This is personal to me and now unbearable to even comprehend!
I am speechless…and in tears. Kieth is only two counties away, and I have been offering to help him for over two years via fundraisers, ect… with no reply. My volunteer even offered to help under many occasions. Keith never responded to either of us. I have even posted along side him on myspace, I offered there with no reply.
I am beyond angry, I have received word TODAY the dogs have been euthed, all but one desperate pooch, and his time is up now too!
This is insane! There is absolutely NO excuse for this!
UGH My head is hurting along with my heart.
Keith was “too proud” to even go non profit, I guess he was too proud to accept help also…
I can NOT believe he let it get this bad within 2 years, did he “give up”?
Regretfully
~Tonya
AfSD
Scooby was good enough to post his pic to draw in 1300 lbs of dog food only to be PTS because he didn’t re-sale fast enough!!
USED FOR DOG FOOD AND THEN “SURRENDERED” TO THE POUND, BUT THEY WERE ALL TO COME BACK IF NOT ADOPTED, PER POS KEITH’S COMMENTS” AND DON’T BLAME THIS ON ACO, THIS POS IS 100% AT FAULT FOR WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO SCOOBY AND 4 OTHERS
USED FOR DOG FOOD AND THEN “SURRENDERED” TO THE POUND, BUT THEY WERE ALL TO COME BACK IF NOT ADOPTED, PER POS KEITH’S COMMENTS” AND DON’T BLAME THIS ON ACO, THIS POS IS 100% AT FAULT FOR WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO SCOOBY AND 4 OTHERS
ID#A040950
Kennel 45A
HW+ NO INTEREST!
1 YOA/Neutered/Red-…nosed Pit/Excellent disposition, great w/dogs/children and a total SWEETHEART!
FOR ALL BUDDIES SURRENDERED DOG INQUIRIES CONTACT:
Manatee County Animal Services
305 – 25th Street
West Palmetto, Florida 34221
(941) 742-5933
Fax (941) 723-4708
Cheryl Thompson/Animal Services Supervisor
cheryl.thompson@mymanatee.org
BUDDIES Rescue & Sanctuary recently relinquished 25 rescue/sanctuary dogs to Manatee County Animal Control, FL.
As per Keith Wandell Founder/of BUDDIES; His facility & operation will remain ‘open’ and designated as such. This information in no way endorses and or supports those efforts except to network assistance for the dogs in his care.
DOGS STILL NEEDING RESCUE ASSISTANCE AT MANATEE COUNTY AC:
(This album with the #s posted on the photos are the current dogs needing immediate assistance) of the remaining 25.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=295036&id=794987621
CONDITIONS AT BUDDIES:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=171801016200534&id=100001041032273AVAILABLE
Additional photos also contained in this album is documentation that corroborates neglect at this facility.See More
This will be My ONLY statement regarding Keith Wandell and BUDDIES Rescue
thing I have to say publicly regarding Keith and his “Rescue”. I will
not answer comments or PMs nor will I argue with idiots that spend
thousands of dollars to transport and “rehab” a deemed non-adoptable
dog, when there are so many adoptable dogs dying in their own community
every day, that they apparently have turned a blind eye to. The only
reason I can think of why they do this is to feel good about themselves
for “saving” a dog that would not have a chance. But what about the
perfectly adoptable dogs that don’t exhibit any behavior issues that die
ONLY because they are HOMELESS?? Who is saving them??
“Keith hater” but a friend of DOGS. Just so you know a little about me –
I have been a Professional Animal Shelter Manager since 1992 and am
also a Veterinary Technician. I have also assisted and done Doberman
rescue locally since 1987. I am a Manatee County Sworn Cruelty
Investigator and Florida State certified Euthanasia Technician (having
worked at a few high kill shelters). I have a DEEP compassion for
animals but am not a humaniac. I am antisocial, preferring the company
of my own dogs to people.
in the early part of October 2010. I immediately saw Keith was in over
his head. The rustic kennels didn’t bother me and as a matter of fact, I
thought he had done a good job constructing them. But the appearance
(and the sheer numbers) of the dogs DID bother me. The dogs were thin,
standing on wet wood with no dog houses or blankets. Their water was
either close to empty or green with algae in the rigged containers. The
ground surrounding each kennel was thick with feces like they don’t
scoop but just hose each run out with the dog still in it. Keith took me
into a Tractor trailer that was filled with homemade wood boxes and
small crates. He called this place “his embarrassment”. The smell of
ammonia was extremely strong in here since there was little ventilation.
There were approximately 30 crates (open wire and closed airline
carriers) with dogs in them. Keith’s own Rottweilers occupied the wooden
ones. Their water bowls sat on top of the crates so they didn’t spill
their water and sit in it, I am assuming. Keith mentioned that he had
too many dogs and would really like to downsize. I told Keith before I
left that day that I would do anything I could to help the dogs and
would even put them on my Petfinder page and help with adopting them
out. He told me he would think about it but by the time I drove the hour
