My rebuttal to the MDA's "investigation"
UPDATE!!! This page as it is --went up in early April 07. Yesterday
May 14, I talked to the MDA field rep who took my report in December 06 and
he admitted to me that he drastically altered my statement! I have more to
say on this later.
Letter from MDA, March 2007, after 4 month investigation:
Page 1,
Page 2
Chemlawn received two "warnings" from the MDA, which is the equivalent of
a slap on the wrist with a wet noodle.
1) For not calling me prior to spraying at my house
2) For not filling out all the paper work properly.
The MDA could have --but chose NOT to punish Chemlawn for UNSAFE
spraying!!!
Hello? Is anybody home at the MDA? Acknowledging spraying with doors
and windows open and a dog in the yard should surely be considered
UNSAFE!!!!
After investigating for four months, the MDA synopsises the story into a
few paragraphs. BUT --they can't even get the facts straight in a few simple
sentences.
This is what they said I said:
I never said the dog was "sitting". I said the dog was barking ferociously
at the intruder. In order for a dog to be that position,
(protect/defend/bark/potentially bite) the dog would definitely be standing
on all fours, hyper-alert. Sitting denotes passivity. Moose was anything
but passive, which is why I heard him barking out front, all the way from
the basement. Moose was in full on, protector mode using his deep "big dog"
scary bark.
Then --it inexplicably it says:
"Ms Olson immediately took Moose inside."
I NEVER SAID THAT!
There's no way Moose would have "let me take him inside", when he knew I
was mad at some "strange man". Pound for pound, Moose was way stronger than
me. If he didn't want to do something, I could not yank him to do it, he'd
hold his ground. Moose stayed by my side, outside. I
immediately moved us to a safe, unsprayed part of the yard. Moose stood
with me as I yelled at the guy. Then the three of us walked to the back yard,
to check the area that had been missed the month before.
Read the story of EXACTLY what happened
here.
MDA said: "Moose was released to Ms. Olson two days later."
That makes it sound like Moose was at Vet for two days. Untrue. He
was taken to the Vet two days after the incident, and he spent the afternoon
at the Vet.
What REALLY gets me is this next part, the testimony of what the sprayer
said.
Talk about the "plausible, impossible!"
His account is not at all how it happened. Let's dissect this, shall
we?
The sprayer says:
"...and noticed her front door was open. He knocked on the door and
Ms. Olson's dog ran outside onto the treated area".
Uh...okay.....? WTF?
The guy who wrote this story obviously does NOT own a dog. What's stated
makes no sense. It would be a completely ABNORMAL dog
reaction.
Let's play it his way...
Pretend Moose was in the house when Chemlawn came. The guy admitted
the front door was open. The spray rig sounds like a driving lawn mower.
IF Moose had been in the house he would have heard the spray rig coming from
200 feet away --at the bottom of the driveway, but anyway we'll pretend Moose
didn't hear it yet...
...somehow Moose waited until the spray rig was parked dead center at the
front entry. Then this guy gets off the rig and walks up to the door.
THEN the guy notices Moose "in my house". He claims he then "knocked" on
the front door.
(Which I would have heard from the basement, but did not hear, because it
did not happen.)
However the front door was WIDE open, so in order for him to knock on it,
the sprayer would have to have bent his entire torso inside of my house just
to knock.
And uh... why didn't he just ring the damn DOOR BELL? That would be a lot
simpler than knocking on a door with a barking, charging dog coming at you!!!
Impossible!!
But it gets better. He then claims that Moose ran outside, right into
the treated grass area! (How convenient for him!)
So that means he is claiming Moose ran by his body which had to be
blocking the entire doorway just to knock on the door? I don't freakin'
think so.
What dog on earth would respond this way? It's UNNATURAL.
Moose's self imposed job in life was to protect and defend the Olson family.
Any strange man would not have been able to reach inside my house without
risking his life. The thought of Moose running by an intruder
is preposterous!
And if Moose ran outside 20 feet past the guy, and "sat down" in the grass,
who would Moose have been barking at? Does this story make sense to
ANYONE?
The truth is... This guy never got off his spray rig, he never knocked on
the door. I ran up the stairs fast enough to see the situation as it was.
The Sprayer sitting on his rig, which was 25 feet from my door. (I
just measured it.)
