My sweet dog Chappy was rescued by HAPPE and I'm so lucky to have her in my life. It is so wonderful that a HAPPE volunteer saw Chappy's potential through her fear and anxiety. They found a foster family to socialize her and now I've been the luckiest girl on earth for the last 13 years! She was scheduled to be put to sleep and HAPPE saved her life and mine!
I adopted a dog from this organization, and I'm glad I did, because he was obviously not receiving proper medical care. I asked the foster parents for their vet information so I could have them fax his records to my vet, and when I called their vet I was told that he had no vaccination records at all and the only things they had in their files were some notes and x-rays from one visit over a year and a half ago. So he now has to be fully vaccinated all over again. In addition to that, the foster parents told me that he'd been on flea/tick/heartworm prevention medication, but when my vet tested him (because he couldn't prescribe the medication without a current test in his record), he was positive for BOTH heartworms and erlichia (a tick-borne disease). AND he needs to be treated for periodontal disease.
All in all, it's going to cost $5,000-$6,000 just to get him healthy again, which is neither here nor there because he's my dog and I'll do whatever I need to do to take care of him, but the fact that he was advertised as healthy and vaccinated means that this organization and his foster parents either A. Knew he was sick, didn't treat him, and lied so he would be adopted, or B. Didn't know he was sick because they didn't get him the most basic of veterinary care. Either option is appalling for an organization that claims to care about animals.
As I said, I'm glad I adopted him, and I would have adopted him even if I'd known about his health issues beforehand. It just makes me sad that he wasn't being cared for by the people who "rescued" him. He's a sweet boy and absolutely deserves to be happy and healthy.