Nonprofit gets threats for rescuing puppies, but not mother

A Collin County nonprofit said it's getting hate mail for rescuing sick puppies, but leaving the mom behind.

A Different Breed said the attacks have gotten so bad it was forced to take down its Facebook page and begin screening its phone calls.

"Frankly it feels like being eaten alive. Is what it feels like,” said Dinesha Schmidt, who runs A Different Breed with Kathy McClimans.

The women ignited a firestorm after word got out that they took the puppies from a North Texas kill shelter -- but didn't have room to take the mom, nicknamed Sapphire. She was put down later.

“Because mama and the puppies were both sick, they have to go into a place all by themselves, we didn't really have that much room, we didn't have a place to put all of them,” McClimans said.

The women claim the backlash started when someone began circulating a poster with the picture of Sapphire and her puppies at the Commerce animal shelter and a headline -- "Animal rescue pulls puppies from shelter but leaves mom behind to die."

The organization soon began receiving hundreds of hateful emails, calling them murderers and saying the women should rot in hell. Then they started getting threatening text messages and voicemails.

“So you're the person who pulls puppies and leaves the mother? Keep looking over your shoulder (expletive) because some day someone will be there and it's lights out for you,” the voicemail stated.

The attacks have shaken the women, but they still believe they did the best they could, when no one else would step up. The women said they're upset no other rescue group volunteered to foster the mom.

The Commerce City manager who oversees the shelter said it kept Sapphire alive for two weeks, much longer than the standard 72 hours. But no one showed up to adopt her.