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Victory for Rosalie – Claude did NOT get the order! I filed against him for harassment …

Friday, March 30th, 2012

Just went to the courthouse! The judge thinks old Claude is full of beans! Here is the court letter/statement which I did not get because I have a PO Box and do not have my name printed on my appt mail box:

“Rosalie Tirella, defendant:

“This matter came on before the court on the complainant’s request for relief persuant to G. L. Chapter 258E. After hearing, I find that the credible evidence failed to convince the court by the standard required by law that the plaintiff was entitled to relief.

Therefore, I deny the request and dismiss the complaint.

Paul F. LoConto
First Justice

DATED March 20, 2012
***********************HOORAY!

P. S. Claudy boy, I told them of all the horrible things you’ve said/done to me (like lie about this outcome). SO I FILED a harassment order against YOU! See you in court, Worcester Wonderland blogger, Claude Dorman. I will use your last post about me as PRIMO EVIDENCE OF your harassment of me and your total disregard for the courts and the law. (will mail a copy of your post to Judge LoConto).

- Rosalie Tirella

Worcester Wonderland blogger, Claude Dorman, plays the victim …

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

… but the truth is Dorman (writing as Will WW on his Worcester Wonderland blog) has been harassing Worcester folks for years – pulling horrible, illegal cyber stunts. He’s been outed and now he’s raging. (Stormin’ Dorman is what the WPD call him) And YES Jeremy wanted a comment from Claude re: his WoMag story – Claude gave no comment. Said nothing.

Here, from the WoMag article, is what Claude Dorman, the Worcester Wonderland blogger, has been up to these past several years. –

But before, we get to the article, here is what Claude Dorman, under the pen name Will WW, the Worcester Wonderland blogger, wrote to his website visitors (he has since deleted it from his blog – but we have the original pages). – R. Tirella
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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Got a Sneaky Feeking?

By Worcester Wonderland blogger Claude Dorman, 38 Sever St. Worcester, MA aka Will WW

There’s plenty of interesting information about the anonymity issue on the Electronic Frontier Foundation site.

Seems some of you are quite surprised to find out that you’re being tracked when you visit Worcester Wonderland. Why? You all do it. Some even parade their stats like medals.

Otta tell ya I’ve got some pretty snazzy software and scripts that yield tons of technical info on visitors – goes beyond simple logging scripts, even read serial numbers. Something pretty hard to mask. I even put Hot Flash Cookies on your drive. Really pesky critters. Can’t get rid of em easily. Some stuff goes deeper. But that’s top secret. Scary eh? Not really. Imagine what the US Gov uses? Now that’s really scary.

… And please don’t go doing any meltdowns here, all your comments are stored, even if you think you deleted them yourself. They just might come back to haunt you. Wouldn’t be pretty for your precious reputations. I got some good ones from former blogging buddy aka Harry Tembenis, who did the meltdown of all meltdowns. Got all that recorded. Interesting reading.

And then there’s Brendan Melican’s meltdown – a psychopath masquerading as a sociopath. Talk about vile. Whew! All his comments were recorded. Heck of a collection. Maybe I oughta post the really vile ones.

Welcome to Wusta!
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From the Womag piece on Worcester Wonderland blogger, Claude Dorman, (aka Will WW):

Claude Dorman, the Wonderland blooger who writes under Will WW:

… “By 2008 it had turned personal, the writer focusing on other bloggers, politicians and those both in the public and not-so-public realm. The blogger’s bio summed up the tone of many of his postings: “This is a blog about being amused and bemused with a city of 181,042 boring people with an exaggerated sense of self-worth. It’s really too bad they don’t have a sense of humor, it would make life bearable here.”

“I’ve just never encountered anybody who has that much interest in me,” says Paul Collyer, who found his personal life and business ventures – particularly his NOLA Festival – often the target of Will W.W.’s blog posts.

“It wasn’t just the content that riled up his targets (to the point where some, including Collyer, put out a “bounty” to unmask Will W.W.’s identity in 2011), but the anonymity of it.

