Hello everyone , my name is Heather Jones. I am reaching out to the Fresno community asking for help.

For over a year, I have been experiencing harassment from the City of Fresno regarding my foster dogs.

Some of you may have seen my posts on Facebook detailing what exactly has been going on. For those of you who haven’t seen my posts, here’s my story.

I became involved in rescue about 2 years ago. A coworker alerted me to some dogs that had been dumped at an apartment complex several months ago. She lived in apartment herself, so she could not take them. Knowing my love for animals, she asked me if I would be willing to do so. The dogs were not chipped so I agreed and brought the dogs to my home. I immediately started making efforts to find rescue for them but unfortunately, I was not successful.

During this time I also ended up with a few other dogs that myself and a friend of mine, who also works in rescue, made efforts to rehome.

I foster independently, meaning I have no financial backing. Everything I do for these dogs comes out of my own pocket.

I have literally spent thousands of dollars to ensure these dogs had everything they needed.

10x10 kennels (4), igloo dog houses inside the kennels, fans for the summer, heaters for winter, canvas tarps for further insulation in winter, lights in the kennels, food and water receptacles, toys. I had extra electricity installed in order to run everything and extra drainage for spraying the kennels out.

I was told by multiple people that my set up was better than alot of professional set up’s they had seen.

About a year after I began fostering these dogs, new neighbors moved in. And since then, I have had multiple notices and threats from the city that my dogs were a “nuisance”.

The city ended up assigning an inspector to my case, who came out to ensure I was making progress on “getting rid of my dogs”. Because of these threats, I was ultimately forced to take a total of 6 dogs and turn them

in to Fresno Animal Center, who agreed to take them at the city’s request.

4 of the 6 were tagged for rescue, another was placed in a foster home, but I haven’t heard anything more about her. The 6th and last dog I was forced to take, was euthanized after 2 weeks. A very sweet and pretty dog, that given more time, could have found her forever home.

When reading all of this, please keep in mind that the city has closed our shelters to intake, which leaves people like myself and others working in rescue, to do the job the city is failing to do. And they have been failing the homeless animals on our streets for several years.

The last notice I received also wanted to cite me for having leaves on the sidewalk in front of my house and for having my trash cans on the curb a day early. The leaves issue is simply ridiculous. The trash cans were out a day early because they were completely full and heavy from clean up I was having done. I have a bad back and fibromyalgia which makes moving heavy objects very difficult and painful for me. My handyman happened to be here, so I asked him to roll them out for me.

Upon the last inspection, I was told that my case would be closed since all “violations” had been resolved.

About 2 weeks later, I received a notice in the mail billing me for “administrative fees” in the amount of $916.14, billed at $145 PER HOUR, and threatening that if it is not paid within 30 days I could have penalties added, they could put a lien on my home or seek other legal action against me.

About a week or so after that, I get 2 more letters saying there’s been a complaint against me for barking dogs.

I find it very interesting that this letter came only a few days after I contacted both my city councilman as well as the news media to issue a complaint about the harassment I’ve been going through since last year.

I also find it morally reprehensible, that while the city doesn’t seem to have the time to come up with a solution or plan for the crisis we are in with our homeless pet problem, they seem to have an abundance of time to harass people working in rescue to save these poor animals and get them to rescue or get them adopted.

I have until March 25 to pay the fine or the city can pursue further action against me.

So this is why I’m asking for your help. I am a widow and survive on a single income. I’ve had to refinance my home to pay off credit card debt incurred from the monies spent for all of the above mentioned expenses. And now I have this fine to pay when I was only trying to help where help was needed.

If there’s any way anyone could donate just a few dollars, it would mean the world to me and it would help more than you can ever know. And if you can’t, please keep these innocent animals in your prayers and pray our city leaders finally start doing the right thing for them.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and God bless