Lately, there has been a flurry of 'blacklist' postings on some horse rescue web sites regarding other horse rescue organizations. The rescues doing the blacklisting and the rescues being blacklisted will not be identified here.
To post statements on the web that are untrue is criminal libel which is a felony. The party being libeled may sue the party who has done the libeling. Rather than libel an organization, if you have questions about the quality of care the rescue is providing for their horses and other animals, first call the local authorities, then the ASPCA, the HSUS, or PeTA and ask them to investigate.
It is true, and the IRS will confirm this, that if a rescue organization that does not have a Federal or State 501(c)(3) or similar recognized State status it cannot legally accept donations of any kind. For the State 501(c)(3) organizations you must contact the State Division of Revenue to verify the State status. All rescue organizations, whether Federal or State, must have their EIN posted on their mission statement page.
If your organization has been libeled then you must sue the party that has libeled you. All of this is very counterproductive for the horses and rescues that do an excellent job with their mission of saving and rehabbing horses from slaughter. What has been discovered is there are people who dislike others, so they are reporting them to these web sites who have these blacklists. Some of the organizations with these lists are not valid rescues as they have been denied either the State or Federal status, but they trade as valid rescues. This is illegal.
Receiving dozens of emails in one day regarding someone who has been blacklisted is a waste of bandwidth in more ways than one. If you know the rescue suffering the effects of the Scarlet B, of course you have to defend them. This takes time and there is absolutely no need for this as this should not exist in the first place. 'Blacklists' should be banned regarding rescues. If you know unethical individuals that you have adopted horses to, then post information only about them.
Leave the investigating to the professionals, especially when an organization being accused is not even in the same state as the accuser!!!
Ellen-Cathryn Nash
Founder and President
Manes and Tails Organization
EIN: 90-0182985
