New name, same game for Fields

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

Ann Fields, at risk of losing her Love And Care for God’s
Animalife Inc. no-kill shelter in Andalusia, Alabama, as result of a suit
for alleged fraud, deceit, and deceptive trade practices brought on June 26
by the Alabama Office of the Attorney General, is now fundraising under
yet another name––Irene Hathaway, of Care for Our Lord’s Animals, Inc.,
a purported no-kill facility with 1,500 animals, using the address 73091-
A4 Country Club Drive, Suite 86, Palm Desert, CA 92260.
“I have a contact who lives on Country Club Drive in Palm
Desert,” reports Leo Grillo of D.E.L.T.A. Rescue, “and there is no shelter
there. It’s all homes.”

Alabama assistant attorney general Dennis Wright estimates that
Fields has used Love and Care for God’s Animalife to bilk donors of from
$75,000 to $100,000 a month with bogus appeals issued under both her
own name and aliases Marjorie Jacobs and Rebecca Garcia. Typically her
appeals claim an emergency has befallen the shelter, but such “emergencies”
as a freezing rainstorm during the week of February 10-16 this year
never happened––the average daily temperature was 75 degrees
Fahrenheit––and having received a $250,000 bequest in September 1993,
the shelter has been quite solvent. Gifts and money borrowed from donors
have been spent not on animals, the Alabama suit states, but on vehicles,
personal travel, personal real estate, and personal luxuries.”
Fields often quotes an endorsement from Jack Blackwood,
DVM, of DeFuniak Springs, Florida. ANIMAL PEOPLE s u b s c r i b e r
Joanne Baldwin, DVM, of Goochland, Virginia, asked Blackwood for
comment. “The letter by me, copied in the Love and Care newsletter,”
Blackwood responded, “referred to my last visit to the shelter in February
1994. Since then, these allegations have surfaced. I am upset that my letter
is used to solicit funds, since it has been 18 months since my visit.”
Former donors wishing to register their complaints may address
Wright c/o Alabama State House, 11 South Union Street, Montgomery,
AL 36130.