ALERT.......Ednah Ipdate

[sparkie]

Xpost from Winn Dixie Volunteer MSN Group:

25870. ednah update tuesday urgent
by palulukon, 10/26/05 1:06 ET

Hello,

I have spent the day in the that h*** hole today and have a fewcomments to say.I am not and will not take sides on the animal rights/welfare/hsusetc disscusion, what I will say is STOP the d*** fighting!!!! There are over 500 dogs living and dying in this nasty place and only 6 people to try and help them today. The cages/crates are filled with 2 inches of poop, maggots, and bowls are nasty, nasty, nasty too. The dogs are fighting, breeding, dying and all before your eyes. Where are all of you???? It does not matter if hsus showed today. It does not matter how all these dogs came to be here, what matters isthey need help now!!!!

The Hansen's are to blame for now. The animals need help and the blaming games can start AFTER these dogs are safe. So stop fighting, get in your cars, and get your b**** upthere to help!!! It was almost a 4 hour drive for us one way so notlike this was in " my backyard" either. They cannot wait till the weekend Des needs help now, the dogs need you all now. Not later....later will be too late for many.

Just in case some of you do notknow me or what I do...I am a rescue person and a shelter person, soI speak from both view points. Put your money where your mouthis...go help!!!!If any of you want more nasty, vivid details call me at the shelter and I will tell it to you straight.

The shelter # is 479-855-6020.
Permission to crosspost.Donna MilesBella Vista Animal Shelter


25870.1. another volunteers account
by palulukon, 10/26/05 1:08 ET

Re: ednah update tuesday urgent by palulukon, 10/26/05

I was out at Tammy Hansen's yesterday and today, helping feed, water andcleaning dog bowls and crates. Yesterday we had six volunteers from the HSincluding myself. That is not enough people for all these dogs. Most of the volunteers were older people like myself. I had a stroke last Nov and still having problems with my blood pressure, so I do what I can but can'tgo steady for three or four hours. So I only count as half a volunteer.

Thank God, for the pit bull people!! They are all great and really seem tohave their stuff together. There have been 3 to 5 of them there each dayand working their b**** off and have made a big difference in how the Pitsare being kept. But the other dogs need help also. There are just so manyof them and we really need more people here to help feed, water and cleancrates.
Please come if you can, you will be making a difference in howthese dogs are living.

I would also like to THANK Donna from the Bella Vista Shelter for coming outtoday and helping. She brought two of her people with her and some doghouses so these babies could have some shelter from the cold at night. Theyworked their b**** off cleaning crates and moving dogs from too small of a crate into bigger clean crates.

Some of these dogs where in plastic crateswhich made feeding and watering almost impossible if a dog was not friendly.There are 10 to 12 dogs sleeping in a clean crate tonight that had beensleeping in two inches of poo and pee for several days. They also walkedthese dogs today and I'll bet it's the first time the dogs had been out ofthe crates in a long time. Donna and her crew ROCK!!!!

This place will break your heart but we need to help these dogs, PLEASE.

25870.1.1. just a little tired
by palulukon, 10/26/05 1:16 ET

Re: ednah update tuesday urgent by palulukon, 10/26/05

of the messages that everything is okay and under control. i have been hearing from volunteers about the conditions but was waiting for this nights verification.
there is no ground swelling of volunteers...there is no satisfactory housing for many of the dog beings...

there are not officials from any org that have rallied to the cause and the dogs are now sleeping comfortably...a few are in cleaner crates...and a few now have shelter...

don't let the "everything is under control" stop you from helping if you can possibly get to that place.

and quit believing the spin that all is well...IT IS NOT. not today anyway. not tonight when it gets cold and dogs are still in crates.

you have a handful that are trying their hardest...

why can't some of these org that have taken in donations hire some of the locals to do basic clean up...build a few dog houses...or send in a shipment of houses...or anything, anything at all???????

http://groups.msn.com/winndixievolunteers

[sparkie]

Link to Baxter Bulletin, Online, Central Arkansas:

http://www.baxterbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051025/NEWS01/510250309/1002

[sparkie]

Xposted from Snowballschance.org:

