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.  

#Retailrescue #AdoptingIsShopping

#DitchTheGuilt

#TakeBackTheConversation

#PuppyFairies #NoPetoverpopulation

Update: This has turned into a multi-part series.

Part 1:  Could Your Neighbor's Dog Kill Your Child?
Part 2:  Another Brucellosis Positive Dog Sold In Virginia
Part 3:  Living Off Animal Suffering - Retail Rescue Exposed
Part 4:  Exposing Cons Brings The Home Girls Out

Running for Cover in Waukegan

Now technically the Wags 2 Wishes Animal "Rescue" isn't actually in Waukegan, Illinois.  But the story that brings them to front page news is centered there so Waukegan gets the glory.   Yeah, Waukegan!   The story started off with the news media including CBS and NBC reporting that a former Marine had been arrested for having a litter of puppies.  The day before the Christmas Holiday.  Can anything get more Scrooge-like than that?   The Lake County News-Sun alone has 127 comments to their article and going.  You can read them here.   Given the massive public outcry against the puppies being seized away from their family and given away to an animal resale group, I decided to cover the story as well.  My first story, When Christmas Puppies bring Jail Time, has gone viral too.   Together the media reporting on this story touched a nerve and the American public has revealed that they are getting pretty sick and tired of these pet flipping groups going after dog breeders.  

After I published my first article, many readers pointed out that Wags 2 Wishes wasn't quite all that and a bucket of peanuts either.  They sent me many screen captures and pieces of information about Illinois law and the Wags 2 Wishes legal standing.  I then published my second article on the situation focusing on Wags 2 Wishes and the fact that they were listed as being in "not good standing" with the State of Illinois.  That is a fact.  Here is the screen capture yet again to prove it.

   
As the story was going viral around social media, I published a third story to point out the legal aspects of this case.  That story, A Loss of Justice in Waukegan, Illinois can be viewed here.   But I wasn't the only one covering this story.   Didi Culp covered the story for the Examiner in her story called Civil Forfeiture includes Dogs.   The National Animal Interest Alliance covered the story which they called (Puppy) Theft Under Color of Law.  In addition to massive media coverage, a Wisconsin law firm called, Animal Legal Resources, LLC., has posted about the story.  Here is a wonderful post by them in which they go into the unconstitutionality of Waukegan's actions in this case.  

Now as of today, Wags 2 Wishes is doing damage control.  They posted that they filed their annual report and got themselves back in good standing with the State of Illinois, and all information is now going through their lawyer.   For the sake of journalist integrity, here is their posting.  

Again, this doesn't mean they are a legal charity. Here is their actual business license. It says that they are legally an animal shelter that is located at: 1006 Kelly Ave, Joliet, IL 60435. This is public information that is not only in the public domain, but Wags 2 Wishes also publicly posted it themselves.

1006 Kelly Ave is a very small residential home. I wonder what her neighbors think about an animal shelter being run out of a small house like this?  Is this property properly zoned to run a business out of? 

Now one of their supporters by the name of Kelly Morgan (a vegan animal rights activist) has hinting that I have "defamed" Wags 2 Wishes by reporting about this situation.  

I say, bring it on.  As an author, I have every right to cover any situations of public interest I so choose.  

Here's an issue of public interest that I am going to focus on.  Money.   Wags 2 Wishes may have now gotten their agricultural license back in order but they are still not a legal charity.  Anyone who gives them money cannot legally deduct it on their taxes.  Any money that Wags 2 Wishes makes, they must pay taxes on that.   Can Wags 2 Wishes prove to me that they have paid their full Illinois taxes?  It is Wags 2 Wishes who has boasted that since May of 2013, they have sold 400 animals (out of that house above?).  It's not defamation for me to ask, Did you pay your taxes on that income?  

Here's a post from December showing them selling off dogs for $300 each.  I have several screen captures of this but here's just one:  

Let's do the math.  If they charge a base minimum of $300 per animal and they have sold 400 animals, they have grossed a profit of $120,000 in about 18 months on animal sales alone.  Is Terri Crotty paying herself a salary out of these funds?  If so, has she paid her payroll taxes? 

Just in December 2014 alone they are fund raising like crazy asking for additional "donations" above and beyond their animal sales.  Have they paid their taxes on every single bit of those funds?  

Terry Crotty also sells merchandise including hoodies and t-shirts.   Was any of the required Illinois' taxes collected on those sales?  Here's one example of the products she has for sale.

Check this one out!  Terri Crotty, the owner of Wags 2 Wishes posted that Bill Lucas has given her a WV Beetle and that she sold it on December 9th, 2014 for the full asking price.  Did she pay her taxes on that sale?  

Again, Wags 2 Wishes wants everyone to think they are 100% on the up and up but they are not a registered 501c3 with the IRS and they do not have their Board of Directors publicly listed and their incorporation papers and tax returns made available to the public.   Just a short peak into their operation shows that Terri Crotty is pulling in a lot of money.  It isn't defamation for members of the public to want to know where all the money is going.