” “Not content with writing about others on his own page, Will W.W. began posting insulting comments on other blogs.

“ … Tembenis, for instance, still smolders over an insulting Worcester Wonderland post that used images from an article about a Rutland horseback riding trail named in honor of his son, Elias, who died at seven years old. The post generated 22 comments, mostly derogatory towards Tembenis, and including this from Will W.W.: “Thankfully Mother Nature had the wisdom to prevent his kind from propagating.”

“That in essence shows how deranged this individual is. He posts outright lies about people and also slanders and libels, too, all in the name of being able to do so ‘anonymously,’” Tembenis adds.

“Throughout the four and a half years of this, Will W.W. took the protection of his identity a step further than a fake name: he also scrambled his computer’s IP address – the line of numbers that can identify a computer’s location and Internet provider – making it difficult for even the most tech-savvy sleuths to figure out who or where he was.

” … Dorman, who changed his phone number after his ties to Worcester Wonderland came out, had no comment.

“Dorman has a history of targeting others anonymously, even appearing in a Worcester Magazine article in 2007 for ousting a rival member of a neighborhood association, Robert Bourassa, by using pseudonymous online threats and postings to attack his business and personal reputation (“Neighbor to Neighbor Disfavor: A grudge sparks a change of leadership in the Elm Park Association,” May 17, 2007).

” “The malicious, unwarranted and slanderous attacks on my business and personal reputation by Claude Dorman under the guise of various identities and the lies he has spread have devastated my contracting business, forcing me to close and putting me in a severe financial hardship,” Bourassa wrote in a letter to members of the Lincoln Estates – Elm Park Neighborhood Association before his final meeting. “As such, I can no longer afford to remain where I live.”

“Before stepping down, however, Bourassa filed a lawsuit against Dorman and his wife, Kunigunde Cigan, in February 2008, citing criminal harassment, stalking, attempted extortion, false use of names or organizations and violations of right to peace and privacy, among others.

” “Defendants have engaged in a now twenty month long campaign of harassment of Plaintiff and Plaintiff’s businesses,” read the complaint. “There is no question the course of action, no doubt the intent, no question the harm.”

“Elsewhere in the complaint, Bourassa provided claims that Dorman used various IP addresses to flag Bourassa’s web design and contractor business advertisements on Craigslist – 673 times for 164 ads – causing them all to be removed. He also charged Dorman for creating the elmparkneighbors.net website (to closely mimic the neighborhood association’s elmparkneighbors.org), where he posted Bourassa’s financial and personal information – some of it obtained, Bourassa charged, by intercepting his mail. Dorman used fake names to send harassing and threatening emails to Bourassa through the websites he managed and posted poor reviews of his businesses on websites and online forums.

” ” … Collyer says he and other targets of Will W.W. are entertaining the idea of a lawsuit, especially since there’s worn ground after Bourassa’s complaint.

“They’ve gone out of their way to hurt my festival,” says Collyer.

” “Dorman has really gone out of his way to financially hurt people,” Collyer says …

” … Collyer says he hasn’t crossed the same line that Dorman has.

“That thing [the alter ego Claude-Dorman website, which has since been taken down] has been up for four or five days,” he says, comparing that to four and half years of Worcester Wonderland.

” “It shows we are dealing with evil cats and one who has a history of this type of harassment going back years,” he adds. “This is no longer about opinion and discussion, it is about harassment against many.”

Wonderland being outed (what it means) and my car insurance

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

By Rosalie Tirella

I called my insurance company this a.m. My car insurance is all paid up, I told the girl, so what’s up with Claude Dorman, aka Worcester Wonderland blooger’s comment? Would you even speak to this cretan?

She said, NO! we would never speak to the cretan Claude! You’re OK! Then she added: The only way someone would know about your insurance is to HACK into a database.

Who would do that, you ask?

Claude Dorman, the Worcester Wonderland blogger, of course. Claude is a guy who wallows in illegal cyber activity.

