Below is a message I recently posted on a rescue discussion group that apparently got me kicked out. I was making some valid points supported by fact and it appeared I ruffled some feathers. Feel free to let me know what you think. Sincerely, Adrian * * * * * * * * * * * Crossposting is OK. Hello, my name is Adrian and I’m new to this rescue business here in the "Southland." Before moving to California just over a year ago, I spent time in Arizona caring for an ill relative where I also practically ran a small independent all breed rescue for a woman who owned a wildlife sanctuary. Anyway, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet a lot of great rescue people in my excursions to the shelters in and around Los Angeles and I look forward to getting to know more of you in the months and years to come. To those of you who have helped me out so far, I thank you wholeheartedly! I do have a question for any of you out there who can enlighten me about someone who is supposed to be highly regarded in the rescue community. A couple of weeks ago, I attended a meeting with a friend of mine from San Diego who also does rescue on a small scale as I do. The main speaker at the meeting was a guy named Warren Eckstein and he moderated a really good discussion. The focus of it was animal shelter reform. I have witnessed a fair number of abuses since I’ve been doing this for the past six months that would make you all sick, but I’m sure many of you already know what I’m talking about. Getting back to the point, also speaking at the meeting was a woman named Kimi Peck. I knew of her from all those news stories about the two hundred Chihuahuas that needed to be saved last year. Yes, we even heard about it in Arizona, because I guess there’s so little of interest happening in our state, we have to borrow news from other states! Her talk started off kind of interesting, once you got past the gloating, but then she started to talk about going after the breeders and her successful career in the film business and that she wanted to do a movie about the life of a shelter dog that was geared towards children. I don’t know if anyone else out there who was in attendance can concur with my reaction, but it seemed a bit fanatical and she kind of scared me. I decided to do some research because a fair amount of the information she mentioned seemed erroneous to me, based on what I’ve heard from shelter employees, breeders, and other rescuers. By the way, professional breeders won’t go away, so we might as well try to work with them to educate or eradicate the irresponsible backyard types who create a lot of the problem that we, as rescuers, have to clean up. Back to Mrs. Peck, a couple months back, I ran into a breeder who told me an interesting story about a rescuer who bought a puppy from a breeder. Now, I can understand a rescuer taking an older or "spent" animal from a breeder that may have otherwise been put to sleep, but buying a puppy? A rescuer? I was intrigued, so I decided to call this guy and pick his brain further about the rescuer who bought a puppy from a breeder. It turned out that this rescuer not only bought one puppy, but purchased at least four over the past year. Four puppies that he claimed probably cost well over two thousand dollars. I believe him because he knows almost every breeder, large and small, in this entire state. Oh yah, the rescuer? Kimi Peck. Well, I was dumbfounded as to why someone I had just heard breeder-bashing only a week earlier would buy a Maltese, a Golden Retriever puppy as well as two other small breed puppies that I can’t remember at the moment. In addition, after speaking with an employee of a San Fernando Valley shelter, I learned that Peck’s rescue is overflowing and that she doesn’t seem to adopt any dogs out. The officer claimed that the same dogs are always there when animal control visits her shelter and she just keeps getting more, in addition to the collection of birds and fish she apparently keeps. I seriously hope that the "more" dogs referred to doesn’t mean animals she purchased from breeders. I knew a woman in Arizona claiming to be a rescuer who had a habit of collecting dogs much in the same way, but she was eventually shut down. I worry about someone like Peck because it appears that she is on that same path. Another shelter employee told me that she was under investigation for the mismanagement of donations and misrepresentation in the solicitation of large amounts of money, playing upon the public’s sympathy and then not turning money over to the rescues and individuals who actually adopted, took in, or fostered all those "Angels on Death Row." I had also heard the same thing from a few rescuers who never received a penny from the purported tens of thousands of dollars that came in, even though they took some of those dogs off of her hands. Didn’t Peck get an award or something for the whole "Angels" rescue thing? I was on a roll, so I decided to research this amazing paradox of a woman even further. Curious to see just what made a "successful" career in the film business, I called an old friend of mine who works at a TV archival company. They supply every major network and studio here in town with any footage from any show ever aired on any network. They log everything. On top of that, their research division has the dish on everyone in this town, from DUIs to DNCs. Don’t ask me how. I asked him to search for "Kimi Peck" and see what he came up with. Just the film stuff, I wasn’t interested in her personal life. A couple of days later he called me, and I learned that aside from co-writing one marginally successful coming-of-pubescence flick in the early eighties, she really didn’t do anything else in the mainstream film business. She did, however, have a big hand in the creation of a fairly substantial volume of pornography. Yup. The lady who wants to write and shoot a film about shelter dogs for the children of the world was a porn magnate. Let me clarify something here. I’m not saying I’m for or against porn nor am I placing judgment on those who participate in the creation of it. I do know that it helps some people in their relationships, and I’m aware of the harm it can do, also. However, I am taking a closer look at a woman who created a fairly large body of it and who now wants to do a children’s film. Michael Jackson, take a back seat, this one is getting interesting! Doesn’t that make anyone here worry? I mean, this is a woman who represents what we rescuers do, and sometimes in front of a TV camera. Any insights about anything I’ve mentioned here? Please, I’m all ears. If this self-appointed representative of our community is supposed to be the best example of the rescue "breed," then I think we ought to hold an election or something. It worries me that such a walking contradiction is the only face people attach to the word "rescuer" here in California. Because I do rescue Chihuahuas from time to time, people always ask or assume that I have something to do with her whenever I bail out a Chi. I think it’s in our best interest that the general public doesn’t think of someone like Peck whenever they see a rescuer…or me. Yours truly, Adrian H. All 4 Dogs Rescue North Hollywood, California
Kimi Peck Bought Dogs From Breeders
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