White Paws German Shepherd Rescue, Nancy De Moulin, Keith Rahn, Maureen Young White Paws GS Rescue dogs got my dogs sick. After president promised to reimburse my vet fees, she and others called me names and stopped payment on the check. Green Bay Wisconsin

I was recruited to assist in the transport of several German Shepherd dogs from a shelter in North Carolina to foster homes in Wisconsin on May 23. It was a busy holiday weekend for me, but I finally agreed because I was considering adopting one of the pups. I had adopted a dog from this group before and had been approved to adopt again.


I was asked to keep the dogs overnight. However, because of my busy schedule, I had to find other overnight accommodations for them. Also, because of my schedule, I asked repeatedly for transfer information as early as possible, as I would be at an event most of the day. As late as ~11 pm the night before, I was told via email that the whole thing might be off becasue not all legs of the transport had been filled.


Early the next morning, I was told it was on. However, I was given no information about the person meeting me and had no way to contact them. I contacted the transport coordinator, Traci Van Oss. She gave me a phone number that was not accepting messages. I called back, again explaining that I needed to know the transfer information before I left for my event at noon. I finally got a working number, but the person doing the driving was not the person organizing the times, so I was told I would get a call later.


The call finally came mid-afternoon, during my event. I was given an approximate time and told the driver would contact me again about 1/2 hour before arriving. He did not, so he had to wait for me. Therefore, the dogs arrived late in the evening. I was given no instructions, but they seemed hungry, so I fed them, along with my dogs.


The volunteer who recruited me urged me to put them with my dogs in order to determine which one best suited my family for adoption. I cautioned that I was not sure I would be able to adopt at this time and was not sure if any of these dogs were right for me. The volunteer told me they were purebred German Shepherds. When I saw them, it was clear they are not. After they ate, the played for about an hour until I needed to drive them another hour away to their overnight destination.


On Monday, I received emails from the group noting that one of the pups had been diagnosed with parvo. It detailed what signs to look for and urged anyone who saw them to contact their vet. Two of my young dogs showed several of the symptoms, so I called my vet. I gave him all the information regarding their symptoms & behaviour and the situation. He treated them. After he left, a third young dog became ill. I called him back; he said there was no need for an additional visit, I could just pick up the same medicine for her.


I then alerted the group that my dogs had become ill, thinking that they should know. I did also include criticism of the transport organization and lack of communication and information.


Meanwhile, another dog on the run became sick. She tested negative for parvo but had to be treated for illness that sounded much like my dogs' illness.


Several on the mailing list began aiming verbal attacks and accusations at me. Things became so ugly that the president of WP, Nancy de Moulin contacted me. She said she felt bad, wanted my dogs to be well and offered to reimburse me for my vet fees. I thanked her and sent her the bill.


Before she received it, she contacted my vet directly and asked him many questions regarding his diagnosis and treatment. I had asked another WP volunteer who had been antagonistic, Maureen, not to contact my vet because I felt my privacy was being violated, but Nancy says she did not get that message or did not apply it to herself. My request led to more accusations of fraud and hiding things. However, because Nancy did talk to him directly and was able to ask all the questions she wanted, nothing was hidden, so the accusation fell flat, even if it was not dropped.


Nancy says she received the vet bill on 6/4. I didn't receive payment or any word, so I emailed every week inquiring about it. There was a different excuse each time, from changing banks to the treasurer, Keith Rahn, dragging his feet. I was consistently told "soon," "this week," "next week" or "in a few days."


In response to one of my inquiries, Nancy forwarded me an email exchange between her and Keith in which she called me a "crazy b***h" and urged him to send the check quickly to get me off her back. I let her know I saw that. She apologized, swearing that she is not "like that" and insisting that she is a nice person and woman of her word who truly cared about my dogs' well being and would make sure I get the money.


Finally, when several specific promises (today, tomorrow) had passed without a check, I lodged a complaint on another online web site. Within a couple days, I received their check. I deposited it the same day. Several days after that, Keith sent multiple emails demanding a copy of the bill, a copy of the diagnosis and detailed information about my dogs. I referred him to Nancy, as I had sent her everything the vet gave me.


Later I discovered that Keith sent me those emails *after* he had stopped payment on the check. He did eventually email to let me know he was planning to stop payment, but that was several days after he had done so. I was assessed bank fees because of the stop payment. He says he stopped payment because my vet did not perform a parvo test. My vet had explained to Nancy why he didn't do so and she was satisfied with his reasoning and continued to promise payment.


Keith then said "no parvo, no payment." However, Nancy had put no such conditions on her offer to pay. I immediately contacted Nancy via phone. She revealed that Keith stopped payment because he had discovered my online complaint and was angry.


She acknowledged that it should have no effect on her promise and she said she would make sure he would send another check. I expressed concern about receiving another bad check, but she said it would be good; she would make sure it was. Keith refused to send another check.


I continued to contact Nancy, who was sometimes apologetic and sometimes angry. She tried to cast blame on me because she was angry about the online complaint, but finally stated that she keeps her word and if Keith refused to pay, she would "work something out." I asked her to clarify what that meant. She said she would pay me herself if he wouldn't. She even said she would include extra money to cover the bank fee due to Keith's stop payment.


But first, she asked me to email him and see if a statement from my vet would satisfy him. I emailed, but he would not respond to my question. Instead, he instructed me not to contact anyone but him and repeated "no parvo, no payment." He became rude. I reiterated that Nancy's promise, given several times over six weeks, had no conditions on it, is a legally binding contract and that I expect payment. Snotty responses that did not address my question were followed by silence.


I went back to Nancy to have her fulfill her commitment to pay since Keith obviously never would. She continued to reply "TALK TO KEITH" and Keith continued to email insulting messages about him being the point person, but no one would respond to my question about whether Nancy would fulfill the contract she made with me to pay.


She became beligerent at the end, suddenly brought up the possibility of the returning my adopted dog to them (which frightened me as a threat), falsely accused me of calling her names and finally refused to reply any further. Keith does not respond to my questions; he merely instructs me to contact him only and tells me "it's over."


My attorney sent them a letter, which they have ignored as well as my emails. They seem to think if they ignore the problem, it will just go away.


Meanwhile, Maureen and others at WP have also called me names and spread untrue statements about me and my dogs. Now I am not only out the amount of the vet bill for treatment of my dogs who were made ill by these rescue dogs, but the bank fees incurred when White Paws unfairly stopped payment on the check they sent without prior notification that they intended to do so.

Writer
Brownsburg, Indiana
U.S.A.