UPDATE on Tammy Hanson
--All of the vet records on each of our dogs is now in the hands of the sheriff. Extensive records, including behavioral assessment from behavioralists who helped at our Raceland facility. We hope this gets our animals out quickly
--A wonderful person who does rescue will take 25 pits. She welcomes a shelter check and we suggested a pitbull specialist to do this. Can anyone help in AL? E-mail here.
--Had a great conversation with a pit enthusiast in CA - Tia...thank you Tia. We are NOT pit experts and need the expertise of people like her (you?) (wish we'd given HER the $11k for kenneling)
--We can offer to do some fundraising for a solid pit rescue group to help them. We'll post on this website and make it happen. Any ideas?
--Spoke with DRAR that sent animals to EDNAH. They tell us there is a volunteer on the way to help
--The sheriff has not responded to calls re: allowing people to come and help and now he has left for the day
--We need the pitbull community to come and take some of these animals. The original problem with the Katrina disaster was 60% of all the animals any group rescued were pitbulls. We want to defer to the pitbull community as we've heard from them that they know the breed best and we believe them
--Whether or not we can remove our animals, Mark will continue to work to get the other shelter's 400 animals out with the help of others there
--According to our volunteers at EDNAH, help is needed to walk dogs, feed, water, clean. But, it's up to the sheriff whether or not he'll allow lots of people on the property. We're waiting to hear from Mark
--We have an air-conditioned truck on the way from Texas now that can take over 100 animals. Our goal is to get as many animals out as possible.
--Awesome shelters we have worked with in the past are stepping up to help take many of the animals. The kennels that had been purchased for EDNAH will be turned over to these groups to help.
--We need vets. All the vets who helped PasadoRescue save 1200 animals (60% of which were pitbulls) please, help again. We have airmiles to fly you in if you need it. VETS ONLY e-mail here.
--We're doing everything possible to save all the animals but we need those rescue groups and shelters who sent animals there to please, please do the same. Bring your vet, bring help.
--Directions to EDNAH here.
--THANK YOU to all of the people who rescued animals during Katrina - you are the ones taking positive action to help these animals!

Pasado's Safe Haven's Response to how we placed some of our animals at Ms. Hanson's facility:

This is Susan Michaels, Co-Founder of Pasado's Safe Haven, writing to answer any questions re: our placement of animals with Tammy Hanson of EDNAH.

PasadoRescue's role in Louisiana was to save the animals left behind when Hurricane Katrina victims were evacuated and not allowed to take their pets. We sought the help of hundreds of individuals and shelters from across the country to take these animals, once they were triaged by our veterinarians.

We learned of Tammy Hanson the same way we learned of all the rescue groups who took possession of our animals - through qualified, independent, word-of-mouth resources. We were well aware that puppy mills and those seeking animals for animal labs would take advantage of Katrina animals. We warned everyone (on our website) to be very aware of the potential to place animals in harm's way. And we heeded our own advice strictly.

To assure that we placed the animals we worked tirelessly to rescue, we required at least two, independent recommendations on any individual or shelter. In regards to Tammy Hanson, we did MORE, because we had locals in her area express complaints. Specifically:

--The first person to recommend Tammy Hanson was Bil McLaughlin, a California real estate developer who volunteered with the Marin County Humane Society and who had worked so hard to fly animals to sheltesr from the Katrina disaster. He had found Ms. Hanson recommended time and again from shelters around the country who had placed pitbulls with her. Once we had Ms. Hanson's name, we pursued the next recommendations to try and assess what the "truth" was:
--Jonna Nesmann (sp?), the Animal Services Director from the Louisiana Humane Society, told us directly that she had worked with Ms. Hanson for years on search and rescue and sent animals to her and that Tammy did a very good job.
(Frankly, we deferred frequently to all Louisiana animal agencies since we were essentially "working for them" trying to help them in this enormous disaster);
--Dr. Sarah Golladay, DVM, told us that Ms. Hanson was very good; that she spays and neuters all of her animals, microchips, and sends them home after surgery with pain meds;
--Dr. Mike Grah, DVM, told our shelter coordinator that Ms. Hanson routinely "puts animals before herself" and that "she does more for animals than anyone else he knew";
--Several smaller rescue groups, particularly those working out of Winn Dixie, took their animals to her and all had good things to say;
--Ms. Hanson also invited us to do the transport to her location (if she were to try and hide something, we don't think this would have been an option presented to us) ;
--All groups who took possession of our animals for foster care had to sign an agreement (including her) that allows us, among other things, to perform unannounced visits to check on the animals. Ms. Hanson had no problem agreeing to this ;
--We also respected the fact that she didn't want to take on more animals until she had the proper housing for them. Despite the fact that we are a small group (compared to the big, national orgs), we offered to purchase new kennels for her so we would not be burdening her or taking away any housing from other rescue groups' animals. She accepted. She NEVER wanted the money for the kennels; she wanted the kennels themselves. We bought $11,000 of kennels for her, which were delivered to her. We had funds available that were raised prior to Hurricane Katrina that we could spend on building shelter. This is how we chose to spend part of the funds.

