Happy Hearts Animal Rescue Ranch

I adopted one of my previous dogs, Taja, a Belgian Malinois from Ellen a few years ago. Taja was heartworm positive when I adopted her and had been with Ellen for 7, YES 7 years, Ellen actually bred Tajas litter, she lived there her entire life until I adopted her. With the help of another rescue stepping in to help Ellen decrease the number of dogs in her “rescue” I was able to adopt her and get her through treatment.

In those 7 years Taja was with Ellen she wasn’t on any preventatives(hence her being HW+ when I got her) not spayed or vaccinated until 2 months before we got her, was kept in a dirty kennel in a non heated and non air conditioned barn co-kenneled with another dog who frequently attacked her she was missing part of her ear because of this and her face was covered in scars. When Taja was dropped off at my home adoption day she was COVERED in fleas and dried urine and feces.

When I went to Happy hearts the first time(I showed up unexpectedly because she wouldn’t respond to emails or calls about adopting Taja even though we had discussed it in length at an adoption expo) Ellen said it was “messy” because she was at the expo the previous Saturday and she “cleans the kennels on Saturday” I thought she misspoke because there is no way you can only clean once a week, I was mistaken, there was inches of feces and urine in every kennel dog walking in their own waste.

Ellen explained to me she was a “one man show” and badly needed help, so I stupidly overlooked what I’d seen as a one time predicament and began to try and help Ellen get dogs adopted, working with potential clients with dogs and behavioral issues, doing pro bono training, taking her dogs into my home to train and access then working to get them adoptable, I even took a shepherd into another rescue where I worked at the time to get all the medical attention, training he needed, and then got him adopted. I did this several times. I even set up a home for a Golden Retriever she’s had for years, did the meet and greet with potential adopter and when they decided to adopt and actually got the dog whom Ellen said was “fully vaxxed and neutered” turns out he was not neutered and was marking all over the new adopters house and had only been vaccinated days before his adoption so due to all those things and the shadiness of all of it he was returned to Ellen.

Once I helped Ellen it was constant onslaught messages asking me to take dogs or help her with dogs.

Then at one point she messaged me and asked me if I’d like to return Taja to her to then re-home her to a friend of hers who liked Tajas sister (whom she isn’t willing to part with) because she believed that my home apparently wasn’t good enough for Taja who had mammary cancer at the time and was rapidly declining in health. The audacity to ask that kind of thing, we had owned Taja for nearly two years at the time.

As much as I tried to give Ellen the benefit out the doubt every time I went to her property the dogs were living in the same deplorable conditions feces, urine, cold/hot, fleas, no preventatives, many many dogs with heartworm who has been with Ellen for years. Yet Ellen continues to take more and more dogs with no signs of slowing down.


When Taja finally passed from her battle with mammary cancer, Ellen offered to cremate her beings she had her own crematorium and I accepted. When I went to drop her body off conditions with her rescue were the same.

The messages asking me to help with dogs continued, one day I got a message about an all black GSD who was relinquished to Montgomery Co. animal control and was set to be euthanized if not taken due to being deemed “aggressive” by relinquishing owners. Ellen said she wanted to take her and wanted me to evaluate her I got a sick feeling in my stomach so I offered to actually come with Ellen to the shelter to see the dog when we got there I saw a terrified dog with A LOT of behavioral issues that if Ellen took her she would live in that barn the rest of her life. In that moment I knew I couldn’t let Ellen take her and actually asked Ellen to pull the dog and let her come home with me and she said yes. That dog now lives with me permanently as a part of my family and we have got her behavioral issues under control and she can live a happy structured life in a home with other dogs and people who love her, not a drafty barn in her own feces, fleas, constant threat of heart worm and doomed to live out her life there.

After this I decided I could no longer morally support Ellen and the conditions she keeps her rescues in, and when she sent me messages I ignored or just said no. On the last occasion I told her no so she just got her friend to message me and ask me again and when I told her no Ellen proceeded to unfriend me on all platforms and ignore any messages I sent her updating her on the dog I just took from her.

I am the only one with stories like this. There are so many people with stories very similar to mine and Ellen is not slowing down on the number of dogs she’s taking. There are many many dogs in Ellen’s barn that have lived there for most of their lives and will for the rest of their lives.

I cannot stand by and continue to see her take more and more dogs when I know what conditions they are living in.