How vulnerable in search of assistance dogs were sold a pup
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT THEY were advertised as miracle dogs to provide life-saving services for those in greatest need.
However, the reality has proved the opposite for hundreds of vulnerable and disabled Britons who ploughed their savings – and hopes – into a bogus training firm.
Now, a former employee at Service Dogs Europe (SDE) has turned whistleblower and accused the company of risking its customers’ lives for hundreds of thousands of pounds’ profit.
Investigators are calling for government intervention amid claims that the firm is among several exploiting a charity funding crisis for legitimate dog- training centres.
Some animals provided to give round-the-clock assistance for paralysed people, diabetics and extreme allergy sufferers were not even able to fetch a ball.
Former trainer Janne Kovaljeff, 43, described his time at Irish-based SDE as “horrifying” as he revealed how one dog was so ill it died within days of delivery to a vulnerable client who had paid out thousands of pounds.
The company, run by Henry Fitzsimons, has now shut down while allegedly still owing hundreds of thousands of pounds to customers.
Mr Kovaljeff, who worked for SDE for more than a year, claimed Mr Fitzsimons sacked anyone who complained about the regime.
“I warned Henry he could kill someone,” Mr Kovaljeff said.
Animals were sold by SDE with virtually no training and within weeks of arriving at the centre, according to an investigation to be published on Thurs- day in the magazine Dogs Today. Mr Kovaljeff, who has been training dogs since leaving school in Finland, said: “The crazy thing is, Henry could have made SDE a very good business. He had money coming in, some brilliant trainers, good facilities, all those people desperate for life-changing dogs, but he just wouldn’t listen. So many people tried to get him to do it properly, but he either sacked them or shouted at them until they left.”
Some dogs were bought from unregistered sellers on websites such as Gumtree, while others were sent to Britain without pet passports.
The trainer added: “They’d be kept in the school for two or three weeks. Very often, they’d be poorly and on antibiotics. They’d be in kennels almost all the time. I’d try to do my best, but we couldn’t take them out to socialise them.
“It was all about quantity, not quality. Henry wanted us to train 16 assistance dogs a month. When we told him it was impossible, he’d just tell us we had to. It was soul-destroying. I felt so bad for the families.”
Describing the working conditions at the centre in County Louth, Ireland, he added: “Henry installed CCTV cameras to check up on the staff. He had money for that, but not for training the dogs properly.”
Among those who used SDE is diabetic barrister Joanna Golding, from Hull, who was forced to retrain the dog she was sent. Bertie, a fluffy goldendoodle, is now one of the first emergency dogs working full-time in British courts.
She paid SDE €3,995 (£2,850) plus VAT after Medical Detection Dogs, one of seven Assistance Dogs UK (ADUK) members, had told her she would face a lengthy waiting list for help to find a dog capable of signalling her life-threatening dips in blood-sugar levels.
Ms Golding told Dogs Today that she was forced to reject the first dog SDE offered her before they sent Bertie as an alternative.
She added: “I have since been told that the poor dog I rejected was sold a further three times for a total of £21,000 – each time she was rejected and no refund given. Henry always blamed the recipient, not the dog, when things didn’t work out.
“I’ve also heard that as well as puppy-farmed dogs, Henry was buying in dogs online from sites such as Gumtree and taking dogs from the pound and selling them on as assistance dogs.
“This is obviously hearsay, and is simply what I was told by someone Henry sacked. He maintains she is a lying, disaffected trouble-causer.”
Other victims of the bogus firm include Joanne Buckley, from Liverpool, who claims she spent £4,000 on a dog that could not even fetch a ball for her autistic son.
Diabetic Stephanie Mortlock, 22, from Bromley, Kent, also claims the charity has made off with £1,600 she was collecting for a dog that could monitor her blood sugar levels.
The Daily Telegraph revealed on Wednesday how SDE is being investigated by industry regulators and an MP over claims that it has folded without returning customers’ money.
Campaigners said charities providing assistance dogs are refusing to take on fresh clients because waiting lists are so long.
At the same time, guide dog charities providing animals for the blind are said to have a funding “overspill”, it is claimed. Beverley Cuddy, the editor of Dogs
Today, said industry insiders believe SDE has let down as many as 400 families. She said: “This is a full-scale crisis in the industry.”
Kirsten Dillon, the head of training and behaviour at charity Veterans with Dogs, said: “The seven ADUK charities are swamped, but if only people donated the millions of pounds they gave to SDE to little charities like DogAid – set up to train people’s own dogs in their own homes – then the waiting lists might be able to be opened.”
Mr Fitzsimons was unavailable for comment.