Seems likely to be a fraudulent front for puppy mills. Heather admitted they purchase most of their puppies at midwestern puppy mills at auction. They often buy from puppy mills and sell their puppies at 12 weeks but still use the term "Rescue". Many other reviews online I've read indicate they've seen the premises, which isn't public information and is hidden, and it contains very poor living conditions for the animals. I can't verify this myself but the sources seem credible.
Wasatch Animal Rescue/Heather forces customers to sign a 5 page long confusing contract where Wasatch Animal Rescue retains ownership of the dog, essentially renting it out to those who are made to believe they're purchasing it. The contract was also contradictory at signing and actually broken (they force you to adopt the dog the day you pay, but the contract says if you don't pay 3-10 days before adoption you lose all rights and the contract is broken, this is one example of many) and legally requires anyone who signs it to pay Wasatch Animal Rescue $5000 for any breach of contract. Heather told me they actively litigate this and they were sueing someone the full $5000 for trying to sell their dog they'd had for a while to someone else. If anything happens they instantly get the dog back and sell it again to new owners. Heather was friendly until I started asking basic questions and immediately became belligerent and defensive and refused to do business.
I would never do business with these people, be careful.
A few things you may want to know before considering Wasatch Animal Rescue.
96% of dissatisfied customers never speak up.
No phone number, no address, simply an email address. I can understand no physical address if the rescue is run out of a personal residence. A “volunteer staff “ however no phone number, pathetic. Heather Learned does have an email address but does not answer it. I emailed every other day for 10 days and never received anything from her. When I was ready to pay the adoption fee the fostering agency was able to get in touch with her… finally! How did I get this done you ask? I had insider information with the fostering agency.
The animals are farmed out to fostering agencies/people. You will be dealing with multiple web sites, people/agencies and multiple appointments. That is of course if you can get her to answer your email.
The fostering agency suffers the same “no email, no contact frustration” you will go through. You will likely hear, “well… she is really busy doing_________ right now, I’m sorry don’t know what to tell you.”
Read the contract! You will quickly come to the understanding that Wasatch Rescue owns the animal you have just adopted. Simply you are physically and financial responsible.
There is a microchip in your animal – it is NOT registerable to you, Wasatch owns it, period.
You cannot rehome the animal, you have to surrender the animal – to Wasatch, as that is part of your contract. Heather is going to charge the next adopter the maximum fee for spay, neuter, shots etc. Certainly appears to be about the money not the animal.
Unless you have a better rapport than I did, you will never see the vet records or any other documentation.
Heather runs a dog/cat AND a horse rescue.
Based upon her communication return rate she is too busy and does a horrible disservice to the animals she rescues.
Heather Learned does not appear to be scamming people, at minimum she is adopting pets, not but she is a completely inept (non-profit) business woman.
The donation button on her site IS UP TO DATE and working quite well. PayPal will send you an email.
If I could I would give this 0 stars. We thought we had finally found the puppy we had been looking for ever since our beloved rescue dog of 12 years passed away of cancer. We emailed Heather (email communication is the only thing they will allow), and began the adoption process. After expressing interest in the dog AND already having a day scheduled to meet the pup, she informed us that we would have to pay the $600 and sign all adoption papers or they might give the dog to someone else.We hurried and paid all the fees and signed the contract. She then arranged to meet us IN A PARKING LOT to meet the dog, and after about 30 seconds of holding the cute, but TERRIBLY cared for dog (poor thing, my heart aches), she informed us she needed to leave and would deliver the pup to us a few days later when all of the "paperwork" was processed. The tiny 12 week old puppy was dirty, scared, and smelly. He hadn't been groomed probably his entire life. Heather knew very LITTLE about the puppy.
A few days later, Heather emailed us saying that she had "accidentally" gotten our pup mixed up with another one from the litter. She apologized and said that she had already given OUR puppy to the other family that had adopted the OTHER one, but that the other family was already in love with it and we would have to stick with a different puppy than the one we had SIGNED AND PAID FOR.
We felt sad to take our little puppy away from a family that already loved him, especially since we barely knew him, so we sadly agreed but asked if she would give us a discount on the puppy since we didn't know much about it yet and were expected to just go pick it up from her. We told her we thought the puppy was ours like she had SAID, and so we would like a discount for our trouble or we would like our puppy back. Heather refused and was suddenly not as nice as before. She said we had two options: take the dog she was offering or get a refund. (Which, by the way, she only allowed us to pay through venmo.) We also asked for a phone number to discuss our options, which she refused to give during this whole process.
We did some research only to discover that MANY OTHERS had similarly unsettling experiences. Multiple reviews and sources state that there are loopholes in her contract where she maintains ownership of the puppy after adoption, and that she does not in fact rescue the dogs she sells.
NO WONDER THE PUPPY WAS SO SCARED. Poor animals deserve to be rescued by real people, just in time to send Heather and her whole crew to jail. THIS IS A SCAM. DO NOT TRUST THIS PLACE! SPREAD THE WORD.
