A lot has been going on with regards to a previous post about our poorly trained service dog that was purchased from Pawsitive Service Dog Solutions. (NOTE: If you’ve come to this page through a web search due to frantic searching of what is going on with the company you signed a contract with and can no longer get a hold of Carmel Mooney or anybody else and then you got an email stating you can call their attorney…start here and read this post along with the comments. Then come back here for the update. I’m sorry, friend, but you’re in for a big shock!). Since, I posted Fair Warning, it has become the number one viewed post on my blog and has generated over 230 comments to date from other families that all experienced the same issues as we did. Some of the comments read like a novel. You just can’t make this stuff up! As a result of other people looking for help, I’ve been in contact with nearly two dozen families, many of whom are seriously considering joining an existing lawsuit against PSDS. The new challenge is that PSDS has now begun the process of dissolving the organization and has more recently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. I’m still getting messages from parents who have come to this realization too late (didn’t we all?!) and just now figuring out that the money they paid (some are upwards of $14,500) will not be returned. Some are hoping for at least a partially trained dog as some sort of compensation….but believe me, you don’t want even a partially trained dog from PSDS. All I can do is point them to the attorney who has been helping the rest of us out. Without going into too much detail, here are the bullet points…

• A lawsuit was filed in late May by a few other families. Nearly 20 more are considering joining that suit.
• Pawsitive Service Dog Solutions is supposedly in the process of dissolving.
• PSDS has filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy (for the most part, this means they do not plan to exist anymore financially).
• The list of client complaints is growing, and growing, and growing…..
• In nearly every case, PSDS cannot provide financial data regarding their account, who gave what and for whom. Supposedly, their computer with the finances crashed. How convenient.
• PSDS has taken down their website and most social media accounts. Not to worry….I have numerous screen shots that I’m keeping for archiving purposes.
• Speaking of social media…a few weeks before PSDS shut down their Facebook page, Carmel posted a copyrighted photo of my daughter that she lifted from my blog (which I’m sure she monitors closely. Hi Carmel!!). It was taken by a third party photographer so I requested she take it down. She refused, citing I had signed in the contract that PSDS had the right to use photos of my child with the dog as a promotion for their company. This is true, but that contract doesn’t apply to photos who neither of us have the copyright to! Even after the owner of that copyright demanded she take it down, Carmel refused. So we sent FB a message stating copyright infringement for both FB and Instagram and they both removed the picture within hours. Checkmate.
• Patty Basile, the CPA who handled their finances (and who also was never able to provide a copy of our financial account), has since resigned from PSDS. In a unique twist of events, she has provided a legal declaration giving detailed information of just what went on behind the scenes…including the purchase of $7,000 blinds for Carmel’s house and the recycling of dogs. I’m serious…you can’t make this up! When a dog didn’t work out with one family, they changed its name and sent it to another unsuspecting family!
• I applaud Patty for finally seeing the light and I hope she continues to share information that might one day help all these families recover their money that is needed for real service dogs.
• The California Attorney General has expressed a certain level of interest in this case. We’ll see where that leads…
• If you want to file a complaint with the AG, you can do it here: http://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/charities/charitable/ct9.pdf The more the merrier.
• The IRS has been notified of the improper tax returns that PSDS filed. They filed the return designed for non-profits with less than $50,000 in total revenue. But the former PSDS website stated they had placed at least 47 service dogs. With an average cost of about $13,000 per dog and the company only being in existence for three years….the math is very easy. I guess lying is easy also. The IRS doesn’t comment on existing reviews of non-profits, but I suspect it would be fairly easy to prove some level of tax fraud.

In addition to all of this, the media has gotten hold of this story. There are several news outlets that have covered different angles of the Pawsitive Service Dog Solutions scam. So for the convenience of everybody searching for the latest news report, here are the ones that I know of. If you have seen others, please comment and leave me a link. I’ll update this post with each new link.

From FOX40 in Sacramento area… http://fox40.com/2014/08/04/family-says-service-dog-was-not-trained/

From ABC in Sacramento area… http://www.news10.net/story/news/local/sacramento/2014/08/04/special-needs-family-claims-they-were-given-an-untrained-service-dog/13562551/

From NBC Bay Area… http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Parents-Claim-Service-Dogs-Not-Properly-Trained-to-Help-Children-with-Autism-262630571.html

And here is the follow up story from NBC Bay Area several weeks later… http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/San-Jose-Family-Suing-Nonprofit-for-Allegedly–269762731.html

From Fresno CBS. (They spelled our name wrong….but I’ve been called worse things)… http://www.yourcentralvalley.com/story/d/story/eyewitness-news-investigates-service-dogs/28275/PO7WMV5Ry0WyqsjlZ3oi9g

From CBS in Los Angeles… http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/08/01/only-on-cbs2-boy-awaits-service-dog-that-will-be-a-life-changer-if-shes-ever-delivered/#.U9xAB9rv4Tk.email

From KTVU, in San Francisco and Los Angeles areas… http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/newbury-park-sick-socal-boy-may-never-get-promised/vCmNj8/

From The Sacramento Bee… http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/02/6601334/families-sue-yuba-city-nonprofit.html

From The Service Dog Free Press… http://servicedogfp.blogspot.com/2014/08/carmel-mooney-pawsitive-service-dog.html?m=1

From The Thousand Oaks Acorn… http://www.toacorn.com/news/2014-08-14/Family/Sick_boy_suffers_setback_in_search_for_furry_compa.html

The saga continues……