If you're a regular reader of my blog please be sure to check out the following previous posts regarding this situation HERE and HERE first for more information. Also be sure to read www.caboodleranch.net for up to date case information.
I've gone back and forth about making another post on this subject here on my makeup blog. I feel like the vast majority of my posts should be about makeup, and that some people probably aren't super interested in my personal life (which is okay!). I feel though- as if I have some responsibility not only to stand up for myself publicly, but keep my readers sort of updated about this topic I've already discussed several times.
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| Flounce cats: caboodle ranch edition |
If you're a new reader I bet I can guess where you came from and who sent you here.
I also bet I can guess who sent you to my facebook, google+ account, fan page, and *snicker* some old textnovel account. Yeah, I'm not even kidding unfortunately. It sounds very naive, but up until now it never occurred to me that my involvement in the beauty community has made some of my personal information more accessible. Mostly people use that information to ask me a question or to do a review or some other totally innocuous reason.
I KNEW I'd face some negative attention from these people for my opinions (and I have since 2009). I can't be too angry that I've received backlash when I've put myself in the line of fire. But on the other hand I think some of these Pro-Caboodle Ranch people don't have a very clear sense of appropriate boundaries.
I am tired of addressing these issues over and over again with unreasonable people, soo these are some misconceptions I'd like to clear up for those particular people once and for all:
1. I am not affiliated with Peta. I have never been affiliated with, employed by, volunteered for, or been an investigator for Peta. I was NOT the undercover investigator in this case. By spreading a rumor like that you are making me a target for anti-Peta extremists. That is exactly why undercover investigators remain anonymous. Giving out my information and telling people to do with it what they will is highly irresponsible.
2. I am not even a Peta supporter. I side with them on many topics involving animal rights, but I do not usually agree with how they choose to deal with those problems. In this case, I agree with their very limited involvement. I think anyone questioning Peta's euthanasia statistics needs to first do some research on the organization. A lot of Peta's work involves euthanizing critically injured/terminally ill pets whose owners cannot afford to take them to a vet to do so. Euthanasia to prevent suffering is a very sad part of pet ownership and animal rescue. You cannot save every animal, and to let an animal with no chance of recovery suffer is animal cruelty.
I wish I could live in a pretend wonderland like Craig Grant- where all cats need is cute little playhouses and no cat ever is sick/injured enough to be euthed. But unfortunately I do not.
3. I do support the ASPCA and the HSUS- however- I am not an employee or associated with them in any way. Nor is anyone I am involved with. My involvement with the HSUS is limited to volunteering to walk dogs from time to time :)
4. "What do you know about Caboodle Ranch? You've never been there.".
Nope, and neither have most of the Caboodle Ranch supporters from China, Japan and Germany. What I know about Caboodle Ranch is that when I came to them in 2009 with questions about how their sanctuary was run I was told to stop asking those questions. I met a lot of other people with the exact same questions. So we've been researching the ranch ever since..and in that time have learned more than we ever cared to know. I cannot just turn a blind eye to cold hard facts like some people choose to do. No one person can take in an unlimited amount of cats without adopting any out, or having a dedicated staff & on-site medical facility. Even if you overlook every other single fact in this whole case there is no getting around that one. Hmm..I think there's a term for that......oh yeah, I believe it's called common sense.
5. "You just want attention."
Yes, I love death threats and other random crazyness. No, actually I just wanted to bring some attention to this cause. It's safe to say I succeeded in doing that. We as a society utilize social media websites such as Youtube all the time to talk about all sorts of events in the media, as well as our personal lives. I figured it would be the fastest way to make the public aware that there was a side to Caboodle Ranch they weren't going to see from Madison Voice's staged videos. I've received many private messages from neighbors, former supporters, and from people who were going to take cats to Caboodle Ranch but then changed their mind after seeing that video. That is exactly the reason I made them. If Craig Grant has nothing to hide my personal opinions should be of no interest to him.
6. "What is your gain in this?"
Nothing. I just would like Madison county to stop harboring this hoarder who is doing a lot of harm to their community. I would like these cats to be placed in either real sanctuaries or in suitable adoptive homes. I would like this to not be allowed to reoccur ever again. I would definitely like the animal control officer working in this case to be fired. There is no personal gain for me here. And honestly even if every single one of these things happens there really will be no real sense of satisfaction. Hundreds of cats died horrible deaths at Caboodle Ranch before the raid and nothing can ever make up for that. Good people were lied to and swindled out of their money thinking they were leaving their cats somewhere wonderful. It's not going to be a happy-ending situation any way you wanna slice it.
