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

Fri Sep 18 22:15:33 UTC 2009

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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