If you didn't already know, Mike & I adopted our dog, Apple, from Mutts & Moms - a rescue based out of Pasadena that has recently received a lot of publicity for it's part in Ellen's dog adoption "scandal" (although it was actually Portia DiRossi who went through the adoption process.) I was sent a copy of a letter that was published in the Pasadena paper and after sitting around just reading online about all the horrible things that were said about Mutts & Moms I felt the need to speak up. I wrote a letter to the paper. Basically here it is:
"I'm not a friend of Marina's [that's the name of the woman who runs the whole thing with her 1 other friend] but I adopted our dog from her rescue. I'd like to give you some insight into how my (and I'm sure most other adoptions) were handled. She's not a crook and she's not a villain and I am upset by the way the entertainment media and Ellen DeGeneres have allowed her to be portrayed.
We met our adoptive dog a month before we were allowed to take her home along with about 4 other potential dogs. We fell in love with one 9 month old Chihuahua mix. After every member of our household was interviewed over the phone, she set a date that she would come to our place for an inspection and bring our new dog to us - we lived about an hour away from her location, so we were happy that she would be willing to do this.
We all signed the same contract and read all the words - I still have it, because it's a contract. Our dog came to us fully vetted - spayed, micro chipped and fully vaccinated with instructions on feeding and we received all the records for these things - which totaled pretty close to our suggested donation. We also had a perfectly crate trained 9 month old dog who rarely had housebreaking problems. Our suggested donation was $200, Marina told us that often people decide to donate more. We didn't and we still got to keep the dog and we got a receipt for our tax deductible donation. She made it clear and we realized that this was not a purchase of a dog like we would do through a pet store or breeder. This was an adoption. This person cared about the dogs she adopted out.
Marina checked in with us 2 weeks after we had our dog. Things were not going well. It was a small dog and the dog was being snippy and not very friendly. We told Marina about this and she offered to take the dog back but suggested that we give her some more time as small rescue dogs often have more issues than larger dogs. We took her advice. After about 2 months, everything turned around. After some flea medications, a $100 for Pet Smart small dog obedience classes and this little dog is still working out some minor kinks, but she is the center of our life. Marina called and checked in with us about a month ago and was happy to hear how things were progressing. I've read that Ellen adopted her dog on 9/20 and about 2 weeks later gave the dog away because things weren't working out. If we did the same thing, we wouldn't have given our dog enough time to get used to her new home and get used to us.
Now, I feel bad for the kids - truly I do. But dog rescue isn't a hobby for Marina - it is her life. She responds to the e-mails, she makes the house calls, she does all the work. She, and other rescues with the same policy, have seen too many dogs back in the shelter on death row after a good family realizes that they are too busy to care for a their family pet anymore. All you have to do is scour the classifieds or your local Craigslist pet board to see how many families are giving away their "beloved" pets of 3, 5, 7, 11 years to a "good home" because they just don't have time.
Mutts & Moms cares for these dogs and like I said, these are considered "adoptions" in the rescue world. When you adopt a child, you can't just give that child away to another good home if it doesn't get along with your other family members. While I know that dogs are legally considered nothing more than property, most people who go through dog adoption processes treat it as if it were a child. Sure, Ellen made a mistake of passing on the dog without reading and understanding her contract. Her bigger mistake was taking it public and turning an uniformed nation against a rescue that was doing exactly what it said it would do."
Mike and I have talked about this situation a lot since it's sad to see Marina basically have to shut down her rescue, receive death threats, and shut down her boutique pet store because of a gaggle of fanatic Ellen worshippers. There were protests organized outside of her home and work and Marina's private home address and information were spread all over the internet.
We don't know the whole story - Mutts & Mom's lawyer is saying that the new family refused to fill out an application and go through a home inspection. The family is saying they filled out an application online. Whatever the case is, it all sucks - but I'm kind of mad at Ellen for not understanding the power she wields on her show. She's got this huge weapon that could single handedly destroy another person's livelihood and she used it in a situation where it wasn't necessary.
I really like Ellen - I think she's talented, funny and smart. I'm disappointed in her judgment - it seems like she let her emotions take over. She's got money up the ying yang, she could have stayed off her television show and handled the mess privately. She didn't need to invite TMZ into her home and into the home of her friends to make a spectacle of it. She could have called up her lawyer, they would have put the dog into a holding pattern while the law figured out what needed to happen. A quiet means to an ends. Why did she need to get America involved? I don't watch her talk show, does she do this for everything? If her refrigerator is broken and the repair man can't fix it, does she turn to the nation to get involved? I just don't get it. It's not a human rights issue, it's not an animal abuse issue, why is this the way to handle it? If Mike & I had given away Apple at 2 weeks to one of our friends who we knew was a good home, do you think the nation would be sending Mutts & Mom's death threats because they took back the dog? Why do we as a society allow celebrities the benefit of not living under the same rules as the rest of us? Please, this dog is not Elian Gonzalez.
When Paris was in prison, TMZ was practically crying every day over how "unfair" it was for Paris to be there. I'm sorry, but if you or I had multiple DUIs, showed up to court four hours late, and repeatedly violated the terms of our release, do you think anyone would have sympathy for us? Where did these "free Paris" people come from? Could you imagine if the Free Paris people and the Mutts & Moms haters united and used their obvious loads of free time to changing the world - maybe on something like Darfur, global warming, domestic abuse - or shoot, even REAL animal abuse? Anyone have any ideas on how to get these sheep moving in a better direction? Or do they only listen to talk show hosts?