Moose: standing in the grass, barking his head off in Sprayers face, standing
only inches from spray rig.
The Sprayer says he saw the doors and windows open and decided to spray anyway.
The sprayer was simply negligent.
Lastly, he never advised me to put the dog in the house, I'm sure his
boss made him say that for the MDA. He, I and Moose walked to the back
yard, like 400 feet away, I showed him the weeds and then he and I and Moose
walked back up to the house another 400 feet. Then Moose and I went straight
into the back kitchen door and the sprayer went to the right, and he walked
around the house, back the front where he left his spray rig at my front
door.
THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED.
Next issue:
Let's get this straight for all time.
Moose was 100% healthy on the morning of October 3rd. Healthy,
normal appetite for Royal Canin DOG FOOD. He was not on any drugs, not even
vitamins, as it was unnecessary. He looked great. He was energetic. No problems
whatsoever.
After noon on October 3rd, each day was a step closer to his death.
Yes, he rebounded a bit from October 5th until November 5th --basically
UNTIL the drugs he was prescribed ran out.
The single most important drug he was given was the 30 day supply of Zentonil,
which is a liver enhancement drug. Yes, his LIVER blood work
looked better on October 27th after three weeks of drugs. At that point in
time, I was encouraged he'd eventually go back to normal. He had temporarily
bounced back to 70% of his normal life --however his appetite never came
back and that is also documented with his doctor.
FURTHERMORE, and most importantly --the Vet failed to write that Moose
never had normal kidney function again. While his liver rebounded for a awhile,
while his kidney function failed. That is one huge glaring omission.
He never ate DOG FOOD again, only homemade dog food from people food that
I made him. Keeping Moose fed and alive was practically a full time job for
me. During the 3 weeks succeeding the drugs ending, (After Nov. 5th) I noticed
Moose start to slip downhill. I put him back on Zentonil, which helped stabilize
him for another month or so, but he was never the same again.
While Moose lived four and one half months after exposure, --he was recommended
by same Vet to be put to sleep only 3 months and one week after exposure
from multiple organ failure.
What ever destructive processes began with the Chlorophenoxy herbicides
poisoning, they started to deteriorate his organs. These products are deadly
in dogs, due to the dogs inability to process out the poison
efficiently.
If my Vet had listened to me and heard what the hell I was saying about Moose
being poisoned, she Would have/Could have/SHOULD have found out the pesticide
and looked up the
ANTIDOTE/TREATMENT for Chlorophenoxy poisoning and
maybe he could have recovered to the point of being normal again, --which
HE NEVER WAS.
If you do your research you'll learn that Chlorophenoxy herbicides cause:
Anorexia, Liver and Kidney failure and neurological problems
which he exhibited starting from poisoning day, then in the ensuing months
in increments and then big time neurological failure during the last week
of his life. He he was totally out of it and had little muscle coordination.
He seizures and brain problems at the end. His death process, looked eerily
similar to the reaction to the poison a few months before.
For a fact, if Chemlawn had not come on my property without an
appointment, without being scheduled, Moose would be alive and HEALTHY today,
I have not ONE SHRED of DOUBT about that.
Moose did not die a natural death. He did not die of cancer. He was not
particularly old. Only 47 in people years.
If Moose were a human and this were a murder trial, a lot of heads would
roll. I'm just thankful that my Vet is not my kids pediatrician.
And yes, I am going to change Veterinarians.
The State of Maryland did a lousy job of "investigating" this situation.
They knew in advance my Vet would not say pesticide poisoning. They told
me that on day one. I'm not even sure if Moose died on October 5th that any
of these entities would admit pesticide poisoning was the cause!
Why doesn't the
MDA offer real solutions to these problems instead of just running around
uselessly like a rat on a wheel?
Why didn't anybody (my Vet, the Epa, the MDA) tell me about the
ASPCA? I found that entity TOO LATE.
Make Chemlawn give clearly
written receipts so people KNOW what the hell was sprayed on their
lawns. Even though I asked repeatedly for help, I was given NO RESOURCES
by anyone whatsoever!
I called the EPA, they turn me over to MDA. MDA was useless. NO HELP at all.
Should I have called the police? It felt like a crime to me!
People don't waste your time with your Department of Agriculture. They're
pointless. Their inactions will cause situations like this to happen
again and again. Call your local news station instead!
