Dachshund Rescue NW & Dachshund Club of Spokane (DRNW) are a hobby only at our farm.  We have not been claiming to be a non-profit and we are not soliciting donations on our web site or anywhere else.  This dog rescue and dog club is run by a bunch of dedicated volunteers who feel that there is a large overpopulation of pets in this country.  We all do our best to keep unwanted pets out of area shelters and have done so for years.

We are breed rescuers.  DRNW specializes in Dachshunds AKA wiener dogs and we have been rescuing since 1991.  We have placed 300+ dogs since we started and are celebrating our 14th anniversary of helping many homeless pets find forever homes.  We rescued 42 dogs in 2004 alone, 35 in 2003 and 34 in 2002.

See our web site for more details and photos of our rescue at: http://www.nonprofitnw.org/drnw   This year we are on pace to rescue and find forever homes for around 50 dogs, a record for us.

It is sad to say that we do have a long history with Sarah Schak and Kathy Patt, who have filed these malicious and capricious reports with your agency.  These reports are only the latest in a series of false reports or slander against us and our highly regarded dog rescue by these two.

Schak is a puppy mill dog breeder operating under the name, Pine Hollow Dachshunds, formerly Sleepy Hollow Dachshunds of Creston, Wash.  We have now rescued six of Schak's puppy mill bred wiener dogs.  People who bought dogs from Schak have brought them to us because of behavior problems with the dogs; problems that would have led to the animal being destroyed were not for us rehabilitating them.

Also, Schak has had parvo in her dogs due to a lack of basic shots.  She has had dogs freeze to death at her farm because she left shorthaired wiener dogs out in the harsh winter weather.  Schak has had numerous puppies die because of her atrocious lack of concern for their well being and their care is always substandard.

She is well aware that we warn the community every time we get in any of her dogs to our rescue.  We also warn the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department, as there are no animal control officers for Lincoln County.

Schak is the former president of Sleepy Hollow Horse Rescue (SHHR) and Kathy Patt is the former vice president of SHHR.  The site below shows the appalling conditions of the farm and what they both considered to be boarding of the animals on their "rescue."

These two are well aware of our efforts (along with many others) to close that horse "rescue" down due to the appalling conditions at the farm as evidenced at this web site: http://www.edragoon.com/closesleepyhollow

This site has info about what the sheriff's deputies witnessed when inspecting SHHR last winter, many dead animals, animals under fed or starving, etc.  Please feel free to investigate them with the many links provided on the site above.

In May 2005, thanks in part to the evidence we gathered; the Lincoln County Assistant District Attorney was able to convict Schak of 2nd Degree Animal Cruelty.  Schak's horse "rescue" was forcibly closed; she was fined and put on several years of probation as part of her guilty plea.  She is only allowed eight hoofed animals at her farm and she gets to keep her dogs.  But the county had her remove many, many animals because Schak is an animal collector.  Now the law enforcement of Lincoln County is keeping a close eye on Schak so she does not abuse any other animals.

Sleepy Hollow Horse Rescue is also on the better Business Bureau as non-responders from March 2005.  We had filed some of those previous BBB reports against Sleepy Hollow and Schak and Patt, in the past.  So these current reports to you are in retaliation only for our part in making sure SHHR could not claim to be a legit horse rescue or responsible dog breeders when they were only small time horse dealers and a puppy mill.

I am also a horse trainer and breeder so I had contact with many of their past very unhappy customers, all of whom I sent to the DA's office to offer even more evidence in order to get that rescue closed down for good.

And Schak and Patt still owe us money for one of their horses that was boarded at our farm and then removed without notice or payment while we were gone one day.  (This happened in 2003, Schak has yet to pay that board bill.)

They were horrible business people and were taking advantage of many people in this area by adopting out horses that were untrained and not as promised.  They have also stolen a horse that we know of and a lot of tack from one of their previous employee as well who had to file police reports to get them to return some of the tack.  The horse was never returned and probably “adopted” to someone else.

We have the police reports on file here as proof plus copies of filings with the Department Justice and complaints filed with the State of Washington that oversees the charities division as well in case anyone wants to see them too.

They also adopted out horses too dangerous for their owners as well.  Those owners had sought our help to re-train the horses as many SSHR horses were not matched with their new families appropriately, etc.  We could go on here for quite a while, but you get the idea about their previous business practices with SHHR.  We always guarantee all our rescued animals and have only had to take back one dog since 1991.

Schak and Patt had to take back or trade in many horses to keep their customers happy, but they had many, many customers who were very unhappy and reported them as well to the Better Business Bureau or they banded together to see that they were stopped in what they were doing.

Dachshund Rescue NW is registered with Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Society (SCRAPS).  Both Patt and/or Schak file false reports with that agency claiming that we are "operating an illegal dog kennel" or are starving our animals, etc.  SCRAPS does come out to investigate just in case we are abusing animals.  Every time one of SCRAPS officers pays us an unannounced visit they see fat and sassy animals.  What they do not see are abused or dead and dying animals as they would at Schak's farm.

So these two current BBB reports by Patt (BBB case # 25003532), and Schak, (BBB case # 25003551) are related cases and are just the latest in a long series of harassment that we have had to endure.  But we did what any dog rescuers and legitimate horse trainers had to do and we enlightened the public to these disgusting animal abusers and puppy mill dog breeders in the community.

According to the Revised Code of Washington we could solicit up to $25,000 each year as volunteers and not to have to register as a charity.  But we prefer to not solicit donations as of yet so we can keep this rescue our fun hobby.  If this hobby grows too large for our current volunteers to handle then we will apply again to become a 501 (c) (3) down the road when we have enough volunteers to help us run a larger charity as well help with the dogs on site.  And we also state on our web site that our dog rescue and club are currently not a charity, but will be applying down the road, if needed.

We fully expect Patt and Schak to continue to try to close us down, but we will still be here for years to come, as we love our dogs and all of our animals.  Our dogs and horses are always well fed and cared for at our farm and any inspections by animal control officers, or anyone else, will always prove that point.  We are not the convicted animal abusers.

Dennis Mossburg now works in law enforcement and Margo Mossburg used to professionally fundraise for children’s and other charities for 20+ years before going back into horses and dog rescuing full-time.

If you would like to schedule a visit to our dog rescue and horse farm, feel free to contact Margo Mossburg at dragoonfr@hotmail.com or call 509-838-3820 anytime.