Whiskey’s Story
When a rescue and their chief adoption coordinator doesn't vet their fosters and adopters, tragic outcomes for the dog are almost guaranteed.
Whiskey was a sweet dog that was set up to fail by Barbara Ranberg Smith AKA “Barbara Queenbee”. Barbara is the adoption/foster coordinator for Humans and Animals United. Prior to working for this rescue, she had a documented history of placing dogs in terrible environments with terrible people. Not exactly the person you would want choosing adopters and fosters for your dogs, however, Rosa Fond with Humans and Animals United felt that Barbara would be an asset to her rescue and welcomed Barbara into her rescue with open arms. Read further and you’ll realize the reasons why.
Right before joining HAAU, Barbara coordinated the placement of a Miami Dade Animal Services dog named “Whiskey” that was listed as “reactive”. This placement ended in tragedy as quite a few of Barbara’s placements have.
What happened to this poor dog should reinforce the importance of doing proper background checks on fosters and adopters prior to allowing them to take possession of the dog. Dogs labeled “reactive” should receive a higher degree of consideration and care. Sadly, in Whiskey’s case, not even the slightest bit of due diligence was done by Barbara and he was recklessly given to a man with a terrible past and history of violence/anger issues. This is the man that she chose and arranged to adopt Whiskey.
It is pretty clear to most that no background check was ever done. Had Barbara done so much as a cursory check on the adopter, she would have seen that he had a history of abusing dogs like one named Ziggy, a dog that he was suspected of killing. This man also had a VERY lengthy rap sheet for felonies and even had convictions.
As if the absolute disregard for any due diligence by Barbara was bad enough, when the adopter arrived at Miami Dade Animal Services to pick up Whiskey, staff reported that he smelled strongly of alcohol. Why they allowed him to leave with Whiskey is hard to understand, however, it is reported that Barbara was contacted about these concerns and completely disregarded them, choosing to send Whiskey off to what would become his death. She allowed a documented animal abuser to take possession of Whiskey and did not exercise even a modicum of caution or care.
Barbara solicited donations for Whiskey but it is uncertain as to how much money she received. People have asked.
As reported on previously, Barbara had her caretaker status for her sister revoked by the state of Illinois. Failing another human, her own sister, to the degree that required
state intervention speaks volumes on the quality of care Barbara provides when charged with the
responsibility for another human so you can imaging how little care she exercises with rescue dogs.
In less than a week, Whiskey was brought to a neighboring county shelter (Broward) with a euthanasia request. An incident occurred in which a dog fight ensued at the adopter’s home who blatantly disregarded the typical advice to do slow introductions. It is said the foster was bitten during the squabble and he wanted Whiskey dead.
While Barbara was basking in her rescue hero status behind the scenes she was aware of the concerns and issues.
This begs all sort of questions such as the following:
Was Whiskey allowed to decompress prior to being introduced to another dog?
What level of supervision took place when this incident occurred?
Aware of Whiskey’s designated label of being”reactive” per the shelter notes, why didn’t Barbara arrange for him to be assessed by a qualified trainer or at the very least, find an foster who didn’t have other dogs?
Why did Barbara sit back and allow the shelter to euthanize Whiskey instead of intervening and securing a safe environment for him?
Why did Barbara ignore the foster’s obvious intoxication when picking up Whiskey and allow him to procede to take him home to foster?
Everyone knows that things can go wrong unexpectedly with new adoptions and foster homes. That sometimes bad things happen despite a rescue’s best efforts. Barbara made NO EFFORT to ensure Whiskey’s success whatsoever. She conducted NO background check, conducted NO home check, required NO references and has shown NO remorse or desire to do better with her dog placement skills. She completely disregarded ALL of the red flags, something every decent rescuer must be keenly aware of. She does, however, find time to attack other rescuers regularly from her glass house in Wheaton, Illinois and does so viciously and with wonton disregard for the truth. She is, quite frankly, known as one of the most vile bullies who is terminally on social media pumping out hateful rhetoric about many innocent people and still continues to place dogs in harms way routinely.
Sounds like the quality person any rescue would be happy to have as part of their team, right?
Enter Rosa Fond with Humans and Animals United. Very shortly after Whiskey’s tragic demise, Rosa welcomed Barbara with open arms into her rescue. Ask yourself what rescue onboards someone to work with them, being fully aware of their history of failing dogs? The answer to many is that Rosa Fond saw working with Barbara as an opportunity to have a fulltime goon and bully onboard to attack anyone who has been critical of her operation. And attack people is something that Barbara is VERY good at.
Of course Barbara, and later Humans and Animals United, attempted to keep this as quiet as possible because let’s face it, it doesn’t exactly reflect well on either of them. Instead of holding the abuser accountable, they swept it under the carpet wanting none of the backlash that likely would have occurred once the rescue community became aware of Whiskey’s tragic demise. How does a rescue whose mission is to advocate for the welfare of dogs go silent when such a tragedy occurs?
It’s a simple answer to many – knowledge of this tragedy would have negatively impacted their ability to continue to raise money and raising money is their primary objective. Not to help dogs, but to help fund the rescue founder’s lifestyle.
Why Rosa Fond chose to hire Barbara to network and make placement decisions for her dogs is unknown, however, many suspect the reason is clear – Rosa Fond with Humans and Animals United considers people like Barbara Ranberg Smith to be assets to her rescue. Barbara has pledged her
allegiance to Rosa and is all too willing to attack Rosa’s and her rescue’s critics with vile and untrue accusations they believe will discredit the person speaking up against this rescue’s fraud and treatment of the dogs she “rescues”. Here’s a few examples of how Barbara regards Rosa Fond:
But that’s not always how Barbara Queenbee felt about Rosa as evident in this exchange between Barbara (Brody Shepherd) and a rescue advocate:
Even Barbara thought Rosa Fond and her rescue, Humans and Animals United, were scamming people for money. Clearly Barbara’s opinion of Rosa changed at some point and many believe it was when Rosa started giving Barbara a cut of the money. We can’t be positive, however, all things point to this. Now, Barbara views Rosa Fond as someone she would go to battle for and that’s exactly what Barbara does for Rosa routinely.
When you come across a person who will bully and defame anyone who questions or criticizes the illicit activities of your rescue and is all too willing to solicit money for you while attacking your critics, we surmise Rosa was willing to overlook a few pesky things like the death of Whiskey. RIP Whiskey. You deserved so much better.