Who in the world is Lucy Van Pelt?

In a complaint filed in a New York state court, PETA said the unknown commenters posted their statements under various usernames, including "Lucy Van Pelt," "Eyema Nurde" and "ambersommerville." The group wants The Huffington Post to turn over the users’ addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, Internet service provider access records, account histories and user activity records.




Throughout history social movements have lead to the maturation of the country. A social movement thrives on the ability of a progressive community to capitalize on political opportunities and translates into social change. Philanthropic acts of financial giving, volunteer activity and a shared association of values is the vehicle that drives this change.


Smart, honest, committed leaders are invaluable to a movement, especially as the movement seeks to create new leaders to keep the movement rolling. Of utmost importance are charismatic leaders who can eloquently articulate people's concerns and inspire a positive emotional response.

Social movements face an uphill battle simply surviving. To achieve substantial and sustainable political change the movement requires honesty within its ranks. The no kill movement faces a myriad of challenges that focus on engaging the movement with a vision that all can agree on and effective tactics for bringing about that change.

However, organizations like No Kill Nation with leaders that are weak on tactical thinking, who have trouble focusing and researching a movement’s success and that attack those inside the movement who offer dissenting opinions is doomed for failure.

Some organizations fail simply because they engage in dishonest, disrupted or violent or abusive action in dealing with anticipated dissent. While on the surface this type of behavior attracts attention it also tends to alienate supporters who are not interested in a lack of honest transparency or the drama the attention also includes.

Further, new supporters who are attracted to the drama and personal agenda's further drive away the critical support that comes from more moderate or conservative supporters. 

This is why understanding who Lucy Van Pelt is critical to the survival of a shelter reform movement that deems itself "no kill".  So, who is this "Lucy Van Pelt?  Why not let Lucy tell us?
Lovely "Lucy" has become quite infamous posting hostile often times vile comments on many publications including her favorite the Huffington Post - as Huff Po as it is eloquently called.  The vile nature and "out of the blue" content she posts has many viewing Lucy as nothing more than a "serial stalker" relentless in attacking her prey.

My first encounter with Lucy was after seeing a post she had written on one of the No Kill Facebook pages.  Since some people may over react with first impressions I tried having a conversation with Lucy hoping to set her mind at ease.  She declined that offer and instead launched what can only be described as a vicious attack on someone who admittedly she did not know.

So, who is Lucy Van Pelt?  In a boasting comment to Pets Alive blogger John Sibley the ever boisterous Lucy Van Pelt tells us who she is - Maria Venuto.

Maria has a small circle of friends in the no kill circles as she attempts to navigate herself to a position of stature.  One such friend is No Kill Nation's Debi Day.

In this tweet with Debi Day's new alliance of ANONYMOUS hackers planning out her now infamous PeTa attack after the No Kill Conference in Washington DC No Kill Nation's leader acknowledges her friendship with serial stalker Maria Venuto.  Its not the friendship that is cause for concern but the vile nature of attack that Debi Day and Maria Venuto launched against those who dared oppose the sacred no kill mission.

Introducing Operation Mongoose - destroy any opposition

These next several shots come from conversations on Debi Day's personal Facebook page.  One would think that the leader of an "animal advocacy group" whose mission was to end shelter killing in our shelters would be discussing implementation strategies.  That was not the case.

Classy conversation between Maria and Roxy Hurlburt in December 2012,  Hurlburt is the in house accountant used by No Kill Nation to prepare the books.  Note No Kill Nation board member Kathie Santomero "likes" this vile discussion.
 

 

 

Camille Loge is a long time No Kill Nation supporter who is also part of Day's team used to stalk and disrupt any opposition..  This picture was hijacked off my Facebook page and used to disparage two of our senior rescue hounds.  For a person claiming to be an animal advocate to attack and malign a shelter dog survivor is disgusting.  For that attack to happen on the leader of No Kill Nation's Facebook page is far too telling on her lack leadership skills.

 

 

In a discussion with several of Day's friends allegation of drug trafficking was inferred.  Those allegations are completely false and highly libelous.  The fact that both Debi Day and Maria Venuto inferred that they were factual is character assassination at its best.  Brenda Steele is ignorant in her comments as well. 

