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Justice for Pete and Friends

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Hi…..My name is Pete and I really…really need your help!!  I am trying to raise $16,000 to help my human friends clear their names. I need help to pay for a court reporter to transcribe the very expensive court transcripts for the appeal and Federal case. They have an extremely short time to do it, so please share me with your friends.   We need to raise as much of our goal as we can by June 31, 2018.

Pete wants everyone to know, that the sanctuary he lived at is still open and they are taking care of 105 of his kitty friends that he lived with and loved .  This appeal and federal case is to stop the Lake Humane Society from not only continuing their constant harassment of the sanctuary, but to stop them from doing this to other rescues and sanctuaries.  The Lake Humane Society has exhausted all fundraising means  from this illegal raid and will be or have already been looking for another group to attack with made up charges for the new year coming upon us.  Pet Smart and other groups give out money to shelters for hoarding situations, and all that is required is a raid and a news paper article as proof. 

Here is an example of what happened to one of the cat under the care the Lake Humane Society.






Let me tell you my story.  I had a wonderful life at a free roaming sanctuary where I and fellow kitty friends called home.  Our sanctuary is a special place where they take care of chronically ill, terminal, and unwanted cats.  We live in rooms based on our needs.  We have rooms like the “Oldies Room” for the old timers, “The Park Room”, “The Wild West”, “Feral Room” for those getting use to humans, and other fun named rooms where we can look out the windows and watch the birdies at the outside feeders all day long.  Even the FeLV kitties have their own room with beds and windows.  You human friends can even tune in to watch us anytime during the day on our live cam broadcast 24/7.

The staff and volunteers love, care for, play with, and cuddle us on a daily basis which makes us all very happy.  They even do special things for us like every year for Thanksgiving, a whole bunch of human volunteers make extra turkeys when they cook for their families and then bring them to the sanctuary.  They shred and grind over 100 lbs of turkey and each one of us gets our very own plate of turkey based on our eating needs.  We feel so very special and loved at our sanctuary.




Sadly, I and many of my kitty friends will never have these special Thanksgiving Days together again.  You see, on Nov 28th, 2016 days after we had our wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, without any prior notice, unscrupulous people only interested in making money unexpectedly raided our 501c3 non-profit sanctuary and took me and over 150 of my friends away.  We heard our human friends crying as the Humane Officer banged our little bodies over and over again on the carriers as they stuffed us in to haul us away from our loving home.  We fought, because we were not accustomed to this awful treatment.  We were separated from our humans and our kitty brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. 

As they loaded us up one by one, they dumped us into the driveway of the sanctuary where we sat for hours upon hours in those tiny carriers crying and waiting for them to figure out what they would do next. We cried, howled, and made all kind of noises. The area was so small, that we had to go to the bathroom and lay in it for unknown hours inside the carriers…. they were proud of what they did. We thought that was the worst of it, until they started to pull us out one by one at the Lake Humane Society.





They treated us like prisoners, ....... I am Pete 155.  Am I not the most handsome looking boy?




They held us down and grabbed us by our necks choking us to get our prison pictures. See how scared my friends Bindi and KiKi are!!  One minute we were eating breakfast and then the next torture….can you imagine?




 
The Lake Humane Societies Veterinarian poked us with non-medical items like pens.  They claimed we were sick with diseases and parasites, yet they wore no gloves as they handled us one by one.  We were very healthy and clean when they took us. 




They cut and dug into my friend Tommy Tiger's leg the day of intake.   He had a growth that our veterinarian said should not be messed with because not enough skin would be available to close the incision and it was not causing any discomfort.   They thought it was an ingrown dewclaw and proceeded to dig at it and cause it to bleed and get infected because they did not bother to call our licensed veterinarian.  As you can see in the first picture.....no blood.





It must have really hurt as you can see by the way they are holding him and digging into it to make it bleed.  I don’t know what Lake Humane did, but a few weeks later they amputated my friend Tommy Tiger's leg.  He use to love running the cat walk in the Park room. In fact, that is where he was lounging when these horrible cruel people grabbed him that day.  The Lake Humane Society claims it was bleeding and infected when they took him, but it was not.  It is obvious that they are falsifying information trying to justify the illegal raid and severe cruelty they have subjected us to.




 
They returned us to those very same carriers to spend months, while waiting for people to donate cages.  Some of my friends even live in gerbil cages like Atlas and Belle!!!




The Lake Humane Society has over $1.2 million in assets, yet could not even buy us cages.  You can see that the Lake Humane Society humans are more important than the animals they care for when the same year they spent over $469,000 on salaries yet only $41,465 on veterinarian services and supplies and $26,823 for kennel supply and food for the animals in their care.   Don't believe me?    Check out a website called Charity Navigator. 

I guess they were afraid cages would effect their $469,000 plus a year salaries.  If they cared about us and not their profits, they should have dipped into the $846,000 plus in investments and publicly traded securities they hold.  Or, maybe they should have never taken us at all!!!




Once they scared and tortured all of us, they stacked us in the most awful scary, dark and dirty warehouse with no windows, fresh air or air conditioning.  On nice days they don’t even open the warehouse overhead door so we can get fresh air.   Blankets cover us 24/7, which causes us severe depression and lack of air circulation.

The National District Attorneys Association has published documentation in regards to animal abuse.  In that publication, they indicate “Seized animal victims who live for months and sometimes years in cages during the pendency of a case can suffer from a host of physical and behavioral issues. It is unacceptable to seize an animal from an abusive situation only to cage them for an extended period of time.” And “For every cage that is taken up by an animal victim that is one needy community animal who will be denied entry to the shelter or will be euthanized due to lack of space.”  This is exactly what the Lake Humane Society has done to us for over 10 months.  They have caused us to either become very ill, or to die in this horrible place.  According to the NDAA, the accusers Lake Humane Society are the real abusers and the Special Prosecutor for the Lake Humane Society's is protecting them and their abuse of us.

