#1 REBUTTAL Owner of company Underground Railroad Rescued Kitty Network AUTHOR: Chris LaBlanc - () SUBMITTED: Friday, January 09, 2015 URRKN has been an organization for 3 years and a 501c3 for just over a year. We are proud of that and what we do. Let me give a short explanation of what we are and what we do. The Underground Railroad Rescued Kitty Network is an organization that assists in transporting already rescued kitties to long distance adopters from rescues, shelters, fosters, etc. that have approved an adoption but need help getting the kitty to their new home. We have over 22,000 members and almost 2800 Conductors (drivers) nationwide. Our business model is to network and grow awareness of URRKN, the more people we involve the more kitties we can help get home. To this point we have transported almost 400 kitties over 340,000 miles. For the founder, Tina LaBlanc, this was her first introduction into the animal rescue world and we as a corporation learned on the job. We found what worked and what didn’t, what we could do better and what we were doing wrong. We know this is normal for experienced organizations but it was new to URRKN. In growing and learning we had some missteps and learned things the hard way: We had a former Conductor decide during an overnight stay to take the kitty in her care on a walk outside. The kitty was lost and we learned we could not assume common sense and had to be explicit in how to protect these Very Important Passengers who will be scared and unfamiliar in these strange new places. We informed our adopters and senders that a Health Certificate and vet records need to travel with the kitty(s) as some states require it and it must be with the kitty if it is a flight. We agreed to arrange a volunteer transport for T-Me from SC to PA, and did so. We had worked with that sanctuary before without problems. Unfortunately, the sanctuary owner didnt want to delay the transport, so she violated at least two of URRKN protocols and lied about it, and put T-me on the URRKN train anyway. She lied about getting T-Me fixed, and she did not procure a proper Health Certificate for T-Me before transport. Instead, she sent merely a vaccination certificate. The URRKN volunteers who picked up and then transported T-Me had no reason to believe that the paperwork wasnt in order, and they thought T-Me simply had a cold. Sadly T-Me was very ill, and contagious. T-Me died; one of the adopter’s cats named Liberty died, and another of her cats became ill but thankfully recovered. We now require that copies of all relevant documents are kept on file with URRKN’s central database prior to transport. All Adopters and Senders are informed that there are risks to adopting a kitty and they are all required to sign legal statements stating they understand and accept these risks including in T-me’s case. We understand that less than 1% of our transports have not been successful and we did understand sometimes there will unforeseen and unavoidable issues. Sometimes you are going to trust an organization or volunteer to be truthful and act in good faith and they will not. It does not happen often and it cannot sour you. We must learn from these in order to move forward and grow. What we did not know is that there would appear a small and vocal group of people who decide because you are human and you are a young organization it becomes their purpose to destroy your dreams and vision because you are not perfect, because you didn’t do it right the first time. These people have spread some very hurtful things that are hard to understand. We as a 501c3 survive on fundraising because donations are our only substantial means of support it is how any nonprofit operates. For someone to complain we raise funds to pay our bills and expenses makes no logical sense. URRKN has gone to 2 Best Friend’s No Kill National Conferences and we have run fundraisers for both, stating that this was to send URRKN’s founder and her husband so that they could learn, network and grow the organization into a runaway train. The detractors did not like the stated purpose of the fundraisers and claim it is to fund a vacation. They look at URRKN’s posted 990, and IRS letter of acceptance (posted at urrkn/URRKN_Forms.html) and say they must be forged because it does not support their unfounded claims such as saying 80% of our budget went to office supplies. They have contacted the IRS, State agencies, news stations, funding sites to spread falsehoods and half- truths. This is a small handful of people who do not agree with our mission or how we go about it. They are quite ruthless and have no fear because they know a civil suit is costly and hard to pursue. Since our first Conference we over doubled our exposure and driver base. Largely due to what we learned at the event. At the second Conference we had a booth and at over 22,000 members we are at a tipping point to be a real and out of control runaway train. Success is the best defense against those who try to tear you down and we are at the cusp. Success for URRKN is defined by getting the word out growing our membership, drivers and client base. That is how more kitties will get home. Growth and infrastructure are our largest expenses currently as we are still young. We have always and will continue to assist our Conductors and Bed & Breakfasts with gas and lodging when needed but that is always a special circumstance as most only drive an hour or two to meet the next Conductor and it is their contribution they proudly give to help kitties get to their forever home. It is the “feel good” that keeps the Love Trains rolling. If you have any questions about any specific claims or accusations please feel free to contact us and ask at clablanc@urrkn.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 00:08:40 +0000
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