Pedro the kitten’s rescuer facing fraud (Video)

The Toronto Humane Society is saying it never received any money from an online campaign to raise funds for the treatment of a kitten rescued from Highway 427 last month.

Passerby Mandi Howard rescued Pedro the kitten after she said the feline was tossed from a moving car on Highway 427. She brought the injured kitten to the Toronto Humane Society’s River Street facility.

The small feline broke all of the toes on his hind legs, suffered a fractured hip and had a laceration to his lip which required surgery.

Mandi Howard, the nurse who found ‘Pedro,’ took him to the humane society in hopes of adopting the animal after it recovered.

Howard’s friend set up an online campaign to raise money for Pedro’s medical bills and any future surgeries he may require. The fund garnered about $10,000 in donations.

But that’s when Howard received a call from the police, saying that the humane society had issued claims of fraud.

“The administrator said that the money was not coming here,” Toronto Humane Society executive director Barbara Steinhoff said.

“That money was going to used to help animals. It was to help (Pedro) and other animals,” Howard said.

People gathered outside the humane society, at River Street and Queen Street East, on Friday to protest what they called an attack by the THS on a woman they refer to as a hero.

“People in the animal rights community know Mandi, and work with Mandi — she’s a justice-seeking, good soul,” Lorena Elke said.

The police contacted Howard on Friday to let her know that there would not be a fraud investigation. Since the money had yet to be released from Indiegogo, the crowdfunding site, no fraud had been committed by the fund’s administrators.

“I’ve never been so happy to have the police call me, ” Howard said.

Now it’s undetermined whether the THS will accept a donation once it is available.

“We’ll sit down and consider whether the funds were collected in a manner that was trulty transparent to the public,” Steinhoff said.

However, the humane society says Mandi remains first on their list to adopt the kitten once he’s recovered.

Agencies/Canadajournal