Rescuing animals is an amazing thing, but there is a proper way to do it. I've created this petition to give all of us a place to post our horrifying stories of our animals that we've adopted from the rescue Chico & Friends Saving Dogs, Inc. On many occasions, the conditions of animals housed at Chicos as well as animals adopted from Chico's have been reported to the State of Vermont, but so far, nothing has been done. We are adopting sick animals, and being forced to pay astronomical veterinary care bills to keep our animals alive. This isn't right. This isn't what rescuing is about. Please spread the word & share your stories... Here's mine:

To clarify: I DID NOT CREATE THIS WITH THE INTENTION TO SHUT CHICO'S DOWN. I created this to raise awareness and hopefully BRING CHANGE. I BELIEVE IN WHAT CHICO'S DOES, but with that said, there is a proper way to do this and something has gone wrong here.

On Sunday, 12/18, I went to Body Le Bronze in Essex to meet a few puppies that I had seen on Facebook for adoption. When I arrived, there were multiple puppies ranging in ages from 8 weeks old, to 3 months old. Three of the puppies had the biggest bellies I have ever seen. Being that I've worked in the dog industry for almost six years, I knew instantly that these puppies had worms. Worms are a fairly common thing in puppies, so I wasn't too concerned. When I chatted with the woman at the desk, Diane Forsey, she told me all the puppies had recently been treated. Long story short, we took our tan and white pitbull puppy home that night & named her Kimber.

Through the week, Kimber began to lose her appetite which was concerning. Thursday, 12/22 we brought her to our local vet for a check up --- so far so good. Around 10pm that night, Kimber vomited twice. Friday morning followed with some lethargy and refusal to eat but she seemed OK. Saturday morning, 12/24, we went straight to our local vet with the first appointment they had. I slept for maybe two hours that night. My poor puppy was vomiting and having explosive diarrhea every two hours through the night. We were sent home with some medications and fluids, hoping some at home treatment would do the trick.

Christmas morning, 12/25, is when everything came crashing down. At 3:30am, I knew we needed to go to BEVS. When we arrived, the first thing that was done was a snap test for parvovirus. When the results came back as "one of the strongest positives" the vet had ever seen, I lost my mind.

Kimber was immediately hospitalized and pumped with medications and fluids. Here we are, 4 days later and she's still at BEVS fighting for her life.

I contacted Diane on Monday, 12/26, to let her know what was going on. At first, she was apologetic and claimed she would contact all of the other recent adopters to let them know. When I asked what their quarantine period was, and prompted other questions, she got angry. I asked for our small adoption fee of $300 back to help pay a minute portion of our astronomical vet bills. Her response was "you understand that if I give that back to you, that's less dogs I can rescue?" I responded with "And you understand you're not rescuing dogs, right? You're adopting out sick dogs, and not everyone is fortunate enough to afford over $5000 in veterinarian costs. You're adopting out animals with a death sentence. What you're doing isn't right." And then she hung up on me.

Right now, we don't even know if we're going to get Kimber back. She's still very sick and unfortunately, the specialists at BEVS don't have any idea when she can come home. They say parvovirus takes three to five days to run its course; if the dog can even survive through it. So here we are, with an astronomical medical bill for a 12 week old puppy that we can't even see. She was with us for 6 days and that's it. She had SIX days to live life with her forever family... That's no life for a puppy.

Chico and Friends obviously has no compassion for these animals - it seems as if all they see are dollar signs.

I'm sure I'll receive a lot of negative feedback for this, but this a place for the others going through what I'm going through right now to share their stories. Maybe, just maybe, when everyone shares what's happened to them when they adopted from Chico's, we'll start to see some changes...

It absolutely tears my heart into pieces to inform you all that today, 12/28, our sweet little Kimber lost her battle with parvo. Thank you all so much the support, kind words & outpouring of love & compassion. I never imagined this petition becoming as big as it has, and I have all of you to thank for that.