7. "What have you done to help cats? You're a cat killer"
I would love to tell you all about my background in rescue, but since you're a bunch of unstable nuts I can't afford to give out that information. What I will tell you is that I have fostered since I was 20 years old, I currently have 3 cats who were rescued off of 'death row' from animal control, and I've been involved in the 'clean-up' of 2 hoarder situations in my state. One of those hoarder situations haunts me to this very day and is the reason I feel so very strongly about Caboodle Ranch and all other out of control hoarding situations.
Since I am a big fan of putting my money where my mouth is.. This is a picture of the last kitten I fostered, Spike. He came to me with a warble embedded in his eye,a URI, and he and was in pretty poor shape. Now he's a happy, healthy boy. (He's still up for adoption- feel free to contact me about him if you aren't crazy)
8. "What can I do to help?"
Well for starters you can donate to the many wonderful legitimate organizations and rescues helping with the care of these cats who have been confiscated. I'll list a link for each one. Other than that you can keep yourself informed by going to CaboodleRanch.net or join the conversation HERE
Atlanta Humane Society
Bay Area Disaster Relief
Cat Depot
Florida State Animal Response Coalition
Good Mews Animal Foundation
Humane Society of Broward County
International Fund for Animal Welfare
McKamey Animal Care and Adoption Center
PetSmart Charities, Inc. (Phoenix, Ariz)
RedRover
There you have it all in black and white. In the future I hope these people will either stop harassing me (and everyone else involved) or address their concerns directly in a less abrasive manner. There's always a price to pay for speaking out against situations like this one... but it's usually worth it.
-Kaitlyn
[Update]
The documentaries of Dr.Howard Friedman have now been taken down (but I do have copies saved). The youtube link has been reuploaded in a way so that I could not embed it here conveniently. The link however is still working.
I also bet I can guess who sent you to my facebook, google+ account, fan page, and *snicker* some old textnovel account. Yeah, I'm not even kidding unfortunately. It sounds very naive, but up until now it never occurred to me that my involvement in the beauty community has made some of my personal information more accessible. Mostly people use that information to ask me a question or to do a review or some other totally innocuous reason.
I KNEW I'd face some negative attention from these people for my opinions (and I have since 2009). I can't be too angry that I've received backlash when I've put myself in the line of fire. But on the other hand I think some of these Pro-Caboodle Ranch people don't have a very clear sense of appropriate boundaries.
I expected a bunch of youtube comments to spill over on to my other videos at the very worst. I didn't think i'd have to pull my phone number and location information off of all the websites relating only to my makeup work. I didn't think some hack radiologist from South Lake Tahoe CA (who incidentally is also a furry... oh the things one can find out on the internets...) would use clips of my videos in his disturbing documentaries.
Here is just a few examples of what I've had to put up with:
Caboodle Ranch Lynching- "documentary" version 2 ( Now removed)
Caboodle Ranch Lynching- version 1 (Now removed)
and another video: At Caboodle Ranch They Had a Chance (also featuring me.. I feel so special) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-2xxy6sCNI&feature=share (new link - video reuploaded)
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| Just one of the many colorful posts allowed on Caboodle Ranch Inc. Fan page. |
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| Still shot from "Caboodle Ranch Lynching". |
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| I've never dropped off cats at Caboodle Ranch. I've been advising people to NOT drop off cats since 2009-2010. |
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| It's really easy to harass people when you can hide behind fake names and cartoon avatars, isn't it? |
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| Yo dawg..I luv your inaccurate statement by Peta! |
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| If anyone wants to purchase my face jewelry I'll be sure to donate the profits to Craig & Nanette's legal fees. |
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| OMG they know my secret!!!! |
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| From what I've gathered from all their comments and videos this is a pretty accurate description of how Caboodle Ranch Inc. views me. LOL |
I am tired of addressing these issues over and over again with unreasonable people, soo these are some misconceptions I'd like to clear up for those particular people once and for all:
1. I am not affiliated with Peta. I have never been affiliated with, employed by, volunteered for, or been an investigator for Peta. I was NOT the undercover investigator in this case. By spreading a rumor like that you are making me a target for anti-Peta extremists. That is exactly why undercover investigators remain anonymous. Giving out my information and telling people to do with it what they will is highly irresponsible.
2. I am not even a Peta supporter. I side with them on many topics involving animal rights, but I do not usually agree with how they choose to deal with those problems. In this case, I agree with their very limited involvement. I think anyone questioning Peta's euthanasia statistics needs to first do some research on the organization. A lot of Peta's work involves euthanizing critically injured/terminally ill pets whose owners cannot afford to take them to a vet to do so. Euthanasia to prevent suffering is a very sad part of pet ownership and animal rescue. You cannot save every animal, and to let an animal with no chance of recovery suffer is animal cruelty.
