Dollars or Death

We're back! We know that it’s been a minute since we have put a blog together but to be honest, things have been relatively stagnant since the eviction happened. Please understand that it is often impossible to fully fact check Melissa because she lies so shamelessly. She is still homeless to our knowledge, and still is hiding the location of all of the animals. She has said that the animals are in four different locations at this time and she is driving between them all on a daily basis and putting 200 miles on her truck a day. So what are The Devoted Barn’s plans moving forward? They don’t have a property, they allegedly have no money, they are losing volunteers, their online support is wavering, and they have no business plan. What they DO have are multiple pending lawsuits, an IRS investigation, an unemployed director that is hoarding personal animals, an inner circle of people enabling and encouraging this train wreck to continue, and 147+ innocent animals who’s futures completely hinge on decisions made by one person.

We want to start with the post made on The Devoted Barn Facebook page on 5/11/2023

They are estimating that monthly costs are $34,077 dollars to keep the rescue running as it is currently. This is what they are expecting you, as donors, to pay to keep this shit show up and running. This figure does not break down the large sums going into the pockets of lawyers fighting the battles caused solely by the poor decisions made by Melissa. It also does not cover the costs of the animals they have in foster homes. Are the kind people who agreed to take animals into their homes so that TDB could hoard more shit out of luck when it comes to reimbursement for their care? This would be status quo when it comes to the expectations of fosters for the organization, past and present, so the fact that those animals are not included in the monthly bills is not all that surprising.

To raise the amount of money that is needed to properly care for these animals, fundraisers for cookie cutters, pasta and socks aren’t going to cut it. They need big money, philanthropic donors. And guess what the big donors are going to expect? They will want proof of a solid business plan, transparency about money in/money out, and accountability from management. The Devoted Barn is lacking all three of these components. At this point, the organization even has an eviction on their record, so how will that look to any creditors for a conventional mortgage? Unless they find a property and can pay cash or sucker someone into another land contract deal, it is unlikely that they will be able to own another property. Leasing something leads to an unstable future for the animals and there is undoubtedly high risk for eviction when the rent payments aren’t made. What happens when they can’t afford to pay the dog kennel lease fee? Melissa mentioned in a live video on her own personal page that they were already behind in payments but the property owners have been gracious so far. How long will their generosity last? In the end, regardless of how much someone wants to help animals, it comes to a point where financially they will need the money, and demanding what they are entitled to does not make them a bad person. We hope that all of these property owners do not have to take legal measures in the future to get paid.

So what is The Devoted Barn and Melissa doing to help reduce their costs? They have posted about a few animals available for adoption. Horses like Frankie the draft with CPL and very old horses (30+) like Winston, Jimmy and Gunnar with extreme and costly care needs are available for adoption, but young or extremely adoptable horses like Babes and Buttercup, Freedom, Jordan, Joey, Ringo, Bubbi, or any of the donkeys are not. Melissa still has a whole herd of personal horses that are living at the leased rescue facilities. It is FACT that rescue dollars pay for these horses’ care. There are at least 11 horses that are personally owned by Melissa and her family. This does not include the number of horses “owned” by volunteers or others affiliated with the rescue that also live there. Why don’t Melissa and others start rehoming horses that are stealing donated dollars away from the rescue animals they are intended for?

We would also like to remind everyone that when The Devoted Barn was court ordered to move the dogs off the property, they made the announcement that they would be turning their focus to horses and donkeys before the appeal was decided.

Does it make sense to you that they would decide to take on more large and expensive animals when they were in legal battles to remove the dogs, full well knowing that they would possibly need to fund a second property? It is also worth noting that this article was published June 4, 2021 and the Huntington Ridge filed the first forfeiture lawsuit August 23, 2021. If they were already struggling to pay the bills and at risk of having to fund another location, why would they take on more animals? This is just one of the many examples of extremely poor business decisions that have landed them where they are now. With history in hindsight, we now know that they went on to lose the appeal, were forced to move the dogs and are now allegedly paying $8,000/month to house them in that nasty dilapidated kennel. They fundraised $50k at the very last minute and were able to pay the amount needed to retain the property after the first forfeiture. The post below from 4/19/22 was the plea that earned that money.

