in, where are the dogs? Shenandoah Shepherd Rescue has a mailing address and a 'process serving' address.  Neither property looks suitable for housing dozens of Mexican street dogs.  So where are they?


Where are all the dogs housed that she's selling for tax free profit?  Where is that brucellosis infected dog now?  

They may be housed at the mysterious "president"s place. The woman that isn't part of the group..... The group of ONE.


The mysteriously disappearing 'president.'


YOU can act in these situations.  Here's some steps to take.  "Shenandoah Shepherd Rescue" is run by Jennifer Aufdenberg, 122 Littlewing Way, Stephens City, VA 22655.   Report her to the USDA via their online complaint form.  Has the USDA inspected her and has every single dog imported over Virginia state lines arrived with a health certificate as required by law?

Report her to the Commonwealth of Virginia and to the CDC for reselling a brucellosis infected dog.  This case may have already been reported but chances are good it hasn't.  Make sure it is!  How do you know that dog isn't in your community exposing your children to an infectious disease?  

You can also contact the following entities and complain about them allowing Jennifer at their events:



Virginia has a notorious reputation as a HOT MARKET for Retail Rescue.  There are 'Jennifer's' on every corner reselling imported dogs to Virginia residents and making a fortune.  This will only stop when you take a stand and report them.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of this series, as I take a deeper look at This Is Houston.


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Thursday, June 10, 2021

Could Your Neighbor's Dog Kill Your Child?

Short answer yes. Along with the explosion of rescues importing foreign bred dogs for all tax free profit (1.06 million a year and counting according to the CDC) comes the explosion of DISEASE affected dogs being sold into communities like yours. Many people think of dog bites as being the larger danger when DISEASE is actually far more prevalent and dangerous to you.

Imagine the following scenario:

You are pregnant. You and your husband are just celebrating the purchase of your first home. The move is stressful and tiring but you are both filled with so much joy at having your own home. A short time later you suffer a miscarriage and your baby dies. In your devastation you look for causes... was the move to stressful? Did you hurt yourself? Is there something in the environment? What happened? What you will never think of... (and not even know) was that the sellers of your home owned a brucellosis positive dog who pee'd on every inch of the property in the 5 years that dog lived in your home.

Thank Retail Rescue for that one. These rescues love to blame 'breeders' for brucellosis but in reality, American dog breeders had almost irradiated brucellosis from their kennels. Brucellosis in dog breeding kennels was becoming very rare. Instead, thanks to money hungry cons passing themselves off as 'rescuers' importing disease ridden foreign street dogs, brucellosis is making a major comeback in America. The number one source for brucellosis is now these stray and un-owned street dogs they are reselling into a home near you. Most Americans and veterinarians don't even know its happening. Retail rescues are simply quietly reselling these dogs to new homes without talking about it.

No one is tracking it. (though legally they are required too)

No one cares.

Rescues only care about the $$$ they are collecting and polishing that halo that they 'saved' something. While every state in the nation requires a health certificate to ship a dog across state lines, almost no rescues comply with this law. Many states require that dogs from 'high risk' situations like stray or un-owned dogs be tested for brucellosis, most rescues don't comply with that either. Many states either mandate the dog be euthanized or quarantined for life. Many rescues don't comply because there's no money in that.  They need product to sell to you and a sob story to rake in those donations. 

Retail rescues claim the disease can be 'managed.' It can't. They claim that if the dog is spayed or neutered it can't pass the disease on. It can. While infertility is a major symptom of a dog infected with brucellosis, the bacteria IS shed in the dog's urine and saliva. The most common route of infection between dogs is NOT SEX but instead licking contaminated urine and grooming each other. A common infection route is the membranes around the eyes.

Imagine the following scenario:

Your beautiful child has been battling leukemia for several years. After intensive treatment, many hospitalizations and years of pain, your child is in remission. Can you imagine the relief? The joy? One day, suddenly the cancer is back with a vengeance. It quickly escalates and your child dies. You and your family are devastated. What you will never know is.... one day your child was walking to the bus stop to go to school. A neighbor down the street owns a brucellosis infected dog they bought from a 'rescue.' The dog was outside in the yard. Your child approached it and since it seemed very friendly, spent 5 minutes petting it. The dog licked your child's face and hands. It was shedding brucellosis bacteria. Your child had a severely compromised immune system due to the cancer and chemo. That dog was a risk to your child and you will never know it, and never make that connection. Instead, all you can think of is how 'sweet it is' that your neighbor owns a 'rescued' dog.

Dog breeders have always immediately euthanized brucellosis infected dogs because it cannot be cured. Period. With the rise of retail rescues desperate for profit, treating the dog with antibiotics is now being pushed as a solution so they can keep selling dogs. Antibiotics cannot cure a disease that has no cure.

