Another Blogger Who Cuts Right Through to the Nitty Gritty!

Tonight, I had the opportunity to get brought back up to speed about AC4h's shady wheelings and dealings on Facebook by a good friend of mine, who shall remain forever anonymous, in a chat on Facebook, after Facebook's powers-that-be so graciously admitted there was no basis to the allegations of copyright infringement by Cheryl Hanna, AC4h's publicity and marketing director, over my note "AC4h Hits a New Low", and restored access to my account. Boy, did it feel really, really good to smash Christy & Co.'s euphoria over my being banned when they all thought I was locked out permanently.

Well, that is just too bad for them, because like the famous Timex watch advertising slogan, I can take a licking and keep on ticking; my parents, God bless them, didn't raise me to be a wishy-washy namby-pamby at all (my immensely talented and lovable baby brother, Andy, knows I'm one tough cookie that doesn't crumble). Growing up with a disability meant having to acquire a very thick skin along the way, and I must say, mine is thicker than an alligator's and elephant's combined--and I am blessed with the gator's tenacity and the elephant's memory, both of which serve me very well :-)

Anyway, I'm getting a bit off track here and wanted to share with you all the link to a new blog right here on Blogger, by TornadoCountryLady, who sees AC4h for what it is, a scam designed to wring exorbitant amounts of money out of bleeding heart donors and adopters for unfit-for-sale horses behind its 501c3 nonprofit status by shrilly screaming "The meat truck is coming! Please hurry and donate what you can to keep these beauties off the truck before the deadline!" time after time.

She does a bang-up job of breaking down Christy & Co.'s scheme to a simple equation and explaining that while naive folks may be feeling mighty good about having "saved" one of the innumerable broker horses from going to slaughter, the majority of them are completely unaware of the fact that, by bailing that old, sick, lame or emaciated broker horse to the tune of hundreds of dollars, they just literally signed the death warrants of three or four or more horses--young, fat and healthy animals that Brian Moore is able to snap up cheaply with his cut from the broker horse program--horses that those bleeding hearts never, ever see or hear about on Facebook or anywhere else for that matter. Those are the ones that are truly in danger of being loaded onto the dreaded "meat truck" week after week, and Christy and her associates don't give a rat's ass about them, period.

Truth be told, they are just as pro-slaughter as "Slaughterhouse" Sue Wallis of Wyoming is--they pull such a convincing (to the unaware/uninitiated) act of being passionate horse welfare advocates, I'm sorely tempted to contact the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the governing body of the Academy Awards, and nominate them for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscars!

I don't know who TornadoCountryLady is, but she apparently has a Facebook account because in her recent blog post, "Kool Aid Anyone?" she referenced a rant by a Standardbred trainer and owner on the AC4h/AC$h Fraud and Abuse Reporting group, of which I am a member and frequent contributor. Whoever she is, kudos to her for having the courage to speak out and do her part to shine a harsh light on Christy Sheidy and her nefarious and heartless scam. Without further ado, I am more than pleased to share the link to her blog  Please be sure to bookmark it, and encourage her to keep up the good work!

Sally

Bring It On With Your Stories!

I want to thank everyone who posted positive comments in support of this blog exposing the seamy underside of horse rescue, especially Another Chance 4 Horses and Voice for Horses. If it were not for the encouragement from you and many of my friends on Facebook, I would not be writing this blog. It undoubtedly has been a strange and often surreal journey I've been on for the past two and a half years, one that has had its share of ups and downs and many days of discouragement and despair--but on behalf of all the horses that have been cruelly and callously exploited for blood money and the good-hearted people who bankrupted themselves to bring a number of them into their homes and hearts, I feel I must carry on this battle against their exploiters until their day of reckoning comes in the federal court system.

I hope and pray that day is not far off; Christy and her henchwomen have been carrying on their dirty little scam for the better part of a decade and I know there are many, many victims out there waiting for that day to come and to get justice for themselves. Many of them have been intimidated into silence by the likes of Cheryl Hanna, Lori Leach, Colleen Cramblet, Beth Hill Ross, Christy herself, Lisa Drahorad, Pam Davis and others, none of whom have any moral scruples or limits whatsoever when it comes to their detractors.