Don’t worry, gentle readers, Paul and Bill will have their two cases against Claude Dorman heard in our grand new Worcester courthouse soon. 

And, by the way, how many people do we know have cameras the size of Claude’s (see left of this photo of his 38 Sever St. home) mounted to their house?

Maybe it’s to compensate for his miniscule penis.

And, by the way, now whenever Will of Wonderland posts, half the city will know it’s Claude Dorman. Will Tony Economou see those big Will WW/Claude graphs? What about Beth Proko? Will Will continue to call City Councilor Joe O’Brien (who reads this blog) a socialist/communist? Will Will diss the city’s colleges now that we know HIS SISTER works at WPI?

Let ol’ Worcester Wonderland express his toxic opinions. Now everyone knows it’s ol’ Claude Dorman. And Claude will have to live with the consequences, like every other blogger/journalist in town who speaks his/her mind via a public platform.

 

Claude Dorman, the Worcester Wonderland blogger, …

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

By Rosalie Tirella

… also known to his readers as “Will WW,” has hacked into my cell phone.

Claude Dorman (Will WW) has left a weird message (complete with heavy breathing) on my cell phone.

Claude Dorman has manipulated all Google searches to defame me, Paulie Collyer, Harry T, etc. He even went after WoMag. The first few lines (in the Google search) to dcescribe the WoMag story have been scrambled by Claude/Wonderland so you don’t know what the story is about. You will be hard pressed to find the title or sentence with Claude Dorman = Worcester Wonderland blogger on a Google search. That’s because of Claude. 

Claude Dorman/Worcester Wonderland blogger has also made sure a Google search of Harry Tembenis, one of the nicest guys around, does not show Harry and his wife’s efforts to raise money for autism research, etc in honor of their son, who passed away due to a seizure. The T & G article about their efforts is nowhere to be found. But good old Claude managed to write something about Harry court, arrest police and get it into the Googe Search. Just to discredit Harry. False garbage.

Last week a judge threw out Claude’s (who admitted in a court of law that he is the Wonderland blogger) complaint because he was told by Paul Collyer’s kick-ass lawyer (who shall remain anonymous) that Paul had been harassed by Claude for four years – anonymously, of course – and he was reacting to 4 years of abuse! When  Paul, Bill, Harry and I joined forces to sucessfully out this loathesome creep, Paulie got a little emotional. He sat in front of Claude’s house for a few days (not after Claude’s wife). He needed to see Claude, who made it his mission to make Paulie’s  life miserable. Paulie was on a public street. Paulie probably wanted to take a pic of Claude because Claude had posted all sorts of photos of Paulie, his home, his music festival, etc on his blog. For FOUR years! All in the name of character assassination!

For FOUR years!

The judge got the fact that Claude Dorman (or Stormin’ Dorman, as he is known to the Worcester Police after calling the police on Becker College students 74 times in ONE DAY!) was crying wolf.

So he wisely threw the case out.

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NOTE TO CLAUDE

Amazing!

Claude, Claude, Claude. Obviously, you are incredibly bright and computer literate! You have a ton of time on your hands. Why not take that evil brain of yours and bend it towards the light? Use it for the betterment of your community (like Paulie Collyer does) or animals/the poor (like I do)?

Right now, the community hates you. From our city councilors, to our college students, to your neighbors, to lots of bloggers, the list goes on and on.

And now we all know your name.

Save yourself!

Why not take all that evil genius and use it to … SAVE USA RACE HORSES! So many American horses die needless deaths every year! They are raced to their deaths because they are pumped on drugs and pain killers and the US just lets this happen. (In England medicated horses cannot race). Viagra, cobra’s blood, etc. These toxins are coursing through the veins of these beautiful animals … just so some creeps can make a buck.

In a recent post you said you were lassoed. Not true Claude. You are no beautiful, wild free spirit. You are a sicko. People lined up to turn you in/help with our investigation. Not one person said anything in your defense.

