It has been a while since my last post on this subject. I have been waiting, albeit somewhat impatiently, but waiting for some resolution of this debacle.
**If you are unfamiliar with this story I would ask that you visit Dogs with a Cause for a quick recap**
We are now beyond the anticipated delivery date for the Autism Service Dogs that Lea Kaydus had promised to over 10 families back in June of 2011. These dogs, their training, and accessories were being funded through a combination of private donations secured by Lea Kaydus, as founder of the Siberian Snow Babies’ Animals for Autism program, and a very generous $50,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Everything Project. The administrators of the Pepsi grant, GlobalGiving.org, assured families that the dogs would in fact be delivered as promised despite any temporary setbacks.
Still not a single service dog delivered.
GlobalGiving.org has removed themselves from the picture since the project has proceeded beyond the 9 month monitoring window. They no longer have any interest in Lea Kaydus or these Autism Service Dogs she had promised to deliver. It is not their problem. I wish I had known it was that easy to get $50,000 from Pepsi. I bet I could have come up with a fantastic project that would have pulled at the heartstrings of many people. I could have worked with a local distributer, local recycling company to acquire Pepsi bottlecaps with Power Vote codes. Maybe I could have offered to place free highly-trained Autism Service Dogs with a group of young, autistic children…wait, that has been done. Then again, it worked.
Lea Kaydus, her husband, George, and both their enterprises (Siberian Snow Babies & Animals for Autism of Illinois) have been reported to the Better Business Bureau, the Illinois Attorney General and all of the Autism Service Referral places that I have found her registered. I have come to accept that I will not ever get an apology from Lea Kaydus let alone any of the money that I paid her expecting a trained autism service dog in return. Neither will any of the other families. Hard lesson learned.
I hope that the Illinois Attorney General is not just going to let this be. I hope there will be some repercussion for her actions. At a minimum she defrauded 11 families throughout the United States. I believe that her marks included families outside the United States to include Australia, New Zealand, and England. She preyed on the hopes and dreams of families who did not have extra to lose. Wish I had better news. Do not intend to ever let this go, even once I move on.
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