Saturday, January 5, 2013

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. 

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

GO SALLY!!!!!

ByteG8S said...

Thank you very much for your encouragement, Anonymous, whoever you are! I intend to keep up the battle until the day AC4h and VFH are no longer. My friends and I will be the only ones standing at the end of the day!

Anonymous said...

Pardon me for not using my real name but I see what they do to others and I just do not have the time nor do I care to waste any of my precious time responding to them. Before you know it I will be the next fake profile they are claiming is you. I am sorry for your troubles but allot of us have been folowing them through face book and the ERS yahoo group no one is safe when it comes to them. They will stop and nothing and stoop to the lowest of the low. It is really very said and sickening if I do say so myself. We are working with s specific group and keeping tabs on them for another person they have gone off on. I do not think you will have to worry much longer about them attacking anyone else in that ERS group. Have a great day.

ByteG8S said...

Anonymous, I could not agree with you more about the tactics they employ day in and day out to strike out at their critics in attempts to silence them. What you are saying is 100% spot on and I feel very badly for anyone and everyone who is subjected to their brutal attacks just for speaking out against their scam.

I hope to God you are right about the imminent demise of that horrible ERS forum, but the problem is, as I see it, they will just find another website to set up their 'clubhouse' on and mercilessly continue attacking innocent people.

Are you free to give me details about this group you're working with? You can contact me through here but I will not publish your comments for your protection and mine as I know Christy and her associates are watching my blog.

Thank you so much for looking out for me and others who've been victimized, and God bless! Sally

Anonymous said...

Ac4h is nothing but a bunch of lying scammers.
I speak from personal experience with them.

Anonymous said...

Any horse that does not go to slaughter is a horse saved. I had horses from Camelot, New Holland and AC4H and some were very bad and some fine. Of all the AC4H horses I took, all had health certs, coggins and none were starving. One from Camelot had a broken leg and another who was said to be 8 was 28 but STILL they were all worth saving from those horrible people who kill them. I think all kill buyer owned horses are pathetic and the people who send them there are the real criminals.

Anonymous said...

I cant stand these people! Passing this along!

Anonymous said...

What does Diana Murphy of Voice for Horses have to do with this? Are they running the same sort of scam. I got a horse from them about 6 months ago.

ByteG8S said...

Dear Anonymous,
Diana Murphy has been running Voice for Horses as a scam for a very long time and back in 2010 was in collusion with Christy and AC4h to fundraise for Brian Moore's broker horses.

In that year alone, she took in over 300 horses through Christy and Brian and reported over $300k on her 990 to the IRS. Just the year before, she reported under $25,000.

Her former farm manager told me and others that many of those horses, after she took donors' money and assured them they'd been placed in loving 'forever' homes, had been shot and killed at her request by the proprietors of an exotic animal sanctuary, who then hauled away the carcasses to be fed to the exotic cats and other carnivores there. She also told me that approximately 50 horses are buried on the property Diana formerly used to house her "rescue" and where she and her husband still live.

Prior to that, I personally uncovered the dumping of 29 former AC4h broker horses by her at the Wyandot County Humane Society--horses that had also been fundraised for--after I went looking for a friend's draft cross mare on Petfinder and found her at the HS. Many of those horses were in such poor condition that they were euthanized shortly after arrival there.

So yes, Diana has been running her scam behind her 501c3 nonprofit status just like Christy. She is no longer in partnership with Christy; they parted company in 2011 if I remember right--and she is one to steer clear of completely!

ByteG8S said...

Let me ask you- are you on Facebook? You might want to friend request or PM Craig Lundgren of British Columbia, Canada, who used to haul horses for Diana early in the millennium until he realized things weren't adding up with her claims as a horse rescuer. He knows a lot about her and her scam, and there are many people on Facebook who've been victimized by her too.

Anonymous said...

OMG, I gat a call from a friend that a daughter of one of my mares was on their current list of horses, and when I looked her up was listed as 'purchased' ...Vengeance is the Lord's and if that mare went to slaughter I will invoke it on all their heads because it is almost a given they are not in the least repentant!

Anonymous said...

Are the Animal Welfare people in that area deaf and blind, or just 'persuaded' shal we say, to look elsewhere?

ByteG8S said...

I would have to say the majority of AC4h's followers are extremely naive and easily swayed by Christy's and her associates' emotional blackmail into throwing their money at her--and fail to do their due diligence upfront by researching the organization. When it comes to animals (and children too) too many people are led by their hearts and not enough by common sense!

Anonymous said...

oo if you only knew about the horse tha went down in a trailer that she hit and hit to get up after the vet gave it half of the drugs to euthanized it and pulled it out of the trailer and then pushed it a round with a dozer to try and get it up ...why because she did not want to refund the money paid on it .....

ByteG8S said...

I do remember hearing about that incident; wasn't this a mare that ended up at Days' End Rescue and who had to be euthanized there? Wasn't that mare also grossly misrepresented as to her true age?