Infected dogs are a health hazard to humans. Period.

You can imagine my surprise when I saw a post by one of these intensive halo polishing rescues in Texas called This Is Houston. They are offering for public sale, a brucellosis infected dog named Ozzy. 


Ozzy was at Texas A&M for a month.  How many dogs were exposed to him before they knew of his diagnosis?


This Texas rescue sells dogs across state lines as far away as Michigan. They admit that they are overcrowded but guess what? They don't stop taking them in!! They claim there are just so many in need of saving.... hint, hint, GIVE US MONEY.


Back to Ozzy.   They are looking to resell him to any member of the public that's not pregnant, have children or immune compromised.   Like that will solve this problem.  Oh, and he'll need to be tested every 1-3 months for the rest of his life.  Let's not forget, he must always live in quarantine as well.  Oh, and he still may have to have a leg amputated.  


While I was happy to see that several hundred people had protested this situation, sadly among the numerous posts about Ozzy were over 1,000 comments from people SUPPORTING the sale of a infected dog out into the public. 

It is no surprise that this rescue started blocking and banning people. Deleting hundreds of comments from their page. Editing their own comments to make it look like they are such saviors for what they are doing.


There is nothing responsible about this situation. Nothing. The dog has a highly infectious zoonotic disease. They proudly boast that they have already spent $25,000 (hint, hint, GIVE US MONEY) and are fundraising for a $40 a day stay for Ozzy in a boarding kennel.


Imagine the following scenario:

After working on a long intensive project at work, you and your wife go on a cruise. You have a splendid time. While you are gone, your dog is boarded at the local boarding kennel. You come home and pick up your dog. Everyone is happy. Your dog is happy to be home. You had a great cruise experience. You think nothing of the fact that your wife is a breast cancer survivor when a year later your wife is diagnosed with brain cancer. Damn cancer!! Your wife dies a quick and terrible death. No one ever knows or makes a connection that at that boarding kennel, the dog in the next run was from a rescue and was positive for brucellosis. There was only chain link between the dogs, not solid barriers. The dogs licked each other and exchanged saliva. Your dog has been spayed for years, you are not a breeder. Your dog has no symptoms it is ill.... you will never know your dog caught brucellosis from that dog and your wife was exposed.

This is why American dog breeders have always euthanized the infected dogs. You think us cruel and heartless while we quietly sob into our pillows at the devastating loss of our dogs. Veterinarians blame us for the problem. Everyone gives these rescues a free pass when they deliberately and knowingly place these dogs out in society.

It is American dog breeders who have funded medical research studies through the AKC Canine Health Foundation and a number of direct grants from purebred parent clubs in an attempt to develop a vaccine to protect our dogs. Retail rescues haven't done a single thing to solve this problem. American dog breeders have. They have put their money where their mouths are. Retail rescues put your money in their pocket while blaming breeders for the rescue's irresponsibility.


The highest risk for brucellosis comes from Asia (those 'meat dogs' rescues are importing by the tens of thousands), close behind that, Mexico. Guess where the majority of stray street dogs in Texas come from? They are from Mexico. But, sure retail rescues, go ahead and continue to blame American dog breeders for your brucellosis infected dogs. Meanwhile their media lapdogs continue to report that human brucellosis is rare while not telling you that absolutely no one is tracking these infected rescue dogs in your communities. They don't tell you that brucellosis is really hard to detect in humans and they have no viable research on how much animal to human transmission there has been. Public health officials don't even know these animals are in their communities.

And you don't either. 

After a public outcry, its no surprise that "This is Houston" started blocking, banning, purging their website of negative comments and threatening legal action against anyone objecting to their attempt to sell a brucellosis positive dog out into the community.  


Don't worry, they are now boasting that they have found Ozzy a home!!   Someone is apparently gullible enough to take on this train wreck.  Unfortunately you will never know if that person is your neighbor, co-worker, random person you met at the dog park, etc.  



YOU can act in these situations.  Here's some steps to take.  "This Is Houston" is run by Tom Heller and Laura Jean Forma out of a 2,200 sq. ft. house:   3219 Kings Mountain Drive, Kingwood, TX 77345.    Report them to the USDA via their online complaint form.  

Report them to the State of Texas.

Call Texas A&M and Gulf Coast and tell their staff that you object to dogs being exposed to a brucellosis infected dog at their clinic and demand to know if the dog has been reported to the government and why they are not insisting on euthanasia? Both entities are required by federal law to report Ozzy to the CDC within 24 hours.  Have they done so?   Brucellosis must be reported within 1 working day to the Texas Department of State Health Services at:  (800) 705-8868 or (800) 252-8239.  Has Ozzy been reported?  

Part 2:  A supporter of "This is Houston" steps forward to boast that they resold a brucellosis positive dog as well. 


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