Michael Mendel is the director of MCACC and the man in the blue shirt kissing the dog. The non-profit I co-founded and am the VP of has donated at least $100,000 in enrichment to MCACC in the past 3 years since we were founded. We also conducted weekly dog walks with the public. Dogs sit in their kennels for up to a week without getting out for a walk or yard time. MCACC volunteers only filled 17% of the available shifts in August. The shelter desperately needs help to meet the needs of the animals in their care.  The public dog walks were held weekly and could get 100 dogs out for a 30 minute walk in about 3 hours. In addition, the dogs got a photo shoot with a new bandanna and a report card with new information to add to their notes. It was a great way for the public to be involved and the dogs to get exposure. We also provided and passed out quality enrichment each walk to all 500 dogs in the shelter. Finally, we stuffed hundreds of Kongs that we donated and froze to use later in the week. 

Michael Mendel made the rash decision to cancel the Four Paws and Friends Mutt Strut. He claimed that we overstuffed the Kongs so they molded and he had to throw them all away. He also said that he saw pictures of people with their faces too close to the faces of the dogs. Kongs got moldy because they would only allow us to fill them with the regular dog food they feed and then they were left in the kennels for days. There was absolutely NO reason to throw these Kongs away because we would have come and collected, cleaned, and sanitized them. They are expensive and last for a long time. Finally, we gave safety talks at each walk and cautioned volunteers of things not to do such as engaging like Michael Mendel is in the picture above. 

I am personally so disappointed that the management would make the dogs suffer just to retaliate against me and my non-profit. Unfortunately, it is not surprising. I just hope that you will continue to tell others what is going on and keep our petition going. 

Thanks so much, 

Lorena 

lorenabader4@gmail.com