I am asking this be posted far and wide. This woman needs to never get more dogs just to kill. Please post this to any shelter that you work with or know.
----- Original Message -----
From: Kimberly Santilli
To: IN Tara Harris
Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2010 2:19 PM
Subject: Fwd: DNT - Smiling K9s, Indiana
that picture of helix breaks my heart!! i swear if i were in indiana, i'd find this woman and slap her across the face!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tara Harris
Date: Thu, May 6, 2010 at 1:18 PM
Subject: DNT - Smiling K9s, Indiana
To: Kimberly Santilli
I have no interest in becoming part of a big rescue-drama situation, so I'm trying to limit who I share my concerns with to those for whom this is relevant... but I will no longer be working in any way with Katie Wilson / Smiling K9s. Full explanation is below.
Tara
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I hate that I have to write this, but I feel like I have to... for the dogs. And this truly is difficult, as Katie Wilson is someone I used to consider a friend and I used to think very highly of her family-run rescue, Smiling K9s. They are located in northern IN, but she changes which town exactly she calls home... was Ossian, then something else, now Zanesville (I'm not sure the reason she changes this since they haven't moved).
A couple months ago, I became concerned about the number of dogs she euthanizes. Recently, there was one more situation where *clearly* the dog should not have been killed. And when asked about it, she told several blatant lies, which says to me that she knows she isn't acting in the best interest of the dogs. Full explanation follows...
- My concerns started with a group of orphaned puppies - they were 4 weeks when I had them, and all were healthy and happy. About 2 weeks later, Katie said they had a congenital liver problem which had been diagnosed by a blood test, and she had all but 1 euthanized. You can't diagnose a congenital liver disorder based on 1 simple blood test, so this struck me as very odd.
- Then she had a beautiful Cane Corso, Odessa, who she took in from Humane Society for Hamilton County (HSHC). Within days after taking her, Katie said she developed bloat and had to be euthanized. I know bloat can be fatal, but it certainly isn't always. It did not seem that Smiling K9s chose to even attempt to treat her, they just euth'd. AND... the didn't give HSHC the chance to take her back and fund the treatment. For anyone who hasn't worked with HSHC before, we would have *absolutely* taken this girl back and paid for the necessary medical care. No question. We don't euthanize for treatable medical conditions. We may not have been able to save Odessa, but we would have tried. Katie didn't even notify HSHC that Odessa had died.
- A couple weeks ago, she euthanized 2 puppies for Coccidia, rather than treat them.
- And the final straw for me... a couple of months ago, Katie wanted a pitbull from GA. Others went thru a lot of legwork to arrange having this little girl pulled and transported. The shelter said the pittie had a kennel-mate who she was bonded to, Helix, and could they send him too? Katie said yes. (Unfortunately, Lynn, these are 2 that came up on one of your runs, by *my* request. I am *so* sorry.) Well the pittie got adopted, and as Katie told me... 2 days after the pittie left, Helix didn't want to do anything. She took him to the vet - there was nothing medically wrong with him - just a broken heart. So she euthanized him. After 2 days. When I expressed my surprise and concern at only giving this young dog 2 days to bounce back, she started to back track... she said he had "lost all of his weight", which clearly isn't possible in 2 days. Then she said they had tried anti-depressants. .. which take weeks to reach therapeutic levels so would not be expected to have any effect at all in 2 days. She told me about how she had been thru bad depression with several of her dogs. I asked what made Helix different, and she had no answer. She started telling me about multiple days hospitalized at the vet... I asked her why he had to be at the vet since she has told me many times that she is able to do sub-q fluids at home, and she said she didn't have time. I told her that I really wish she had reached out then, b/c I would have made time. And I would have taken him. She said she understood this. I am heartbroken over Helix... I completely disagree with the decision she made, and I just can't get over the fact that she didn't even give anyone else a chance to work with him. He was a good dog - sweet, funny, handsome little man. He should *not* have died.
I emailed Katie the following day, because I was very upset and wanted to give her a chance to explain. She started out by telling me that she and her vet don't take euthanizing lightly, and in her time doing rescue, they had only euthanized 2 dogs - Helix and 1 other. This is clearly a lie. On her FB page she has an album of 14 dogs she has euthanized. And it doesn't include Helix or the orphaned puppies. I asked if she used more than 1 vet in case I was misunderstanding, and she said no... just this one. So I asked, "but didn't you just euthanize 2 puppies for Coccidia?" She said it was only 1... and that one had terrible Coccidia and whipworm. I don't consider parasites a reason to euthanize, and as you can clearly see from the FB screen shot, she had posted that there were TWO, so I'm not sure why she would now say it was only 1.
I understand that there are differences in philosophy and different groups may be more or less willing to treat different problems, but I don't know anyone who would euthanize a young dog who is sad after his kennel-mate (not even a litter-mate) leaves after 2 days. And the fact that she's lying about who/when she euthanizes speaks volumes.
There have also been other concerns expressed to me by others... by her own report, Katie has no fenced-in areas, so it isn't clear how she gets adequate exercise for the many dogs in her care (at her home). She also claims to do home visits for every adoption, but based on the number she adopts out and the geographic locations, it seems that would be extremely difficult if not impossible. As I stated previously, I really trusted Katie in the past, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt, but now I am not so sure... :(
I will no longer be working with Smiling K9s, nor will I take part in transporting any dogs to them. I thought some of you may feel similarly, so thought I would share. Please feel free to email me with questions. And to those of you who I had referred Smiling K9s to in the past... my sincerest apologies. :*(
Tara
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Tara L. Harris, MD
Child Abuse Pediatrics Fellow
Indiana University School of Medicine
Department of Pediatrics
office 317-630-2617
pager 317-312-2840
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