Saving Hope (also known as Bentley)
Update: SAFE! Last October 2015, I started on a journey to save Hope. I did this after a pitbull I helped rescue died in a car accident. As I was mourning Jose, I decided I wanted to honor Jose by rescuing any dogs my friends challenged me to rescue. My friends posted three dogs. The first two were easy compared to Hope.
When I learned of Hope, he was first just a sad picture on a shelter's Petharbor page. I was immediately moved to call the shelter and ask if they would take a better picture of This Dog (the name given by the shelter). They said they wouldn't take a new picture but if I wanted to take a new picture of him I could. So, I immediately got in my car and drove to the animal care facility about an hour away. When I got there, I gave them his Pet ID number and asked where he was located so I could take his picture.
"Oh, this dog," they said. "You can't take a picture of This Dog because he is an Evidence Dog." What's an Evidence Dog you ask? An Evidence Dog is a dog that is being held at a shelter while a court case goes on about the dog in question. "How long has he been here," I asked? "Nine months," they told me. So, that's when the journey to save a dog I named HOPE began.
As time progressed, I learned more and more about Evidence Dogs. First thing I learned is that their crime may or may not have actually happened. It's simply what was being reported by the parties involved. Sometimes, you get the truth I've been told. Secondly, Evidence Dogs are kept away from the general public. Hope's first animal care facility created the illusion that they were attempting to help Hope find a home, but as you read this story, the truth tells a completely different story. Not knowing where to begin, I started writing letters to find out exactly what happened. No one would answer any of my questions. I talked to everyone at the shelter and reached out to shelter managers and the people invovled in the court case. No one would respond. It was like they secretly wanted this dog dead. Maybe they weren't allowed to talk about an on-going case. The bottomline was no one was giving me ANY information. Finally, after breaking down in tears to some stranger over the phone, someone who knew what I had done for all those other dogs dished Hope's dirt. "Ted it seems he was involved in a bite incident. He apparently was living with a family. The police showed up to help resolve a family quarrel. In all the confusion, THIS DOG reportedly bit their 4 year old child's hand. It was not a disfuguring bite, but it did break the skin. The family is attempting to reclaim the dog despite the bite, but the courts have decided that the family isn't able to create a good home for the dog." I thanked the stranger over the phone profusely and then just sat there trying to think what to do next. Now listen, I'm responsible with my sharing so I had to decide whether or not it's worth my time, effort and financial resources to attempt to save this soul. The first thing I investigated was whether or not THIS DOG (again the name they gave the dog not me) had shown any signs of "bad behavior" while in the shelter environment. Every single person I talked to at the shelter reported that THIS DOG was well-behaved and did nothing to cause concern while in the shelter. Based on being in the shelter for 9 months and a clean bill of health, I felt it was worth continuing on the rescue journey. It was actually at that point I decided to start calling the THIS DOG...HOPE! The more and more I promoted HOPE, the more the stories started to change at the East Valley Animal Care and Control facility. I even had one shelter employee tell me that THIS DOG was vicious and killed another dog (make sure you read the entire story to find out what happened to her claims). This worker had no clue I had been investigating HOPE for the last three months where NO SUCH REPORTS existed. She said, "Yeah, he killed another dog and he is vicious. Why don't you spend your time attempting to help other dogs that haven't shown any bad behavior?" WTF. For three months nothing like this had been reported and now that I'm bringing a little bit of bad light on the shelter system for not allowing me to even take a picture of the dog or meet him, something was starting to shift internally at the animal care and control facility. In my opinion, they didn't like an outsider trying to help a dog that they had labeled in their system as an Evidence Dog. I also learned they treat ALL their Evidence Dogs exactly the same way. I was starting to realize that Hope was just a number on a computer. No one really knew this dog at all. One by one I had shelter volunteers starting to disparage my name on all the posts I had about Hope. It occured for me like the shelter staff was asking their volunteers to attack me online because they knew they couldn't do it with their City paycheck. They were defending the shelter's ineffiencies and their friend who was making negative claims about a dog I was attempting to save. They showed no concern for the dog. I never blocked so many people in my life from my Facebook account. Funny thing is, they were never commenting on actual INCIDENTS or EVIDENCE of anything. They were just defending their shelter friend. I'm curious why I never heard concern about the animal's welfare. Meanwhile, I was finally getting people interested in adopting Hope when East Valley delivered a devasting blow. Ted if you find anyone to adopt this dog, the person can not live inside of the city limits of Los Angeles.