Adopted a puppy 2 years ago. Was told I would be partially refunded for the cost of spaying. Sent multiple emails for over 1 year. No response. Contacted the Petco she does the adoptions out of and they didn’t really care. I still would have adopted our puppy even without the refund. She could of at least have been honest and not promised it. I wish I would have researched more about her reputation
Wasatch Animal Rescue Reviews
Seems likely to be a fraudulent front for puppy mills. Heather admitted they purchase most of their puppies at midwestern puppy mills at auction. They often buy from puppy mills and sell their puppies at 12 weeks but still use the term "Rescue". Many other reviews online I've read indicate they've seen the premises, which isn't public information and is hidden, and it contains very poor living conditions for the animals. I can't verify this myself but the sources seem credible.
Wasatch Animal Rescue/Heather forces customers to sign a 5 page long confusing contract where Wasatch Animal Rescue retains ownership of the dog, essentially renting it out to those who are made to believe they're purchasing it. The contract was also contradictory at signing and actually broken (they force you to adopt the dog the day you pay, but the contract says if you don't pay 3-10 days before adoption you lose all rights and the contract is broken, this is one example of many) and legally requires anyone who signs it to pay Wasatch Animal Rescue $5000 for any breach of contract. Heather told me they actively litigate this and they were sueing someone the full $5000 for trying to sell their dog they'd had for a while to someone else. If anything happens they instantly get the dog back and sell it again to new owners. Heather was friendly until I started asking basic questions and immediately became belligerent and defensive and refused to do business.
I would never do business with these people, be careful.
A few things you may want to know before considering Wasatch Animal Rescue.
96% of dissatisfied customers never speak up.
No phone number, no address, simply an email address. I can understand no physical address if the rescue is run out of a personal residence. A “volunteer staff “ however no phone number, pathetic. Heather Learned does have an email address but does not answer it. I emailed every other day for 10 days and never received anything from her. When I was ready to pay the adoption fee the fostering agency was able to get in touch with her… finally! How did I get this done you ask? I had insider information with the fostering agency.
The animals are farmed out to fostering agencies/people. You will be dealing with multiple web sites, people/agencies and multiple appointments. That is of course if you can get her to answer your email.
The fostering agency suffers the same “no email, no contact frustration” you will go through. You will likely hear, “well… she is really busy doing_________ right now, I’m sorry don’t know what to tell you.”
Read the contract! You will quickly come to the understanding that Wasatch Rescue owns the animal you have just adopted. Simply you are physically and financial responsible.
There is a microchip in your animal – it is NOT registerable to you, Wasatch owns it, period.
You cannot rehome the animal, you have to surrender the animal – to Wasatch, as that is part of your contract. Heather is going to charge the next adopter the maximum fee for spay, neuter, shots etc. Certainly appears to be about the money not the animal.
Unless you have a better rapport than I did, you will never see the vet records or any other documentation.
Heather runs a dog/cat AND a horse rescue.
Based upon her communication return rate she is too busy and does a horrible disservice to the animals she rescues.
Heather Learned does not appear to be scamming people, at minimum she is adopting pets, not but she is a completely inept (non-profit) business woman.
The donation button on her site IS UP TO DATE and working quite well. PayPal will send you an email.
PLEASE READ! BE CAREFUL.
If I could I would give this 0 stars. We thought we had finally found the puppy we had been looking for ever since our beloved rescue dog of 12 years passed away of cancer. We emailed Heather (email communication is the only thing they will allow), and began the adoption process. After expressing interest in the dog AND already having a day scheduled to meet the pup, she informed us that we would have to pay the $600 and sign all adoption papers or they might give the dog to someone else.We hurried and paid all the fees and signed the contract. She then arranged to meet us IN A PARKING LOT to meet the dog, and after about 30 seconds of holding the cute, but TERRIBLY cared for dog (poor thing, my heart aches), she informed us she needed to leave and would deliver the pup to us a few days later when all of the "paperwork" was processed. The tiny 12 week old puppy was dirty, scared, and smelly. He hadn't been groomed probably his entire life. Heather knew very LITTLE about the puppy.
A few days later, Heather emailed us saying that she had "accidentally" gotten our pup mixed up with another one from the litter. She apologized and said that she had already given OUR puppy to the other family that had adopted the OTHER one, but that the other family was already in love with it and we would have to stick with a different puppy than the one we had SIGNED AND PAID FOR.
We felt sad to take our little puppy away from a family that already loved him, especially since we barely knew him, so we sadly agreed but asked if she would give us a discount on the puppy since we didn't know much about it yet and were expected to just go pick it up from her. We told her we thought the puppy was ours like she had SAID, and so we would like a discount for our trouble or we would like our puppy back. Heather refused and was suddenly not as nice as before. She said we had two options: take the dog she was offering or get a refund. (Which, by the way, she only allowed us to pay through venmo.) We also asked for a phone number to discuss our options, which she refused to give during this whole process.
We did some research only to discover that MANY OTHERS had similarly unsettling experiences. Multiple reviews and sources state that there are loopholes in her contract where she maintains ownership of the puppy after adoption, and that she does not in fact rescue the dogs she sells.
NO WONDER THE PUPPY WAS SO SCARED. Poor animals deserve to be rescued by real people, just in time to send Heather and her whole crew to jail. THIS IS A SCAM. DO NOT TRUST THIS PLACE! SPREAD THE WORD.
Scam
Adopted a puppy 2 years ago. Was told I would be partially refunded for the cost of spaying. Sent multiple emails for over 1 year. No response. Contacted the Petco she does the adoptions out of and they didn’t really care. I still would have adopted our puppy even without the refund. She could of at least have been honest and not promised it. I wish I would have researched more about her reputation