A Loss of Justice in Waukegan, Illinois

In the last 48 hours a news story has gone viral.  A story of injustice and animal cruelty in Waukegan, Illinois.  I covered the story yesterday when I wrote, When Christmas Puppies bring Jail Time.  If you read the original news story, the comments are 100% against the Waukegan Police and the City of Waukegan with good reason.   The injustice and the animal cruelty that were committed in this situation was not by some whacked out "animal abuser" but instead by the so-called Good Guys.  At Christmas Time.  The Waukegan Police Department and a dog flipping group calling itself a rescue are the bad guys in this story.   Their victims are a family of former Marines, John and Stevie Bass.  They have three children and a bulldog.  Sounds like the typical American dream, right?  During this recent Christmas season, John, Stevie, and their three children joyfully raised a single litter of puppies born from their bulldog.  By the time they were six weeks old, the entire litter was sold all except one puppy.   Now the puppies themselves were still living in the Bass's home with their mommy while their anxious new puppy families waited for them to become old enough to go home.  At the same time, local animal rights extremists were trolling the internet and newspapers looking for dog breeders to destroy.   They found one.  Remember that last single puppy looking for a new home?   The word from the family is that a member of the dog flipping group contacted the Bass family under a fake name to buy the last remaining puppy.  

The next thing they knew they were part of a Waukegan Police Sting Operation, causing massive trauma to their family.  Their children had to witness the cops arresting their dad the day before Christmas.  Over puppies.  Obviously Waukegan has no other crime occurring, right?   So Officer Scrooge Kelly, did you thank John Bass for his service to his country while you were slapping the handcuffs on him for owning an illegal puppy?  

Sting Operation: Wikipedia defines a sting operation as: "In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime."

In this sting operation over supposedly illegal puppies the Waukegan police sent an officer to go undercover to attempt to buy a puppy in order to try and force the Bass family into committing a crime. You’d think that with the explosion of heroin problems nationwide that this would be some sort of undercover drug buy. But where did the Waukegan Police find out that the Bass family had puppies for sale? They were told by a member of the "rescue group" that resells animals for profit. The dog flipping group pretended to buy a puppy and the undercover officer took over the fake identity that the dog flipper had pretended to be.  But honestly, is a $25 crime worth the time and trouble of the Waukegan Police Department? Don’t they have any other crimes they could be investigating? You know, real crimes with real victims?

There is another legal term that needs to come into play here. Evidence.

The Waukegan Police Department seized these eight puppies as evidence of a crime. Evidence must be retained for trial, protected from tampering and misconduct, and a chain of custody of the evidence maintained at all times. That is standard criminal law procedure. But the Waukegan Police Department immediately gave away the evidence in this legal case. Just 24 hours after the story went viral and it was revealed that Wags 2 Wishes is not a reputable outfit in good standing, suddenly both Wags 2 Wishes and the Waukegan Police Department deny having custody of the stolen puppies. So who has them? Can you imagine the outcry from the courts if these puppies were instead something actually serious like heroin? Here is Terri Crotty's Facebook post admitting that her dog flipping group has custody of the stolen puppies.   Her group that is in "not good standing" with the State of Illinois. 

Can you imagine if this situation was different and for example:  Officer Scrooge Kelly was testifying in court before a Judge and talking about her seizure of illegal heroin and how she arrested someone for the horrific crime of selling drugs? Can you imagine the Defense Attorney asking her, "So, Officer Kelly, where is that heroin now?" What can she say? "Oh, I gave it away to my friends who run a business reselling stuff like that?" Jaws would be dropping all over the courtroom and Sgt. Scrooge Kelly would find herself in chains mighty quick. But in this case the evidence of a crime are puppies, and yet it's okay for her to give them away? This is a violation of the law! John Bass's lawyer has the right to see the evidence against his client and he has the right to have it examined and dispute the terms of seizure. He also has the right to sue for its return. But the puppies can't be returned because all the powers in this case deny having custody of them.  Apparently due process be damned in Waukegan.  Turns out the condition of the puppies themselves has also been tampered with.  Now that the animal flipping group had custody of them and the puppies changed hands up to four times in as many days, they admitted that at least one puppy now has a respiratory infection.  Great going Waukegan!  Is there anything you can do right?  

Turns out the Bass family situation is not unusual.  I've covered the issue of law enforcement not respecting the constitutional rights of animal owners in the past.   Animal rights extremists provide almost all the training that law enforcement and animal control officers receive.  Law enforcement today receives their training on animals and the law from convicted criminals, con artists, perverts and terrorists from the Animal Liberation Front who are 100% opposed to Americans owning animals.  You can read my previous articles on this subject, here, here, and here. 

Since the public outcry over the weekend, both groups are now doing some major damage control. The Waukegan Neighborhood Policing Program deleted all information about the seized puppies off their Facebook page, so too did the Waukegan Police Animal Control Facebook page.  Though I noticed they are still linked to the notorious outfit run by a convicted criminal dog thief called "Dogs Deserve Better" on their page.  Feel free to click on both links and leave 1 star reviews for both Police Programs.  The Wags 2 Wishes group has scrubbed both their website and their Facebook page of all the comments about the stolen puppies and instead posted a whine that they received "threats" over the situation.  

