When Rescue Became Personal
A lifetime in animal rescue has brought extraordinary moments of joy. It has also exposed Rosa Fond to a side of the rescue community that few people outside of it ever see. Over the years, she has experienced online harassment, bullying, intimidation and personal attacks directed toward both herself and the organization she helped build. She has watched disagreements about animals evolve into conflicts between people.
Rosa has seen social media turn rescue into competition over followers, pledgers, donors, recognition and control. Over time, she realized she did not want to participate in a culture she believed had become increasingly driven by conflict. She began distancing herself from relationships and behavior that no longer reflected the person or rescuer she wanted to be. Sometimes that meant walking away from people she had once known.
It meant refusing to participate when others wanted her to publicly attack another rescuer. It meant walking away when she was asked to participate in fundraising practices she believed were inappropriate or inadequate. Ultimately, it meant separating herself from people whose conduct, in Rosa’s view, had become focused more on online conflict and discrediting others than on the animals they were trying to help. Rosa came to believe that social media could be used to spread accusations, shape narratives and turn groups of people against individuals caught in public disputes.
Walking away came with consequences. In Rosa’s experience, distancing herself from those relationships did not necessarily end the conflict. She believes that some people from whom she separated later became vocal critics of both her and HAAU. She walked away anyway. Rosa did not want animal rescue to become an excuse for attacking or destroying another human being. When conduct within her own circle crossed boundaries she believed were inconsistent with her values, she chose to separate herself from it. Those decisions were not always easy. Some relationships ended, and some disagreements became public.
Surviving the Other Side of Social Media
What followed became one of the most difficult chapters of Rosa’s life in rescue. She and HAAU became the subjects of sustained online criticism, accusations and attacks. Rosa believes that some former associates and other online critics have repeatedly targeted her, Humans And Animals United (HAAU), and, at times, other people or organizations in the rescue community.
Some of the people involved in these disputes have also been parties to legal matters reflected in public records. Rosa and HAAU have retained documentation they believe is relevant to understanding the broader history of these disputes.
Rosa disputes a number of claims that have been circulated about her and HAAU online. She also disputes attempts to associate people with the organization whom she says have never been part of the rescue. In Rosa’s view, repeated online posts and blogs can make disputed claims appear established simply because they are encountered again and again. She believes that repetition should never substitute for verification.
No matter how convincing a story may sound, documented evidence matters more than accusations repeated online.
Rosa and HAAU maintain that records in their possession, including materials relating to inquiries into allegations made against them, contradict significant portions of the narratives circulated online. HAAU has cooperated with authorities when requested and has provided records relating to its work, including veterinary and organizational documentation.
Claims should be evaluated against the records, not merely against how often they are repeated.
Rosa believes that the work of the rescue and the records supporting that work provide the fairest basis on which to evaluate HAAU. She says she has also encountered fake or misleading profiles, disputed narratives, disagreements over the use or characterization of photographs, and online conduct she believes was intended to undermine confidence in her or the organization. Through it all, Rosa increasingly learned to rely on something much more important:
The work. The animals. The records. And the truth.
She also learned that defending yourself does not require spending your life fighting strangers on the internet. There comes a point when you have to decide whether your energy belongs to online conflict—or to the animals you’re trying to save.
Rosa chose the animals.
The Experience That Changed Everything
One experience in particular permanently changed the way Rosa viewed online cruelty. Rosa recalls a woman within the rescue community who was experiencing intense online conflict and harassment during an already difficult period in her life. Rosa understood that, during that period, the woman’s puppies had been taken from her while they were being transported. Approximately two weeks later, the woman suffered a heart attack and passed away. Rosa does not claim that the online conflict caused or contributed to the woman’s death, nor does she claim to know what caused it. What stayed with Rosa was the reminder that, whatever disagreements people may have online, there is still a human being on the other side of the screen. That experience reinforced a principle Rosa now carries into everything she does:
You cannot claim to have compassion for animals while abandoning compassion for human beings.
Animal rescue should never become a competition over followers, pledgers, donors, recognition or control. The people who pledge, foster, adopt, donate, volunteer and share animals do not belong to any individual or organization. They are a community of people choosing to come together for one reason: to save lives.
Growth Changes You
Decades in animal rescue have taught Rosa lessons that could never have been learned from the sidelines. Experience taught her when to fight, when to walk away, when to speak and when refusing to participate can sometimes be the strongest statement a person can make. Rosa does not claim that every decision she has made throughout her life in rescue has been perfect. Like every person who has spent years doing difficult work, she has made decisions, learned from experience and changed along the way.
Rosa has learned. She has evolved. She has grown. At a certain point, Rosa had to decide what kind of person she wanted those experiences to create. She wanted to become a better advocate, a better leader and a better human being. Most importantly, she wanted to remain what she had been long before any of the noise existed: an animal rescuer.
Not someone consumed by online conflict. Not someone spending her days watching or attacking other people. Not someone allowing bitterness to replace purpose. Animal rescue should be about saving animals.
Not destroying human beings in the process.
Choosing Purpose
After everything she has experienced, Rosa has made a conscious decision not to allow harassment, anger or retaliation to determine who she becomes.
She chooses growth over retaliation • purpose over drama • rescue over revenge • animals over internet wars.
Through the difficult medical cases, emergency rescues, heartbreak, advocacy, photography, writing, media attention and countless animals who have crossed her path, Rosa’s purpose has remained remarkably simple:
Help the animal in front of you.
Long before social media knew her name, Rosa was rescuing animals. Long before there were followers, viral posts or headlines, she was rescuing animals. And long after today’s online controversies have disappeared, she will still be rescuing animals. Animal rescue is not something Rosa chose simply to become known for.
It is simply who she has always been.
Lifelong Animal Rescuer & Advocate
Humans and Animals United
Board Member & Advocate Against Breed-Specific Legislation
Animal & Nature Photographer
Writer
Featured Nationally & Internationally
Saving the forgotten. Fighting for the voiceless. Learning from the past. Choosing to do better. And refusing to let cruelty—toward animals or people—define the future.