Can you help Hank?

Chicago French Bulldog Rescue needs help for Hank

Over in Chicago, our friend Mary Scheffke continues to fight the good fight on behalf of Frenchies in need. Her organization, Frenchies Por Vous (aka Chicago French Bulldog Rescue), has helped numerous dogs in need, all thanks to Mary’s tireless efforts.

This time, Mary needs OUR help – not for herself, but for Hank.

Hank came from owners who really did do everything that they could to try to get him the help he needed, but a combination of veterinary incompetence and a lack of fund have conspired to put Hank in a position where he’ll require a lot of care to get him back up on his feet. The good news is that Hank’s prognosis is positive, but ONLY if he can get the care he needs. As a small rescue in a big city that’s experienced a surge in the popularity of French Bulldogs, Mary’s rescue is stretched to the financial breaking point, and she’s going to need our help to get Hank the veterinary care he deserves.

Mary tells us more about Hank:

Hank needs everyone’s help – we need to raise money for a consult and possible surgery to get him to walk again.

He went down in the rear 5 weeks ago, was taken to his owners’ vet who told him that he does not have the money to take care of the 3 year old boy and he should put him down. Did not take x rays or advise crate rest or given any anti inflammatory drugs. (The owner) went home crying, carrying his boy in his arms.

Hank got worse and he went to another vet- this vet told him that if he had come in sooner- they may have been able to help him and gave him some mild steroids -that are basically used for skin allergies- not back injuries. After much crying and talking with his wife- he knew they could not take care of him or provide what he needed and called us. We drove 10 hours to get him through two white-out snow storms.

Took him to our vet today- got x rays and an exam- healing his sores from rug and urine burns from dragging himself around before coming into rescue. He is on crate rest with love breaks with us now. He shows great response to pain on his back feet and is trying to stand on his own- xrays show he has a bad hemi but rest of spine looks great.

Our vets think he would be a great candidate for surgery and walk again. Monday we will call Purdue to set up a consult with specialist and see if they agree. Consult, MRI, surgery would cost between $3000 and $5000- any amount of donations would be greatly appreciated by Hank- he is a lover boy and loves life, people and dogs- let’s get this boy up and running with the vigor he so deserves again with all of your help- please!

If you can help, please donate towards Hank’s care. He is one of the lucky few dogs who really could have full mobility restored to him by surgery. What a miracle it would be, to see this boy up and walking again!

You can donate via Frenchies Por Vous, or via their Chip In for Hank.

Wendy Faith Laymon & Her Fake French Bulldog Rescue, Part 3

In part two of “When is a Rescue Not a Rescue?“, I detailed how a few French Bulldog fanciers, working together, discovered that Wendy Faith Laymon (or is that Faith Layman? She has so many names on the go, it’s hard to tell) was behind the new “rescue” group, ‘Rescue a French Bulldog‘.

A background search on Wendy turned up some disturbing news – a history of puppy milling, with convictions for poor care of her dogs, licensing violations, and a host of other charges. Even the USDA finally said “enough is enough”, and suspended Wendy’s license until 2012. Considering the kinds of filthy conditions that the USDA doesn’t seem to have a problem with, you’re left fairly staggered when you contemplate just how bad Wendy Laymon’s kennels had to be to piss them off this severely.

Read more

Wendy Laymon French Bulldog breeder scam

Wendy Faith Laymon and Rescue a French Bulldog, Pt 2

 

In Part One of “When is a Rescue Not a Rescue?“, I discussed how many red flags the website for “Rescue a French Bulldog” had raised within the French Bulldog rescue community. None of us were sure who was running this new ‘rescue’, but all of us had a really, really bad feeling about it.

One of our intrepid investigators decided to phone the 800 number on the Rescue a French Bulldog website. The call was returned by someone who called themselves “Wendy”, and just happened to be calling from a phone number which traced back to Wendy Faith Laymon’s internet puppy selling website, http://frenchiepuppies.com.

Wendy Laymon (aka Wendy Faith Laymon, aka Faith Laymon, aka Wendy Layman, aka Faith Layman) had been all over my news alerts lately — I track every incoming news article which has the words “French Bulldog” in it, and all of a sudden, it had seemed like every other ‘article’ was a self aggrandizing press release from Wendy Laymon (or from Wendy “Faith” Laymon, in some cases), talking about how she was “living the American dream” by breeding French Bulldog puppies, or touting her latest litter of Frenchie puppies. It all seemed awfully odd, but I just chalked it up to yet another commercial dog breeder, desperately trying to pimp their puppies. Sadly, we’ve had an awful lot of those in the last year or so – breed popularity will do that. Suddenly finding Wendy Faith Laymon associated with a ‘rescue, however, made us all decide to dig just a little bit deeper – and there was lot to dig through.