Even after this they STILL continued to bring in animals needing extremely costly care and refused to put any efforts towards adopting out adoptable animals or working with the animals there weren’t adoptable to get them to a point where they might be. Remember the plan of two properties when they first moved to Rose Township? They were going to have one property be the “sanctuary” and one be the “rehab” property for the animals that could be adopted. Now, it’s suddenly easier for them to say that the animals are unadoptable. Apparently they forgot that they were going to have a whole second property for many of these animals that were deemed as adoptable before?? If you haven’t noticed, the stories tend to flip flop around quite a bit to suit whatever current narrative is being spewed. You will notice that this post from 2019 also mentions how they feel "it's so important to have a separate building just for the dogs" that has concrete floors, heat and outdoor space. But we all know that those dogs would still be in a non climate controlled, dirt floored barn if events hadn't gone the way they did.

Melissa seems to have a pipe dream that she will be awarded back the Rose Township property if she wins the appeal case. We have done quite a bit of research on this and the likelihood of that happening is 0%. The appeal is being made regarding the judge’s order awarding money to Huntington Ridge and dismissing the counter suit that Devoted Friends Animal Society (The Devoted Barn) filed against HR. EVEN if some extreme, impossible event happened and Melissa was awarded back the property, she has stated that they would immediately list it for sale and they would not move back into it. So if that was the case, they would still be obligated to pay the land contract amount ($6,000/mo) until the property sold. Again, the scenario of possession of the property being awarded back to The Devoted Barn is an impossibility, but the point is worth making. On 3/7/2023 The Devoted Barn withdrew $36,088.87 from the $100,000 bond that was required to appeal the eviction order. They were able to do this because the money awarded to Huntington Ridge in the judgement was partially satisfied by the court ordered escrow account that TDB had been paying into. The remaining $63,911.13 is being held as a Bond on Appeal to appeal the final court order in favor of Huntington Ridge.

There has been no date set for an appeal hearing because TDB has yet to file the required brief. In fact, they filed a motion (which was approved) to extend the deadline to file. The only thing holding up the process (and the bond money) is them. Why would TDB not drop the appeal, run with the nearly $64k, feed their animals, and work to come up with an actual plan? Instead, they are gambling with more poor legal outcomes for themselves and sucking up more and more money in legal fees. And we haven’t even revisited the lawsuit brought on by an ex-volunteer asking for their $60,000 loan back! The hearing and trial dates for that case have been determined and trial for that case is scheduled for December.

With all of this going on, The Devoted Barn needs to be asking for help outside of continually asking donors for more and more money without a plan. They should be waving the white flag and asking other rescues for help with animal placement. THAT is what is in the best interest of the animals. There are plenty that have offered to take animals. They are out there, we have heard from them and they only care about the safety of the animals. Melissa needs to set aside her pride and personal issues with legitimate rescues who are willing to help and get these animals into secure futures. The future of The Devoted Barn is nowhere close to stable and the most responsible thing they could do is start rehoming as many animals as possible to adoptive homes and other rescues that are willing to help. Again, this means ANY animal, not just the animals Melissa hasn’t deemed as her personal pets.

Which brings us to this…On 5/10 Melissa made a live video on her own personal Facebook page. This is a clip from that video.

Inciting fear in order to get people to donate is not OK. These animals should NOT be at risk of euthanasia when there are absolutely others that would step up to help them and give them a chance. The only one putting them at risk is Melissa, as she holds complete control over their futures. If the organization is struggling to feed these animals on a daily basis, they need to release them into the care of people who can. Devoted Friends Animal Society needs to take back control of this “program” and director that they allow to run the show under their non-profit status.

The Devoted Barn keeps reiterating that they are an “open book” and SO transparent. So keep asking what their plan is. Keep asking what will happen to these animals and why other organizations are not being called in to help with placement. Keep asking about Melissa’s and other volunteers’ personal animals and who pays for their care. Keep asking how much money is being spent on legal fees (we can tell you that they haven’t claimed any on 990s). Keep asking how they intend to actually rehabilitate and adopt out dogs. Keep asking why they continue to intake animals when they are struggling to feed what they already have.

People are starting to realize that although they want to help the animals, they cannot continue financially supporting someone's personal livelihood and the mess that person has created. Enough is enough. Although Melissa likes to say that there are soooo many organizations snuggling just as hard as they are, we can't think of a single one with their hands extended asking for so insane amounts of money, while continuing to fight one legal battle after another, all the while STILL taking in more and more mouths to feed. The Devoted Barn could have been an incredible organization like so many others that we see succeeding. Unfortunately, personal greed and a lack of good business management got in it's way. Now, the only thing that should matter is ensuring the safety of the animals. They cannot fend for themselves, the humans involved in this though, they have the ability to help themselves. Everyone needs to remember that.