Any ways …

Here is the incredible New York Times story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/us/death-and-disarray-at-americas-racetracks.html?_r=1

So, Claude: Why don’t you start making charts, phone calls; start writing blog posts, try to get Becker students (your neighbors) involved or the WPS students at Elm Park School. A video? A website? A way to log deaths? Protests?

Save the race horses, Claude! Save yourself!

Just got a nice note from Worcester School Committee member Tracy Novick …

Monday, March 26th, 2012

By Rosalie Tirella

… She thanked me for the support I gave to her get-the-pink-slime-out-of-our-school-meat lunches crusade.

As you all know, we have taken ol’ Tracy to the wood shed for her not-so-smart (some would say brutal) crusade to fire WPSchools Superintendent Dr. Melinda Boone, Worcester’s first female African American superintendent. Dr. Boone cares about kids and knows her stuff.

But I digress … .

I want to say: When it comes to animals/factory farming/vegetarianism (and inner-city kids’ health), anyone who comes out in favor of the animals/kids, gets a thumbs up from us.

We have written (for a decade) about the brutal living conditions of cows, chickens, all “farm animals” often literally stacked in huge, concrete, sunlight deprived, fresh-air deprived, warehouses. Torture chambers – not farms.

The insanity must stop.

If WPS committee member Tracy Novick makes it her mission to create MEATLESS MONDAY’s in our public schools, reduces the amount of meat WPSchools students are eating, works to get our school buyers to work with organic farms where animals are allowed to roam freely in meadows, etc, before they meet their Maker, then she has our support.

If Novick can bring in vegetarian dishes – or at least get city leaders to see meat as a garnish, as opposed to a main dish – then she can run for President of the USA and we will give her free ads until she wins.

This issue is so dear to my heart!

So I say: Good job, Tracy Novick!

************** AND HERE ARE SOME GREAT STORIES ON ANIMALS  ….

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/us/death-and-disarray-at-americas-racetracks.html?_r=1

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/isle-royale-gray-wolves_n_1352568.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/17/aqueduct-horse-track-deaths-cuomo-letter-luck-hbo_n_1353724.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/alec-baldwin-peta-ad-elephant_n_1353790.html

Paul Collyer vs. Worcester Wonderland blogger, Claude Dorman, vs Paul Collyer

Saturday, March 24th, 2012

… victory!

The judge ruled in Paul Collyer’s favor! Paulie got the verdict yesterday! Claude Dorman went down! The judge took Claude aka Will WW’s souped up charges against Paulie (for harassment, etc,) and threw them out the window. A very wise judge! He knew Claude was just playing the judicial system to scare Paul/harass Paul. But Paulie stood big and tall and showed us all that freedom of speech does not entail spying on people’s web comments, harassing them to death, posting lies about their businessal over the Internet.

Who is Claude Dorman? Some out of commission secret agent? Sicko games for a sicko/dangerous person (spyware all over his website to track his readers …

I have called my lawyer (we are talking Monday).

Also: Paul Collyer has filed a countersuuit against Wonderpoop – Claude Dorman, the Worcester Wonderland blogger – for 4 years of defamatory posts, lies, etc.

Claude, Will WW (he admitted his identity in court last week) has seen his cyber bullying/harassment days cut short!

Thank you, Worcester judicial system!

P.S. Notice how he scrubbed his post re: his cyber stalking of his readers? Repalced it with a photo of Curly of Three Stooges fame. Well, don’t worry, Claude, The “Three Stooges” have screen saved and double saved your original post.

- Rosalie Tirella

Claude Dorman, 38 Sever St., Worcester = the Wonderland blogger = litigious idiot

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

By Rosalie Tirella

Here are two posts written by Claude Dorman, 38 Sever St. Worcester, MA – the Wonderland blogger. We feel you should attach the vile name to the vile writer. But before we post them I want to say: I hope the judge did not buy the crap Claude Dorman, 38 Sever St. layed on him yesterday in the Worcester Court house, when he claimed that the world is stalking poor old Claude. Dorman, who is in his late 40s early 50s, WANTS TO damage/destroy people. He has admitted to his blog readers that he has his website covered with spy ware and that he can trace all anonymous comments to their writers and that even if you erase your comments, he can still call them up. In other words Claude Dorman has kept records of everyone who has crossed his vile blog. And he will repost to destroy a person, if necessary.