 

First, I am not a rescuer nor do I run a rescue organization.  I retired from the rescue community in 2010.  I run a small senior sanctuary in which all of the hounds chosen are adopted from local kill shelters as personal pets.  In my now twelve years of running a "multiple pet household" there has never been an occasion where random inspections by animal control have lead to even a warning being issued let alone a citation.  To insinuate anything else is pure ignorant false conjecture.

 

 

 

Debi Day's "band of no kill" stalkers and thugs doesn't limit the maligning of advocates to this blogger.  Fact is, there is a whole list of people who are ridiculed by these small minded individuals like Maria for simply challenging No Kill Nation's mission.  What type of successful leader participates in such childish behavior?

 

The many faces of Lucy Van Pelt

 

Maria Venuto doesn't limit herself to just exercising her "creative" side on Facebook.  In fact, Maria has a number of alias creations that are next generation version of Lucy Van Pelt.  One such brainstorm is a partnership collaboration of No Kill Nation's Debi Day and Lucy in a Facebook page known as "Exposing the Truth about Crazy, Old, Busybodies Who Really Hate Animals.

 

 

 

Rest assured this group, commonly referred to as the "Purple Page" is unadulterated hate. The people that Maria targets with her rage are respectable pet owners who volunteer, foster and rescue shelter animals.  Often times Maria's obsession with spewing anger has talking to herself in a sick demented sad sort of way. When she answers those voices to an outsider mental instability comes to mind. 

 

In this post Maria rants about why Peta has not filed suit against her Lucy comic character by now.  Oddly, she also raises the issue why others who have been the target of her vile demeaning comments haven't filed a law suit either.

 

One thing is crystal clear - same old Lucy style vulgarities with spewed hated mixed in.

 

 

In a totally over the line post Maria not only attacks my crohn's disability but falsely insinuates welfare fraud.  What is truly ignorant is Maria's stance that attacking a senior citizens limited income on SSI that is used to keep a house and pay utilities for not only himself but twenty seven senior hounds who would have no where to go but a local kill shelter shows the total disconnect that has caused so many people to distance themselves from a false no kill movement.

 

You can't be "no kill" in your preaching when your actions show a deep desire to punish not only the person who disagrees with your thinking but their dogs as well.  That is deplorable and should outrage anyone who TRULY loves animals. 

 

What kind of a wicked personality can Maria have to wish so much evil on a person who actually runs a no kill sanctuary rather then just talk about it.

 

 

Once No Kill Nation's Debi Day started forming her alliances with hacker groups known as ANONYMOUS the threats grew even more absurd.  People don't get involved in animal advocacy to be threatened or to have their families or livelihoods threatened for disagreeing on aspects of shelter reform.  This is pure cyber bullying by a serial stalker who by very nature is nothing less than a mentally unstable thug. 

 

There has never been a successful movement in history where elements inside the movement attacked their other members who shared the same vision yet offered a different course of action to accomplish a shared goal. 

 

Successful movements are about bringing real change not stroking shattered ego's.  The "no kill" movement is a fake movement that is based on words alone.  Words don't bring about change - actions do.

 

So , who is to blame for this fragrant attempt at hijacking the shelter reform movement through threats and intimidation?

 

 

The "Purple Page" was set up in collaboration of two close friends - No Kill Nation's president Debi Day and serial stalker Maria Venuto.  The fact that determine this conclusion are not some wild guess but the words coming right from the horse's mouth. 

 

The information shared in this blog only represents a small portion of Maria's Facebook attacks.  It does not include the attacks she delivers on other social media venues include commenting on blogs in HUFF PO or a brand new social media called twitter.  In part two of the "Who is Lucy Van Pelt" story, the many twitter accounts set up by Maria used to attack the "haters" of no kill will be explored as well.

 

The no kill movement can not survive with all the divisive infighting WITHIN our ranks. The leadership of the movement are remiss in understanding that if the message is NOT being accepted from within the ranks who share the same vision. how do these same leaders expect to convince the power players and political figures who oppose change that the vision is noble?

The movements massive internal bickering has become the focus for the movements direction with opposing views unable to understand the concept of compromising on shared values and respectfully articulating the opposing views.
Without that ability to communicate respectfully social movements like no kill will fail.  We are better than that.  We don't articulate the hate that Debi and Maria are obsessed with.  Isn't it time we all share the same love and compassion our animals friends would be proud of?
It's time for a little, peace, love and understanding.

