“Celebrities you know, they, they get preferential treatment. They have lots of money. They go into a restaurant they get a table.”
-Marina Batshit Batkis, Mutts and Moms
This woman is such a fucking piece of work.
In case you don’t know, this is the woman behind the Ellen DeGeneres meltdown yesterday.
After adopting a dog from Mutts and Moms, an animal “rescue” organization, Ellen subsequently found herself unable to care for it as she hoped. While she had signed a contract stating she would return the dog to Mutts and Moms in such an eventuality, she instead gifted the dog to her hairdresser, who had an 11 year old and 12 year old.
Her hairdresser went online and filled out an application, notifying Mutts and Moms of the change. Ellen then called the organization to confirm the new information. The dog meanwhile, bonded with his new family and all seemed fine.
At some point, Mutts and Moms called the hairdresser to arrange a home visit, which was readily agreed to. When their representative came to the house - under the guise of working in the animal’s best interest - they seized the dog, stating that the contract had been broken.
Of course, Mutts and Moms broke the contract first. By their own agreement, they had to transfer ownership of the animal to Ellen, which they did not. That left the door open to repossess the dog, like so much furniture.
Not surprisingly, she’s receiving hate mail now, which is exactly the kind of feeling you want to engender when you run an organization that depends on donations to operate.
And what about all this unwanted attention!
Take a look at the video on Access Hollywood where she gets out of her car, “sobbing” as the paparazzi try to photograph her. Make sure you stick around for the part where they coax her out of the house, complete with cute little prop dog, for her tearful account. It’s the quality of acting you’d see on Passions, only not as believable.
If I sound irritated, it’s because I had the displeasure of meeting this egomaniac a few months ago. I even blogged about it, though I didn’t mention her by name.
We had just lost our little Chihuahua, and we wanted to adopt a rescued dog. After passing a ridiculously intrusive screening and agreeing to all ther terms (including making a costly “donation”), we were deemed worthy to come to Pasadena and meet a small selection of dogs.
Marina was icy from the outset, but I wasn’t surprised. I have raised money for animal organizations for years, and often come into contact people like her. They are so convinced that only they can care for these animals, that they treat everyone coming through their door as a potential abuser.
In fact, it’s been my experience that animal rescues do everything they can to discourage you from adopting. From the overly personal and complicated application process, to the high adoption fees, to simply not returning phone calls, even after you’ve passed the screening, it’s almost impossible to adopt an animal from anywhere but a county facility.
When we told Marina we were interested in a Chihuahua that was on her web site but not at the adoption, she promised she would arrange a meeting. Needless to say, she never called us, never returned our calls and never responded to our emails.
Now, she would say, and has said, that this process is stringent so she can be certain the animal will not wind up in a shelter again. And that’s all very well and good, but when you remove a dog from a loving home on a technicality, it’s more about you being right than it is about the animal’s welfare. A dog placed by Ellen DeGeneres is not a dog that’s going to end up in a shelter, and anyone thinking rationally would have to admit that.
But this is not about being rational. This is about ego. Ms. Batshit would rather generate bad publicity for a rescue organization than allow a dog to remain in a home where he was safe and well loved. Yanking him away from people he had bonded to, after a life of abuse and abandonment, and causing trauma to the animal and the family was a preferable scenario.
Where is the best interest of the animal? How is this about anyone but her?
Yes, Ellen did violate a contract she signed. Absolutely. And I’m sure that the dog, who is now back to living in a cage at the Mutts and Moms shelter, is very grateful that Marina lawyered up to enforce it. Because that’s in everyone’s best interest, don’t you think?
The dog is in a cage, the family is destroyed, Marina is getting death threats, her store is losing business and she is now perhaps one of the most despised people in the news today.
But there is one bright spot.
All the hate mail forced her to take the Mutts and Moms website down. So none of those dogs are in danger of being adopted by anyone.
21 responses so far ↓
1 John Foley // Oct 17, 2007 at 2:20 pm
But what about the starden peaches?
Oh I’m on the wrong thread again, aren’t I?
2 pixie // Oct 17, 2007 at 3:18 pm
April, where did you get that the hairdresser filed out an application and DeGeneres called to confirm it? Everywhere else I’m reading that Batkis found out about the transfer after calling DeGeneres to check on how everything was going. It didn’t really sound like DeGeneres and DeRossi were that forthcoming. And I don’t know about trusting DeGeneres’ judgment — she did date Anne Heche!
3 ListenerJustin // Oct 17, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Well thank god Miz Buttkiss followed her contract to the very letter! If there’s one thing adoptive animals sure don’t need it’s another potential outlet to a good home. And don’t all of us know that shiftless peasants like ourselves have no way of knowing if a home will be fitting for an animal without mounds of deductive paperwork? Since when was adopting a puppy more difficult than buying your first car? *sigh*
4 clevelandphil // Oct 17, 2007 at 3:30 pm
3000 bucks for a puppy and then she gives it to her hardresser. Put Ellen under the jail. No, better yet. Put her under Rosie. And throw the hairdresser under too, for making Ellen look like crap. And throw in Marina Batkis for being a vegan and looking like one.
5 DavidinBerkeley // Oct 17, 2007 at 3:44 pm
As they used to say on The April Winchell Show: “In all respects, SHE is the loser.”
