Animal Politics

The WAO continues to play games with the animals’ lives. I was told by a person working with Dawn Smith (IFAW contract employee) that the WAO required fruits and vegetables. I was told by this same person that Dawn was expecting to hear from me so I could help her acquire free fruits and vegetables.


So I sent her a quick email that day:

To: smithdawn@comcast.net
Sent: Wed, September 22, 2010 8:57:13 AM
Subject: WAO Produce

Greetings Dawn:

Does the WAO require fruits and vegetables this week?

Regards,

Several hours later I received this email:

From: Dawn Smith
Sent: Wed, September 22, 2010 2:45:29 PM
Subject: WAO produce

Hello Kristina,

We are ok at the moment as people are donating money direct to our produce supplier, allowing us to pick up only what we need when we need.

This serves two ways as it also reduces our waste situation.I'll be in touch if our needs change.

Best,

Dawn

Hmmm. That was strange, but I figured she had everything under control. I did send her a reply email:

To: Dawn Smith smithdawn@comcast.net
Sent: Wed, September 22, 2010 3:44:37 PM

Subject: Re: WAO produce

Greetings Dawn:

If you'd let me know who is your direct produce supplier, perhaps I can assist in providing additional donations directly to the company.

Please keep in touch in case your needs change.

Best

To which I never received a reply. I figured the first email was a kiss-off email. Turns out I was right (read on).

So I figured animal politics were in play and decided I would stay out of Dawn’s way as she appeared to have everything under control. I let my friend know of Dawn’s email and he told me not to take it personally—chances are she was just busy and didn’t realize it was “me” who wrote her offering assistance.

On Thursday, I asked my friend if the WAO required produce as this was the day to set up a produce order from a friend of mine.

Here is the email exchange:

Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 11:08 AM
Subject: Re: WAO produce

No word yet regarding the produce? Must order today if they need fruits & veggies.

Sent: Thu, September 23, 2010 11:17:45 AM
Subject: Re: WAO produce

They have a full supply as of now.

I mentioned you and she now realizes your previous efforts.

She is getting 100 emails a day and all receive a short reply. Please don't feel a short reply was personal.

So I told him I canceled plans on obtaining the produce for the primates.

Then…..on Friday, I received another plea for produce from my friend. He told me the animals would be out of produce by Wednesday and that Dawn requested my assistance to obtain more fruits and veggies.

What the heck is going on?? Who is running the show over there?? The chimps (no, can’t be the chimps for they wouldn’t be this incompetent over their own food supply)??

Apparently attempts to secure fruits and veggies from various produce companies were unsuccessful because someone from the WAO (Dawn? Jamie?) called and made a scene over the phone with their main suppliers. Turns out this produce companies was still owed money for past delivered produce and wanted payment first before it would resume shipping produce to the WAO. This just happened to be the company I was able to obtain fresh produce last Saturday. In any case, the owner said no more produce, period, until the bill was paid. Well, there went my contact to score fresh fruits and veggies at a low price! Not only that, but produce companies apparent talk to one another and so now no produce companies in San Antonio wants to help the WAO.

I spoke to my friend who has connections to various produce companies and he told me that the WAO turned away a large delivery of produce on Wednesday, after responding to pleas for produce. This was the second time the WAO turned away this same company’s produce deliveries, so now the owner of this company is ticked off.

My friend tried talking the owner into giving the WAO one more chance. The owner stated over the phone that if the WAO wanted produce, they can go dumpster diving behind their building. Great. Just great.

So, my friend gave me the names and locations of three other companies that would probably donate free produce, if we went there in person and explained the situation.

So, I let my friend know the latest on “operation secure produce”:

Sent: Friday, September 24, 2010 4:05 PM
Subject: Re: WAO produce

Houston we have a problem....

There is more to the River City story that you have not been told ...

And yes, the word has gotten out about what transpired between this company and another company that apparently tried to donate produce this Wednesday and was turned away. The produce people are not happy with WAO ...

I think I have found three places that may donate, but I will need help from the IFAW volunteer. I can explain when I get home tonight....k

Sent: Friday, September 24, 2010 5:55 PM
Subject: Re: WAO produce

Free produce and fruit would be awesome. Why was produce turned away? Was it rotten?

