Seattle Dog Spot

Parents of autistic children have extremely hard lives. Between dealing with their children’s behavior, which can range from being noncommunicative to destructive, paying outlandish medical bills, finding a school that will take their child, holding down at least one job, parenting their other children, and getting some sleep, the last thing these people need is someone using their child’s autism as an opportunity to rip them off.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to Jim and Allison Creighton, who live with their autistic daughter Faith at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor near Silverdale, WA.

The Kitsap Sun reported yesterday that early last year, the Creightons decided to get a service dog for Faith “after her grandparents’ corgi calmed her during a tantrum.”

Initially the Creightons weren’t sure they could afford a service dog, but eventually they found a group called Animals for Autism run by a woman named Lea Kaydus that said they could provide Faith with a Siberian Husky named Bella for $7140, about half the amount other groups quoted.

After she received 3 payments totaling $2250 from the Creightons last spring, Kaydus “asked families enrolled in the program if they would help her garner votes for The Pepsi Refresh contest. If she won the $50,000 grant, she said, she could offer 10 families a service dog for free.”

Kaydus did win the grant, but the Creightons not only never received a service dog for Faith, they also lost the money they paid to Kaydus. Here’s what happened after the grant was awarded:

• Soon after getting the grant from Pepsi, Kaydus said the money would go to build a training facility instead of providing free service dogs for 10 families as she had promised.
• In mid-July the Creightons requested update photos of Bella who would have been 4-months-old by then, but instead they got the same pictures of 6-week-old Bella. After some investigating, Jim discovered the pictures were taken in 2007.
• Kaydus announced she was moving her operations from Tallus, IL, to Glenarm, IL but she left no forwarding address.
• The Creightons discovered Animals for Autism was not registered as a charity in IL as Kaydus had told them.
• In July Kaydus never responded to the Creightons 3 requests to visit the “new facility.”
• In August Kaydus finally told them they couldn’t visit until the new facility was finished in September.

Fortunately this story does have a happy ending.

The Creightons have adopted a 1-year-old chocolate lab named Daisy Mae from the Kitsap Humane Society, and a local group is training her to be Faith’s service dog.

Another resource for families like the Creightons is the Washington State Department of Corrections. The agency has a program in which inmates train shelter dog to be service dogs which are then adopted out to deserving families.

I hope Lea Kaydus is eventually held accountable for actions. If she or anyone else at Animals for Autism would like to rebut anything I’ve written, they are welcome to send me their statements. My email is rpregulman@hotmail.com.