“Take the emotion out of your job.” – MSA Security supervisor to veterinarian who tried to alert the company about animal torture.
From Séamus, in case you missed this important message yesterday: MSA Security, owned by Perella Weinberg Partners (PWP), has its most lucrative contract with the US State Department, who hired them to run the Canine Validation Center (CVC) near Washington, D.C. It is an excellent program in theory, whereby America’s highly trained and lovable Explosive Detection K9s are sent to our Middle Eastern allies to help save lives in the War on Terror.
But for whatever the reason, perhaps because of cultural differences, these wonderful dogs were subjected to horrors that would cause the people responsible to be arrested for animal cruelty if they happened in the US (see article).
PWP / MSA Security was fully aware of the abuse for years and kept it secret from the government. Dr. Karen Iovino, the veterinarian in charge of the program, told me that when she found out about it and brought it up with the MSA supervisor, he told her, “to take the emotion out of my job.”
Whoa.
They knew about it all along and did not care as long as American tax dollars were lining their pockets. This is the same bunch that tore away K9 Mattie from my family when I went on military leave to serve our country, and have done the same to numerous other dogs and families.
Since MSA not only did not listen but actively attempted to cover it up, Dr. Iovino reported it to the Federal government. MSA Security fired her in retaliation.
Dr. Iovino has tirelessly worked on this issue for three years, and I am happy to say that just recently the State Dept. temporarily halted the entire program in order to figure things out. But the overall issue is unresolved.
It is wonderful that Dr. Iovino’s bravery has brought the matter into public scrutiny, and there are many easily ‘googleable’ articles on it. But perhaps because the State Dept. is more recognizable to readers and few people know what MSA is, the articles generally fail to highlight that Perella Weinberg’s MSA Security is the main culprit on the American side of things.
We are working to ensure that this gap of knowledge in the public domain is filled with the truth. I hope it is becoming apparent to all of you wonderful K9 Mattie supporters that it is in PWP / MSA’s cultural DNA to shroud their unethical activities in a veil of secrecy, and to retaliate with venom against those who attempt to bring them to justice.
We have much more to put out over the upcoming weeks and months, stay tuned...
WAYS TO HELP
1) THE FUNDRAISER (links below). Make a donation to Bring K9 Mattie Home through GoFundMe or PayPal. We are almost halfway to our goal! Every penny goes to Mattie. We are offering to buy her back from the company for their stated price of what it cost to train Mattie, along with any associated costs. In addition, MSA has a habit of legally turning over the dogs to their handlers when the dogs are physically broken down. All medical expenses have to be borne by the handler’s family. Maybe it’s not right, but that’s how they work.
2) CONTACTING THE PWP / MSA BOSSES. Send an email or give a call or text to the corporate bosses through the means of contact listed below. *NOTE* These guys listed here are the head honchos, but the list is not exhaustive – many other PWP and MSA contacts can be found through your favorite search engine (Google, Bing, etc.). We don’t list them all here because our email updates would end up being too long, but please feel free to contact anyone else at the company you can find!
3) SPREAD THE WORD! If share what you think of MSA and PWP on Google Reviews, or simply tell your friends and family, I believe the positive effect would end up being exponential.
And since MSA-trained K9s being sent overseas to terrible fates is a matter of national public interest and your tax dollars, contact your Congress members – Representatives and Senators – about the fraud that PWP / MSA Security is pulling on the American people.
Relevant links and contact info are contained here below. We will continue on until Mattie comes home and we can move on with our lives. THANK YOU ALL, GOD BLESS AMERICA XOXO
We would be so deeply thankful if you would consider making a donation 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
And of course, we welcome and encourage your feedback. Our email is: k9mattie@yahoo.com