I am encouraging everyone who has had a negative experience with either AC4h or VFH to come forward and tell their stories here. If you wish to remain anonymous, please inform me and I will not publish your real name, only your experience with either rescue. It's important that we get as many stories out there in the public eye so that others can do their due diligence before ever logging onto PayPal to donate or "bail" a horse from either one of these faux rescues, and equally as important that you share out those stories on Facebook and all over the Internet. The more concrete information that is out there, the more likely people will be to take their business elsewhere--either to a legitimate, HONEST rescue, or directly to the kill buyer auctions themselves.

Remember the axiom, "Silence is golden"? Well, it most certainly is NOT golden in this regard! Remaining silent will only enable Christy and her associates to brazenly continue their scam openly on Facebook and elsewhere. Do not be afraid to speak your mind and tell the whole world what happened to you and the horse you opened your heart to, even if you feel you have to do so anonymously. That is 100% understandable because, as I said earlier, these people will go to great lengths to keep the money train running, and that includes retaliation in the form of bullying, harassment at your home and place of work, infiltration of your personal Facebook wall as well as your friends' and families' walls, and much more.

Any personal information you put out there on your Facebook wall and your friends' walls is fair game for these people and they will ruthlessly exploit it to hurt and destroy reputations and careers, tear apart personal and business relationships, and much, much more. I know, I've been down that road and experienced everything they've dished out--but one thing is certain, and that is, I will not, I repeat, I will not be intimidated into silence--ever. Because it's about the horses and the people who loved them, and justice for them. It's as simple as that.

That being said, I sincerely hope you will have the courage to come forward and share your stories with me and the rest of the world. Please email me at Sarahstryker@aol.com with your experiences, and I will post them verbatim here. If you have a Facebook account, you may also private message me at http://www.facebook.com/sally.schrock.1

Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your encouragement, support, well wishes and just being there. We're all in this together, so please don't feel that you're alone or the only one who's been "taken for a ride"!

God bless each and every one of you--

Sally

P.S. I am now back on Facebook after having had my account disabled due to alleged copyright infringement, which proved to be without foundation after a complaint was lodged against me by Cheryl Hanna, who claimed I was stealing her article, "Newtown's young victim Jessica Rekos remembered by a rescued young colt" for inclusion in my note on Facebook. 

AC4h Rogues' Gallery

Take a good, long look at these people. They are the individuals who, collectively, are responsible for an elaborate and lucrative horse rescue scam that's been in operation for the better part of a decade now, much of it carried out over on the Internet and almost exclusively on Facebook. Another Chance 4 Horses, Inc., founded by Christy Sheidy, is run as a 501c3 nonprofit organization but it most definitely is being operated as a for-profit business, having reported $861,000 on its 2010 990 form to the IRS for last year.

Christy Sheidy, with the help of Brian Moore, a well-known kill buyer in Jonestown, PA, is procuring old, lame, sick, emaciated and generally unfit-for-sale horses to peddle weekly on Facebook at outrageously inflated prices while playing the "going to slaughter" card with the help of the above associates--and scores of gullible followers who are willingly and blindly guzzling down her tainted Kool-Aid.

It has been well documented time after time that none of these horses are given even the most basic care and are, as a matter of fact, deliberately underfed during their sad and lonely sojourn in Brian Moore's broker lot, since Christy does not like to spend her ill-gotten gains on anything but herself and her family. Furthermore, those in urgent need of veterinary care do not get it, something which always falls squarely on the shoulders (and checkbooks) of those unsuspecting adopters--despite AC4h's reporting $27,000 in vet expenses on the above 990 form--and those adopters paying the infamous 'vetting' fee upfront along with other mysterious and arcane expenses which Christy blithely claims are necessary, yet are clearly fraudulent and intended to pad her ever-expanding bottom line.

Left to right: Lady Empress, a gray TB mare who was fundraised for through AC4h, then callously abandoned at a QT/layover facility before dying; Faith, an aged grulla mare with extremely severe founder who was forced by Christy's daughter to walk on hard pavement despite being in excruciating pain. Despite Dr. Holt's recommending she be euthanized at New Holland, Christy refused as she wanted to wring her for every penny she could. She was finally put down with the help of two caring women in the Poconos. Top photo is of a mini gelding who was in reasonably good condition in the broker lot upon arrival, but who was then subsequently starved and arrived at his new home emaciated and sick.

