My Nonprofit Reviews

I would give ZERO stars, if that were an option.
I was a volunteer for DDB Washington for 6 months, and was loaded up with ELEVEN dogs to foster in that short time. My first experience with a large rescue org certainly opened my eyes to thepotential for fraud and corruption in the world of animal rescue.
DDB never repaid (any of my fostering costs totaling over $1600 - despite receipts turned in per protocol, and promises of reimbursement. When I caught the local state rep lying, misappropriating funds into her personal bank account and otherwise acting unethically; I publicly exposed my concerns after the national chapter ignored my concerns. In an apparent effort to get me to hush up and deflect attention from my provable claims, the organization not only "took back" the almost-dead dog I had fostered adopted via verbal agreement with my state rep, but proceeded to attack my credibility and character with a national smear campaign via perjured court documents, social media attacks and proactively attempting to ruin my professional career.
This organization may have had a pure motive at its inception, and it HAS had many loyal, hardworking volunteers 'walking the walk' of animal advocacy and rescue. But the national CEO and founder, just like the former WA state rep, has knowingly engaged in fraud and illegal activities since the organizations' inception. Soliciting donations in numerous states without registering with the individual states as an active charity, thus violating the Consumer Protection Act for years (the CEO registered as a state charity in Washington state after 9 years of soliciting funds in my state the DAY AFTER I publicly exposed her org), the CEO paying herself a salary, living rent-free in a mansion and paying lawyers to fend off complaints such as mine, all with the dollars of well-meaning donors: all suggest that this so-called rescue organization is more about media attention and personal financial gain than about the dogs it purports to 'save'.
While claiming to rescue 'hundreds of dogs' yearly, the actual number of dogs taken in and placed properly in permanent homes remains unknown. Our local state chapter as well as the national group operate with the 'revolving door' principle of taking dogs in with much publicity and farming them out as quickly as possible to inappropriate and sometimes completely unreliable 'homes'. Also the animal's medical needs are often unmet. Cases in point, a pup I fostered in March, a blind, beautiful young pitbull named kYLE, is again on the 'adoption' list at just barely a year of age. Kyle, this special needs dog, is listed as being "not good with children or cats". He was fine with both when in my foster home, which leaves one to wonder exactly what lack of attention and training has led to these disclaimers as to Kyle's current temperament. Kyle's mother LADY, whom I also fostered in January and into February 2011, has been billed as being in a permanent, loving home in court testimony. Yet she has bounced in and out of at least 8 foster care and multiple failed adoptions in the past 7 months and to date STILL is a dog without a home. A wonderful dog that I fostered with her pups, there is no reason for Lady to be homeless-other than poor placement into inappropriate homes.
I have learned the hard way of the corruption and vice in animal rescue - as in every area of life there are opportunists who will use the 'underdogs' of society for their own gain.
DDB, Inc. needs a forensic audit to investigate misappropriation of funds from the state levels to the national level. Hopefully the IRS will take a much closer look at the questionable accounting practices of national fund solicitations by illegal operation in multiple states, theft by state reps, and an absence of an objective board of directors minding the store.
To the IRS: need evidence? Contact myself and my group of investigators - we have documentation for all claims mentioned herein.
People sincerely motivated to become involved in animal advocacy and rescue, steer clear of this duplicitous and fraudulent organization whose actions speak louder than their pretty photo-ops, feel-good vignettes and anecdotal success stories and endless campaign for donations. /
Suzanne Fiala, MD / Seattle, WA

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