If all else fails, I called and talked to {name removed} at {sanctuary removed}, and he will get back to me after he talks to {name removed}. He is fairly certain we can order through them if push comes to shove. They have a huge number of primates and has a pretty decent volume discount. He indicated they could do it through xxx.org and not through WAO. WAO can pick it up though, no problem.

Again, free would be about 1000 times better :)
River City didn't go into detail, but Catalani Produce was quite friendly until I mentioned WAO. I even offered to pay in advance and have them pick it up. Their entire demeanor seemed to change when I mentioned WAO. I explained we weren't associated with WAO, and was just helping the animals. Didn't seem to make a difference. Saying "WAO" killed the conversation

Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2010 8:59 AM
Subject: Re: WAO produce

I can get free fruits and veggies - so hold off on ordering anything from {sanctuary removed}. May need them later if the companies gets tired of giving away free.

Nope, the fruits and veggies were all good - whoever told the driver to leave didn't even look at the produce! Just told the driver that they did not need the donation. This is the second time this has happened and so now I have to try and make nice nice with the owner.

I can give you more details later this afternoon - right now it's time for grocery shopping! Talk to you later -

Sent: Sat, September 25, 2010 9:37:40 AM
Subject: Re: WAO produce

I will tell Dawn. They will be out of fruit and produce by Wed.

That afternoon, my friend told me Dawn was expecting my call and that she and I could work together. He encouraged me to call her right away. He said she was a very nice person and that we would probably hit it right off.
So I called her. When she answered the phone, I identified myself and asked if she still needed assistance in acquiring produce for the animals. There was a pregnant pause and then she hemmed and hawed for a few seconds, saying she was just emailing my friend to let him know that she did not need produce.

She claimed she received a grant that was to be used specifically for animal care, such as food and paying the animal caretakers.

I was stunned that despite receiving the grant, she was still turning down FREE produce. After working with grant projects for years, I know how important it is to show that grant recipients to demonstrate fiscal responsibility. So I asked her, “You don’t need FREE produce after all?” And she said no, now that she had this grant, she didn’t need my help after all. No apologies offered for the jerk-around. She tone towards me was not friendly—she sounded chilly to me.

Okay, so now I have to go back to my contact a second time to say “never mind, they don’t need produce after all.” I know when I do this; I’ll lose every opportunity to ever get FREE produce from the San Antonio community for the animals.

I do wish Dawn good luck in scoring low cost or FREE produce for the animals as she and the WAO have effectively cut me out of helping the animals.

In my opinion, animal politics is once again interfering with animal care. Just goes to show that IFAW only wants “certain people” to help them and God forbid if the person who tried to warn them in the first place back in 2006 about the WAO’s dismal situation, wants to continue to help the animals today, well they just have to keep me away from the WAO! It appears I have been labeled the enemy even though I was the only one who stuck with the animals for the entire 4.5+ years the WAO was under investigation. And where was IFAW? Where was Dawn?

MIA.

****************************************************************

Later:

Sent: Monday, September 27, 2010 5:16 PM
Subject: Re:

I'm not so sure it was Dawn being wishy washy as it was WAO BOD people being buttheads. Dawn is pretty frustrated there, and has no real decision making powers.

Sent: Monday, September 27, 2010 2:36 PM
Subject: Re:

Well, when I told my contact that the WAO did not want free fruits and veggies after all, he immediately called the produce company and told the owner that the WAO changed their minds--again.

But it was too late as a truck was just dispatched to the Orphanage. I could hear the owner yelling at my friend over the phone telling him never to call him again. My friend told him, don't worry, I won't call you again and hung up.

I don't know if Dawn turned away this truck. I pray she did not, but regardless, the produce companies in San Antonio will certainly know about what transpired today. Thanks to Dawn's wishy-washy attitude regarding free produce, the WAO will probably have to pay full fare for all produce orders. No free goodies for the animals.

Now my friend is upset with me. Today was not a great day after all.

*********************************************************************

Later:

Turns out the workers had trouble finding the WAO (the sign was taken down from the building), and so they did not deliver the produce until the following day. The workers, not wanting to throw away a truckful of produce, attempted the produce delivery one more time (their boss said this was the last delivery since the people at the WAO "cannot seem to make up their minds") and met with success. The drivers were told to take the produce to Talley Road, where we know the anmials there received at least a weeks worth of free produce.