Reprint: Mass Death at Spindletop Refuge: The Story of Stella

Zandra Anderson has accused me of writing articles that contain 'misinformation, half truths and out and out fabrications.' She also has put forth objections to Reunion Rescue, a 501(c)(3) in excellent standing raising money to save the dogs and other animals we have successfully been rescuing since 1998.

The Examiner pulled all of the articles written about the Spindletop raid and seizure except one, even the last piece about Nolan who luckily never wound up at Spindletop despite some frantic networking for his chip in fund by her client, Leah Purcell.

Today's entry is the first re-publishing of the articles improperly and unfairly removed due to Zandra Anderson's untruthful claims. Each comment made to the Examiner by Anderson has been addressed in the following three blog entries:

Spindletop Dog Killers Try to Shut Down Rescuer

Texas Dog Lawyer: Rebuttal Part 2

Texas Dog Lawyer: Rebuttal Part 3

Stella

Willis, TX: Stella was a pit bull. She was abandoned last summer with Amber in the hot Houston, Texas heat. Her ears had been butchered off with dried blood running down the sides of her face.

Stella and Amber were left noosed to a fenced vacant lot. After all of the horror that Stella and Amber have experienced, the worst was only yet to come.

http://www.examiner.com/article/amber-and-stella-found-butchered-and-noosed-the-hot-houston-texas-heat

A kindly Samaritan found the girls and contacted Reunion Rescue. An article was written about Stella and Amber and a Facebook page was created for them. After establishing a chip in, money was raised to board the dogs at Spindletop Rescue in Willis.

Almost $9,000 has been raised and sent to Spindletop for the care and boarding of Stella, Amber and two other dogs. Throughout the past year, Reunion Rescue was informed that Stella and Amber were ‘unadoptable’ and ‘aggressive’.

Tuesday, July 17, a raid on the Spindletop facility resulted in the confiscation of 298 dogs. Stella was not one of these dogs.

According to a former employee, Stella was one of 38 dogs who died of heat suffocation and were buried on the property. The young man confirmed her death and added, “Stella was an amazing dog. She was one of many that I looked forward to working with every day when I came to work.”

When told of Stella’s horrible death, her Samaritan broke down. “She was my little pot bellied pig.” When asked about Stella, her benefactor told about Stella playing with her little dogs. This is the same dog deemed too ‘aggressive’ to be adopted by Spindletop director, Leah Purcell.

Everything about this horrible affair is wrong. Stella and Amber could have been adopted. How many others at this place died who could have been in homes instead of literally tortured to death and secretly buried in a filthy mass grave

Legal representative Zandra Anderson known as the Texas Dog Lawyer has ‘allegedly’ advised her clients to remain quiet about this sordid and disturbing affair. Just how much of these details were known and kept secret? How many people across the country trusted these people to care for rescued and personal pets? Maybe this ‘lawyer’ and promoter needs to take a page from her own website which reads, “Promote education on responsible dog ownership through seminars, at local events and in conjunction with animal services.”

Tomorrow, Reunion Rescue’s Cindy Marabito will be driving to the first court hearing with paperwork for the three (hopefully) surviving dogs, Amber, Batgirl and Angel to try and re-claim them. According to the HSUS, these and the other 295 dogs will be ‘evidence’ and not available to be returned to rescues until a final decision is reached. This could take months.

Bad Rap, the group who became famous through the Vick dogs tragedy has already started networking these dogs on their Facebook page. Those of us who have dogs boarded at Spindletop and have suffered tragic losses like that of Stella are asking Bad Rap not to use our dogs as a fundraising tool. Please allow us to grieve the dogs we’ve lost and afford due process of law to have our surviving dogs returned to us. We do not want to see a re-occurrence of the Katrina dogs in which refugees were shipped to this group and other California groups, many never to be seen again.

Please take a minute to say a little prayer for Stella. Take a minute to pause and think about the others who’ve suffered. We are all angry and hurting about this horrible and tragic event. There will be a long road ahead to try and sort through the necessary bureaucracy to get our dogs back.

Many of us will be in the courtroom tomorrow to present our proof of ownership.

Friday, July 20th at 10:30am at the following location:

Justice of the Peace Precinct 2

Judge G. Trey Spikes

2241 North 1st Street Conroe, Texas 77301

Phone: 936-538-3788 Fax: 936-538-7732

Please email doggirl1@earthlink.net if you have a dog boarded at Spindletop. We are working to organize so that all dogs will be carefully tracked with photographs and proof of ownership.

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Cindy Marabito of Reunion Rescue writes the American Pit Bull Examiner stories to save lives. Every click on a story donates to the animals

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http://www.examiner.com/american-pit-bull-in-national/cindy-marabito

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One of the complaints made by Zandra Anderson, dog lawyer, was the posting of Stella on the Reunion Rescue website. Note to the dog lawyer, Stella's photograph will remain on our website. She will always be remembered and cherished as a tragic reminder that not all people in the dog business are good people.

Our hope is that we might at some point gather the remains where Stella was buried in a mass grave with 37 other dogs to place in a shrine.

Certainly these people who follow Spindletop and the dog lawyer on Facebook, who criticize and make fun of those of us who are grieving and trying to find our dogs will not understand. We do not expect someone who defends animal torture and mass murder to understand, nor do we wish to elicit any further communication with these people. However, like the giant tree roaches in the Texas heat, you really can't do much to discourage their presence. They just keep crawling along.

All unfounded complaints in which Anderson based removal of this article are addressed in the rebuttal. The next re-publish will be the July 23 piece, 'Inside a Living Nightmare: Recap of Spindletop Raid.

Please stay tuned. Just getting started for what looks to be a long ordeal.