Wendy seems to have been in dogs for years – but not in a good way. The earliest records we could find of her seemed to all be from Washington state, and revolved around “Shadow Mountain Kennels”. The news wasn’t good.

From the Humane Society Article “Missouri’s Dirty Dozen“, which details the offenses of the twelve worst commercial dog breeders in MO –

In Snohomish County, Washington, Layman reportedly lost her kennel license and was sued in small claims court approximately 15 times for charges related to selling sick puppies and misrepresentation issues. The majority of the cases were in the late 1990s and in 2000. Reportedly, she was convicted and sentenced to jail time in Washington state and was restricted from owning any animals as part of her release. She then moved to Missouri.

Most recently, on March 27, 2009 the USDA levied action against her (dba Shadow Mountain Kennel) under docket #08-0089: http://www.da.usda.gov/oaljdecisions/090403_AWA-08 She was fined $7,125 (held in abeyance) and banned from holding a USDA license for three years.

Although Laymon has been banned from holding a USDA license until at least 2012, while previously licensed as a B dealer she was cited for numerous violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including excessively matted dogs, dirty conditions, inadequate housing and records violations.

Despite her dishonorable history, Laymon currently holds a MO state kennel license. She has some of the most numerous MO Department of Agriculture ACFA violations of all state-licensed sellers (at least 36 violations since 2008).

HSUS investigators found that Laymon sells puppies (or has done business) under many business names, none of which are registered as fictitious business names in the state of MO as of April 2010, including:

•Shadow Mountain Ranch (name used on her current MO license)

•The Bulldog Connection (www.thebulldogconnecion.com/)

•Frenchie Babies (www.frenchiebabies.com/)

•Web Frenchies (www.webfrenchies.com/)

•Love My Bullie (www.k-designco.com/lovemybullie/)

•A French Bulldog (www.afrenchbulldog.com/)

During a routine state kennel inspection on 02/10/10, the Animal Health Officer inspecting Laymon’s kennel noted that “the last inspection conducted by the attending veterinarian was January 2008,” more than two years before.

Read more here.

Does this sound like the kind of person who suddenly decides, out of the goodness of her heart, to devote herself to helping homeless French Bulldogs? We didn’t think so, either, and so it wasn’t surprising to find myself directed to the website of someone who had intimate business dealings with Wendy, and nothing good to say about her.

The bad news was about to get much, much worse.

Wendy Laymon and Rescue a French Bulldog – “When is a Rescue Not a Rescue?”

Part One || Part Two || Part Three

Wendy Laymon French Bulldog breeder scam

When is a rescue not a rescue? When it’s Wendy Faith Laymon’s Newest Scam- Rescue a French Bulldog

Have you ever wondered “When is a rescue not a rescue?”. The answer is simple – when it’s Wendy Laymon’s Newest Scam- Rescue a French Bulldog.

I’ve written before in the past about various types of internet scams and cons that revolve around ‘adopting’ homeless French Bulldogs (or English Bulldogs, or Yorkies, or other pricey, popular breeds).

One of the scams I described is the “Fake Rescue Scam” —

The con: This one is slick, and preys on our tendencies as loving dog owners to want to help out dogs in need. The con men set themselves up as a ‘rescue’, claiming to have dogs that they’ve liberated from puppy mills. The trick here is the price – $3,000 and up, in some cases, to ‘adopt’ a dog from a rescue. What you’re actually doing, of course, isn’t ‘rescuing‘ or ‘adopting‘ –  it’s buying. You’ve bought a dog from a puppy mill, for a typical high ticket price, and no health guarantee (after all, you didn’t buy that dog, you adopted it, and caveat adopter). The profits go right back into the mill’s pockets, and allow them to pump out more sub standard puppies.

Commonly found: All over the web. YouTube is littered with videos for places that claim to help ‘rescue’ Bulldogs and Frenchies from Thai puppy mills, or Dog Farms in Ireland, or midwest commercial kennels. A search on ‘rescue a French Bulldog’ will bring up blogs and websites, all touting high priced puppies in need of  “adoption”. I’ve also received several direct mails from groups claiming to be “Rescues” or “Sanctuaries”, in one memorable case soliciting donations for a ‘Sactuary for the homeless French Bulldogs of Thailand’. The idea of packs of homeless, feral French Bulldogs roaming the streets of Thailand would be funny, if this wasn’t such a cruel scam.

