OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — UPDATE:
General Rita Aragon called News 4 after the story ran and said that the board agreed to make sure the veterans can keep the service dogs.
She also said that they wouldn’t continue with the litigation.
The general added a stipulation that they can keep them as long as they don’t attend any more training sessions.
ORIGINAL:
Another veteran apart of a service dog training program at an Oklahoma-based non-profit is alleging abuse and asking the board not to remove dogs from two veterans.
"Whenever I watched the segment on Friday, I just broke down in tears," said veteran, Allysia Scherer.
On Friday, September 27, a News 4 story published a video of the director for Honoring America Warriors (HAW) seemingly berating a veteran who said he had problems detaching his service dog's vest. In the video, the veteran said, "You want me to bend down all the time even though I have fourteen herniated discs?"
In the video, Scotty Deatherage is heard saying, "Oh stop with the (expletive) violin playing."
The program at HAW has successfully trained and turned over around 200 service dogs within its years.
Two families of Oklahoma City veterans spoke out Friday after being threatened by a non-profit to take away their service dogs.
“The big threat is that my husband is going to lose his service dog,” said the wife of one of the veterans involved.
Both of the families reached out to News 4 but wanted to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation.
Scherer said she and her dog Cinderella have been in the program for a while and are around three months away from graduating it.
"I felt like I was drowning and then when she came into my life, it was like a glimmer of hope that I could be normal and that I could be somewhat of a normal mom/person," said Scherer.
Deatherage told News 4 Friday that the two veterans signed a contract that if they miss a certain number of classes then they lose that dog. The non-profit owns the dogs.
According to Deatherage, they have to attend three classes a week for two years before they graduate.
The families told News 4 that they missed out on classes due to hospital visits and because of their health. They said they are pleading for the board to let them keep the dogs Kimber and Feyre.
But the families were given until October 2 to hand over the dogs voluntarily or litigation would follow.
"I saw the abuse. I felt like I couldn't stay silent. Even though I'm scared to lose my lifeline," said Scherer.
She spoke out in a plea to the board to reconsider and to allow the veterans to keep the animals. Scherer claims that Deatherage has been verbally abusive several times, and says the environment in the training classes sparks up her Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and causes panic attacks.
"In the end, I worked on most of the tasks she knows," said Scherer. "I only learned basic behaviors for Cinderella. The big tasks, I looked online and learned myself."
That claim was repeated by the two other veterans' families as well. That the tasks they were taught were minimal and that in the end, they did most of the work on their own.
Scherer also mentioned something she said weighs heavy on her every day. She said at one point, Cinderella, accidentally got pregnant and the non-profit took the dog in to have the puppies surgically removed.
"He never once had a conversation with me about it. never apologized or explained anything. Everyone at the organization carried on like it was nothing," said Scherer.
General Rita Aragon is on the board for the non-profit and told News 4 that they are an extremely successful program that helps a lot of veterans.
General Aragon said that she is looking into it more but that they are carrying on with the legal steps to meet the contract requirements for now.
Scherer made a plea to the board, "Honoring Americas Warriors board. I just want to ask you if you could please consider what you're serving for, what your organization stands for, and the veterans that you serve in this situation."
All of the veterans' families and Scherer told News 4 that they have asked for their contract but have not seen it yet.