Nearly everyone adopting a horse through AC4h has stated that they never got the health certificates and Coggins paperwork they paid for. One of my friends, who adopted fifteen horses through the organization before she finally wised up, told me point blank that out of those fifteen, she never received the health certificates she paid for and got only one Coggins.  Thirteen of those horses required urgent and immediate veterinary care upon arrival at her place. That should tell you the level of care given to the broker horses--absolutely none.

"Cadillac Jack", a young Percheron gelding who arrived at
the broker lot with a horribly infected and swollen
left hind leg, an injury that was not treated by
Christy or Brian and which cost his new owner
more than $1,000 to treat. Jack is now deceased.

And yet, time after time on their AC4h Broker Horses Facebook wall, Christy and her compadres loudly proclaim their anti-slaughter and pro-horse-welfare stance, but in reality, she couldn't be any more pro-slaughter than, say, "Slaughterhouse" Sue Wallis of Wyoming; she's that slick of an actress. For someone who's been ripping people off left and right, forward and backwards and even upside down for ten years, she's had practice, and lots of it, in crafting and perfecting her art of deception.

While the broker horses she peddles are not at risk of going to slaughter, she does help send horses to slaughter--the young, fat and healthy ones that Brian Moore is able to snap up cheaply with his profit  from the sales of those unfit-for-sale animals. Those are the ones truly in danger and which Christy's loyal disciples never see on Facebook.

Christy is so slick, as a matter of fact, that she's been able to pull the wool over a handful of well-known figures with her anti-slaughter rhetoric, including Senator Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana), and Laura Hillenbrand, New York Times best-selling author of "Seabiscuit: An American Legend", who was emotionally blackmailed into sponsoring at least five AC4h broker horses to the tune of more than $3,000. All of those sponsored horses have since then disappeared into thin air and are unaccounted for. Too, Bernard Goldberg, who interviewed Christy for an HBO special on horse slaughter, with a special focus on Thoroughbred racehorses, got taken in by her convincing talk, as did Inside Edition.

As practiced as she is in the art of deception, she could never pull her scheme off to the extent that she has without the help of her loyal associates. Even Bernie Madoff, who bamboozled scores of wealthy and well-known individuals, had able and willing assistance from his family and business partners. The majority of Christy's associates are white collar professionals, none of who reside in Pennsylvania.

Cheryl Hanna, AC4h's publicity and marketing director, is employed as a realtor by Keyes Realty in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, while Colleen Cramblet is one of the principals of Cavanaugh, Davies, Blackman & Cramblet, a CPA firm in Monmouth, Illinois.  Lori Renee Leach, AC4h's legal counsel, who makes Alexandria, Kentucky, her home, commutes to her job at Lerner, Sampson & Rothfuss in Cincinnati, a law firm that specializes in handling foreclosures for the banks.  Lisa Drahorad, AC4h's special events coordinator, lives in Marlton, New Jersey, and works for Simon & Schuster Financial. Sharon Stone makes her home in Gloucester, Virginia and is employed by Wright Sign Service.

Pamela Susan Arnold Davis, another Jersey girl (of Hackettstown) and one of AC4h's most vicious attack dogs along with Cheryl Hanna, was previously employed by Lucent Technologies but is currently unemployed, despite her spurious claim that she's currently working in an attorney's office. Sherry Osborn, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, worked or is working in the mortgage services industry as a collections consultant. Another associate, Theresa Anderson-Nason (not pictured), yet another Jersey girl, is a realtor with Weichert Realty in Taunton, NJ.

Beth Hill Ross, of Saunderstown, Rhode Island, is a very close associate of Christy's and one of the founders/operators of New England Equine Rescues (NEER). She is the owner of the Yahoo forum, Equine Rescue Scams (http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/EquineRescueScams/) which most of Christy's associates and followers use as their clubhouse and where they freely and openly attack, smear, libel, defame, harass and bully their detractors and critics. They have at least two Facebook pages on which they also brazenly carry out their attacks without fear of retribution--but the tide will surely change, and soon. Payback is a female dog, as many people are very well aware!

