FOR CONTEXT: A peek at ABC's finances

I'm sorry for the delay in posting the next segment of my presentation. I thought it might be useful for contextual purposes to post the publicly available financial information about ABC Basset Rescue, so that there's no doubt in anyone's mind that their numerous denials of care for Clara were not determined by a shortage of available resources, but by other considerations. I will not attempt to impute their motivations; rather, I just want people to understand what was NOT driving their decision-making.

Download the images below, which are the first page of each of ABC's last two available Federal tax returns. Use your photo viewer to enlarge them so you can read the numbers.

If you look at lines 9 (total revenue for the year), 17 (total expenses for the year), and 21 (total assets), you'll see that they have been building a cash/asset reserve which totaled about $156,000 as of the end of the last year. So when Clara needed $300 in dental work to clear up a major infection in her mouth that was, in the opinion of the vet, contributing to her loss of appetite (to the extent she had a diagnosis of anorexia) and a danger to her as a diabetic, ABC apparently had more than $150,000 on hand.

 

I hope to have some more time on my hands later next week, and will post more of Clara's vet bills and some of her medical charts when I do.

 

Clara's history - and ours - with ABC Basset Rescue

There has apparently been much interest in, and discussion about, Clara's case among the members of the Basset rescue community.

 

I thought that, given our experience with fostering Clara, it would be useful to open a discussion of the operative standards of care that are actually practiced by ABC, as we experienced in our fostering of Clara.

 

Certainly, there was a significant vector between our expectations (based upon our reading of the ABC policies and various discussions) and the actual practice, a vector which most likely did not operate to Clara's benefit, or ours.

 

I will not attempt to characterize, or editorialize about, the way ABC acted, nor will I attempt to impute motive to their actions. Rather, I will simply present facts, and allow these to speak for themselves.

 

To begin, I am posting herewith our first vet bill for Clara. I think it would be most useful if people would first just look it over and become familiar with it. I will then explain what the vet saw upon her first visit, his diagnosis and recommended course of treatment, what was approved and denied, and what we paid for, and expect to post this in the next day or two.

I will then post the next vet bill, and the next, as well as an income/expense statement over such items as her food (as a diabetic, she was prescribed a special diet) and other care vs the funds actually approved by ABC.

By the end of this process, people will have a complete set of the facts and will be in a position to make an informed decision about Clara's case. It should also - and this is the most important point - help others avoid falling into a similar situation by going in with the benefit of our experience.
 

- Don DeBar