I wish I could live in a pretend wonderland like Craig Grant- where all cats need is cute little playhouses and no cat ever is sick/injured enough to be euthed. But unfortunately I do not.
3. I do support the ASPCA and the HSUS- however- I am not an employee or associated with them in any way. Nor is anyone I am involved with. My involvement with the HSUS is limited to volunteering to walk dogs from time to time :)
4. "What do you know about Caboodle Ranch? You've never been there.".
Nope, and neither have most of the Caboodle Ranch supporters from China, Japan and Germany. What I know about Caboodle Ranch is that when I came to them in 2009 with questions about how their sanctuary was run I was told to stop asking those questions. I met a lot of other people with the exact same questions. So we've been researching the ranch ever since..and in that time have learned more than we ever cared to know. I cannot just turn a blind eye to cold hard facts like some people choose to do. No one person can take in an unlimited amount of cats without adopting any out, or having a dedicated staff & on-site medical facility. Even if you overlook every other single fact in this whole case there is no getting around that one. Hmm..I think there's a term for that......oh yeah, I believe it's called common sense.
5. "You just want attention."
Yes, I love death threats and other random crazyness. No, actually I just wanted to bring some attention to this cause. It's safe to say I succeeded in doing that. We as a society utilize social media websites such as Youtube all the time to talk about all sorts of events in the media, as well as our personal lives. I figured it would be the fastest way to make the public aware that there was a side to Caboodle Ranch they weren't going to see from Madison Voice's staged videos. I've received many private messages from neighbors, former supporters, and from people who were going to take cats to Caboodle Ranch but then changed their mind after seeing that video. That is exactly the reason I made them. If Craig Grant has nothing to hide my personal opinions should be of no interest to him.
6. "What is your gain in this?"
Nothing. I just would like Madison county to stop harboring this hoarder who is doing a lot of harm to their community. I would like these cats to be placed in either real sanctuaries or in suitable adoptive homes. I would like this to not be allowed to reoccur ever again. I would definitely like the animal control officer working in this case to be fired. There is no personal gain for me here. And honestly even if every single one of these things happens there really will be no real sense of satisfaction. Hundreds of cats died horrible deaths at Caboodle Ranch before the raid and nothing can ever make up for that. Good people were lied to and swindled out of their money thinking they were leaving their cats somewhere wonderful. It's not going to be a happy-ending situation any way you wanna slice it.
7. "What have you done to help cats? You're a cat killer"
I would love to tell you all about my background in rescue, but since you're a bunch of unstable nuts I can't afford to give out that information. What I will tell you is that I have fostered since I was 20 years old, I currently have 3 cats who were rescued off of 'death row' from animal control, and I've been involved in the 'clean-up' of 2 hoarder situations in my state. One of those hoarder situations haunts me to this very day and is the reason I feel so very strongly about Caboodle Ranch and all other out of control hoarding situations.
Since I am a big fan of putting my money where my mouth is.. This is a picture of the last kitten I fostered, Spike. He came to me with a warble embedded in his eye,a URI, and he and was in pretty poor shape. Now he's a happy, healthy boy. (He's still up for adoption- feel free to contact me about him if you aren't crazy)
8. "What can I do to help?"
Well for starters you can donate to the many wonderful legitimate organizations and rescues helping with the care of these cats who have been confiscated. I'll list a link for each one. Other than that you can keep yourself informed by going to CaboodleRanch.net or join the conversation HERE
Atlanta Humane Society
Bay Area Disaster Relief
Cat Depot
Florida State Animal Response Coalition
Good Mews Animal Foundation
Humane Society of Broward County
International Fund for Animal Welfare
McKamey Animal Care and Adoption Center
PetSmart Charities, Inc. (Phoenix, Ariz)
RedRover
There you have it all in black and white. In the future I hope these people will either stop harassing me (and everyone else involved) or address their concerns directly in a less abrasive manner. There's always a price to pay for speaking out against situations like this one... but it's usually worth it.
-Kaitlyn
[Update]
The documentaries of Dr.Howard Friedman have now been taken down (but I do have copies saved). The youtube link has been reuploaded in a way so that I could not embed it here conveniently. The link however is still working.
You know you're making an impact when the haters have to drop everything to try to ridicule you.
ReplyDeleteThose who expose Caboodle Ranch's cruelty have facts and evidence behind them. What do the haters have?
Bile, spite, and raw, jaw-dropping stupidity.
They do more to hurt cats with their hoarding excuses than the hoarders themselves.