Your attempts to get under my skin have succeeded: "to use a disabled child as a prop in a PR stunt is truly a new low for pit bull promoters" and "at the expense of both the child and the pit bull."
In follow up to the originally posted article, I sent a request to Toni McAllister, Editor, providing and requesting corrected links be added to the article; she opted to remove links altogether instead.
Here's my reply:
I have a very visible and public bio (in PR we call it research and fact-finding): "Julie founded and served as president of a nationally recognized all breed, all age, all size animal rescue. Her foresight when requesting non-profit status created several sub-divisions of her corporation; a program designed to raise Pit Bull puppies as therapy dogs for children with autism (BullNannies); a program to place senior dogs with retired individuals at reduced adoption fees, if any (Rescue Retirement); an online auction site (Bow Wow Bid Now); a retail store (Bones & Scones featuring Beauregard Stubbs' products - a collaboration with her business partner) that created a profit center to fund the non-profit activities."
I closed my doors and dissolved ^^^said rescue on December 8, 2009 in order to focus on my children (whom all have autism spectrum disorders, by the way) concurrent with a divorce. BullNannies is the only PROGRAM - not company, not corporation, not business - that remained because it was near and dear to my heart; you could refer to it as an "activity" or a "labor of love" or "volunteering" or "fostering." I have never charged for the service, because it's simply my pleasure. I've raised dozens of pit bulls to be SOCIAL in order to assess and prepare them to become therapy dogs; their service dog training occurs after they leave my care. Some go on to become service dogs, some do not. Pup-cake for Rock Da Mullet, Sebastian Saraceno's DaVinci and several others have earned this classification by the appropriate and necessary means (and expense) through the proper channels. We have only rescued, rehabilitated and re-homed about 600ish dogs over the past ten years, however I was hired by Mr. Rossi for my business consulting skills. I have never claimed to be a dog trainer; nowhere in my bio, my site, my history have I, will I, or do I claim to be a dog trainer; I do, however, hire them on occasion.
During my nonprofit all breed, all age, all size animal rescue days (back in the day when most "all breed rescues" excluded bully breeds "for insurance reasons") I worked as a volunteer, alongside the other 30+ volunteers; i.e. no one at our corporation took salaries although that is legally permitted. I was the primary fundraiser and learned, after its closure, that this particular skill could be used to help others without having to care-take dozens of dogs daily. I moved out of dog-raising and care-taking and moved over to public relations, marketing and professional fundraising for others.
Shorty's Charities Inc is a registered 501(c)(3) charity in the state of California (the IRS spelled it wrong "Shorty's Charieties" and our attorney is working on fixing that, so our hope is that GuideStar will be corrected soon as well). Shorty Rossi has been my client for nearly four years.
The only thing we gain from this is doing what Shorty's Charities was created to do; Creating a strong voice against stereotyping and stigma. We do not seek your pity and don’t appreciate your prejudice. We are here to help one discrimination case at a time through education, enlightenment and fight, if necessary, for the underdogs of the world.
I do not work for Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, nor Pit Boss; my client does. I do work for Shorty's Charities, as I am the co-founder and serve currently in the corporate officer position of Secretary. As a PR rep and independent contractor, I have the ability and right to donate my skill-set to whomever I deem worthwhile of my time.
Julie Miller-Hernandez
Mother. Writer. Ally.
www.ladyluckpr.com
facebook.com/LadyLuckConsulting
@JulieforShortys
Aaaaaand...
Founder of BullNannies, a Labor of Love
To show support for my personal friends and family subjected to this set of circumstances, please like
www.facebook.com/PupcakePitBullServiceDog
Downloadable versions of our press release on behalf of our client, Shorty's Charities
To donate to Shorty's Charities, visit www.shortyscharities.org/help-us-help-them
www.facebook.com/PupcakePitBullServiceDog
Downloadable versions of our press release on behalf of our client, Shorty's Charities
To donate to Shorty's Charities, visit www.shortyscharities.org/help-us-help-them
BLOG POST AUTHORED BY: Julie Miller-Hernandez, President of Lady Luck Consulting
To continue to receive updates, please "like" us on Facebook