In addition to hearing the positive comments (above) about Tammy, we had individuals from her area who began e-mailing and calling us, telling us that she did not do a good job and in fact was horrible. Many of them expressed how they didn't want vicious pitbulls being brought to such a woman. Frankly, we got the impression that some of these people simply may not have liked the idea of pits being brought into Arkansas (right or wrong on our part). I might also point out that NONE of these people even offered to take ONE pitbull to help, perhaps supporting our suspicion (again, right or wrong).

We were also given info like this, please click here, that showed that neighbors had poisoned her dogs and that a vet school spoke highly about her efforts to save the animal who had been poisoned.

Here we had two veterinarians, a credible Humane Society and dedicated rescue groups telling us Ms. Hanson was just fine. We also asked those making accusations to PLEASE provide us with any arrest warrant info, neglect/abuse case numbers, or any factual information that could verify their claims. We were not provided any of these things. Of course if we had this information, we would have never placed animals with her. We have been rescuing animals for years and have a stellar reputation. We are mortified that we, and many people who tried to save lives, ended up placing the animals we worked so hard to save, in horrible conditions.

Did Pasado's ever drive 12 hours one-way to visit her facility in the middle of the biggest animal disaster in the nation's history? Did Lamar Dickson, all of the large, national shelters, the smaller groups, all have the time to check out every shelter where they placed animasl. No. We were trying desperately to save lives and depended on people to be our eyes and ears to help us place animals in shelters in 48 states. How could we save 1200 animals AND travel to every shelter? If we didn't have vets, a Humane Society, and well-intentioned rescue groups giving us the thumbs up, we simply would not have sent animals to her. When volunteers from PasadoRescue drove with the dogs there, they didn't find any problem.

We believe what may have happened is this: the vets, the Humane Society, and the other rescue groups viewed her property before she began taking in animals from many groups, including ours. Then, Ms. Hanson allowed for things to get out of control. She may be a person who "spays & neuters" all the animals, microchips, etc., but she is also a person who did not and could not take in this many animals. We are ON THE GROUND on her property now and found ALL of the kennels we purchased in a pile, UNassembled.
End of Part 1

[sparkie]

Part 2

Please put yourself in our position. On the one hand, you have neighbors of Tammy (who are total strangers to us) making claims that they are UNable to support with documented proof. We asked for police reports, photos, ANY documentation. THEY GAVE US NONE. On the other hand, you have licensed veterinarians, humane societies, and rescue groups all saying something else. Truly, please, please, put yourself in our shoes. Kim Sgro, a volunteer who was a PasadoRescuer for four weeks in Louisiana, is the person who did all the footwork to qualify every shelter we transported animals to. She is devastated by this. Imagine being her - thinking that you did ALL you could do to assure the safety of the animals only to find out they're sitting in feces.

The people who have done the hard work in the trenches of Louisiana have not criticized Pasado's, the Winn Dixie heroes, the Humane Society of Louisiana or any other group that placed animals with Tammy Hanson. They know that we all tried our darndest to help the animals.

So how do we answer such a horrible situation?
--Mark Steinway, the Co-Founder of Pasado's Safe Haven, flew immediately to Arkansas. He is on-the-ground now not only helping our animals, but the 400 other animals placed there by other organizations
--We are offering airmiles to any vet who can come and help
--The kennels that we generously purchased for Tammy are now being donated to other groups who HAVE stepped up to help.

Mistakes can happen, especially in such a horrific disaster such as Katrina. The mark of a good org, in our opinion, is what you do to correct it.

For the animals,
Susan Michaels
Co-Founder, Pasado's Safe Haven

Link: http://www.snowballschance.org/forums/showthread.php?t=746&page=2&pp=20

[sparkie]

The volunteer cord. for the help at edna has been given to group
called for pits sake. You will need to call Kris and her # is 408-813-
7487. She will get you on the list to be let in by the sheriff's dept.
This is info I got today from the shelter people in Baxter co. as well
as the sheriff himself. I will be going down on Sunday again...
Permission to crosspost...
Donna Miles
Bella Vista Animal Shelter


Today there were about 12 people or so, things are much better than a few days ago
for sure. They bodies have been removed and the dogs are getting some medical attention
as of this morning, not what they need but some. Pasado has been there for a couple
of days and are waiting on a release for their dogs. HSUS was also there today,
finally there is a little help.
Jaxie

http://community.webshots.com/user/hansendogs