UPDATE:

We were able to raise the initial $2500 retainer fee! We truly cannot thank you all enough for helping us. It means the world to us, and to Mercury.

A letter drafted by the attorneys has mailed out to both parties (the foster who stole her, and the woman who now has her) and emailed. They also attempted to call both parties, but as expected, we did not get anywhere with the call except for hearing some choice words.

We will try the calls again next week, but if they don't comply, then we are looking at starting a civil court case and injunctive relief. This will cost us not only $475 for the initial filing, but we will also need to pay another retainer fee to the lawyers (amount TBD, but I am going to assume the same $2500, if not more).

We need to continue raising funds - we are part way there, and don't want to give up now. We want Mercury home safe.

Also, we are still working on the assault side of this case (but that is a separate case from what we are working with the lawyers on to get Mercury back).

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As many of you know, one of our puppies, Mercury, was stolen from us by a foster, and then given to a friend of hers who is homeless and dangerous.

Because Mercury was less than 3 months old, she wasn’t finished with her vaccines, and isn’t spayed yet. We are terrified for her health, and fear she will be used for breeding.

After our own investigative work, we found Mercury living in a dilapidated school bus (with boards on the windows, no AC, no license plates) with 5 other dogs. We saw her running on the dirty Venice beach ground, off leash, without her vaccines.

We also saw this woman shuttling dogs from an old Chevy SUV into the bus at midnight (potentially other stolen dogs).

When we approached her, we were immediately physically attacked by the woman who has her - beaten, pepper sprayed, tasered, and she instructed one of the large dogs to attack us- which it did.

The police came, sent our attacked volunteers to the hospital for serious dog bites, but didn’t instruct the homeless woman to give Mercury back.

She’s since moved the bus and we haven’t been able to locate her.

We’ve spoke to a lawyer who says we have a great case and they’re sure they can help us get a court order ordering them to give Mercury back - we will be going after both the foster who stole her, and the homeless woman who currently has her (the harder part will be finding them to enforce this).

While the law firm is giving us a discount since we are a nonprofit, we still cannot afford it.

We need a $2500 retainer fee to start, and then we will be billed $100-$350/hr (depending on which paralegal or lawyer is helping our case at which step of the process).

They will be starting with attempting to make contact with both women first, but if that doesn’t work, we are looking at civil court (which is $475 to file, and then lawyer fees)

We at least need the $2500 retainer to get started, and time is of the essence.

Any donation helps so we can get Mercury back and out of danger. We are so scared for her.

(Side note: our volunteers are in the process of pressing charges against the woman for the attack and dog bite, and that is a separate lawsuit than this one)