Avoiding this scam: Learn to differentiate between a real rescue group, and a company selling puppies. A legitimate rescue will be well organized, well established, and often times a registered charity. There will hardly ever be cute young puppies available, since there’s no lack of homes waiting for adorable puppies. Most rescue dogs are older, with many in need of veterinary care.

As with the other scams, use common sense!

Why does this group always have a never ending flow of young puppies? Where are the needy adults and older dogs commonly placed through rescue? Are they a recognized charity? Will their national breed club vouch for their legitimacy? If they can’t answer all of these questions to your satisfaction, just say no thanks. Give your money to a rescue group that will actually use it help dogs, instead of using it to breed more of them.

Recently, I ran across the website for Rescue a French Bulldog,  a new internet based French Bulldog “rescue” that set off all of my warning bells.

The bottom right hand corner of the front page of their website featured a distinctive looking brindle pied dog, poised in mid jump. It was Gary (aka “Gary, not from France”), Michelle Wynn Tippets recently deceased and much missed Frenchie. I contacted Michelle, and received an almost instant reply – No, she had NOT given them permission to use her photo, and No, they did not ask for it. What kind of rescue uses stolen photos? The more I looked,  the more wrong almost everything about this ‘rescue’ seemed to be.

While their website is emblazoned with paypal donation buttons asking visitors to help ‘care for’ their dogs in need, everything else on the page sets off warning bells. Their website proclaims them to be not just a 501(c)3, but also a “licensed shelter”.

A licensed shelter?

I know a lot of Frenchie rescue groups, and they’re all getting by on a shoe string budget and a prayer, but these guys have already set themselves up some sort of Frenchie sanctuary? The French Bulldog community, and the French Bulldog rescue community in general, are a close knit bunch. If some sort of philanthropic Uncle Moneybags had endowed a home for wayward Frenchies, we’d all know about it. Instead, the Frenchie grapevine was remarkably silent about “Rescue a French Bulldog” – none of us had ever heard of them, none of us knew of a dog they’d placed, and all of us were instantly suspicious, and our suspicions only grew when we looked at their “Available Dogs” page.

Rescue a French Bulldog had to be either a scam, or the luckiest Frenchie rescue group on the planet.

While the rest of us get the dogs that no one else wanted, Rescue a French Bulldog’s dogs were all young, healthy and apparently “perfect”.  No seniors. No handicapped dogs. No special needs dogs. No dogs returned for behavioural issues. As someone who deals with rescue on an almost daily basis, I know that the odds of a rescue having nothing but perfect dogs available for adoption are akin to the odds of winning the power ball lottery. Twice. On the same day.

Obviously, something was up with Rescue a French Bulldog, but none of us were really sure what. In the next day or two, we’d find out that it was even worse than we’d thought, and it all had to do with a Missouri commercial breeder named Wendy Laymon – aka Wendy Faith Laymon.

Wendy Laymon and Rescue a French Bulldog – “When is a Rescue Not a Rescue?”

Part One || Part Two || Part Three

Harley — update, adopted!

Update: Harley is adopted. Look for a post on his story soon!

Harley, French Bulldog foster dog available for adoption
I don’t know if anyone remembers Harley, but he was the water chasing Fawn Frenchie that we were fostering earlier this summer. As of this weekend, Harley is back with us again, since things at his new home haven’t quite worked out as planned. Harley and his new Frenchie sister never did settle their differences (said differences consisting of her saying “You suck, get out of my house” and his saying “Please stop biting me on the ear”).

Harley is a young, healthy, energetic Frenchie. His only health issues are food allergies which are being controlled by a raw diet, which he MUST remain on. Since he had a bad experience in his current home with another Frenchie, we’re looking for a home with either no other dog, or with a dog who is proven and temperament tested NOT canine aggressive. Harley is very handsome, and weighs about 26 pounds. He is neutered, microchipped and current on all shots and preventatives.

Harley is located in Southern Ontario, and is available for adoption to approved homes willing to travel to meet him.

Read more about Harley here, and you can also watch his video —

https://www.bullmarketfrogs.com/blog/2010/07/harley-hangs-out/

If you are interested in adopting Harley, please complete our adoption application —

http://www.frenchbulldogscanada.com/french-bulldog-rescue/ecfbc-adoption-application/

Harley is an Eastern Canada French Bulldog Club foster dog.