He’s worse than the FBI.

Claude Dorman has harassed Bob Bourassa to death, corrupted Google searches of various people in the city to ruin their reputations, lied about local businesses on Craig’s List, said the NOLA festival drew only about 150 people when 1,000 tickets were sold. He is Worcester’s #1 psychopath.

No, Claude, you lied to the judge yesterday. YOU DO MEAN via your posts to destroy, to put people out of business, to defame, libel. You LIED in court! It wasn’t all in jest! That is why you had poor Paul Colyer just sitting staring at your back porch, staring at your mom’s place, staring at her door buzzer for Cripe’s sake. Four years of your harassment lead Paulie to the brink! And of course, you took everyone to court, gummed up the judicial system, for your sick games.

The entire city now knows you go beyond mere blogging, that you go behind the scenes to do even more damage to people you hate (just ask former city councilor Dennis Irish – a nice guy you slammed via a negative-letter writing campaign). And so, you vindictive prick, here is your blog post (2 actually) , with your real name attached to them.

****************
Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Got a Sneaky Feeking?

By Claude Dorman, 38 Sever St. Worcester, MA aka Wonderland blog

There’s plenty of interesting information about the anonymity issue on the Electronic Frontier Foundation site.

Seems some of you are quite surprised to find out that you’re being tracked when you visit Worcester Wonderland. Why? You all do it. Some even parade their stats like medals.

Otta tell ya I’ve got some pretty snazzy software and scripts that yield tons of technical info on visitors – goes beyond simple logging scripts, even read serial numbers. Something pretty hard to mask. I even put Hot Flash Cookies on your drive. Really pesky critters. Can’t get rid of em easily. Some stuff goes deeper. But that’s top secret. Scary eh? Not really. Imagine what the US Gov uses? Now that’s really scary.

Word of advice. If ya don’t like what ya see here, then buzz off. Don’t like sarcasm – nobody’s forcing you to visit. You have a choice. Pretty simple huh?

Don’t like our opinions, ignore us. Got something to add or correct, post a comment. Don’t cost nuttin. What’s blogging about anyway? And if ya wanna a pissing contest – fine. But be prepared to take a lump or two. Remember these rules: Rule 1: Be coherent. Rule 2: Be coherent. Rule 3: Be coherent.

And please don’t go doing any meltdowns here, all your comments are stored, even if you think you deleted them yourself. They just might come back to haunt you. Wouldn’t be pretty for your precious reputations. I got some good ones from former blogging buddy aka Harry Tembenis, who did the meltdown of all meltdowns. Got all that recorded. Interesting reading.

And then there’s Brendan Melican’s meltdown – a psychopath masquerading as a sociopath. Talk about vile. Whew! All his comments were recorded. Heck of a collection. Maybe I oughta post the really vile ones.

Welcome to Wusta!

***************
Wednesday, March 21, 2012

MA – 2011 Job Growth Competitive Effect

By Claude Dorman

So what the heck is the chart telling you?

In many ways, individual U.S. states are like 50 laboratories where differing public policy, industry focus, and economic development strategies are tried and tested. Different approaches yield different results and some states become more competitive – gaining a larger share of total job creation — while others struggle and lose share, according to authors Robison and Sentz.

So where are MA’s job growth competitive advantages?
Education, technology and health.

Where are Worcester’s job growth competitive advantages?
Bars, package stores, and publishing.

Claude Dorman is Wonderland blogger

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

He just admitted the truth in a court of law. The good old WORCESTER Courthouse. Paul Collyer was accused of stalking him. The police were at Paul’s home twice. Some how I was supposed to be there (court). I got no summons. I am driving to court with a character witness now.

R. Tirella

p.s. It is amazing! Claude Dorman has had a history of harassing/threatening/hurting people. Lots of people. But the big baby goes bawling to the police/courts when he has two days of feather-ruffling.