back to my home, he had emailed me 12 pictures of his dogs to place for
adoption, which I promptly did.
driven that hour back to Keith’s at least once a week. Either taking
prospective adopters out, delivering donated food that I had gathered,
or to take more pictures of dogs to place on Petfinder.
out there I have seen dogs with many injuries from dog fights, dogs so
skinny and anemic from fleas that I wasn’t sure if they were going to
live, and the condition of the property itself go downhill with more
feces and junk littering the property. When I asked Keith why the dogs
were so thin, he told they have Hookworms and Whipworms going around and
couldn’t seem to get a handle on it. I spoke with my vet regarding
treatment and since the conditions were such that the dogs were going to
continue to re-infect themselves, he suggested oral Ivermectin to be
given once weekly for 6 weeks so I personally bought Keith a 250ml
bottle. He did treat them for 6 weeks and their appearance seemed to
somewhat improve. If Keith told me one of the dog’s had a wound that was
infected, I brought him antibiotics. If Keith called me and told me he
needed food, I would scurry and call in favors from friends, coupled
with my own money to bring him out 500 to 1,00 pounds of food at a time,
always with several boxes of Milk Bones.
pictures were not taken for “evidence”. They came from albums that
Terri and I were putting together for “happy” stories of adoption
success. But every picture told a STORY. Each dog that I took out of
Keith’s was very thin, if they had long coats then they were severely
matted, all had long nails and smelled so much like feces and urine,
that we would have to bathe them twice with Dawn dish soap and then a
deodorizing shampoo, and even after that, they would still smell, just
not as bad. 3 out of the 17 dogs I pulled were heartworm positive and I
had them treated at my own expense. They ALL were in mental shut down.
We would take them to to Terri’s house for her to foster and you could
watch them bloom over a couple of weeks. It was like they were slowly
remembering what it was like to sleep on a blanket or bed, that they had
been housetrained in a different life and did not have to sleep where
they pottied anymore. They would hoard all the dog toys and put them in a
pile and guard them. And they all would eat and drink like there was NO
tomorrow! It would take an average of 2 to 8 weeks for them to realize
that the food/water would always be coming on a regular basis now. I
took them all to my own Vet and he would literally holler at me about
the poor condition of each dog and I would try to explain it away by
saying Keith was doing the best he could. He would quickly correct me
that apparently that wasn’t good enough by looking at the dogs.So there
IS documentation but we will NOT get into that. And testimonials from
the adopters but I will NOT drag them into this either.
the dogs that didn’t make it out of Keith’s. There was a sweet wht/blk
Pittie girl that has a severe case of Mange (Keith wasn’t sure if it was
Demodex or Sarcoptic because she has never seen a Vet) and she had a
secondary infection of the skin. Keith asked me how to treat it so I
told him but when I asked a couple weeks later if he had started
treatment yet, told me NO. About 1 month after that, as I was leaving,
Keith came up to my truck and told me that after one of the freezing
nights we had the week before, he had found her dead in her run when he
got up that morning. I tried to downplay how upset I was at this news,
but had to pull over to the side of the road when I left. That poor
sweet girl! I wish now I would have pulled her and gave her the care she
needed. Recently, when I was at BUDDIES adopting out one of the
Boxer/Pit mix puppies, Keith asked if I remembered their Mom “Gypsy” and
I said yes, of course, where is she? He said she would get out of her
kennel at night and roam the woods and he would try to find her but this
particular time it was really cold out so he said to hell with it and
let her roam. When she returned in the morning he said she had a wound
on her side that he believed to be a gunshot and she died soon after.
Those are only two personally I know of. But isn’t that ENOUGH? Keith
has told me on several occasions that he does not have a REGULAR Vet
and even asked if my Vet would vouch for him as a reference.
have tried to help the dogs at BUDDIES Rescue all I could: Going out
there to take pictures, putting them on my Petfinder page, returning
phone calls and emails of inquiries (sometimes up to 5 a day), checking
references on adoption applications, home checks and reference checks,
either taking the adopter out to BUDDIES or picking the dog up and
meeting them, doing the foster paperwork until the dog is vetted,
picking the dog back up from the foster and taking it to my Vet,
listening to my Vet bitch/complain about the physical and mental
condition of the dogs, paying for ALL the vetting including: 3 heartworm
treatments,spay/neuter, Rabies and Distemper/Parvo vaccs, heartworm
and fecal check, microchip, tapeworm meds, flea and heartworm
