Hi K9 Mattie supporters! Séamus would like to say a few words about our fundraiser: We received the most beautiful handwritten card in the mail yesterday from a supporter in Arizona. It reads, “My family understands the pain of loss you and your family are feeling, longing for Mattie’s return. We hope this donation assists you in her return. Our prayers are with you all and bless you for loving her so much. Sincerely, R. Rambo.”

Your unfailing support warms our hearts and gives us motivation.

We have now exceeded 40% of our goal with more than $10,000 raised to Bring K9 Mattie Home!

Here’s how it breaks down. We set the goal on our GoFundMe page at $22,500 for the cost of Mattie and associated expenses. This is actually slightly less than the minimum that we calculated we would need – the general advice for fundraisers is to set a public goal that is at 90% of the true goal (25k). It works out perfectly because the donations through PayPal are consistently at about 10% of what we get through GoFundMe. As of this writing, since February 1 we have raised a total of $10,243 (9,078 through GoFundMe, 1,090 through PayPal, and 75 through personal checks in the mail). That’s 41% of 25k and 46% of 22.5k (rounded to the nearest percent).

Last year many supporters, including the renowned Dr. Marty Becker, had suggested that we raise funds and make an offer to buy Mattie back. At that time we were reluctant because we knew that it was fully within the capability of the company to just give her back to her family. Furthermore, I personally knew other handlers who had offered to buy their dogs so the company wouldn’t rip them away from their families. These offers were always rejected; with PWP / MSA it’s all about controlling their employees and showing who’s boss.

Our campaign last year was focused on simply getting the company to do the right thing in the simplest manner possible. “Please let Mattie continue to live with her family,” and when that failed and they took her away, “Please return Mattie to her family.” Just give her back. But Mike O’Neil, the Chairman of MSA Security, told me that Mattie was a “$20,000 asset that we invested all this money in.”

Okay then. We’ll pay for her, and for her transportation and medical expenses. Despite the fact that Mattie has made you many, many times that, despite the fact that she is at the end of her working life, despite the fact that your company is loaded with many tens of millions of dollars and owned by a firm with some fourteen billion dollars in assets.

Those offers by the others handlers to buy their dogs were made privately. I have consistently maintained that when the company thinks that nobody is looking, it’s then that they are the most vindictive and abusive. In my experience, they are not gentlemen – in fact, the furthest thing from it. What makes this fundraiser special is that it focuses a public eye on the company – it is a collective effort that we hope will convince PWP / MSA to acknowledge the wrongs already done and to do the right thing now. It’s not just a private offer from an individual family, but hundreds of concerned individuals who are donating their hard-earned dollars to make the world a bit better of a place. Eyes are watching.

This is an important point. I believe that nobody is past redemption until they pass from this life. PWP / MSA have done some awful rotten things to many dogs and their families, and these things must come to light. But they have a chance to clean up their act.

Once we reach our fundraising goal, we will make a formal offer to Perella Weinberg's MSA Security, backed up with letters of support from our elected representatives. 

So here are some possible outcomes of what might happen:

- PWP / MSA gains a conscience. We donate the funds to a K9 charity and give a refund to anybody who wants one. The company gives Mattie back to us, and pays for transportation and medical expenses for life as a reward for her faithful service. Highly desirable but highly unlikely

- PWP / MSA accepts the offer as is. Great

- PWP / MSA accepts the offer at a lesser price. Even better

- PWP / MSA accepts the offer at a higher price. Not desirable, but we would deal with it, perhaps with another fundraiser

- PWP / MSA rejects our offer. We will a) make the offer again a little down the road after they have had the chance to ponder the inevitable backlash they will receive. This campaign is only getting bigger. b) Failing that, or perhaps concurrently, we will bypass the company completely and FIND MATTIE. If you do not know yet, they deliberately moved her across the country, to an undisclosed location in Texas, to punish our family for speaking out against her getting taken in the first place. And they continue to keep her location secret (these people like to do a lot of things in secret).

One of our supporters asked what we will do if we don’t get Mattie back. I feel compelled to lay it out here: There is no circumstance, outside of the premature death of Mattie or one of us, under which we imagine that we will not get her back.

However, what happens if Mattie dies before she comes home? This is actually a legitimate fear because the lives of our canine friends are so short, and Mattie is already a senior dog. This is why we are working with such urgency. Though we frankly are not planning for her passing, we will just have to cross that bridge if we were ever unfortunate enough to get to it.

I don’t think it has to be said but I’m going to say it anyway: I hope PWP / MSA has gotten the point that we are not just winging this without purpose and direction, riding out our emotions until the anger subsides. This is a focused, well-planned and thought out campaign motivated by intense love and loyalty. We are engaging the full resources of our minds as well as our hearts. We will continue on until Mattie comes home and we can move on with our lives. THANK YOU ALL, GOD BLESS AMERICA XOXO

Some relevant links and contact info are contained here below.

This is the main link to our fundraiser to Bring K9 Mattie Home: https://www.gofundme.com/f/bring-k9-mattie-home 

If you prefer to donate through PayPal, here's our link: https://www.paypal.me/seamusk9

And please let MSA & PWP know how you feel about this! Direct contact has a positive impact. CONTACT INFO:

CEO Glen Kucera (the man who made the decision to take Mattie away), 973-981-1275; gkucera@msasecurity.net

Chairman Mike O’Neil (the company’s public face), 516-491-9721; moneil@msasecurity.net

K9 Director Mike Wynn (the person who moved Mattie across the country, out of spite, to keep her from her family), 917-923-5508; mwynn@msasecurity.net or msak9@msasecurity.net

The Perella Weinberg people who own MSA keep themselves relatively insulated; they are billionaires after all. So while we don't have their direct numbers, here are the emails of the fellas who oversee MSA:             

Chip Baird, cbaird@pwpartners.com                                                           

David Ferguson, dferguson@pwpartners.com                              

John McKee, jmckee@pwpartners.com 

Perella Weinberg Partners (PWP) main number, 212-287-3341      (Heads up: PWP falsely claims that Mattie is an MSA internal issue, that they have nothing to do with it. This is false - they are intimately involved with MSA's operations!).

MSA Security main number, 212-509-1336

As always, we welcome and encourage your feedback. Our email is: k9mattie@yahoo.com