Tri County Humane Society of Boca Raton Lied about contents of contract, threaten our children, told our children that their parents belonged behind bars Boca Raton, Florida

Our children worked hard around our home in order to show responsibility to get a family dog. For my sons 10th birthday we decided to make that dream come true.

So on Sunday Feb. 6th 2011 we visited the Tri County Humane Society. We filled out the application and were told that we were instantly approved and we started to walk around the facility to look for a dog. We found a wonderful little dog named "Boomer" who really seemed to take to our family so we decided to adopt Boomer.Our children were all excited as we signed all the documents and Boomer got looked over by the facility vet. Upon receiving Boomer we noticed that Boomers left eye was dripping. The lady "Britt Wright" said the doctor put drops in Boomers eye, so we left it alone and proceeded to take Boomer home.

My wife and I went out and bought a crate for him, a nice comfy bed, food, doggy toys, and I purchased a 30 ft cable that secured to the ground so Boomer could hang out on our patio and enjoy the out doors. At that point we renamed Boomer and started to call him "Luke". Luke took to his new name within a day or so, he really enjoyed it when I took him for a walk to take my son Matthew to school. When we got back I would play chase the ball with Luke in the back yard, by that time my daughter's school friends came over and Luke just loved them up and they loved up Luke right back.

Everything was great and then Thursday morning came, Luke and I walked Matt to school, we played ball in the back yard, my daughter Katelyn's school mates came and went. Luke was tired so he jumped up on the couch we have on our back patio and went to sleep. I went into my office and started work. After awhile I went to check on Luke, I brought a bowl of water for him. Luke drank some then jumped back onto the couch and rolled over so I could scratch his belly which he loved so much. I got up to go back inside and called Luke to see if he wanted to come inside, Luke looked at me cocked his little head, rolled back over and went back to sleep.

After that I checked on Luke 2 more times and both times he was just chilling out and did not want to come inside. The weather was over cast and a cool breeze blowing, and Luke was sleeping comfortable on a couch located on our back covered patio with a nice bowl of cool water for him to enjoy.

I had his runner setup so he could be comfortable on the couch and have the ability to reach our French doors, and scratch on the glass doors and I would come to get him. I went back to work in my office which is located approximately 20 or so feet from our patio.

The next thing I know my wife Marlene called me and told me that Luke got loose and picked up by Tri County Humane Society. Luke chewed through the leash and set himself free. I gave them a call and spoke with a Pam on the phone, I explained to her Luke’s situation, and she said that I broke a Palm Beach County Law and could be arrested for having our dog tied up in the yard. I asked her if there is a law like that then why do the pet stores sell runners to tie up your dog. She was rude and accused me of being an abusive pet owner.

She went on to tell me that their director said that we did not deserve to get Luke back and said they were going to keep him. I asked repeatedly to speak to their director, and I was always told she was not their and that she would not change her mind and stop calling. I asked her about the money we spent; Pam said along with the dog we can kiss the money goodbye. She asked me if I read the contract that we signed as she claimed it stated in there that it was a crime to tie the dog up outside. Then she said we would never see Luke again and hung up the phone.

I contacted my wife and explained to her what happened; she called and spoke to "Adrian" who would not listen to a word my wife said. Throughout the day my wife and I spoke to "Pam" Britt, and Adrian on more then 7 occasions in order to try to reason with them, each time they all refused to let us speak to the director whose named we found out was Jeannette Christo. We only found out her named because of all the complaints she has against her and her staff at Tri County which stem back to 2006.

When my children came home from school I explained to them what happened to their pet Luke. My daughter decided to give them a call and beg them to give us another chance. When she called she spoke to Britt, who was so nasty to our daughter that she cried, this lady told our daughter that she was a liar, that she would never own a dog in the state of Florida again. She went on to tell Katelyn that her parents deserve to be arrested and charged with abuse and put in jail. Britt told my daughter that we were lucky that they are just keeping the dog and not having us arrested.

That night we jumped on the computer and started to see about this law that we were accused of breaking, apparently there is no such law. After finding tons of complaints against Tri County and their leader Jeanette Christo I decided that in the morning we would contact the authorities to see if they could help us. My wife and I also took the time to reread all the documents that we signed, and no where in these documents did it state that it was illegal to tie up your pet in the back yard, nor did it state that if the pet you adopted got loose for any reason that they reserved the right to keep the pet (and money) regardless of the circumstances.

On Friday morning I decided to give Tri County one last call to see if they would work with us and give us Luke. I called and spoke to Britt, who laughed at me and said they would never release Luke back to abusive people who would only abuse Luke again. I advised her that this was not the last that they would hear of this. She laughed again and said who cares and hung up.

After that I contacted the Wellington Sheriffs office and explained to them what took place and they said they would send over an officer. In the mean time my wife called Tri County and spoke to Pam. Pam told my wife that we were we animal abusers and did not deserve a pet; she refused to put the director on the phone. Pam then told my wife that they were sick of our calls and to stop calling then hung up the phone.

By now a police officer showed up and we explained the situation to her. We showed the officer where Luke was when he chewed threw his leach and ran off. The officer stated that Palm Beach County does not have a law that would stop someone from tying up a pet in the yard. She said that if it was 90 degrees out and the dog was in the direct sun light with no water then that would be abuse. She stated that from what we told her and what she saw that there were no signs of us being abusive to Luke. She stated that she would make a few calls then be right back. A few minutes later she returned and told us that there have been many complaints about Tri County and they seem to make there own rules. She told my wife to call Tri County back and the director (Jeanette Christo) would take her call and get our money back to our credit card.

Upon calling back they were the sweetest people you could talk to and within 10 minutes the whole amount of what we spent was back on our card. We thanked the officer and she left.

At first we decided that we got our money back, let’s forget this bad experience and lets move on to find another pet for our family. After much thought and debating with our family we decided that getting the money back does not satisfy the loss we feel because Luke has been stripped from our lives from these self righteous people who treated us like trash without even coming to our home to see the home that we have setup for Luke.

The Tri County humane society needs to be taken over and ran by people who have a heart for these pets but they need to also have a heart and understanding of the families who come forward to adopt these pets.

These people should never be allowed to bring hurt and pain unto innocent children by threatening to have their parents arrested and calling us abusers. These people need to be stopped and the only way to stop them is to come forward and make known the dirty tactics that Tri County uses to extract money from innocent families. After writing this complaint we are looking for an attorney that will assist us in filing a lawsuit against the injustice that Tri County has committed against our family.