An earlier post described a service dog scam.
The Chicago Tribune brings us up to date:
Families who had been holding out hope that they would receive a service dog
this spring to help a child with autism
have all but given up on a program they now fear was mismanaged from the
start.
In February the Tribune reported on complaints from families
across the nation about a central Illinois dog trainer who told them they had
won service dogs for their children, only to cut off communications when they
started asking questions about her credentials and operations.
The dog
training operation, called Animals for Autism, was founded by Lea Kaydus, who
with the families' help won a $50,000 grant through the Pepsi Refresh Project to
train and place the dogs. Kaydus had said the dogs would join their families by
spring 2012.
At the time of the Tribune's story, Kaydus had surfaced
after a long silence with a January email to families. Since then, the parents
say, they've heard nothing from Kaydus. They also say they have received no
solid information from Global Giving, the company hired to manage the grant and
project for Pepsi.
Also see video here.
