An Update on Pawsitive Service Dog Solutions

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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……

20 thoughts on “An Update on Pawsitive Service Dog Solutions”

    • No problem. Happy to keep people informed. I also updated with another story this morning.
      Nate

  3. We were also talked about on the radio today, I am told. On KFBK Sacramento radio. I will let you know if I find the recording.

    • I’m sure many people would love to hear the radio broadcast. Let me know if you can find the link!
      Nathan

  5. I would like to know if I have your permission to forward your blog to Areva Martin. Her web site is:http://www.arevamartin.com/. She is a huge advocate for autism and many other causes. She is also nationally know. I believe the news and paper media are just doing a fluff piece and not seeing this as families that have been defrauded. Which is what has happened. My great nephew was one of the children waiting for a dog, and we are so angry about how this all happen. We also blame Patty for not bringing attention to this earlier, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know Carmel was diverting funds for private use, but complaining to you is not the purpose of this email.

    • Hi J,
      Sure, send my blog to whomever you want. It’s on the internet for all to see! Feel free to tell Areva Martin to post, comment, share my blog all she wants!
      Nathan

      • Thanks Nathan, I plan on firing up a letter with in the next day or so. Hopefully I can get her to rattle some cages and get the AG involved.

  9. I have known Carmel and Bob Mooney for many years. Oh, the stories I could tell about this so-called Christian family. Her mother, Sharon, was despised and kicked out of Carmel’s life because Carmel wanted all of Sharon’s mother’s home in Carmel and the inheritance that boosted Carmel’s bank accounts to well over a million dollars. Why should Carmel let Sharon have the inheritance? Carmel wanted it. Carmel and I parted ways when I disapproved of their training techniques and false-fact publicity. I was told by a third party that Robert (Bob) Mooney has moved to Montana and taken all the money from their bank accounts with him. Carmel and Faith plan to meet him there, buy property in Red Lodge and live happily ever after. Carmel had her first daughter, Laura, taken away from her by the ex-husband, Col. Tim Devine. That’s another story.

    • Hey there, this is Laura Devine. Yep, the now 23 year old daughter of Carmel. I haven’t spoken to her in a few years, after she abruptly created a website about me and tried to come back into my life after not speaking with me for 10 years. (it’s a long story…)

      Anyway, I would like to acknowledge all of the harm she has put on your families. She wreaked havoc in the life of my father and I and I can’t imagine how much stress and disappointment she has caused for all of you. I have been following this case from afar and I am disgusted and ashamed by her actions. I hope you all get that reparations that you and your children deserve.

      Also, Carmel (because I know you are probably reading this and continuing to stalk me via social media and calling me from blocked numbers), please stop. I don’t want anything to do with you. And besides, I’m a bi-sexual, Sanders voting, pro-choice, liberal who is dating a foreigner. So I have a feeling you and your “Christian” values wouldn’t like me much.

      • Hello Laura,
        My name is Alexa Fila. In 2013, hoping to obtain an expertly trained seizure response SD (as advertised by PSDS) for my daughter, Hailey Huntington, I entered into contract w PSDS (Carmel) in August of that year. That decision lead to a nearly 2-year long battle between Carmel and myself.
        Thankfully, I refused the purported SD she tried to foist upon us. Carmel became furious, attempted to illegally retain the $13k in donated funds raised for my daughter’s SD and mounted a vicious attack against me personally as well suing me for my attempts to forewarn other families seeking an SD from Carmel and PSDS.
        With help from the Attorney General and a fellow PSDS parent/victim whom also happened to be an amazing attorney willing to defend me from Carmel’s vicious attacks, pro-bono, my daughter and myself were one, if not the only, family who narrowly escaped further havoc. In the end, I was able to force PSDS to provide a full refund of donated funds just 2 months prior to PSDS’ collapse the following year.
        Your kindness and compassion for the countless families harmed by Carmel and PSDS is commendable and is so incredibly appreciated. You mentioned being ashamed by Carmel’s actions – I can’t properly express to you how strenuously I pray you do not blame or shame yourself in anyway.
        Many of we parents involved in that mess became and remain, today, a pretty close knit group of friends. So, looking at it from a different perspective, though it was and still is a nightmare for many, there was also a huge blessing for some of us buried deep beneath Carmel’s ill-intended motives and actions.
        I am sorry to hear you have continued struggles with Carmel, I will keep you in my thoughts, prayers and offer you my friendship coupled with my sincere gratitude for your kindness.
        In closing, I just have to say your wit and humor in the final few sentences of your posting made me giggle out loud and I believe we’d get along quite well. That was a stunning dismount young lady.
        Thanks again Laura, I applaud your courage, compassion and would love to know you better.
        Alexa Fila

        • Hi Alexa,
          Thank you for your kind words. I truly appreciate them. I would post my contact info, but she would probably find it. But you can find me on Facebook under Laura Devine 🙂

          Also, I wanted to give everyone a warning that she is at it again! This time with “Anointed Journey” -http://anointedjourney.com/

          She is now apparently a “life coach” and she charges exorbitant amounts of money for 50 minute “life coaching” sessions. And pairs them with essential oils. She’s a fraud, a liar, and a scam artist. Please spread the word about her new scam. I don’t want to see any more people harmed by her malice.

          • Hi Laura,
            Thank you for inviting me to locate you via FB. I’m sorry I did not respond sooner, I took myself out of “the loop” as it were and was just made aware of your reply. Sadly, I also just saw your info. re: Carmel’s most recent website and gracious offer as a Christian Life Coach.
            I am utterly stunned. It’s actually quite an amazing display of resourcefulness and unyielding compulsion to “help” people while relieving them of their bank account balances on her part. Incredible is a word that comes to mind and perhaps more succinctly, incredible in reverse?!
            I will search FB for you Laura and look forward to speaking (or typing) w you.
            Oh good Lord, my collision w Carmel as well as PSDS et. al. has been an nothing short of breathtaking! Over and over again…
            Thank you again
            for your response and kindness Laura. I look forward to being “friends” should I locate you on FB.
            Alexa

          • Aloha, Laura (and Alexa!)–Alexa and I met through a similar experience with PSDS. Thank you for the warning regarding this new endeavor of your mother’s.

            Warm Regards 🙂

  10. Oh man. I didn’t know this about Carmel. Hard to believe who’s telling truth.
    I’ve spoken with Carmel on a few occasions and I know she kept getting sick for a while telling me how much she loved her daughter Laura.

    You know no matter what. Carmel is still Laura’s mom and that will never change. It’s not a father who brings a child into this world but a mother.

    As much as a child can hate their mother, one day- when that mother is no longer around- the, child will feel the loss of a mother forever. That loss can never be replaced. It leaves an emptiness in a child’s heart which is painful.

    If you make the decision not to have anything to do with someone then that is the decision that you live with for the rest of your life. NO ONE else’s but yours
    We only get one chance in life to be the best we can be.

    Don’t hate because it is destructive in every way… .period.

    Love with all your heart. Be kind to one another and just live in peace and serenity.

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