Some more thoughts on Pat’s Towing …

Monday, March 19th, 2012

By Rosalie Tirella

Just got a great letter, which I will run here! But before that, another thought:

If a Worcester Public School teacher was accused (by a student) of sexual assault or just plain old assault, that teacher would be put on paid leave by the City of Worcester. The same thing for one of our police officers. Even Worcester city housing guru Jackie Jackson has been relieved of her duties while she is being investigated by the city/lawyers.

Then why, in God’s name, does Pat’s Towing service, of Shrewsbury Street, get to continue to drive around town (always over the speed limit) terrorizing Worcesterites? They have been accused of beating and kidnapping people! Can’t City Manager Mike O’Brien simply not use Pat’s until the court case has been decided? If the Pat’s crew is found guilty of assault, kidnapping, etc, then O’Brien needs to fire the lot and award the contract to other towing companies. But in the mean time he should put these creeps “on leave.” Why allow them to make more money off the city?

I am beginning to think that our intrepid city leaders are not so fearless – that they are afraid of the tough guys at Pat’s. That they, like the poor folks who are towed by these Good Fellas, would prefer to shut their pusses so as not to incur the wrath (fists??) of Pat’s.

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Here’s the letter:

Pat’s Towing: “greedy,” “no leeway”

Pat’s Towing “succeeds” by having so many Tow Trucks driving around that if someone parks somewhere for as short as five minutes where they are not supposed to park, they are immediately towed. No other tow company is as omnipresent or unforgiving. At the Denholm Building, in downtown Worcester, there is a parking lot adjacent to the building that looks like it is for the building; however, it’s not. Many people entering the building or the nearby St. Paul’s Church who park in this lot are immediately towed. There are places one can park during the day without being towed, but when the clubs are active at night, you are towed immediately.

The bottom line is Pat’s, by being so everywhere all the time, ends up being an unforgiving presence in the city. You could say they are just doing their job well, and you would be right, but because they are so greedy in towing without any leeway or forgiveness, it would be nice to get rid of them.

Randy Feldman
via the Internet

Southwick’s tiger and animal sanctuaries

Friday, March 16th, 2012

By Rosalie Tirella

The story in the T & G re: Southwick’s getting a truck-load of raw meat for its big cats – and their photo of a tiger eating the “gift” – was depressing. It was a humiliating story/picture- everything that good people are against: Southwick’s and their pretend “animal sanctuary” label and the degradation of gorgeous wild animals who should be hunting and living and procreating in the wilds of Africa or Asia.

Let me tell you about Southwick’s Zoo: They have been shut down by the govt many a times, mostly for the poor housing they provide their wild animals. It used to be called (correctly) “Southwick’s Wild Animal Farm” – a much more honest name to describe exactly what it is: Wild animals that are born to roam hundreds of miles in a week crammed into fenced/penned-in areas.

About 12 years ago, I went down to Southwick’s to do some investigating. I found a chimp (some of the brightest animals on earth) sitting on a bale of hay in a “pretend” cricus car. I cried.

Then: a wasted (utterly skin and bones) lion lying on concrete in the middle of the place. A small fenced in area, like a playground was its “home.” I cried again.

I tried to get a story going – to no avail (which is one of the reasons I started InCity Times a few years later – so I could write about all the animals that I love so much!). But then one of the Boston TV stations received a complaint re: Southwicks, did an investigation and the place was shut down by officials. The govt demanded that the animals living areas (I won;t call them habitats) be more humane. Southwicks built better quarters (not by much) and in a savvy marketing move changed their name.

Cruel, cruel, money-grubbing Southwick’s!

Here is more information on places like Southwick’s that go parading as animal “sanctuaries” but are in fact hell holes for wild animals. Even the best zoos are mere theater – the animals “habitats” are painted/fake rocks, fake foliage a few real trees. It is all made to look like the animals’ natural habitat, when it all really smoke and mirrors set up for zoo visitors.

