Hearts and Homes

I am happy to finally report that Sara Whalen of PetsAlive.com has gotten most or all of the adoptable animals out of the shelter and into her sanctuary in Middletown, NY. She reported to me that many of the animals came in thin and filthy, and one was even delivered without being told that he was diabetic. Todd and Jamie knew that Batman was diabetic but didn't tell her. She called the vet on the tag of the dog and the vet explained that Todd was told to keep Batman on a special diet which he didn't. Sara reported that after just a few days he was running around. She also has the Saint Bernard and all the cats. I wanted to mention this earlier but she was afraid of letting Todd know that I was aware of it. I don't know how many animals are left in the shelter. Please visit Pets Alive and make a donation if you can afford it. She has a lot of extra mouths to feed now.

I adopted a beautiful red nosed pitbull in August from Hearts and Homes. The problem is I was never told that this dog had severe dog aggressiveness and separation anxiety. These are 2 major problems and had I known this, I would never have adopted him because I am not experienced enough to handle it. Maybe he developed the separation anxiety from being locked up and abandoned in a cage for a very long time but the dog aggressiveness should have been very obvious. I am in a very bad situation now and am trying to rehome him. This is a heartwrenching experience and I am very unhappy. In addition, when I picked him up, he WREAKED from URINE. It was absolutely disgusting and took me a few baths before I could get him smelling "normal". He was also very skinny but I have fattened him since. Email: bshrem@gmail.com

NOTE: If anyone knows of someone who can help work with this dog with his issues or who might be interested in adopting him, you can read more about him at by clicking here.

Yes I did indeed get in touch with Todd, attempted to adopt Scrappy, and was
victim to the practices of Hearts and Homes. Scrappy is a messed up dog that
needs a lot of specialized training and needs very experienced owners. We
had him for three days and he got very attached to me but in those same
three days he attacked my partner in the park. She had serious bruises on
her arms and he even attempted to bite her head. Luckily she got out with
just bruises. He also attacked her legs on the last night he had him as she
was running with him to get some air. At one point they were running
together and the next second I watched him bite both her calves.

I guess I didn't ask Todd the right questions but he never mentioned any of
these problems. the most he said was the that dog had been "mouthy" with his
previous owner but that he had been trained out of it. I guess I took him at
his word and didn't realize that mouthy meant he may attack. Needless to say
we took him back with lots of bad feelings about Todd and Hearts and Homes.
The dog was boarded at the Brooklyn Dog House but but bit too many employees
so Malcolm kicked him out.

Thanks for all of your info on this group. I plan to never work with them
again and will pass on my story and yours to anyone that asks.
Are they completely shut down at this point?

Answer to your question Jen: I have no idea what is going on in the shelter at this point. The shelter reform advocate Julie Van Ness has not answered a single e-mail to me. The phone at her web site does not have a machine and no one ever picks up. How she could be working with such disreputable people is inconceivable to me. I imagine Mel and Todd have charmed her into thinking that I am the villain here. As I said before -- It isn't the shelter that needs reforming, it's the shelter operators.

I can report this though, The Attorney General's Office Charities Division has taken over the case from the Consumer Frauds Division which is a very good step in the right direction. I hope they pick through this with a fine tooth comb.

The Hearts and Homes Web site is back up. This is a transparent attempt for Mel Salamone to create the illusion for the State Attorney General's Office Charities Division that he has been involved with Hearts and Homes over the last year. His telephone number and a P.O. Box number are on the site. Never attended a single board meeting. Promised to bring donated bagles, cream cheese and supplies to a benefit. Never showed up. Never called to say he wasn't coming. We had to take money from the door proceeds and scramble to buy food for the hundreds of people who came all day. Money earmarked for the shelter.

Many of you are e-mailing me to ask what is happening at the shelter or if it can be saved. I only wish I knew what is happening at the shelter. I have driven by several times lately and don't see Todd's car, any cars for that matter. I know there are animals in there but I don't know how much attention they are getting. This has been the most frustrating and sustained sad experience of my life.

I know there is no money in the Hearts account. I don't how the animals are eating or if the rent is paid. The so-called shelter reform advocate, Julie Van Ness is unreachable. Her website http://www.shelterreform.org/Home.html has a phone number that no one picks up and repeated emails to her e-mail address go unanswered. Unfortunately, she chose to work with Mel and Todd instead of the other volunteers who never misused a penny and only had one dream, a new, desperately needed shelter for Brooklyn!

