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Posted by Antoinette Smith In that period of time, I have come to learn quite a bit about how to spot a dishonest, disreputable, crooked rescue. When I joined the Heavenly Meadows Horse Rescue e-mail list at Yahoo a few days ago, I immediately saw a large number of red flags in one of the threads I found in the list archives. Now, before anyone critisizes me for trolling the archives, it is a practice I normally do because, as can be evidensed by every rescue list I'm on, I am a "forwarder". I forward important announcements about slaughter and other rescue issues, all over the Internet. Because of this, I stay subscribed to 50+ e-mail lists, some for a long time and some for just a little while, and others I subscribe to off and on through a period of years. When I see multiple red flags, I ask questions. When people have something to hide, they always, ALWAYS react to those questions by refusing to answer them and flaming me in a desperate effort to make me go away and not return. But, it never works because I don't have an ego and don't care what people think of me, I really only care about the truth and about rescues behaving in an ethical manner, because everything we do trickles down and affects the horses we rescue. This has earned me many enemies, as well as many friends, on the Internet. At the e-mail group of Heavenly Meadows Horse Rescue, I encountered the most interesting bunch of subjects my studies have led me to thus far. After one of them reported me to me for pretending to be me on the Internet, I received this precious gem of a threatening e-mail, which I want to share with all of you. But, before I do, I need to say that you can read more of this interesting story and learn for yourself how to spot red flags in rescue by going to the United States Equine Sanctuary & Rescue's website at www.usesr.org and clicking on the link for "message boards", then scrolling down to the forum entitled, "Horse Rescue Scams". Jessica Crow wrote: > A recent post on your message board claims Heavenly Meadows to be a bad rescue based on unfounded claims. And, the official reply: From: Headquarters Dear Jessica, Thank you for bringing this to our attention. However, had you read Antoinette's posts to the Heavenly Meadows list rather than sitting at your work station dreaming up insults to hurl at her, you might have noticed that in none of her posts to the Heavenly Meadows Horse Rescue e-mail list did she ever make any accusations against you or anyone else at Heavenly Meadows or on the Heavenly Meadows e-mail list. You, Jessica Crow, made several hostile, insulting posts about Ms. Smith, including some of the most immature, assinine comments seen on an e-mail list in a number of years. That may have contributed to Ms. Smith recently posting your full name on the USESR message board, in a report she authored regarding your offer to Melissa Wyzard to go and steal the horses back from the widow who removed them from Melissa's property. Perhaps you should go and talk to your father about the legality of such an action, and the wisdom of posting such a plan on a public forum. Slander refers to a spoken word. Liable refers to the written word. If you are going to file a lawsuit, you might want to charge us with the proper offense. Furthermore, your threat of a lawsuit against us states only "defamation". Before you file your lawsuit, you might want to think up what you are claiming Ms. Smith has defamed. For someone to state that it is their personal opinion that a rescue is bad is not a crime, nor is it illegal in any way. Perhaps your father can direct you to the Constitution of the United States and the First Amendment contained therein. If you have any further questions, concerns, comments or need any further arm-chair legal advice, please do not hesitate to contact us again. Sincerely, Link: United States Equine Sanctuary & Rescue
on 10/23/2005, 2:12 pm
Dishonest rescue running amok among us is a hot topic on all rescue lists lately. People are concerned that their animals could be seized by one of these overly egotistical groups who seem to have no policing authority over them. As the number of rescues increases almost daily in this country, so does the number of disputes between rescues, their volunteers, supporters, donors, adopters and others involved. I am deeply concerned about this and have been for many years. My concern is deepened by the fact that I have been fighting against dishonest rescue practices for over 7 years now.
> In fact, the case was taken to court, Melissa (owner of Heavenly Meadows) won. If by change, you were to be sued on defamation, based on the slander of Heavenly Meadows because of this case, since we already have a court case backing us up on this issue, you will be found guilty. I understand that Antoinette just wanted to get some facts, but the truth is honestly, it was none of her business what went on between the owner of a horse rescue, and one of the adopters who turned bad.
>
> You as well, as I see on your website, have had to sue previous adopters for breaking their contracts or other problems.
> Antoinette came in the group, shortly after this all occured, gun blazing, demanding answers. We had just dealt with harassment and a seriously touchy issue of the court case (which, again we had WON), and the trespasser causing a lot of problems, as well as some of her friends. Ms. Smith did not announce until much later, why she wanted to know, who she was or any other situation. She came in a very accusatory manner and was rejected by the members of the yahoo group, which were made up mostly of prior adopters. Of all the adoptions Melissa did, Antoinette took this one story, that she had only 1/10th the facts on, and decides to write a flaming post about Heavenly Meadows. Even though the entire reason she has to flame us, was based on the dealings of Heavenly Meadows with one person, who when taken to court, the judge found in favor of Melissa.
>
> Thusly, by slandering us based on evidence found in this case, it will be Defamation. Since legally Heavely Meadows is not yet a nonprofit orgazation the case will be treated as that of a business, with intent to sue for incurred damages.
>
> According to Libel Slanders laws, any WEBSITE Maintainer/Owner that allows the posts to go through will be treated as a publisher of slander, and will be held liable to the same civil and criminal actions as the direct defendant.
>
> Ms. Smith has also contacted Yahoo attempting to get the messageboard shut down because the members found her demeanor and attitude unwanted, and she couldn't accept that without tantrum. This will be included in the court case we will file for Harassment.
>
> If she takes one step further, or continues one more step I will be PERSONALLY filing all my paperwork, as I am lucky enough to have a father with his Juris Doctorate.
>
>
> Thank you,
>
> Jessica
>
To: Jessica Crow
Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 12:52 AM
Subject: Re: Legal Actions will be taken against USESR for Defamation (Slander)
Antoinette Smith
United States Equine Sanctuary & Rescue
P. O. Box 565 Bridgeport, TX 76426
www.usesr.org
Please make your donation check payable to: USESR & mail it to the above address.
;-)
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