The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Felines & Canines The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Felines & Canines
Showing posts with label Felines & Canines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Felines & Canines. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Fundraiser to Save Sick Pit Bull Was Derailed by Fake Online Donations - Fraudulent Donations Have Been Removed and Account is Now Being Monitored



Felines & Canines, a no-kill animal shelter based in Chicago, decided to take in Sheba, a 3-year-old pit bull from a local intake facility, they thought the sick dog had a mild case of kennel cough. But after examination, the shelter discovered that Sheba was stricken with the potentially deadly virus Parvo.

The dog was given a blood transfusion and monitored closely by a veterinary technician at the Animal Care Center of Chicago. But with some complications, Sheba's medical care quickly became too extensive for Felines & Canines to afford on their own. So the shelter started a GoFundMe campaign to try to raise money to help cover the costs.

And according to a report from NBC Chicago, the money began to pour in. But many of the donations-some of $550 or more-turned out to be fraudulent. Scammers who were testing out stolen credit cards on the crowdfunding site likely caused the phony donations.

The shelter was immediately disheartened and worried that donors would lose faith in the validity of the fundraising effort.

GoFundMe said in a statement that they caught the fraudulent donations early and were able to remove them from the campaign. The website team has also promised to monitor the campaign closely to make sure scammers do not keep inflating the total.

Sheba remains in critical care at the Animal Care Center of Chicago, but an update on the campaign website explains that is making baby steps towards recovery. The team is taking it "hour-by-hour and day-by-day." Any donations received that exceed the cost of Sheba's medical care will go directly to helping other animals in need.

Currently the donations on Sheba's GoFundMe page are just shy of $16,000-a huge excess of the original $1,500 that was asked for by the shelter. Hopefully all of those donations are real and this amazing pit bull gets the highest quality medical care.




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