preventive, and then actually adopting the dog out for an adoption fee
of $75.00. Now I am not complaining but Keith lives 1 hour from me so
that is 2 hours of gas and I have not worked in a year and half. I was
doing it FOR THE DOGS. I have also taken him over 3,000#s of donated
food that I have begged/borrowed/stole. The final straw for me was he
was out of food AGAIN and when I asked him if having 17 less dogs had
made a difference, he told me not really because he had taken another
10 or 12 in!!! He also will not return any phone calls when adopters
have questions that I don’t know the answer to, and he seemed to
purposely sabotage the adoption if I don’t go out there with the
adopter. So I can’t even send people to him, I HAVE to go out with
them. I am always embarrassed when I take people out there and they are
always shocked and appalled, so I have to do a LOT of explaining.
Keith and Laurie see nothing wrong with the way they keep the dogs.
They think it is perfectly normal to have 60 – 90 dogs locked up in
cages with no toys, blankets and just enough food to barely live on. I
cannot keep up the work I have been doing for BUDDIES and it tears my
heart out to just walk away. But what good does it do if he justs keeps
taking dogs in???
signed 25 of his dogs over to our local high kill Animal Control, and I
was told that he has done this once before, a year or so ago. I am glad
that he is trying to get the dogs in his care down to a manageable
number, but I am now scrabbling to try to save as many as these dogs as I
can. The shelter has put 4 of them into their adoption center, but 2
out of the 6 dogs they tested so far are heartworm positive, 6 are small
puppies and 1 dog is too old (Sheba) for their adoption program, and 1
is severely dog aggressive (Ziva) so these dogs WILL NOT be adoptable.
They are testing the rest late tomorrow afternoon and will be calling me
then to let me know which ones needs to be transferred out or will be
euthanized. If you can help me save any THESE dog, please contact me at
dobesgalore@aol.com.
Control! They have asked me to be their liaison because they do not have
time to answer 500 phone calls or emails.
Wandell is saying he signed over 25 dogs – can you confirm this to be
true? And if so, are they in need of rescues groups to help alleviate
space and workload on your staff, and, of course, to save as many dogs
that are deemed adoptable?
hope this letter answered everyone’s questions and I swear EVERY word
is the TRUTH. And there is alot more but I think this condensed version
should suffice. I am not sure what the answer is regarding BUDDIES
Rescue. Keith does not have ANY credentials as a Trainer or
Rehabilitator and I personally do not believe he knows what he is doing.
He basically takes dogs in that nobody else will, for a price, and that
price pays his mortgage, buys food and supports his family. But when
that money runs out and the dog is still there (sanctuary) how will that
dog get food? Or Vet care? And if you are a rescue thinking about sending one of your problem dogs there for rehab, PLEASE reconsider.
there are worse things than death. Like suffering for years in a bare
kennel without fresh water or regular food, grooming, social interaction
and exercise. And your dog might end up at a high kill shelter anyways.
DON’T ASK ME HOW I COULD SIT BACK AND WATCH THE NEGLECT ~ I HAVE DONE
EVERYTHING I COULD TO HELP KEITH’S DOG’S AND CONTINUE TO DO SO!
TO OF ALL OF KEITH’S FANS OUT THERE (THAT LIKE TO SLAM AND MAKE LIGHT
OF PEOPLE THAT ARE TRYING TO TELL THE TRUTH) – WHERE ARE YOU?? YOU CAN
NOW STEP UP AND PRACTICE WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN PREACHING! HELP SAVE THESE
25 DOGS THAT CAME FROM BUDDIES RESCUE. I ISSUE THAT AS A CHALLENGE. I
have heard you TALK THE TALK – NOW WALK THE WALK!!
note is a first hand account only and is not intended to discredit Keith
or Laurie personally but to help the dogs, by stopping them from going
there.
comments will be promptly deleted and any emails that aren’t a direct
inquiry regarding saving the dogs below, will be blocked.
SHARE THE ATTACHED PICTURES TO RESCUES!! THESE DOGS ARE AT AN ALREADY
OVERCROWDED HIGH KILL ANIMAL CONTROL FACILITY. PLEASE HELP ME SAVE THEM.
They only have a matter of days.






Mocha – Pit mix. 1 y/o, likes other dogs and has the BEST temperament. Also, his brother Latte is with him.

Pixie – English Pointer mix. Approx 6 y/o, likes other dogs and is extremely quiet and calm.

Ziva – Mastiff mix. 1 y/o. is severely dog aggressive. NEEDS RESCUE!

Sonny – Lab mix. Not sure of age or dispo.

I CAN UNDERSTAND YOUR ANGER AND HEART BREAK ,, I JUST WANT TO SAY THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A BAD DOG,, ONLY BAD OWNERS.. HUGS SWEETIE,, KEEP HELPING THOSE YOU CAN AND ARE ABLE TOO LOVE INKY
Agreed!
I have a “muddy wolf print” tattoo on my ankle, I earned from Brandon Bond. He rescued a few of Micheal Vick’s dogs…
I had the privilege to meet the “champion” dog, main “killer” and “money maker” who NOW is a THERAPY dog for a retirement home. This only proves it’s not the dog, but the owner.(who needs to be trained)