The people at fault in this situation are the people of Deland and the surrounding area that did not volunteer and donate more to help ARK and dumped all of these animals on them. Maggie OK'd me bringing in a stray that had been hit by a car. They took it to Erin who x rayed it and determined it needed to be put down because it was in so much pain. The poor baby could not control her bowels. I donated money to help cover the cost. Erin is the best vet I know. She is rated tenth in the nation. She keeps our animals in great shape with accupuncture and is an excellent surgeon. All of the staff is excellent at Florida Wild and Ark. Shame on the people making nasty comments. Animal lovers should unite and not fight. We need to support each other in everyway possible.

Im sorry to say that but im very glad this has happened. In July i went to ARK to adopot a bulldog by the name of Butch. Fell in love with him on site. I was told that this dog was not good with other animals and to watch him around small children. Also that he had been positive for heartworms but had been treated. Well i paid 100.00 for him and took him home. Was given 14 pednazone (sp) pills to give him once a day for 14 days. I took him to the vet and was told he shouldnt be on this medication any longer. I also called the vet that gave did the heartworm treatment. Was told my them as well that he shouldnt be on the medication any longer. Was told to cut the remaining pills in half for a week then in half again to whin him off of them. Because if you just stop the medication it would have killed him. So i started do that. Then his whole behaviour changed. He became very aggressive, he head budded my grandson and caught him with his tooth and cut my grandsons face. I figured i was just and accident. Well 2 days later my Fiance leaned down to talk to Butch and play with him. And Butch cover my Fiance's forhead in the temple area. So i decided to return him. That happened on a sunday and ARK isnt opened on a monday. So me and my daughter. which is from out of town. took butch back. While i was inside to talk the people in the office one of them went outside and told my daughter they couldnt take him back because they were already over crowded and they had an inspection the follow morning. They did take him back. I wasnt offered another animal nor a refund at that time. I was there for over an hour talking to several people on the phone. I was told that Maggie was the only one allowed to do the refund. She was on vacation. So i called a number of times and could not reach her. So i finally sent an email. She finally emailed me back. This is what the email stated from both sides.

Me: To Whom It May Concern:

I adopted Butch from you the beginning of July. I had to return him to your shelter due to him biting my grandson in the face and then placing his whole mouth across my fiancé' face. I was told that someone would contact me concerning the issues. I waited for over an hour at your business, spoke to 3 different people. I was told that Maggie Hall would be contacting me. I waited for that call for a couple of days. The call never came so i called your office. I was given Ms. Hall's phone number. I placed that call and left a message. Still to date there hasn’t been a returned call. I paid 100.00 for Butch , in the paper work that I signed it states there is no refund unless there were extenuating circumstances. I consider it being extenuating circumstances when the dog bit , I would like a full refund for this amount. There were also some health issues with him and we were willing to deal with that, but then he bit. Please respond with any information you can give me. I would like to resolve this matter as soon as possible.

ARK: Maggie Hall,

Please read again your adoption agreement. It specifically states there will be no refund unless extenuating circumstances: death, severe illness. Butch never showed aggression with us or his former owner or foster. Evidently something in your home did not please him and you did not know how to handle this. Also you did not contact us immediately so that our dog behavorist could talk with you.

Butch was seen by our veterinarian upon return and the doctor found no health issues with him.

Since being returned Butch has behaved himself as a true gentleman and loving dog. We are very sorry it didn't work out with you and your family. There will, however, be no refund.

Thank you.

Maggi Hall, President ARK

So needless to say i never recieved a refund. Could have took them to court but was under the impression it was a lost cause.

Now im kicking my self in the behind for not doing it. Also speaking in donations i also took a just open bag of expensive dog food to them. I ve always said karma is a b****. What goes around comes around. If i knew when they were going to court i would be there to testify.

I rescued a dog, Tucker from an abusive situation that was chained 24/7 no food mud for water,and brought him to the ARK, where I and my sister made many visits in the time Tucker was there. Tucker was nutered, had food and water every time as did the other animals that were there, I did pay special attention to that. I witnessed the cats on one of my visits being administered medication by a vet tech. I think they were overwelmed some of the time and that is understandable as they would have animals dropped off at any hour of the night but took them and cared for them. How many NO KILL facilities are there?? Let me tell you they are almost non existent! Not many! I advocate for NO KILL.

I rescued a dog, Tucker from an abusive situation that was chained 24/7 no food mud for water,and brought him to the ARK, where I and my sister made many visits in the time Tucker was there. Tucker was nutered, had food and water every time as did the other animals that were there, I did pay special attention to that. I witnessed the cats on one of my visits being administered medication by a vet tech. I think they were overwelmed some of the time and that is understandable as they would have animals dropped off at any hour of the night but took them and cared for them. How many NO KILL facilities are there?? Let me tell you they are almost non existent! Not many! I advocate for NO KILL.