I think I know who the would-be adopter was and I feel very badly that she and the mare were treated so horribly by Christy. Unfortunately such incidents aren't isolated ones and I am sure there will be more similar ones before AC4h finally comes crashing down :-(

Anonymous said...

there are other so called horse rescues in ohio, they post old pictures of horses that they resuced years ago. Use money to fund there own needs.They have there own personal horses in there so called horse rescue. How can they rescue there own horses that they have had for years, they used in a riding sable! all they are doing is getting people to feed and care for there personal horses!

Mari said...

I have had only one experience with ACFHs when searching for a draft to adopt. Their elderly Belgian horses were extremely expensive to adopt, despite the fact they came from Amish sources and showed physical injuries from Amish lack of care. (deep notches in their necks from ill-fitting collars). I was then very suspicious of AC4Hs caring more about profit than placing one of their horses in a loving home. So relieved I am not alone in my suspects.

Anonymous said...

has anyone contacted the state Attorney General?

Mari said...

I have not contacted the Attorney General, because I thought my suspicions were due to my own paranoia regarding ACFHs. However, I did read other negative comments about ACFHs in my email contacts knowing it would not be the first time rescues were not in alliance.

ByteG8S said...

Anonymous, I don't have an exact number at all but I do know that quite a few people have contacted the Attorney General and that they have a file on AC4h. Beyond that, I don't know what the status of their investigation is but I do know the Feds, in particular the IRS, are involved and actively investigating.

@Mari, I can understand your feeling that you were alone in your suspicions about AC4h. When I got pulled into this whole thing myself, I didn't trust my feelings at first--until I started talking to others who'd had had bad experiences with Christy (and with Diana Murphy too) and that helped cement it in my mind for me. I would encourage you to contact the Attorney General if you got ripped off and send them all of your documentation with names, dates, emails, phone calls, etc., etc. Good luck and keep me posted!

Anonymous said...

I agree with you. I have not had any bad exp with them. Any problem was quickly corrected. All horses are viable usable horses as good as advertised or better. Some had URIs some not. Have hauled horses for a lot of people that seem satisfied...maybe she marks them up maybe not. Some of the poeplementioned as inner circle people are only volunteers only caring that horses get homes

Anonymous said...

How do you know this?

Anonymous said...

I think that is a great idea!
Now what about the man in Va that has a whole bunch of horses in nasty fiflth running over each other for human attention who won't sell them because they are to go to Christy?

ByteG8S said...

I have not heard anything about a man in Virginia with horses that are earmarked for Christy. Could you elaborate? You can private message me through Facebook with further details. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

If that is true why isn't she reported to the Humane Society?? Did people witness this?? That makes me totally sick to my stomach!!

Mari said...

Facebook is omitting comments....mine is not on here. Also, there are gaps between questions and answers. I can only wonder why FB has the authority to not publish ALL comments!
Oh, yes, I forget comments are moderated.

Mari said...

Google can take a hike.....

Anonymous said...

Thank you for writing this Sally. And I had my heart set on buying a horse from them! This has opened my eyes a lot. I live in PA and have been looking for a horse for a while when I stumbled across them. At a glance, their mission seemed really good. But now I realize what they are and how greedy and selfish they really are. I guess all I (we) can do is pray. For them/their hearts, for the horses, and for the people who put their hearts into all of this.
God Bless,
Oksana
P.S.: do u have a Facebook page?

Mara Feld said...

There is also a Facebook discussion page relative to the Sheidy scam.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/514840815226784/

Although Spud Noone died Christy Sheidy and others can still be held accountable in Federal Criminal Court for the theft of my horse. Great article Sally...Sheidy's days are numbered. What a sick world.

Love for Horses said...

I Just received 2 Horses from ac4h and they only came with coggins nothing else . I mean everyone that thinks that a horse priced at 1200$ goes to slaughter houses has to be totally stupid there is no kill buyer that pays that much money on a horse

Anonymous said...

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. I took in two horses from the broker program. I rec'd the coggins and health certificate. I don't think I overpaid for the first horse, $600 for a healthy eight year old Overa paint and a free yearling that had been severely neglected. I've had both horses for over four years without issue. The yearling is now a fat, five year old, solid and gorgeous.

Anonymous said...

Did anyone see this:

FBI raids Another Chance 4 Horses in Berks County

http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-berks/fbi-raids-area-another-chance-4-horses-in-berks-county/-/121418/19950308/-/i3688lz/-/index.html

Anonymous said...

Sally, I am writing to say the photo you have as Pam Davis is NOT Pam Davis. It is her sister. Without using her name to protect her privacy, I would like you to remove the photo, since she is very upset to have her image displayed on sites identifying her image incorrectly.

I am sure you can find images of the real Pam Davis on her Facebook site, etc.

I am very sad to even realize that Pam Davis has used her sisters' image in the face of such a mess...

ByteG8S said...

If in fact the photo is of Pam Davis's sister, please have her contact me directly at Sarahstryker@aol.com and I will remove the photo at her request. Thank you very much-- Sally

Anonymous said...

Alisha kimiko haywood is currently taking advantage of Seabrings stable in Richmond, Ma. Destroying farms, not paying bills,and stealing any thing she can.