Peace

 

Drats

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Just a Battle of Words

This No Kill Nation vs Drats case evolved over my demands that No Kill Nation disclose how the $100,000 donated to the Everglades Project in the fall of 2011 was actually being spent.

Rather than disclose that accounting NKN's leader Day instead hired a law firm Tripp Scott to file a civil law suit for the comments listed on these two pages.

Compare the context of my statements, many of which were posted on my personal Face book page, with the comments leveled against me personally. Ironically it would be one year, or in mid November of 2012 that NKN finally released their version of Everglades accounting.

Line items for an administrative fee of $5,646 on donations earmarked for rescue with only $872 paid out to "My Animals Rock" which is rescue group that had been helping Mirta for years. 

Regardless off the numbers on payments to various vet offices the cost per animal rescued would have been substantially less had this rescue operation partnered with Miami Dade Animal Services. 

Sadly, because No Kill Nation insisted on controlling the rescue operation based on available resources.  Many dogs got left behind that could have had a safe place to sleep at the county shelter.

Note: Amy Roman Restucci took over the Abandoned Dogs of the Everglades in February of 2012.  She is now paying herself a $50,000 salary and driving a new BMW - all thanks to donor dollars.  No Kill nation paid ex show breeder Karolyn Rico a $41,000 salary or more than Ingrid Newkirk for who knows what job responsibility she had.  Charity fraud?  You be the judge.


This one area was were No Kill Nation and I disagree on.  With the hatred that No Kill Nation and their leaders had towards shelters and the animal protection community this much needed help was simply ignored.

The accounting was only released in November of 2012 one week after a "Permanent Injunction" was issued ordered me to take down numerous Drats Blogs and just about any reference I may have made that mentions No Kill Nation on Facebook as well.

The arrogance of deceit kept more animals from being saved.  More numbers that are just numbers considering how long it took No Kill Nation's two accountants to put this together. 

Balanced Paws has a business relationship with NKN's leader Debi Day.  The payout of $3,000 was for boarding and training of a dog rescued from the Everglades named Pierre.  There has been no clear explanation as to what happened to Pierre after or if he left the control of Balanced Paws.

Fourteen months in boarding is an awful long time for any dog but to take a dog found living in the wild and make no attempt to find a suitable foster is simply irresponsible.

Still, while No Kill Nation admits they are not a rescue group they have repeatedly attacked my work here running a no kill sanctuary for senior hounds that I started in late 2002.  I have never fostered a dog in boarding.

While NKN's Amy Restucci was much too busy to foster Pierre herself, or simply clueless on fostering, she did have time to take her whole "100+ Abandoned Dogs" team to Key West for some rest and relaxation. 

 

 



 I never realized how emotionally stressful rescue is in south Florida.  Most rescuers I know spend their evenings cleaning cages, playing with their fosters and trying to figure out how your going to pay for all those fosters living by your feet.  Not Amy, relieved of the boring responsibility of teaching fosters to trust again she unwinds with a night out with the girls at her favorite pub.

Yet, Amy has on numerous occasions called me irresponsible and a hoarder.  I guess you can't be a hoarder as long as you dump your rescues in boarding and get someone else to pick up the tab.

Once I first starting nosing around on issues related to No Kill Nations involvement in the Everglades Project including the relationships with NKN employees Kathy Santomero, Amy Restucci, Maggie Rodriquez and Camille Loge the rhetoric directed towards me became increasingly hostile.

Who is Kathy Santomero?  Kathy was one of the major fundraisers for the Everglades Project.  She did such a wonderful job No Kill Nation promoted her to the board of directors.  Kathy is also a woman of many words.

 



In addition to her skills in fundraising Kathy is well versed in espionage.  One would think a group devoted to ending shelter killing in our nations shelters would have board members focused on bringing about that change.

The sad thing is I am not that difficult to spy on.  My Face book page is open to the public, all my blogs are not only open but allow un moderated comments - something that is unheard of in the no kill movement.

If you can't defend your vision by communicating why your vision is better than anything else then you don't have a vision.