Wags 2 Wishes is now whining that they are facing "threats." Cry me a river. They took 6 week old puppies, puppies that they had no legal right too, and were offering them for sale to the public and were fundraising for their pocketbooks before the Bass family even had their day in court. Wags 2 Wishes admits to having sold 400 animals since May of 2013 yet they are not a legal charity.  Where are the taxes they paid on their all of their animal sales?  Why hasn't the State of Illinois gone after this group?  

The Wags 2 Wishes website is also scrubbed off their announcement that they had saved these bulldog puppies "from a breeder."  Notice even after all the comments over the weekend, the website still does not acknowledge who they are, and where exactly these donations are going.  You are just giving your money to some anonymous website with pictures of cute dogs on it.  How gullible are Americans anyway?  Why are people giving money to this group?

Their website and literature gives an address in this industrial building.  I don't see any facilities for animals there.  Why would you give money to a group that won't reveal who's behind it or where they are actually located?  Con artists like this are always lecturing people that no one should buy a dog from a dog breeder if you haven't seen where the dogs are raised.  Shouldn't the same standard apply to this dog flipping group?  Where are these animals they are selling being housed?  In this warehouse?  Or where?  

Even better this group that I covered yesterday that is in "not good standing" with the State of Illinois, is fundraising to create yet another sales outlet for their products.  They want you to help them buy banks of cages for animals....  Just were are those banks of cages going to be located?  In that industrial building shown above?  Wags 2 Wishes also has a long list of products they want on Amazon that they are asking the public to donate to them.  If a breeder did something like this, they would be fried to hell and back on social media.  Why is this something to be lauded and applauded when these animal flipping groups do it?  

So far, both the Waukegan Police Department and Wags 2 Wishes have been revealed to be violating the Bass family's rights.   They are now engaged in a massive cover-their-asses move.  When does the Bass family get justice?  And just where are the poor little stolen puppies now?  It's long past time that Americans everywhere stand up to these fake Retail Rescues and support American Dog Breeders.  They are a dying breed.  

What Makes a Good Animal Rescue?

Over Christmas, the Waukegan, Illinois' cops seized a litter of bulldog puppies, and arrested the owner, previously covered here.  The owner, a former Marine, owned one dog and had one litter of puppies.  What a big crime wave!  A single litter of puppies.  The Waukegan Police Animal Control posted that the puppies have been taken away from the "bad owner" and given to a "good rescue" in a feel good sob story for Christmas.  But what makes a good rescue?

Let's look at the rescue that has custody of John Bass's stolen puppies covered in my previous story, When Christmas Puppies bring Jail Time. They are called Wags 2 Wishes. They have an anonymous website, with no listing as to who registered it. They have an anonymous email address. They do have a phone number which traces back to a Terri/Terry Crotty and Raymond Crotty. These people live at 1006 N. Kelly Avenue, Joliet, Illinois. This tiny little 1275 square foot house on a postage stamp lot is registered as an "Animal Shelter" with the State of Illinois and allowed to have 10 foster permits.  That's a number to remember.  Ten is ten now matter how you count it, even if you are using Common Core math.  Funny how on one of the top animal sales websites, "Petfinder," the Crotty's are currently selling off 10 animals, none of which are the 8 new puppies they scored.  Terri Crotty has also posted on her Facebook page that she took custody of three more puppies just yesterday.  Which means no matter which way you count it, the Crotty's are over their legal permit number.  Wonder what their neighbors think of their animal flipping occupation?  They are also not listed on the Illinois Attorney General's website for legal charities in Illinois yet they are fundraising to build a new "rescue center" that they can sell more animals out of.  It appears that the Crotty's aren't terribly on the up and up either according to this listing on the State of Illinois website which states that they are in fact in "Not Good Standing."  

Now Waukegan cops claim they have the right to steal a litter of puppies, arrest and criminally charge the owner, all because he failed to get a $25 permit that violates his constitutional rights.  In fact, animal rights extremist, Sgt. Kelly stated of the dog's owner:  "It’s really a money-making process. They were in this to make money. It’s running a business without regulations," she said. ”They had no idea where the puppies were going. He made it seem like he was on the up and up.”   But look at this rescue?  They aren't following "the law" either.  They aren't following regulations either.  They are in fact making money because they are not a legal non-profit charity.  If Waukegan claims this is one of their "best" rescues that is so on the "up and up", then how bad are the rest of them?  This entire story is nothing more than civil asset forfeiture gone bad.  Under civil asset forfeiture laws, the government has the right to steal your stuff (in this case, puppies) and give custody of your property to whomever they choose.  

Instead of the Waukegan Prosecutor focusing on John Bass, they should spend their time focusing on this illegal dog flipping business calling itself a "rescue."  Wags 2 Wishes appears to be violating more ordinances, regulations and laws than Mr. Bass ever could.