[Cagdu] FW: Article: As Charity Cash Swells, Blind Await Guide Dogs

[Ken Volonte]

Where is the California Guide dog Board?  After all, they are supposed to guard against illegitimate schools from doing business in this state.  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: tina thomas 
  To: cagdu at nfbcal.org 
  Cc: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users' 
  Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 3:15 PM
  Subject: [Cagdu] FW: Article: As Charity Cash Swells, Blind Await Guide Dogs


  Subject: Article: As Charity Cash Swells, Blind Await Guide Dogs


    
  As charity's cash swells, blind await guide dogs
  by Robert Anglen - Sept. 18, 2009 12:00 AM
  The Arizona Republic
  A charity that raises and trains guide dogs for the blind has been 
  collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations and investment 
  income but has not placed a dog in more than two years.
  The California-based Eye Dog Foundation for the Blind, which has its 
  training facility in Phoenix, has placed no more than 30 guide dogs since 
  2000, an average of about three a year.
  Some blind people say the foundation has reneged on promises of providing a 
  dog on a timely basis, so they go without a vital companion and link to the 
  outside world.
  The Eye Dog Foundation is not lacking in resources. In 2007, the most recent 
  year for which tax records are available, it reported $7 million in assets 
  and $716,000 in expenses. It spent more than $156,000 in salaries and 
  benefits and $215,000 in legal fees.
  The foundation is one of only two facilities in the country that exclusively 
  train German shepherds, considered prized guide dogs but sometimes difficult 
  to train.
  In the past two years, the foundation has gone through three professional 
  dog trainers who walked off the job, and it repeatedly padlocked its 
  training facility and kennel, once for more than three months.
  In 2008, volunteers who raise puppies in their homes until they are old 
  enough for training began refusing to return dogs to the foundation. They 
  cited the training interruptions and alleged the dogs weren't properly fed 
  or cared for.
  The foundation sued 24 puppy raisers, saying they had stolen the 
  foundation's assets (the dogs) and violated their contracts.
  The foundation's president, Gwen Brown, refused to comment. In a court 
  hearing, she denied that dogs were neglected and maintained that past 
  problems have been resolved. Her lawyer said a new trainer has been hired 
  and dogs again are being trained.
  "There are well-meaning people on both sides of the issue," said attorney 
  Glenn Hotchkiss of Phoenix, adding that a lack of trust exists among all 
  parties. "There are a certain number of puppy raisers who won't believe 
  anything that comes out of my mouth or out of Gwen Brown's mouth."
  Hotchkiss said there were "problems in the past," including an internal 
  dispute that led a California court to take over operations in 2007. 
  Hotchkiss said that no longer is an issue.
  "Since last September, things have been going well," he said.
  Meanwhile, some members of the blind community say they are in dire need of 
  a guide dog.
  "I can't put into words what this has done to me," said Janis Limon of Mesa, 
  who has been waiting for another dog from the foundation since 2007, when 
  her previous dog died. "My life has literally been taken from me. I live 
  alone. I'm blind. My dog went everywhere I went. I used to walk 6, 7 miles a 
  day. Not anymore."
  Important mission
  The foundation started as a non-profit in California in 1952 and for decades 
  was presided over by a Beverly Hills attorney, Lequita McKay.
  In 1988, after disputes with the state over licensing, the foundation bought 
  land and opened a training facility in Phoenix, where no licenses and 
  certifications were required.
  The foundation's purpose is to provide German shepherds to the blind free of 
  charge. The dogs are raised for the first year in the homes of contracted 
  puppy raisers.
  More than 7,000 blind people in the United States rely on guide dogs. While 
  about 20 schools across the country train guide dogs, two train only German 
  shepherds. The rest primarily use Labrador retrievers.
  For nearly two decades, the foundation placed five to 10 dogs a year with 
  blind handlers through the Phoenix facility on 15th Avenue near Baseline 
  Road.
  But placements came to a halt in 2007, after infighting among six board 
  members led to a stalemate over who should run the foundation. One faction 
  sued the other, and the foundation went into court-ordered receivership.
  Brown was voted in as the foundation's executive director. Her management 