While Kathy talks a good story about being compassionate with those who suffer from chronic illness her actions tell an entirely different story.  Was it compassionate to sign an affidavit swearing under oath that 150 plus of the Drats blogs were "lies and defamatory" towards NKN when many of the topics discussed in those blogs covered item like puppy mills, Nathan Winograd (who is NOT NKN), CAPA laws, Rick Berman and the like.  Either Kathy has extremely poor reading comprehension skills or she deliberately filed a false document with the court.

Why would she do that?  In her own words - it's about the music.

Yes, Kathy IGNORANT PEOPLE can be so cruel.

Despite all this hateful rhetoric I complied with the court order that resulted from Santomero's false affidavit used in court to secure a permanent injunction.  Over 150 blogs were deleted, including dozens of educational blogs written months before the Everglades even became an NKN project.

All my older comments on Facebook were blocked by simply changing settings preventing anyone from accessing old posts,  A court order to Google deleted over 150 of my blogs including the blogs on puppy mills, Nathan Winograd, Rick Berman, CAPA, Mike Fry and even more incredibly blogs written about my hounds.

In fact, the order was so extensive that two blogs I wrote for first amendment clarification called "Amused to Death" and "My Back Pages" containing nothing more than lyrics to songs that had been around for decades.

Yet, NKN's board member K Santomero swore under oath that all of these blogs were "lies and defamatory" towards NKN.

That was part of my issue with the permanent injunction. What landed me in hot water was when NKN's attorney demanded that all "future writing" on the NKN be included as well.

Clearly, No Kill Nation's leader nor her friends were going to adjust the tone of words they choose to post.  Words of hate became the battle call of a war of words that entangled anyone who dared voice an opposing viewpoint on No Kill Nation's vision or agenda.

Despite demands from Debi Day's attorney that I not be allowed to comment at all on anything related to Debi or her organization those same guidelines obviously didn't apply to her. 

People were attacked with vile comments by both Debi and her friend Maria Venuto (who posts by the alias Lucy Von Pelt) for simply being friends.  I have only known Hilda Mueller for a very short two years.  Hilda is one of the kindest, compassionate person I have had the honor to meet.  The hateful, vile attacks that were directed at Hilda and her family became very personal to me.

I have never had the honor to meet Mary Lundberg but I do know in watching her work she is a friend to shelter animals.

What kind of leader of a national animal advocacy group threatens people and what kind of leader allows her friends to post the most vile comments about a person imaginable?  Mary works tirelessly taking pictures of shelter dogs at MDAS hoping to find that one person who might save a life.  Debi Day and her NKN friends are much too consumed with their war of hate to be bothered.

This is school yard behavior - Debi Day can not be trusted to act like an adult.  This "no kill" movement - if there is a movement - will never survive as long as it is run by children who only have hatred in their hearts.



 

Maybe someone can explain to me where this dialog fits in with implementing Nathan Winograd's "No Kill Equation"?  As an advocate for over a decade I have never seen such vile language.  For a leader of an advocacy group to not only include themselves in this discussion but to host these friends on her Facebook page should be disgusting to everyone who got into advocacy or rescue not to play school yard bully but to save lives of the four legged companions most of us love so dearly.

The truth is none of the vile comments above can be banned through the courts.  That would clearly be a violation of the first amendment.  The Supreme Court has ruled that "even defamatory speech" is protected under the first amendment.

Now as a practical application it would be ill advised to write things that can be proven defamatory like the comments I have just shared.  Those defamatory comments then could be subject to a lawsuit clarifying whether or not they were defamatory or not.
Debi Day has repeatedly claimed that the statements I've written on Facebook or this Drats blog were "ruled" defamatory after the court heard testimony was heard.  That is a blatant lie.  The court NEVER held evidence hearings on any of the statements listed in the original complaint No Kill Nation filed.  

The only hearings held were pretrial motion hearings.  I defaulted out of a court battle that would have cost me six figures in legal fees to defend.  Instead of wasting money on attorney's I chose to use my resources to pay for things like surgery and vet bills for the hounds.

In this country the super wealthy should never be able to "PURCHASE" public opinion.  The concept of the rich and affluent not only silencing my voice but, as Maria puts it "putting me in prison", is something that happens in third world countries but not in the United States of America.

I know many have told me to walk away but walking away from defending the right to free speech would be an insult to all of our brave soldiers who paid the ultimate price for my freedom and yours too - that is simply something I will not do.