Animal Rescue Site Holiday Shelter Challenge Daily Contest FINAL POST

Stolen Election! Election Fraud Suspected!

Final votes totals were posted today and WE did NOT win First Place in Texas! They gave it to Basenji Rescue!

Here is what we know: We were 2.42% ahead of Basenji Rescue on Sunday, the last day of reporting. Voting ended Sunday at midnight, Pacific time.

We had 15.42% of the vote in Texas, to Basenji Rescue's 12.70% of the Texas vote Sunday. That is a 2.42% spread. If you watched the numbers daily, you noted that things only moved by .01 to maybe .03% on a daily basis... that is hundredths of a percentage point differece to move daily. We were two FULL points AND 42 hundredths ahead of them on Sunday, the last day of reporting.

You tell me if you believe that somehow, against all odds. Basenji Rescue piled in more than 2.42% in a single day?

Not the First Time an Election Has Been Stolen

One of our good rescue friends in Alabama had told us that they participated in this same contest a while back... that they were in first place the day the contest ended... and then somehow, miraculously, between Sunday and Wednesday when results were posted, the group below them eased into First Place!

This is apparently a pattern with the Animal Rescue Site. It is a tight little circle of the same groups exchanging opportunities to win the prizes. Outsiders are clearly not welcome.

Protest This Injustice

I am asking Team Smiling Dog for one more thing, before we wash our hands of this so-called contest. I am asking every one of you to contact these people and tell them of your outrage. Let them know that it is statistically IMPOSSIBLE for Basenji Rescue to have made up 2.42% IN A SINGLE DAY!

Our good friend Adele had the name of a contact person, Rosemary Jones and her email address is rosemary@greatergood.com. I would also challenge some of you to find an email address and a phone for the head guy at so-called Greater Good so you can pelt him with emails.

Apparently it is Greater Good for their friends and cronies, and Not Much Good for everyone else.. Apparently Basenji Rescue is on their list of "best friends". (pun intended)

No More Contests

We will never participate in a contest again. That is firm and final.

We had to fight IAMS to deliver the amount of dog food that was promised in their contest, which we won with more votes than any other group in the history of that contest.

We will only win $1000 from this contest. Which I might add we have NOT received yet! They said that the check had already been mailed. But that was over a week ago and it is still not here!

The second $1000 prize was stolen from us. There is no other way to put it. Numbers don't lie. Basenji Resue -- even Best Friends, the $43 Million Dollar Man who dominated this contest all along -- NEVER gained 1.00% in a single day, must less 2.42%. It is statistically impossible.

The fact that they report in percentages and not raw numbers leaves things open to fraud. If they are not manipulating results, then they should report in raw numbers so we know if we got 30 votes or 300 votes... and so we know what kind of numbers the others are getting. All we could ever deduce from percentages was that the $43 Million Man was getting roughly 3 times the votes we were getting every day. But were they getting 90 to our 30? 900 to our 300? If we knew the number, we might be able to make up the difference.

More importantly, please consider this: You have been working at this, diligently voting every day, sending emails to friends since September! We have poured immense amounts of energy and time into this rigged contest for over two months. For what? $1000, IF they ever send the check.

You have raised nearly 3 TIMES that amount for us in the past week on our end of year fund raiser!

Contests put our destiny in the hands of strangers who do not care about Smiling Dog Farms. This particular contest proves how much wasted effort we poured into this, trying to win the $10,000 prize against an organization like Best Friends which took in $43,000,000 last year to our $150,000. It was not a fair contest from the start.

In the end, we were relegated to picking up the crumbs. Based on your cumulative effort, we should not only have won $1000 for most votes in a week, but we clearly got more votes in Texas than anyone, including Basenji Rescue, their annointed winner. But we will never see that $1000 prize.

I will not waste my time and yours on a contest again. I hope you will join me in this resolve.

We need Team Smiling Dog's energy to focus on honest ways of raising funds to help us help the dogs who have no where else to go.

We are making plans right now for a BIG fundraiser in the Spring... It will be called Garage Sale Across America, and we will call on Team Smiling Dog in the different cities and states across the U.S. to have a garage sale on the same weekend to raise money. There will be more details as we flesh this out. But one of the concepts I want to include is to ask Team Smiling Dog in their various cities to donate 25% of the money we raise to a local rescue. That way we benefit, and local, traditional rescues will benefit, too!

Thank You Team Smiling Dog
for Your Hard Work and Effort!

You are the Reason We Are Still Here Helping Dogs Who Have Nowhere Else to Go!