E-mail Van Ness at info@ShelterReform.org or call her at (212) 886-3700 and demand to know—

The following comment just about sums up why Mike Pergola and I refused to fund raise for a shelter if Mel Salomone was involved. And why I made Todd promise me Mel had no access to the funds.

Author Comment
MM
$500
About two years ago, on a chilly afternoon, Mel brought a dog over, a skinny Shepherd type, saying it was an emergency, that he had absolutely no place to keep her, just for the night.

This soft-hearted patron, whom Mel had to know could not possibly take in the dog, due to her heath and physical limitations, and who characteristically gave large monetary donations anytime it might help an animal, wrote a check for $500, with the clear understanding that Mel would take the dog straight to a kennel, then, after, get the dog to a vet for examination, treatment, and have her spayed. $500 should have easily covered that, with some money left over for food and supplies.

Instead, later that day, Mel gave the dog to a homeless man name John, who stays in Brooklyn Heights. With said dog in his Home Depot shopping wagon, John, the story goes, was crossing Cadman Plaza, almost ran into a car (and not the other way around), the car gave a warning honk, the dog got startled, and bolted out of his wagon and was lost.

Special Note to the "Shadow Knows" I appreciate your letter and I will give it to the proper authorities. I have spoken to Elaine A. at length a while back. But why be anonymous? Put this information up yourself. It is incredibly horrifying information and it should be heard.

January 11

On January 7, I viewed a posting by Sara Whalen of PetsAlive.com's at her bulletin board that affected us enough to go to the shelter to investigate. Here is a screen capture of what she put up.

Sara herself had told me that many of the dogs she received from the shelter had bleeding pads (a sure sign that they had been lying in urine in their crates)

Claire and I went to the shelter and buildings surrounding it a few days later. We were told by neighbors that they never see the dogs walked in front and that the smell in the yard was enough for them to circulate a petition to have the shelter removed. The printer at 910 McDonald Avenue took us into the basement where the smell was so abominable he told me two workers quit. Repeated visits by the Department of Buildings resulted in the following being posted on the Department of Buildings website:

Overview for Complaint #: 3147485 = RESOLVED
Complaint at:   908 MCDONALD AVENUE Borough:   BROOKLYN ZIP:   11218
Re:   THE BACKYARD DOOR IS BLOCKED BY TRASH - NO SECONDARY MEANS
   EGRESS

Category Code: 37      EGRESS - LOCKED/BLOCKED/IMPROPER/NO SECONDARY MEANS
Assigned To: EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM Priority: B
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received:   01/01/2005   22:54 Block:  5407 Lot:  31 Community Board:  312
Owner:   PI PROPERTIES LTD
Last Inspection:   01/07/2005 - - BY BADGE # 1934 ROSS BERNARD BROOKLYN
Disposition:   01/12/2005 - - C2 - INSPECTOR UNABLE TO GAIN ACCESS ON SECOND (2ND) INSPECTION ATTEMPT
Comments:   NO RESPONSE TO DOOR LS4 POSTED

DOB Violation #:
ECB Violation #s:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Complaint Disposition History
     Disposition Disposition Inspection Date
Date Code By
01/03/2005     D1    COMPLAINT ASSIGNED TO CONSTRUCTION DIVISION REFER TO BORO       1234  GAVRI       01/03/2005
01/06/2005     C1    INSPECTOR UNABLE TO GAIN ACCESS ON FIRST (1ST) INSPECTION ATTEMPT NO RESPONSE TO DOORS ROLL DORR GATE LOCKED LS-4 POSTED       1934  ROSS       01/05/2005
01/12/2005     C2    INSPECTOR UNABLE TO GAIN ACCESS ON SECOND (2ND) INSPECTION ATTEMPT NO RESPONSE TO DOOR LS4 POSTED       1934  ROSS       01/07/2005

After a visit to the apartment above the shelter, myself, Claire and a photographer from the Brooklyn Papers witnessed the following.

Todd and Jamie showed up after someone told them we were there. Of course by now Todd Mel and Jamie have had 2 days to clean this up. But these and the pictures taken by the Brooklyn Paper do not lie!