ARK is just the latest example of why the term “no-kill shelter” has become synonymous with “over-crowded, filthy conditions” for many of us who have had a behind-the-scenes view of shelters. I have spent about 15 years working and volunteering with animal rescue programs and have seen a broad spectrum of shelter conditions, from deplorable to state-of-the-art. And guess what? State-of-the-art shelters are usually those that practice humane euthanasia. There is a simple fact that no-kill shelters don’t want their donors or the public to know—there just aren’t enough loving, responsible homes for all of the homeless animals out there. Period.

Humane euthanasia is exactly what it says—humane. The anti-euthanasia lobby has done animals a grave injustice by using terms like kill, murder, exterminate. These words have great dramatic affect and create overwhelming guilt about euthanizing animals. I am not suggesting that euthanizing a pet should be an easy decision. It should not. But the public has been led to believe that anything, literally anything is better than euthanasia, including abandoning a pet in a locked home and moving out; dumping him in a wooded area; or dropping her at an overcrowded no-kill shelter. After 15 years in the business, I can tell you that there are indeed fates worse than death; one of them is being stuck in a filthy, over-crowded shelter with almost no hope of ever being adopted into a loving home.

Let’s stop the drama and do what is right for animals—when they are ill, disabled, have serious behavior problems (such as aggression), or if you simply cannot take care of them any longer, have the courage to ask your vet to humanely euthanize the animal. At least this way you know that they will not have a single day of suffering.

Advocate for the raiders of the lost Ark - Thank you for saying what so many of us are thinking but afraid to. When you challenge Maggi Hall, she retaliates by having her cronies make threatening phone calls and file false charges! Maybe the TRUTH about Maggi Hall AND ARK will be brought to light and the city will require a decent place for the dogs and cats to live and require ARK to either provide provide that (NOT IN AN 1800 SQ FT HOUSE ON 1/4 ACRE IN TOWN!!)or relenquish the animals to a reputable rescue group. Maggi's concern is for HER WALLET AND HER EGO - not for other humans and certainly not for helpless creatures who, through no fault of their own, find themselves at ARK.

Advocate for the raiders of the lost Ark - Thank you for saying what so many of us are thinking but afraid to. When you challenge Maggi Hall, she retaliates by having her cronies make threatening phone calls and file false charges! Maybe the TRUTH about Maggi Hall AND ARK will be brought to light and the city will require a decent place for the dogs and cats to live and require ARK to either provide provide that (NOT IN AN 1800 SQ FT HOUSE ON 1/4 ACRE IN TOWN!!)or relenquish the animals to a reputable rescue group. Maggi's concern is for HER WALLET AND HER EGO - not for other humans and certainly not for helpless creatures who, through no fault of their own, find themselves at ARK.

Oh and one more thing... Your daughter who is a veterinarian who took an oath to first do no harm should have her licensed pulled. I think the AVMA and the Florida board would be really interested in her participation. Good job ruining your daughters life and career Maggi! I hope you made enough money to pay both your bills because it appears your thievery days are over!

Maggie Hall appears to be a greedy and manipulative woman who should really change her agency's status from not for profit to for profit. I find it interesting that so many people supporting you have paid you hundreds of dollars as a "donation" yet other non kill shelters charge 20.00 for their adoption "donation" fee. I would know as I have 4 cats that I have adopted personally just recently. And on that note if I put all four of those cats together in one room they would literally have killed each other. Having homeless aka registered sex offenders " volunteer" and "live on the property" is pretty close to slave labor which went put of style around the time of the Civil war! With hundreds of dollars and thousands of homeless people, you think you would be fully staffed as you are pocketing your not for profit money. Also it is deplorable to have human beings (registered Sex offenders or not) living in a toxic environment and it threatens their lives in addition to those poor defenseless and dependent animals. Sounds like Maggi enjoys making money off the suffering of both animals and humans. As a Citizen of Deland, an animal lover, and an employed advocate for humans working in the healthcare profession I find your actions and excuses disgusting. Please exit the city of Deland immediately and the state of Florida. Find another state to exploit you sorry excuse for a human being. And maybe someone should ask why if she cared so much she wasn't present early that morning scraping the algae and the maggots from their water and their food bowls. I will pray for you that God will spare your souls and those precious animals ( his creations) that were rightfully removed from your deviant and self righteous hands!

this was retribution from a rival rescue place

They don't even know if charges will be filed???? Are you kidding me? These animals were in need of medical care!