No one outside of the Lake Humane Society gets past this door to see if we are dead or alive.  No news media will listen to the public's demand and ask for access, but that is to be expected since they have tight ties to the Lake Humane Society.   In court, the Special Prosecutor told the Judge letting anyone from the court to see the cats, would be a "hardship" for the Lake Humane Society.   "Hardship" for a Judge and 8 people from a Jury to do a walk-through? What do you think they have to hide behind this door?




Many of my friends still sit in this awful place today almost 10 months later and counting. We eat inches from where we go to the bathroom.  Cages are covered so we get no light, air or even human contact.   We cry out in loneliness wondering why we no longer see those who loved and cared for us.   Wondering what we did wrong to end up in this awful depressing place. We miss our bassinets, cribs, scratching posts and other things we use to lay and play on.  We miss lying in the windows with the sun on our little kitty faces while we watched the birds at the feeders and other animals outside by the pond.   The Lake Humane Society who stole us does not care.  They threw us here to die! 





The Lake Humane Society tried to extort over $48,000 from our sanctuary humans in an effort to shut down the 17 yr old sanctuary, and when that failed, they prosecuted them. They wanted the money, but did not want to give us back to our humans. You see, the “Humane Societies” are attacking sanctuaries and rescues across the county to extort money and if they don’t get it, they prosecute them.  

SPCA’s and Humane Societies publicize the suffering of abused and neglected animals. All of us are familiar with the television commercials of heart-breaking stories of dogs and cats subjected to cruelty or abandonment.  We have learned that not all humane societies are interested in helping animals. Many humane societies, in a growing trend, have been high-jacked by unscrupulous people interested only in making money. The local humane society has become a humane society in name only, threatening pet neglect charges to make money.

Many sanctuaries in Ohio have been raided.  You see, Humane, APL’s and SPCA’s get grants and donations from many places if they can show hoarding so now they are claiming rescues and sanctuaries are hoarding.  The Lake Humane Society admitted to receiving $54,000 in grants and donation for stealing us, and then in court asked the Judge to give them $54,488.96 from our humans.  They forced my humans to sign us over to them which made us their property and then asked the Judge for money to care for us. Through all this, my human caregivers and many supporters have found out what a political web of extortion this is. There is one Special Prosecutor from one particular law firm hired by most Humane Societies, APL’s and SPCA in the State of Ohio. But, you see…..He too follows the money and backs the humane societies, because as a Special Prosecutor, he gets paid very well every time he prosecutes a small rescue or sanctuary.   Perhaps small rescues are not worth his time to defend. Because groups like the Lake Humane Society are no longer controlled by the county, there is no oversight to prevent them from being the abusers and doing unnecessary raids on innocent rescues and sanctuaries.  They are the police and the prosecutor and even have the authority to confiscate an individual’s animal without cause or justification and the Humane Officer who is not a veterinarian and has no training as a veterinarian can ignore a real veterinarian suggested treatments of a personal pet.

The judge wouldn’t let my humans show the jury any photographs or videos of the happy cats at our sanctuary home. We could not even show our medical records to show how well they cared for us. They were not allowed to show that the Lake Humane Society had a pattern of what the judge called “predatory prosecutions” to extort money, or that the seized cats were suffering in dirty tiny cages in a warehouse for more than 10 months without fresh air, sunlight, or exercise, damaging them physically and emotionally, or that cats who were healthy when seized were now sick and crippled.  Bottom line, our humans were not permitted to show any of their well documented evidence to protect us!!!

I think the Judge however realized a mistake was made, because my human friends received no jail time or fines and the Lake Humane Society did not get a dime of the money they asked for.  Boy you had to see their unhappy faces in the courtroom.    After my humans overturn this conviction, we can follow through with the lawsuit against the Lake Humane that we filed in federal court allowing us to spread the word about high-jacked humane societies that are leaving a trail of broken pet owners and animals just to make money. Judges (and most people) don’t realize that many humane societies have become conscienceless predators.

My human friends need $16,000 for the very expensive transcripts for the appeal and also to fight them in the Federal case.  Please consider making a monetary donation to help, so this does not happen to other sanctuary and rescue kitties.  You see, the Lake Humane Society took my friends and me because they said we were in a hoarding situation and they could take better care of us.  Yet…..I was alive living a happy life at my sanctuary…my forever home until the Lake Humane Society yanked me from my home.  Don’t let my life and death not have any meaning!




One by one we are dying under the care of the Lake Humane Society!  We should be living out our last days in our sanctuary, cuddling with our friends, not dying in a cage in a lonely dark warehouse.   Sandals (top), Vito (bottom) and I want to prevent our friends from dying from the same awful inhumane treatment, as we did by the hands of the Lake Humane Society. 






Please help my human friends make their goal of $16,000 to pay for the transcripts.   They need this appeal to clear their names and fight to save my friends.  They fear every day that the Lake Humane Society is killing us off one by one, and I need your help to make sure that does not happen.  I don’t want those still in the care of the Lake Humane Societies to end up like Sandals, Vito, myself and many others.  My human friends think they are secretly one by one euthanizing to hide how sick we have become under their care.  The Federal case will also help prevent other sanctuary and rescues animals from dying the same horrible death as my friends and me at the hands of humane societies. 


I want to thank everyone in advance for your donations.  Any money over the goal will be used to fund the Ohio Federal RICO case.

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Donations 

  • Jennifer C Carter
    • $100
    • 7 yrs
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Organizer and beneficiary

Jakki Zerbe
Organizer
Willoughby, OH
Judie Brown
Beneficiary

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