Today’s post begins with a fractal called JESTER. I picked it because this story is just crazy.-
There has been a lot of news over the past week about Ellen DeGeneres and her problems with the “Mutts and Moms” pet rescue organization. She and gal-pal Portia de Rossi entered to an adoption agreement with the organization to get a puppy. A provision of the contract the two signed required them to return the dog should they decide not to keep the animal for any reason. (I can speak with some authority to tell you that this happens with almost every dog rescue group as a matter of course.) In this case the placement didn’t work out but rather than return the dog DeGeneres and de Rossi passed the animal on to someone else. Three weeks later the rescue agency found out and decided to exercise their legal right to reclaim the dog. A three hour standoff (including a call to the Police) ended with the adoption agency taking the dog.
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That story is sad enough but there’s more: Ellen was clearly distraught when she told the nation about it on Tuesday October 16 on her daytime talk show: she begged the agency to return Iggy the dog to the distraught family. Mutts and Moms, however, had already placed the dog with someone else--and said they wouldn’t have placed Iggy with the family in any case. (They have a policy of not pacing small dogs with any family with children under the age of 14: the family had two girls aged twelve and ten.) Mutts and Moms have since chosen to shut down their web site because of the vast numbers of negative mail from angry Ellen fans. (Some fans have gone so far as to make death threats according to Mutts and Moms co-owner Marina Batkis.)
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Let me just say ther’s a whole Parade of Stupid going on here: Ellen DeGeneres (and I have to assume Portia de Rossi) have had enough experience with animal rescue agencies so surely they knew about the provision in the contract. (Animal Rescue groups are always very up front about their return policies.) Mutts and Moms is completely within their rights to do what they did--but from what I’ve seen Batkis and her associates went about it in the worst possible way for everyone involved. Iggy got a new placement in under 48 hours (which I found a bit suspicious). Getting the publicists involved (and I’m not saying whether Ellen did it or some over-zealous employee decided to take that on themselves) is another unit in the Parade of Stupidity. Sadly, I've learned through personal experience that those involved with animal rescue can often be arbitrary and capricious--but that tends to happens with fanatics. Lastly, I find it horrifying that fans get so exorcised as to make death threats against someone who is trying to do the right thing--even if it is in a misguided way.
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DeGeneres and de Rossi did a dumb thing but honestly I think their heart was in the right place. Marina Batkis compounded the dumbness when she decided to strictly enforce her organization’s policies: she could have examined them home where Iggy was placed to make a determination whether or not it was suitable. I think she decided to play Quien es mas macho with the DeGeneres camp and everyone lost. All the parties involved (with the possible exception of the family who took Iggy from DeGeneres) should be ashamed of themselves. This tawdry affair has made it worse for every animal rescue group out there.
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And as for you crazed fans--lighten up people!
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