They better NOT get those animals back.

Buddy

Those sick animals should have NEVER been placed with the healthy ones. Just ask the volunteers what happened when they placed the parvo positive pups with all the healthy ones....they ALL died. Sounds like a Kill Shelter to me.

Buddy

Those sick animals should have NEVER been placed with the healthy ones. Just ask the volunteers what happened when they placed the parvo positive pups with all the healthy ones....they ALL died. Sounds like a Kill Shelter to me.

BooBoo, MP and Linda.. The sick animals that you see in the videos did nor get sick from staying at the rescue center.. they were rescued and like many many animals before them are being treated back to health and then adopted. ARK has adopted out over 400 dogs and cats over the last 3 years most of them would be dead right now if not for ARK. Do you know how many were adopted from the center or from the adoption event that they used to hold at Pet Co every Saturday since this raid? = 0. No one at ARK profits from rescuing animals.. the adoption fees barely cover the expense of vet care on average. As soon as money comes into the center it immediately goes to support operating expenses and vet bills.

what BS.. the cat with the "eye problem"?/ of course you won;t find one of these at a real "shelter" bacause in most places that cat would be DEAD.. cats are killed in high kill shelters for such thing as being.. well a cat.. millions are killed yearly.. ARK looks like place that should be OPEN to HELP animals.. what bunk this is.. they had to film about seven crates before they found even ONE with a problem.. all of the kennels looked as clean as any kennel looks t 9 AM before cleaning.. check your local kill shelter and tell me what it looks like.. any time of the day.. oh and make sure you visit the kill room while there.. ARK has been screwed by anohte jealous rescue.. what B\S

ARK does everything possible to help the animals, the cages are cleaned every day the animals are well fed and cared for the dogs are exercised daily , animals especially dogs that have aggresive tendencies are worked with and trained, the staff at ARK work very long hours to keep up with all this and they also have voleteers that donate their time an efforts tto save these animals. On any given day you will find that people will just drop animals off at ARK during the night and ARK will take them in and care for them,ARK is one of the few rescues that don't euthanize they try to place the animals in good homes where they can be properly cared for and loved.

I watched the video and also was reading the ACO’s affidavit. My conclusion is that we must raid every single animal shelter and rescue in the US and file animal cruelty charges against every one of them. Better yet, let’s go ahead and kill all animals in every single shelter or rescue in the US because the shelters and rescues can not offer them a perfect life.

I also would like to suggest that we get rid of the current shelter system and replace all animal shelters with slaughterhouses. That way we can make sure that no animal will be "harmed" in a animal shelter.

On a more serious note, the only thing I find not ok in that video is the large amount of dogs in small crates. But then again, we don’t know if the dogs are in the crates just for the night or all the time.

Basically you can walk in to any shelter or rescue at 8:55AM in the morning and I’m almost certain you will find a sick cat with discharge from the nose or eyes. We currently have about 20 cats in our quarantine room, most of them have URI. They get medicated twice a day, cages will be cleaned and disinfected once or twice a day and food and water will be distributed twice a day. If you walk in to our quarantine room between 8AM and 9AM, you will see many cats with runny eyes, runny noses, empty food and water bowls and dirty litter boxes. I guess that is because we are so extremely cruel to our cats.

Of course, if you walk in to our quarantine room between 10AM and 11AM it looks totally different.

But I guess the only important thing is how it looks like between 8AM and 9AM when nobody had a chance to take care of the animals.

Why didn't they post the pictures of all the animals with empty water bowls covered in feces or talk about how disorganized they were most the time they didn't know what animals has what illness or that they misrepresented vicious dogs as good with children just so they could get the dolars. Also I am sure if they looked into some of the fosters that took in multiple animals at once they will most likely find hoarders and poor conditions as well. Ark seemed to only care about money except for a few in the organization. Maggie's daughter the vet next door treated most the animals except when they used another vet who was alot less expensive by some of the managers there who knew better. They were totally disorganized.

These people do not abuse animals. I have been there several times and these animals are cared for and loved. The animals I just saw on the video's were rescued from abusive and wanted homes, also kill shelters like Deland and Halifax. The dog as you heard has hip problems. Maggi makes sure all of these animals are taken care of. Why didn't they show the healthier animals on video? Also, they did not mention that at all hours of night, people drop off their large dogs and animals they just don't want anymore, some of which are Ill. Sad, how people can be scutinized when they are trying to help.

I hope they make an example of this and put these inhuman people in jail and throw away the key!If the punishment was more severe..just maybe there would be less animal abuse...

this is heartbreaking, how can any human treat an animal like this.