'Give a Dog a Second Chance' rescue :Oshawa avoid it! (same topic threads merged)

This woman has an outstanding warrant for her arrest for animal lcruelty in New York State!! I believe she is still getting dogs from at least New York, and possibly Ohio.

Please check out my blog and [a social network] links below!

Hoping to spread the word to many legitimate and wonderful organizations in the area
If you have any stories/suggestions of your own please write me back!

I am attempting to increase public awareness with "Give A Dog A Second Chance" "rescue" shelter located in Oshawa, Ontario. It seems that the lady running it is well known to many in the community, but not in a positive way! Others have written to me with their negative adoption experiences recently.

She used to deal with Petsmart, but she told me that she didn't pay her taxes and that is the reason they refuse to deal with her any longer. I am starting to doubt that is the only reason. She has had run ins/complaints with the Oshawa Animal Control, Durham SPCA(who has never issued an order against her), and many citizens of Oshawa and surrounding cities. Many local kennels, along with legitimate breeders know about this woman's questionable practices. This lady is selling sick/soon to be sick puppies to her own community! It seems this organization is taking advantage and profiting off the lax Canadian animal laws.

Her ad on petfinder is asking for donations, volunteers etc and I hope the money is going only to animal care as she would say it is. Personally, I think she makes a lot of personal profit off both the sale of dogs and any donations. She stated to me that she receives pet food as a donation, and obviously gives some vaccinations herself(hopefully so). She can't be paying out a lot of money for animal care in her home(where her organization is run from), but seems to be making a large profit. She lists her organization as a non profit. Well, where is all the extra money going to?? This place is not listed as a registered charity or registered non profit.

This is my story, but only one of many:


I adopted two puppies from this organization on Monday December 29th. My two sisters and husband joined me, and we all had an uneasy feeling upon arrival. The bottom floor windows were all boarded up, and the place was a mess. We were brought upstairs where there were three black lab pups in one room and two lab mixes in the other. The two poor lab mixes were cowering in the corner, and we did not see any water out for them. Newspapers were scattered everywhere in filth. Cats were allowed to roam all over. We could all hear large, extremely loud dogs insanely barking in a room below the two lab pups. We felt distressed at this scenerio, and instead of me looking to adopt one dog, we took them both instead. I gave her $500 cash, but was not issued a receipt.

The owner indicated that they had been seen by a vet and were in perfect health at the time of adoption. Later over the phone, when I pressed for more formal documentation of vaccinations from a vet, she indicated that they were never taken because her driver's arm was broken!


In talking to her about the situation her stories have constantly changed. First about where she rescued them from, their age as being 7 months(stated 9 months on internet when I later checked), and about another brother that was adopted out. This has all made me doubt that she is even close to a legitimate adoption location. The ultimate question is: Where is she getting all of her animals from??? I truly hope not puppy mills. It seems that she gets some puppies from local or distant rescues, Kijiji and Craigslist, and then re-sells them. Wouldn’t this woman truly be considered a puppy broker? Some dogs are listed as $350, so what does this “adoption fee” include? She is not vetting the animals, vaccinating herself and most adults are not altered, with no future promise of altering the young puppies for that price! This indicated that she is pocketing the money!



This woman is also failing to properly screen the interested adopters. She made me fill out an application over email, never ended up checking my references. There was no home visit, no official interviewing process. I just showed up and adopted the dogs within 30 minutes. Luckily I, along with many others are nice people who love animals. However, what if she has adopted out/adopts out to the wrong people?? No legitimate rescue would do any of these things. She is giving the good ones a bad rap!


On Thursday Jan 1st, four days after coming home, my two pups acquired parvovirus. This is a very deadly virus for puppies, but they have both survived!! This cost me close to $3000 in vet bills for the required immediate medical attention. The pups were in ICU for days on IV drip, one even needing a blood transfusion. I am convinced that they contracted this from her dirty premises, but cannot prove this. As I mentioned, cats are wandering around everywhere and all it would take is for them to step in some dog feces to pass it on. I just don't want to see any other animals or families suffer!



I ended up asking this woman over email to refund all or most of the $500 I paid her for the puppies, to put towards their vet bills. What I received back was an email threatening to take the puppies back, which I know she cannot do! She also stated she would charge me with slander, and said that she has all of my personal information. I took this as a threat, but will not let this intimidate me from speaking out.

Please help this community and help put an end to her harmful practices! If anyone asks you about adopting an animal from her, please inform them of the horror stories!! Please do not give her any animals! If you can suggest anything else that will help, please let me know.

