While Melissa has been hard at work making TikTok videos this week in an effort to prove just how hard she’s working, Springfield Township has been making the necessary preliminary moves to get The Devoted Barn Circus moved out of town. They have issued NINE ordinance violations with the district court. This means that at the hearing on July 24th, it is almost certain that a fine/ticket will be issued for each of these violations. The Devoted Barn will need to abate the issue quickly to avoid further litigation. This means that the clock is ticking on how long the livestock animals can stay in Springfield, and the longer they are there, the more money and headache it will cost everyone. Devoted Friends Animal Society....aren't you sick of this yet?
Melissa and supporters will try to explain this by saying that they didn’t have any other options. They will tell people that they last minute had to find a place to move the animals to. The thing is, they knew the minute that the forfeiture/eviction case was filed that there was a chance that they would lose the property and need to find a place for the animals. Just because they refused to believe that they would lose, doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t have been preparing for the worst case. They should have learned this lesson when they lost their appeal and had to move the dogs off the property. Remember how Melissa says that the dogs are in that dungeon because it was their only option in a short amount of time? They didn’t learn from that and instead moved the animals to a place they legally were not allowed to be. So here we are, wasting more donated money meant for the animals because of lack of management and bad decisions. The judges hearing these cases are the same judges who heard the Rose Twp vs DFAS case (dogs) and the Huntington Ridge Farm vs DFAS case (eviction). We have a pretty good feeling that they won’t be sympathetic to Melissa’s bul**** she spews at the hearing, even if it’s Lester’s.
We believe that the TiKTok videos Melissa is posting showing her doing all of the barn chores are an effort to amp up support for a very large money ask in order to move the animals. (Really Mel, you think you fooled any of us that you are removing cob webs from the barn or fixing fencing on the regular? We had a good laugh over that!). She plans to purchase the farm that the horses are at in Howell and move all of the livestock animals there as well. Speaking of a large money ask…what happened with the recent $10,000 donation beg that was supposedly earned? If that money was earned, why is Melissa still going to the store EVERY DAY to purchase feed and supplies? $10,000 would buy a stock pile of feed! The bags being purchased in one video are only $9.69/bag, $10,000 worth of grain should last for a while! We strongly believe that that chunk money went towards something else. Maybe the lawyer was demanding to be paid? Note how there is still never a mention on just how much of the donated money is going towards legal fees?
Now, TDB is attempting to get the rest of the bond money that is being held for their appeal out of court. We don’t know how it works, but seems to us that if they remove the bond, they will also have to drop the appeal case. At this point, even they are admitting that the Huntington Ridge property is sold and they will not be getting it back. And remember, Huntington Ridge is still owed over $50,000 from their judgement, we find it hard to believe that the court will just release that money when money is still owed to a plaintiff. Melissa needs this money, and FAST, in order to have a downpayment of $80,000 on the Howell property. She's always gambling with time and money because of her own bad decisions.
So alllllll of that money that went into that property to purchase it and build animal enclosures is wasted. Gone. All because Melissa didn’t pay the bills. We will remind you that Melissa STILL has all of her personal horses at the farm in Howell she is wishing to purchase. You will note many of them in the recent videos she is posting….Lala, Nick, Sparty, Quick…. All personally owned horses living in stalls at a facility that she is about to beg for money from donors to buy. Someone recently asked if Huey was available for adoption after a cute video of him pushing a barrel around was posted. There was no response. Huey is not available for adoption on The Devoted Barn website. But why not? Is it because he’s a personal pet too?
When will Melissa learn her lesson and make the necessary personal sacrifice that it is going to take to make this organization actually be successful? That sacrifice would be swallowing her pride and admitting that she is in over her head at this point. She needs to majorly restructure the organization, downsize in animal quantity by making more animals available for adoption and reaching out to other rescues for help with placement, and figure out a way for herself to make an honest income, live within her means, and pay taxes like the rest of us without living off donated funds. These animals deserve better. The donors deserve for their money to go towards the rescue animals and not legal fees or personally owned animals. What changes will we see come out of any of this? If the funds are raised to buy the property in Howell, what are the plans for the animals living space there? What is the business plan to afford this property and maintenance? Will Melissa be paying anything to live in the residence? Will she be claiming a salary and paying taxes? What about the dogs' future? Are they destined to live in their dungeon forever?
These are all questions that donors deserve to know the answers to before they open their wallets for a THIRD property. Let’s hope that The Devoted Barn is willing to stand by their claim of being OH SO TRANSPARENT and is willing to answer them.
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