Why trap a beautiful thing to shove it away somewhere in a cage away from everything it loves? Everything that God intended it to be?

Please boycott Southwick’s this spring and summer! Families, take your kids to other places during vaca times! Here’s the PETA piece:
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When an animal ‘sanctuary’ isn’t

By Dan Paden

Acquiring an animal means making a lifetime commitment. But what if illness, economic hardship or some other unforeseen circumstance forces you to give up a cherished animal companion? Many well-meaning people unwittingly turn to pseudo-sanctuaries that promise loving care for their animals, but as a new PETA undercover investigation reveals, giving animals away to strangers—even those who make big promises on polished websites and national TV and have celebrity endorsements—is never an acceptable option.

Caboodle Ranch, Inc., was a self-proclaimed “cat rescue sanctuary” in Florida that claimed to give cats “everything they will ever need to live a happy healthy life.” PETA’s investigation found that the “ranch” was essentially a one-person “no-kill” operation that subjected some 500 cats to filth, crowding and chronic neglect.

Cats at Caboodle were denied veterinary care for widespread upper-respiratory infections and other ailments. Obviously ill cats with green and brown discharge draining from their eyes, noses and mouths were allowed to spread infection to other cats. During the course of PETA’s investigation, some cats died of seemingly treatable conditions.

Some cats, like Lilly, whose iris protruded through a ruptured cornea, were left to suffer month after month. PETA’s investigator offered to take Lilly to a veterinarian, but Caboodle’s founder refused, apparently scared that he might “get in trouble” if a cat in Lilly’s condition were seen by others. Lilly eventually died after months of neglect.

Cats are fastidiously clean animals, but at Caboodle they were forced to use filthy, fly-covered litterboxes. Maggots gathered in cats’ food bowls and covered medications and food kept in a refrigerator inside a dilapidated trailer teeming with cockroaches. Cats frequently escaped the ranch, putting the surrounding community’s animals at risk of disease. Prompted by PETA’s evidence, officials seized Caboodle’s animals, and its founder and operator faces cruelty-to-animals charges.

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of this case is that it is not an isolated incident. In 2011, a PETA investigation revealed often fatal neglect of disabled, elderly and ailing animals at Angel’s Gate, a self-proclaimed animal “hospice and rehabilitation center” in New York. Our investigator documented that animals were allowed to suffer, sometimes for weeks, without veterinary care. Paralyzed animals dragged themselves around until they developed bloody ulcers. Other animals developed urine scald after being left in diapers for days. Angel’s Gate’s founder was recently arrested and charged with cruelty to animals.

In another case, in South Carolina, some 300 cats were kept caged, most for 24 hours a day, in an unventilated storage facility crammed with stacks of crates and carriers. PETA’s investigator found that the operator of this hellhole, Sacred Vision Animal Sanctuary, knowingly deprived suffering cats of veterinary care—including those plagued with seizures, diabetes and wounds infected down to the bone. When Sacred Vision’s owner was asked if sick animals could be taken to a veterinarian for help at no cost to her, she refused, instead attempting to doctor the suffering animals on her own. The cats in that case were seized by authorities, and the owner, who was in the midst of sending about 30 of her cats to Caboodle as authorities closed in on her, now faces cruelty charges.

Our animals count on us to do what’s best for them at all times. Unfortunately, there will always be purported “rescues” and “sanctuaries” that deceive people into giving them unwanted animals, who are often left to languish and die, terrified and alone. PETA’s files are full of letters from people grief-stricken over having left animals at these hellholes.

If you truly have no choice but to part with your animals because of circumstances beyond your control, try to enlist trusted friends and family to care for them temporarily until your situation improves. If no other suitable arrangement can be made, taking animals to a well-run open-admission shelter is the kindest option.

Whatever you do, never, under any circumstances, simply hand off unwanted or sick animals to a smooth-talking stranger and hope for the best. The animal companions you love so dearly will pay for it with their lives. And you will be left with a broken heart full of regret.

Dan Paden is a senior research associate for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.