OUR ANIMAL HAUS, INC

OUR ANIMAL HAUS is a non-profit sanctuary for unwanted, elderly, and special needs animals and birds.

We are located in beautiful Brooksville, Florida.

Please help our animals and donate via PayPal by clicking on the button below. Thanks!

Carolyne Mas once graced the airwaves in 1979 with her sax-driven
anthem, "Stillsane", a song about holding on to one's sanity in the
face of conflict. Today she faces that battle for real.

After working as a professional musician for over 30 years (her first
paid gig was at the age of 13), Mas went on in 1998 to form an animal
sanctuary in Nashville, Tennessee called "Our Animal Haus". The
sanctuary was moved to Florida in 2004 after Mas' father died and she
volunteered to care for her Aunt with Alzheimer's along with her
grieving mother.

After finding a perfect location in Brooksville, the sanctuary
thrived. Its residents included the original dogs from Tennessee, all
of whom were elderly large mixed breed dogs, and cats who had AIDS and
were HIV positive. Carolyne and her husband were committed to
providing them with a safe and beautiful place for them to spend the
rest of their lives. They also began to take in several exotic birds,
some with special needs, as well as several horses, one of them blind.
"Our Animal Haus" was becoming a safe haven for the unadoptable,
unwanted, and special needs animals who otherwise would have had no
place to go.

Beginning in February of 2009, Mas and her husband began to have
several visits from Animal Control of Hernando County. They had been
prompted by a call from a recently fired and disgruntled employee.
Everything seemed fine and friendly until journalist Logan Neill of
the Hernando Times, a branch f the St. Pete Times, requested an
interview with Mas in response to an article called "Carolyne Mas: Her
Animal Haus", which had come out in the Huffington Post in September.

Mas granted this interview, even providing the name and phone number
of one of her "friends" at Animal Control as a reference. After all,
just 2 weeks earlier, they had said she was a "good sanctuary".
But...something wrong happened. In direct breach of his ethics as a
journalist, Logan Neil, who had not even taken a tour of "Our Animal
Haus", used the number given to him by Carolyne to file a complaint.
Although Mr. Neill denies this, Animal Control does not.

What ensued was nothing short of a nightmare. Logan Neil began to
write a series of slanderous articles for the Hernando Times,
containing undocumented information and outright lies about "Our
Animal Haus" and its owners. Animal Control began to seize the animals
at "Our Animal Haus", first by taking Ginger, a 30-year-old mare, and
then euthanizing her. They falsely claimed she was suffering from
malnutrition and was instead 18 years old, despite her previous Vet
records stating her birth date as 8/20/1979.

On October 30, almost 200 animals were seized from "Our Animal Haus"
because of false allegations made by Animal Control, stemming from the
euthanizing of Ginger. These animals included all of the dogs, all of
the cats, perfectly healthy exotic birds, as well as healthy pure bred
horses and ponies. Animal Control would end up putting down all of the
elderly dogs and almost all of the cats, robbing them of living out
the rest of their lives in peace. They would, however, go on to profit
from the sale of the birds and the horses, and a handful of small pure-
bred dogs.

Presently there are cases all across the US where Animal Control or
the local humane society has acted outside the scope of local
ordinances and illegally confiscated animals, from valuable show dogs
and show cats, to well kept breeding birds, to thoroughbred horses.
Apparently these local officials have learned that they can achieve
three goals:
1) adopt out (sell) animals and property for money,
2) receive donations from the public for their "good" work
3) receive commendations from their superiors

Therefore, they have financial reasons for "taking animals under color
of law." However, they generally use the argument that the animals are
abused, not properly cared for, starving, or treated cruelly. They are
quick to euthanize any animals that will be too much trouble to keep
and that cannot be adopted to the public for money. These many types
of cases are being documented due to this outrageous assault on
constitutional rights of animal owners in the U.S.

Carolyne's Fourth Amendment rights were clearly violated by the
illegal search and seizure of her animals and expensive bird cages,
and Animal Control fast-tracked her case, acting often without any
official paperwork allowing them to do so, robbing Carolyne of her
Fifth Amendment right to due process; She was never given enough time
to secure an attorney.

Through supporters of her case, Carolyne was able to find an attorney
in Tampa, who has worked cases like this before and won. However, she
does not have the funds to hire him. She has paid dearly for the
emotional loss of her long time companions, and the ones whom she
sheltered from harm for so long. She will never see any of them again.
Her name and reputation has been unfairly and unmercifully slandered
by the press who gave her little time to tell her own story. You can
help her finally get the justice that she so well deserves by making a donation here,
or by contacting her directly at samlorac@aol.com.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Sincerely,
The Supporters of Our Animal Haus