6 Hamilton // Oct 17, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Ugh. I’ve met eleven- and twelve-year-old children and let me tell you, that dog is better off in a cage. If only it had been a PETA shelter, then we could rest easy knowing the little darling was euthanized before the van even left the driveway!
7 Speedy Cerviche // Oct 17, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Sweet boneless Christ. What a cunt.
8 jandu // Oct 17, 2007 at 6:20 pm
wow, Kirstie HAS lost a lot of weight! I don’t care for her glasses, though.
9 Rogue of the Celestial Night // Oct 17, 2007 at 6:31 pm
That’s why I get my dogs from the street, tied to a stop sign, or gas station. No messing with adamhenrys like above.
10 JohnnyBoy // Oct 17, 2007 at 6:43 pm
We tried once with North Shore Animal League, and were told we didn’t qualify because we had the audacity to have fulltime jobs.
Never mind the idyllic 2.5 acre fenced in parklike mini-farm and a loving home …apparently not good enough
11 JohnnyBoy // Oct 17, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Oh, and when we go to a restaurant, we get a table AND chairs !
12 naughty zoot // Oct 17, 2007 at 7:00 pm
That poor dog. And those poor kids.
Hamilton- I gotta say- how a kid treats a dog depends on how good their parents are. My folks are BIG “pet people” who taught me how to treat animals with kindness and respect, so our dog was MY prime responsibility (and he had it GOOD!).
On the other hand, if the parents don’t bother to insist that their kids learn how to treat a dog..well its hard for the dog and the rest of society as well, because I’ve usually found that people who don’t bother to teach their kid consideration for animals don’t bother to teach the brats consideration for other humans either.
You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat animals. I wonder if Marina home-schools her kids and refuses to let them have friends?
13 Zink // Oct 17, 2007 at 7:52 pm
That woman has quite some nerve. She claims she lives “hand to mouth” all while wearing Chanel glasses? Where do I sign up for that program?
14 DannyBarkley // Oct 17, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Cram it with walnuts, you soulless cunt.
15 jim // Oct 17, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Get that pooch a Movie-of-the-week!
I’m seeing Angelina Jolie as Marina & Ellen as Ellen.
Anyone else smelling a big steaming Emmy here?
If only a HUMAN child could get this kind of press when his or her adoption goes sideways … feh.
16 Andre // Oct 17, 2007 at 11:07 pm
“Mutts and Moms”?
Sounds hot! Anyone have the link to that site?
17 bnaivar // Oct 18, 2007 at 3:49 am
In case anybody’s wondering there’s places and people like this that run cat adoption agencies too. Do the words “Crazy Cat Lady” mean anything to you?
18 phoebefigalilly // Oct 18, 2007 at 8:11 am
JohnnyBoy mentions North Shore animal league and he isn’t kidding…when I adopted my cat they lit hoops on fire for me to jump through frontwards and backwards, I had a full time job but they let me adopt anyway. It was such a mess and lengthy and truly expensive ($500) to donate to adopt a pet when I wanted to get a friend for my single and very needy cat. I wanted an adult cat but instead of going through the messy and lengthy adoption process again I went to a pet store, found a cute kitten and forked over $49.00. He came with a receipt, it took 5 minutes. I took him to the vet $200.00 Sadly all of the other adult cats out there for adoption were without a home because the adoption process is so ridculosly long. It was easier to just buy a kitten. I am moving from NYC to my house upstate where I have a large yard and can have dogs. Instead of adoption, again I will buy a puppy and love it just the same.
19 Doug // Oct 18, 2007 at 9:22 am
If Ellen broke the contract first, which is what it sounds like, that’s a point in Batshit’s favor. If Batshit approved for the hairdresser to have the dog but then later repo’d the mutt, then Batshit loses she just earned. It sounds like she needs to care more about the dogs and less about who’s right or wrong. But it also sounds like we need to reassess what exactly the facts are, since there seems to be some dispute.
20 nancy // Oct 18, 2007 at 10:43 am
I am adamant that the pets go to a good home-but please let’s be realistic. When my husband and I adopted our beloved Sadie she was a 7 or 8 year old dog that had been found wandering around pregnant with 10 puppies!!. Well, here we were, anxious to adopt an almost unadoptable dog(it is almost impossible to find someone who wants to adopt a dog as old as she was).
And, even though we have a large house with 1/2 an acre and had every intention of walking her-they didn’t want us to adopt her because we don’t have a fenced in yard. Sadie is a wonderful dog-she is housebroken, doesn’t chew our shoes and gets along with our cats. Part of the reason that she is so good is that she is way past the puppy stage -all she wants to do is sleep. She is not going to run away, as my husband says-she barely has a pulse. But, they were bound and determined to keep us from adopting her. We had to get special dispensation-since we don’t have a fence. So, do they want to find good homes for these dogs, or is this a way for them to become hoarders and keep them all for themselves. The person who fostered our dog had 20 dogs at her house. I can’t believe that was a better environment for Sadie.
21 Glo // Oct 18, 2007 at 10:47 am
This is why I never deal with rescue groups and have all of my companion animals delivered to my front door. Our neighborhood has many asshats who think it’s ok to move away and just leave their pets to fend for themselves. My sweet little dog was a 4 month old puppy when I found her under a car. It’s yin and yang, overbearing control freaks with “Mommy” issues or soulless monsters. Sweet baby Jesus I hate people!
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