There is one other associate very, very few people are aware of within Christy's inner circle because she prefers to remain deep in the shadows and direct others in the group on how to exploit their detractors' vulnerabilities in order to hurt them in retaliation for speaking out against AC4h. She is Margie Stephens, a child psychologist by profession in Atlanta, Georgia and who frequents the Alex Brown forums as Margie_Morgans, an allusion to her fondness for Morgans.

Collectively, this group has a great deal of clout and are not to be underestimated by any means, as I all too belatedly found out, and am paying a very heavy price for not having come to that realization sooner. Absolutely none of these people are capable of compassion, empathy, honesty, respect for others or even the law itself; every single one of them is firmly convinced that none of the rules of society apply to them. Even Lori Leach, who was sworn to uphold the law as a member of the bar, considers herself above society's rules and ordinances and completely lacks legal ethics.

Christy and her daughter Lara brazenly mocking the camera

What each and every one of them is capable of is gratuitous cruelty, towards not just animals, but also towards their fellow human beings, of which I've experienced more than two years' worth in my battle with these moral degenerates. Remember, the majority of them are white collar professionals in their forties and fifties, with a few in their sixties (Colleen Cramblet is 61), yet they behave far worse than grade school kids with their vile and vulgar name-calling ("Skank", "Schlopp", "Fruit Loop", to reiterate a few 'choice' words; I have plenty of choice words myself for these moral degenerates but won't stoop to their level in the gutter). Heck, my two nephews, one of whom is in college, are far more civilized and respectful than these "grown-ups"!  How about this sterling commentary from Colleen Cramblet, the CPA from Monmouth, Illinois?

Well Sally "The Scag" is on here and copying information to her "so called friends" (aka the people using her to the  BIG MOUNTH for them since they are cowards and can't speak for themselves) So wonder what fake ID she is using now (maybe she is MRR... they sound sound like the same person it their level of mentality.)  Geez thought FB got rid of her for good from the last letter they got. Barb don't waste your time on a mental degenerate (aka convicted animal abuser). She's not worth the effort. She is nothing but a big FAT FAT (literally FAT) looser trying to act like she is not mentally deprived... but everyone who has had the misfortune of dealing with her knows otherwise. I'm just waiting for her to come around but all she does is threaten.. LOL... Little does she know there's some people amoungst her  just waiting tho throw her fat A$$ in jail if she does show up. And she thinks noone knows  where a bouts... Little does she know who all knows her where a bouts and keeping an eye on her. She's nothing but a FAT A$$ hiding behind her broke down computer and trying to convince everyone she's got all this high tech junk... when she ain't got a pot to **** in. ****Hi Scag. Hope you see this and maybe you need go through your friend list and see who all is watching... Ha Ha****

Remember, these are representatives of a 501c3 nonprofit organization, who are expected to conduct themselves in a professional and businesslike manner, yet they treat everyone who has the unmitigated gall (in their warped minds) to ask direct and honest questions or to question something that might seem 'shady' like lowlife criminals. People's comments are deleted and they are blocked from the AC4h Broker Horses page and other pages belonging to AC4h; if they persist, they are viciously attacked and threatened with legal action and far worse. They will up the ante by calling these people's homes and their employers, as well as family members and much worse-- all because they have a great, great deal to hide--and much to lose.

Let me ask you this: if the officers of, say, St. Jude's Research Hospital, or the SPCA, both of which are 501c3 nonprofit organizations, treated the public in this fashion, do you think that people would support them?  HELL NO! So why would anyone in their right mind throw their hard-earned money at Christy's feet when she and her associates behave like gangsta hooligans from the inner-city boroughs?? Really..... the gullibility of some people is simply astounding, the way they allow their emotions (and concerns for the innocent horses in Christy's clutches) to override their common sense when they could go directly to the auctions themselves and cut the kill buyers and Christy herself out of the action completely--and save two or three more horses for the same amount she charges for one broker horse.