Todd and Jamie have full time jobs now and the animals left in the shelter go for hours upon hours unattended. I find it dispicible that the Shelter Reform Advocate Julie Van Ness is allowing this to go on. Is this what she is the director of now? What can it possibly look like inside. From the smell coming next door in the basement of McDonald printing it must be horrible. The printer claimed 2 employees who worked downstairs quit from the stench.

ADDENDUM 3-12-05

I reported these findings to the one person I knew had contact with the Shelter Reform Advocate. I was assured that she was now aware and that the situation would be rectified. I actually had enough faith that this was so that I posted the following on the website for three weeks:

Four months after I exposed the story of neglect and misappropriation of funds the man behind this horrifying story is still running the shelter-- within full view of the city's highest animal care authority, New York City Animal Care & Control (AC&C). After being deceitfully assured that responsible people were now in charge of the shelter, I must reopen this story online based on knowledge that I and an animal activist friend Claire have witnessed first hand.

The case which is now LANGUISHING in the hands of the New York State Attorney General's Office, Charities Division has gone from bad to worse under the auspices of a shelter reform advocate who rules from afar. As well meaning as she is, despite insurmountable evidence, she has left Mel Salamone in charge of the day-to-day operations of the "Shelter".

On Wednesday, January 26, Mel Salamone called me to ask for his corporate papers from Hearts and Homes which he left in my home over a year ago. I told him I would bring them to the shelter. He asked me to meet his "new hiree" one Sherone (SP?) at the shelter at 7am. He told me Sherone goes to the shelter twice a day to feed and walk the animals. Claire and I arrived there at 7am. We waited until 10am for this man to show up. Mel told me that Sherone was recommended to him by (as described u ABC news), the infamous Ava Abano now working at the Brooklyn Powerhouse-a dog training facility where Sherone also works.

At approximately 10:20M Sherone returned my call placed to him at the Powerhouse. He could not make it to the Hearts and Homes Shelter and would not get there 'til after work.

THAT MEANS that the 14 dogs left in the shelter will have gone approximately 24 hours without being fed, watered, taken from their crate and walked. We took a walk through a neighbors yard to see the yard of the shelter. Fully expecting to see a feces strewn yard what we saw was worse. Untouched snow in the back means that the dogs don't even get out of the basement of the shelter for exercise. There is still no ventilation system in the shelter and no visible means of clean air coming in through the closed hatch.

Desperate at this point, I went to the Powerhouse to get the key from Sherone. I was blocked by Ava Abano and told she would get me the key later which she didn't.

I reported what we had seen to Sara Whalen of Pets Alive, the one person I know has contact with the "Shelter Reform Advocate". At worst 24 hours without human contact. At best 12 hours. Whalen told me she would contact Ed Boks head of the AC&C.

I have tried unsuccessfully calling Ed Boks. I was told by Mary Martin of the AC&C once again that everything is under control. I am back on this merry-go-round of deceit.

These animals are being warehoused under the most deplorable conditions right here in a city known for its love of animals. In the months since I have reported this none of the animals have been updated at the Hearts and Homes Petfinder site.

EVERY THING IS NOT UNDER CONTROL. ANIMALS GOING 12-24 HOURS WITHOUT BEING REMOVED FROM THEIR CRATES, FED OR WATERED IS NOT UNDER CONTROL. A CITY AGENCY THAT ALLOWS THIS MAN TO RUN A SHELTER WITH ALL OF THE INSURMOUNTABLE EVIDENCE PROVIDED ON THIS SITE IS NOT HAVING THINGS UNDER CONTROL.

Contact Ed Boks at 212 788-4000 and ask him how a man being investigated by the State Attorney General's Charities Division and with a past so checkered by neglect and the death of so many animals under his watch can be allowed to continue to care for these animals. Don't abandon these animals. With the right press coverage these 14 remaining animals can be freed from their tortured existence.

Rescue Groups: Please help. Take a dog or two from the shelter. E-mail me at lbleier@nyc.rr.com and I will post that you want a dog. They cannot possibly turn you down.

I ask you people to get this story out to the media. See media contacts below.

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Julie Van Ness Hearts and Homes Animal Shelter of Brooklyn, Mel Salamone Julie Van Ness Shelter Reform Advocate ASPCA AC&C Mayor's Alliance for Animals Animal Care and Control NYC Sara Whalen Pets Alive PetsAlive.com

Press call 917 754-3537