Good morning,
I am coming to you because I run a rescue and have major issues with how Apple Valley Animal Shelter staff have abused their power. RDK9 has personally pulled a total of 3 dogs from AVAS.
Issue #1: On Dec 12, 2023 we received a notification from the staff stating our rights had been suspended due to a random list of reasons when we reached out for information on a canine that was euthanasia pending at the time. We had been honest with the rescue coordinator about a former rescue partner who was disgruntled and had threatened not only us personally but also threatened our reputation by slander and defamation.
However, Brandy did not head our warning and instead listened to the former partner’s accusations when this ended up happening (we informed her that we even had legal representation involved due to the poor behavior of this individual). She sent animal control to our facility for a check, we passed with flying colors as we work closely with them and they know us personally, we informed Brandy on how to verify and obtain the report, no response. She claimed we had not submitted spay/neuter certificates so we resubmitted, to which no response. The staff also screens our calls and sends us to voicemail when we attempt to call and no one ever responds to our calls or MULTIPLE emails. Brandy ended up euthanizing the canine we were trying to help and instead of following up with our multiple contact attempts she preferred to keep our rights suspended and euthanize canines she knows we would help as we specialize in the breed (shepherds and Malinois). This is a complete abuse of power. If you can suspend rescues and they do everything they can to reinstate their rights and you refuse to respond then you are blatantly abusing your power. We made ourselves readily available for the requested check by our local AC, we immediately sent in our spay/neuter certificates, and we even sent the rescue desk email multiple photos of how our dogs are cared for including our $20,000 indoor outdoor kennel set up, our $1,000 indoor kennels in our house, the diets we feed them, and we even posted before and after pictures on social media of how dogs have come to us and how they look after a couple weeks in our care and tagged AVAS Facebook page to try to get their attention since we have blatantly been ignored via email and phone.
This kind of behavior hurts the animals the shelter is SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING! Brandy and Gina would rather euthanize then follow up with rescues who are trying their best to rectify situations AVAS claims need change or action! Also, if they have time to travel the world or revoke rights then they have time to shoot a reminder email for spay/neuter certificates. Not one email was sent reminding us to submit them and we work full time day jobs + rescue, things slip through the cracks, a quick reminder email would have been much appreciated and once received our rights SHOULD HAVE BEEN reinstated but to this day they have not been due to blatantly ignoring the rescue’s attempt to contact! Issue #2: AVAS has a policy that rescues cannot pull puppies until adopters have first right.
Which appears to be an ok policy until one realizes that there are diseases running rampant through that shelter due to improper disinfecting and cleaning of kennels, bowls, linens etc. Puppies are more susceptible to disease due to weakened immune systems comparatively to adults. Example: there were two puppies RDK9 wanted to pull for a possible adopter (an adopter who was a volunteer for our rescue at the time) and if they did not end up adopting then we would enter them into our working dog program, we were told by Brandy that we were not allowed to until the following Monday (a week and a half after intake yet they were at risk of euthanasia prior) and that adopters could adopt that Friday or Saturday. We knew the longer they sat in that shelter the more exposed to parvovirus and distemper they would be. Our volunteer, who was local, decided to go in and adopt.
Well, the puppies did in fact get exposed to the parvovirus and were infected. Due to this adopter not having the funds to treat them and waiting until they were extremely sick after attempting to treat at home, she signed them over to the rescue so that we could take over their care. Brandy attacked the rescue for this and said one reason our rights were revoked was having an adopter adopt on our behalf despite knowing the situation! This type of situation could be avoided if this policy was not in place! Both puppies died despite thousands of dollars in veterinary bills that WE PAID and our best efforts to save them. Had she just let the rescue pull them on the first day off stray hold we could have gotten them to the vet sooner and maybe saved their lives. The point being: the policy about allowing adopters first right and the policy where rescues get punished for taking over care and not being allowed to send others in on their behalf if necessary to protect the lives of those AVAS would rather euthanize or potentially threaten their lives are policies that most definitely need revisions. No other shelter we have worked with (which are many) has any of these policies!
There are many examples of the poor management behavior that we could list but that would make for an extremely long email. Please help make change at AVAS! These poor souls depend on those speaking up and demanding change! Rescues like us, who are doing everything we can to have our rights reinstated, need to be responded to! No one has responded to us since the notification email on Dec 12, 2023. If they have the time to suspend rights then they have the time to review the documents requested especially after more than TWO MONTHS LATER!
Change needs to happen and happen NOW! Please do NOT allow this abuse of power any longer! We WILL be seeking legal action but you all have the chance to directly make change to make this system more efficient and help save more lives! Best Regards,
Meredith Gintzig-Hayes
CEO & FOUNDER
501c3 Regional Deployed K9 Inc