  was called into question by some board members.
  McKay's death in 2007 effectively broke a board stalemate, giving Brown a 
  majority in the dispute. She moved the headquarters to her home in 
  Claremont, Calif.
  The court decided it no longer had jurisdiction over the foundation and 
  recalled it from receivership.
  No dogs placed
  The foundation since has been mired in controversy, culminating in the 
  lawsuits against the puppy raisers.
  In March, 17 of the 24 puppy raisers returned the dogs as part of a deal 
  with the foundation, which dismissed the suits and agreed to assess and 
  place the dogs within six months.
  Seven of the dogs since have been returned to the puppy raisers as unfit for 
  guide-dog duty, and 10 remain at the facility.
  Still, no member of the blind community is working with dogs at the training 
  facility or has signed up to reside at the facility's dorms in the past six 
  months, the foundation's lawyer said. A handler is required to live for two 
  to four weeks there to establish a relationship with a dog before taking it 
  home.
  The puppy raisers say the failure to begin placing dogs is proof that the 
  foundation is not making a good-faith effort. They question whether the 
  current trainer has enough experience to work effectively with guide dogs.
  The seven puppy raisers who still are being sued by Brown want a guarantee 
  the dogs will be used to help the blind.
  "There is nothing that (Brown) has done to relieve our concerns," said 
  Paradise Valley resident Anna Thomasson, one of the seven. She has raised 
  three dogs for the foundation in the past five years. "We don't believe they 
  have hired a qualified trainer." Hotchkiss, who represents Brown only in the 
  suit against the puppy raisers, said Brown is working in the best interests 
  of the foundation and wants to avoid conflict.
  "I fully understand (puppy raiser) concerns," he said. But he believes those 
  concerns are focused on the past. "Puppy raisers won't concede what is 
  happening now."
  Complaints abound
  The puppy raisers' concerns are echoed in complaints from the blind 
  community, past donors, former employees and the court-appointed receiver 
  who once managed the foundation's finances. In interviews, letters to 
  regulatory agencies and published accounts, they questioned the foundation's 
  management.
  Joseph Etienne, appointed by the court to take over the foundation's 
  operation two years ago, was critical of the way the foundation is run.
  "Dogs are not being used for what they are trained for," Etienne said. 
  "People's donations are not going for what they intended. Money is being 
  used to litigate instead of furthering the training of seeing-eye dogs."
  He said his analysis of the foundation and its finances from January to 
  September 2007 found that it had nearly $8 million in assets and could place 
  a dozen dogs per year without receiving another donation, using only the 
  interest it receives from investments.
  During the months Etienne was trustee, he said, the foundation placed two 
  dogs. He said it placed about three dogs over the two years before his 
  involvement and has placed none since.
  In contrast to the Eye Dog Foundation, the other school that trains German 
  shepherds exclusively, Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation in Connecticut, reports 
  that it places as many as 75 dogs per year.
  Consumer-complaint letters about the Eye Dog Foundation have been sent to 
  regulatory and law-enforcement agencies in California and Arizona.
  Investigators with the California Attorney General's Office will neither 
  confirm nor deny an investigation into the Eye Dog Foundation. Etienne said 
  in May that investigators interviewed him.
  In December 2008, the National Federation for the Blind published a scathing 
  article in the Braille Monitor magazine that concluded that the foundation's 
  practices should raise concerns. Tax records show that donations to the 
  foundation have declined from $894,217 in 2004 to $139,899 in 2007. The 
  foundation's single biggest expense in 2007 was legal fees, which totaled 
  $215,296. It paid Brown $43,000 in salary.
  The foundation reported on its federal tax form in April 2008 that it had 
  purchased and bred 23 dogs for training and that "class schedules have been 
  established and dogs are finishing training for release in later 2008."
  Limon said she was promised a dog in 2007 and still is waiting. She said she 
  considered applying for a German shepherd at Fidelco, but there is a 
  two-year waiting list and she didn't want to start the clock over again.
  "I keep hoping it will all be worked out," Limon sai 



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