So, in my efforts to stay on target, I now had to start expanding my search to reach every corner of our nation. I had to find someone outside the Los Angeles city limits to adopt him. Plus, that same adopter had to be okay with the fact Hope was reported to have biten a 4 year old kid in the hand and broke the skin on top of killing another dog and being vicious. For two months, I tried and tried to find someone to foster or adopt with no avail. The attacks from the shelter continued and no one seemed to offer any solid hope. More than 2,000 shares and more than 26,000 views of the post. Finally, East Valley Animal Care and Control called me to let me know that they were planning to euthanize HOPE on Monday. I thought it was strange that they called me. Maybe they were hoping my attacks of their shelter would stop. Maybe they were killing Hope simply because I was bringing so much negative attention to the shelter. I have no idea but I know now that i had to shit or get off the pot. Thousands of people viewed the posts, but only one person showed any interest. It was a dog trainer from the Boise Idaho area. Thinking outside of the box, I flew this person into Los Angeles the next day. When we got to the shelter, we were amazed at what we learned. While we were waiting for the free kennel offered by the shelter to be brought out from the back, the woman who told me that Hope had killed another dog showed up. She's said, "Oh, THIS DOG? This is the dog you were wanting to save? This isn't the dog that killed another dog. I'm not familiar with this dog." I just sat there in disbelief. Stunned. Angry. I wanted to scream. But I knew I just had to get the dog out from under their care so I didn't want to say anything. How many people had her lie effected? How much had her lie cost me? How much had her lie effected my emotional health? How many people thought of me as a horrible person for wanting to save a "visious killer?" I sat there and a whole new layer of the shelter system began to open up to me. Hope was just another number. This Dog was one of many. Since discovering Evidence Dogs, I've learned they say EXACTLY the same thing about EVERY Evidence Dog under their care because they claim to simply be too busy to actually check. Funny, everyone else checked for me. They said the dog was fine. The truth is that the shelter worked lied to me. Then, she had to cover up her lie to me. I caught her and then she had to cover up her lie by getting all her fans to cover her ass. Sometimes a shelter dogs best friend is someone sitting at home behind a computer. Sad...right? She claims she is just too busy to check on every single dog inquiry. So it appears they've decided to simply say the same thing about all their Evidence Dogs. Vicious and killed another dog. This is simply animal cruelty people. It's a felony. As a city employee can't simply take it upon herself to lie to the tax payers. You can't do that East Valley. I'm not going to let you get away with this. Hope is NOT dead. When I got home that night, HOPE was in the kennel and the dog trainer and I just looked at each other and said...now what? We looked at airlines and couldn't find an affordable way to get him back to Boise with her. So, after three hours of investigating everything, I said, "let's go." Long story short, it took me two days to get Hope up to Boise. I drove 19 hours through desert and snow. We stayed in a hotel and Hope laid on my arm most of the way. Eventually, through connections with a friend from high school, I found another dog trainer who had connections with a shelter called, "Pan Handle." The shelter is up in Idaho. Hope (was renamed by that dog trainer, Bentley). But that dog trainer has since disappeared too. I don't blame people for getting too busy. I'm grateful for his part in Hope's rescue. But at this point, I'm hooked on Hope. I'm happy Hope found a home at Pan Handle, but it's time for Hope to find a home as they report that he is starting to get anxious at the shelter and wants out. Hope is about 5 years old and loves to give you kisses. We are hoping to find a home someplace where he is the only dog with no small children for obvious reasons. I know those are high hopes, but we are praying someone is out there. If you are even considering helping Hope out here, please text me at 213-948-3165 and I will assist in anyway I can. We have a transport team that will work at getting Hope to any location in mainland United States. I've learned so much by helping rescue this dog, But it's just not me, there is literally an army of volunteers, trainers, networkers, transporters, etc. Rescuing Hope has taught me that there are few people I can trust in the world of dog rescue. It's sad, but it mimics every other facet of life. I gave my word to Hope. I don't have a dog rescue, but I have the heart of a dog rescuer. The time I've spent with this dog has been amazing. So much love and happiness abounds in that heart of his. The shelter has told me that he has done well with his four months of training, but that he was starting to get anxious about getting out. So, I started searching for a forever home for Hope/Bentley. UKAIH, CA enters the picture. We have found Bentley Hope a safe Forever Home. Will updated more soon. Thank you for reading Hope's story. I hope it has given you some perspective on what is happening out there in the world of shelters. We've got some good ones and some evil ones. It's PEOPLE that make the difference. Facebook thread:
https://www.facebook.com/Following-Hope-2643874388993068/