If anyone's not fully convinced by what I've written thus far about these people, let me tell you about my own personal experience. I am their number one enemy and have been for over two years because I speak the truth about their illicit activities on Facebook and beyond, and they hate me for it. I don't give a damn what they think or feel, but I do give a damn about how they treat the horses in their filthy clutches and the good-hearted people who literally bankrupted themselves to bring those horses into their homes and hearts.

As far as I'm concerned, they sealed their fate a very long time ago with the man upstairs as well as with the state and federal authorities; they will get absolutely no mercy from either while still on this earth, and when their expiration date comes due. They are vicious, mean-spirited and ruthless in their determination to destroy anyone and everyone who stands in their way of making an illegal buck, and will stop at absolutely nothing, and I mean, nothing, to shut their opponents up. Last year, they recruited Angela Miller Valianos, in Cortland, Illinois, to steal my Powerbook laptop on their behalf so that she could hack into the hard drive and destroy the evidence I had gathered against them and their scam.

She did this by convincing me to go grocery shopping with her, but instead she dumped me at a homeless women's shelter in Rockford with just the clothes on my back; my Powerbook and the rest of my belongings were left behind at her house. Fortunately for me, Angela was completely unfamiliar with Macs and was unable to get at the evidence I had on the hard drive. TOO BAD for Christy and her henchwomen!

Murder? Who really knows how far they'd go beyond what they've already gone in their attempts to silence me......one of their supporters, Alisha Kimiko Haywood, bragged about having stabbed the "sh-t" out of her best friend. Others, most recently Pam Davis, who I mentioned earlier is one of Christy's most vicious attack dogs as well as a pathological liar (the only thing they all know how to do is lie, lie and lie some more through their teeth, but Pam is by far and away the worst of the entire sorry lot) expressed hope that I would die in a fall (push?) from a cliff:

From https://www.facebook.com/pages/Equine-Rescue-Scams/241900889219251?ref=ts&fref=ts&__req=j

Let's face it, these are not people you want to adopt a horse from, because they will snatch your hard-earned money out of your hands while ripping your heart out at the same time, and laughing all the way to the bank. They could care less about the aftermath they leave in their wake but as I said earlier, payback's a female dog!

Run like the wind--AWAY from them. You'll be glad you did. 

"Naked Greed" ©2012 sarah p schrock

This recent Poser render says it all about where Christy Sheidy's consuming passion lies: raking in as much filthy lucre as she possibly can off the backs of helpless and innocent horses while taking gullible and unsuspecting donors and adopters alike "for a ride". Go ahead and have a laugh on me. I daresay she and her cronies won't be laughing much longer!

AC4h Hits a New Low

by Sally Schrock 

I seriously wanted to barf when I came across this Examiner article on Christmas Eve. Christy Sheidy and her associates are using a horrible tragedy, the Newtown, CT, massacre, to stage a publicity stunt. If it were any other horse rescue like Angel Acres Horse Haven or Brenda Lewis's ACE or Horse Rescue United, that would be one thing, but knowing Christy's insatiable penchant for publicity and capitalizing on national events to pump up AC4h's image (remember Ernie Paragallo, folks?) and pull in scores of gullible and unsuspecting donors and adopters--and above all, $$$$$, this is way beyond crass; it's self-serving and totally repugnant. 

 This may seem to the uninitiated an unselfish act of compassion, but to those who know all too well Christy's callousness and wanton disregard for the welfare of all life forms, including her fellow human beings, it's anything but. "What's in it for ME?" is the guiding principle in everything she does; it is most certainly NOT for the benefit of others, but for HERSELF, and only HERSELF.

Christy has consistently and clearly demonstrated her lack of knowledge about equines in just about every aspect of running her "rescue", including wrongly identifying horses' sex, claiming certain horses were 'gaited' when in fact they were seriously lame; creating a new and rare breed out of thin air in a lame (pardon the pun!) attempt to identify a particular horse's breed; passing off a certain laminitic mare's condition as nothing more than a "good hoof trimming couldn't fix"; and much, much more.

She's even attempted to pass off a number of horses as being suitable for beginners when they were clearly not and as a matter of fact were dangerous around even the most experienced horse people--including a 17.1h Suffolk draft cross mare that ended up being dumped by her horse-trading partner, Diana Murphy, at the Wyandot County Humane Society in Sandusky, Ohio after my friend Kristen Boltz, an experienced horsewoman herself, could not handle her safely and was forced to return her.