Thanks for your attention

Natalie


[links removed]

im in nova scotia ,can i will get the word out ,im a rescuer of dogos and i know lots ao folks that will jump on this ,and if there is a contract comming from breeders ,its not worth the paper and never holds up in court...some breeders claim rights to a dog if there is a problem with ia new owner .....there not inforceable

Okay, thanks 3dogs! Not sure if she comes out that way now, but I am sure with increased desperation in the future she may make the trek!



Link Removed

Hi Natalie,

Tghsi woman can NOT take back the pups. Some breeders will state that if there is aproblem with a pup, it should be returned to them. However, this is decided before people purchase the pups. This hasn't happened in your case.

Well done for adopting the pups and I'm pleased for you and them that they both survived the parvo. But whilst she's making money off goo dpeople such as yourself she won't stop her trade in sick pups. She is, IMHO, noting more than a puppy broker!

Do you have animal welfare or the equivalent of the RSPCA in Canada? I know only a little of Canadian law (mostrly contract and commercial law) so cannot advise re claiming your vets bills back from her.
It may be worth seeing a qualified lawyer where you are and seeing where you stand regarding this.

Good luck - and I hope your pups can now wnjoy a happy and healthy life with you.

Laura xx

She threatened to take them back, but I knew she could not. This woman didn't even do any of the proper screening etc to make sure they were going to the right home! Only an application, but never checked references or home visit etc. She just likes to throw the threats out to intimidate people. I guess it has worked for her in the past!
This woman has been around for 10 years +, so she has had a lot of time to tweak her scamming tactics. It seems nobody has been able to stop her. She has been evicted from locations, only to start up somewhere new.

I have written various organizations, but I guess the laws are so lax here. If you have any suggestions let me know. I believe she is still going to New York State and maybe Ohio to get dogs.
I want to consult with a lawyer, but the fees would be too much to do so. Small claims seems to be the way to go if the claim is under $10 000. Just a consult would be nice to see where I could go with this. If there is anyone out there that could help in any way, please contact me via this post!

I am new to the board and I do apologize for my abruptness in posting this immediatly without getting to know the other members. But in all honestly I am basically here to inform you and perhaps get some suggestions on how to go about shutting down a so called rescue.
I will just state the facts (so please do not accuse me of 'slander' when they are in indeed facts) about this place.

It is called Give a Dog a Second Chance located in Oshawa and run by a lady named Melita.

- Melita has a warrant out for her arrest in NY State on animal cruelty charges. She used to pick up dogs there and bring them over the boarder. One day she stopped at a wal mart to shop, leaving a truck full of dogs in the sweltering heat. She was arrested.

- She has an unusually high number of puppies for adoption very consistently- and charges upwards of $200 per puppie as an "adoption fee"

- She works out of her home- almost all of the house is full of animals. The lower level windows is boarded up and many large dogs can be heard barking.

- She has been investigated by the SPCA on at least several occasions- they have said that she meets the basic requirements- food and shelter.

- She used to adopt weekly out of Petsmart- they have since stopped working with her, allegedly due to her not paying taxes/issuing proper reciepts

-Although she does ask for a potential adopter to fill out a background check form- she does not follow up on this

- I personally have recieved at least 30 e-mails of first hand accounts of her misrepresenting the condition of a dog she is adopting out- whether it be physically or in terms of behavioural issues (ie. promising to have dog fixed and not following up, hip problems, skin problems, dogs with parvo, aggressive dogs) and not informing the adopter of the animals history.

- She is using another organization's charity number

- She has moved frequently all over Oshawa/Brooklyn Ontario - there is public documentation of her previous landlord taking his case to the City Council because Melita refused to leave his property and it was destroyed by the very high amount of animals in the home. This situation was also publicized in a local Oshawa newspaper.

- She very recently has been taken off of her main source of adoption advertising - petfinder.com, I assume this is due to the complaints they have gotten and a confirmation of the arrest warrant. She has since started her own website and "adopts" at her usual high fees on kijiji and craigslist.

I appreciate any suggestions such as contact the SPCA, Animal Control, Revenue Canada, local Police, but although they are pretty familiar with this lady and her rescue, their hands are tied (mainly due to the lack of animal laws and protection in Canada).

Any suggestions are very appreciated. We are out to help the animals in her care and not let any more get hurt.

Thanks.

it all sounds terrible but this is british board and most of us dont live in canada, so couldnt really do a lot.

Sorry! Someone recommended this board to me...

As Kruserwalker says, the majority of the members on here are British so we're unlikely to be able to help.

However, you say that "She is using another organization's charity number" - if this is so, presumably this is illegal (as it would be in this country) and I would have thought that the police would be interested in that.

Even though we are mainly british members, one part that stuck out in your post was that she is using another charities registration number, to me that points to fraud, so maybe that is a starting point?

Mo