Taking all of that into consideration, Christy and her associates are not qualified by any means to match an eight-month-old colt with a child between 6-10 years of age for several reasons, one being that most children that age do not have the knowledge or maturity to handle what is essentially an ungelded yearling, and a rambunctious one at that, even with adult supervision.

So why would anyone, especially the operator of a rescue, want to put a child in harm's way by giving him or her an untrained colt? That's asking for major, and I mean MAJOR trouble. What's more, how many families out there are willing to lay out the money necessary for at least 90 days' professional training under saddle? It's not cheap at all, and a professional trainer is a luxury few families can afford in these financially lean times. 

It just doesn't make sense when there are dozens upon dozens of dead-broke, kid-safe horses out there for next to nothing on Craigslist or even in the auctions themselves. Furthermore, a child between six and ten years of age isn't going to have the patience to wait for an eight-month-old colt to mature to the point that he can be put under saddle and trained to ride. Even then, I wouldn't consider a colt with 90 days' training under saddle safe enough to put a kid on.  Kids want to get on a horse NOW and go riding, so getting them an unbroke equine just isn't good horse sense at all. Young horses and young kids together are a disaster waiting to happen.

What it all boils down to here is that Christy and her buddies are not doing this out of the sheer goodness of their hearts. They're doing it out of their unbridled greed and love for the almighty dollar.  It's a shameless attempt to snag publicity for AC4h by exploiting a horrific tragedy and a dead girl's love of horses to their advantage. This is a new low even for them, and one that is absolutely revolting.

From Examiner.com:

Newtown's young victim Jessica Rekos remembered by a rescued young colt

• Remembering Jessica Rekos and her love of horses
• December 22, 2012
• By: Cheryl Hanna

On Tuesday, Jessica Rekos, in an emotional farewell was laid to rest at the cemetery of Saint Rose of Lima Church in Newtown, Conn. The six-year-old, one of the 20 young victims and 6 adults gunned down by Adam Lanza, 20 with a military assault rifle was a child

"who loved horses and had asked Santa for cowgirl boots and a hat... She devoted her free time to watching horse movies, reading horse books, drawing horses, and writing stories about horses," stated her parents Rich and Krista Rekos in a statement from People magazine.

Jessica will never get her own horse when she turns ten, but a rescued young Standardbred colt now renamed Rekos who was saved from slaughter will be a small remembrance of a young life lost but certainly never to be forgotten.

Six-years ago the last United States horse slaughterhouse was closed, but just as many horses are still carved up in Canada and Mexico for human consumption. Last year nearly 140,000 horses - healthy, young, stolen, and nearly every equine breed suffered excruciatingly cruel deaths.

 Statistics show that 80 percent of Americans are opposed to horse slaughter, yet legislation to permanently ban the transport of horses to Canada and Mexico for slaughter continues to languish somewhere in the legislative system.

The colt and his mother Sheer Sensation were pulled from a horse broker's lot by Another Chance 4 Horses on November 19. The contributions of two longtime supporters, Louise and Ruth guaranteed the safety of the two horses, but finding a home for a young colt can be quite difficult. Thanks to the efforts of Darlene Supnick of Forgotten Angels Equine Rescue in Medford, N.J. and Janine Jacques, from Hope 4 Horses in Massachusetts who specializes in the placement of young horses, the eight-month-old colt will be offered for adoption to a young girl.

Lisa Drahorad, a volunteer for Forgotten Angels Equine Rescue and Another Chance 4 Horses stated:

"Dear sweet Jessica. We have your horse. His name will be Rekos. When the time is right, we will send a photo of Rekos to your family so they know that your memory will live on with something that you loved so much."

Rekos will be transported to Connecticut where he will be available for adoption to a little girl between the ages of 6 and 10 in honor of Jessica and the horse she always wanted.

If you would like to assist with donations to help Rekos get to Connecticut, please click here.

Reko's mother, Sheer Sensation is also available for adoption through Forgotten Angels Equine Rescue. Please visit their website if you are interested in adopting, volunteering, or donating. Follow the group on their Facebook page by clicking here.