Service-dog fiasco stirs family to act
A teen who felt cheated after fundraising to help his brother starts a charity.
By Felisa Cardona
The Denver Post
Image via Wikipedia
Mark Rinkel, 13, of Aurora started Red Alert Dogs for Diabetics to train canines such as Lucy, the puppy he is holding, to be service dogs. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post )
By selling his secret recipe of regular and sugar-free lemonade, 13-year-old Mark Rinkel raised enough money to get a service dog to help his little brother Jason cope with Type 1 diabetes.
But Mark says the dog he worked so hard to get did not detect serious changes in his brother's blood sugar, as was promised, and the dog also bit Jason's hand when he tried to pet him.
"It turned out to be a scam," said the boys' mother, Marisa Rinkel. "After he bit my son, we gave him back."
The story of Mark's lemonade stand was featured in summer 2007 on ABC's "Good Morning America" and CNN, helping him raise $17,000, more than the $6,000 needed to buy a service dog that was supposed to be trained to detect when his 11-year-old brother's
blood sugar was dangerously low or high.
Jason has hypoglycemic unawareness, which means he may not know that his blood sugar is out of control until he gets violently ill.
Mark, who lives in Aurora, obtained the dog named Jedi from Heaven Scent Paws, a company based in Missouri, and donated the leftover money to the company so other families with diabetic children could get their own service dogs.
Now the Missouri attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Heaven Scent Paws after receiving 28 complaints from consumers, including one from Mark Rinkel, who say they were scammed.
David G. Bandre, an attorney for Heaven Scent Paws, said the Rinkels' allegations are false and that Jedi has been a successful service dog with the family he lives with now.
"A core group of about 10 families who are unhappy with Heaven Scent Paws never followed through on their contractual relationship with the company, including the follow-up care and training at home," Bandre said. "These are people who expected to get home with the dog who alerted 100 percent of the time right away, and frankly, that defies logic after a one-week class in Missouri."
The dogs are supposed to respond by barking or making some kind of commotion when they smell the child's blood-glucose level dropping or rising — which puts the diabetic at risk for seizures and blackouts. The dogs can sometimes detect a rise or fall in blood sugar before a monitor can, Marisa Rinkel said.
The Rinkels took Jedi to seven experts who told them he was an ineffective service dog and that he was prone to bite people when scared.
Although the Rinkels returned Jedi, Mark won't get his money and donation back. Bandre says the family benefited from the company's training and materials while they were in Missouri.
"I suppose if the Circuit Court of Cole County (in Missouri) directs them to give it back, but absent that, no," Bandre said of the money.
The lawsuit filed by the attorney general says Heaven Scent Paws took thousands of dollars from consumers who purchased dogs that did not perform as promised and refused to return customers' money.
It also says Heaven Scent Paws misrepresented that its trained dogs could alert diabetics for low and high blood sugar when some of the dogs could not.
A hearing to set a trial date is scheduled Jan. 22.
Meanwhile, Mark's story of raising thousands to help his brother won him a $5,000 award from Prudential that required him to give the money to the charity he was working with.
Mark did not want to turn the prize over to Heaven Scent Paws and decided to start his own service-dog charity.
Mark named his charity Red Alert Dogs for Diabetics to raise money for other families who can't afford to purchase a scent-trained service dog.
The Rinkels eventually got Jason another dog from a different service-dog provider. The dog is a fox red British labrador they named Red.
Red starts to pace, wildly wags his tail and begins to bark when he detects that Jason's blood sugar is out of control.
"Red has saved Jason's life at least three times," his mother said.
Mark also is training a puppy named Lucy to detect the glucose scent so she can work for another diabetic child.
He hopes Lucy and the family she goes to can be used in a scientific study so that a device to detect changes in blood sugar through a person's breath can be developed.
Dr. H. Peter Chase, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, has expressed interest in helping Mark with the research, but they need to raise $30,000 in grant money to do the work.
"I want to figure out what the dogs are smelling and work with the scientific community," Mark said. "It would change the lives of thousands of people."
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By Felisa Cardona
The Denver Post
Image via WikipediaMark Rinkel, 13, of Aurora started Red Alert Dogs for Diabetics to train canines such as Lucy, the puppy he is holding, to be service dogs. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post )
By selling his secret recipe of regular and sugar-free lemonade, 13-year-old Mark Rinkel raised enough money to get a service dog to help his little brother Jason cope with Type 1 diabetes.
But Mark says the dog he worked so hard to get did not detect serious changes in his brother's blood sugar, as was promised, and the dog also bit Jason's hand when he tried to pet him.
"It turned out to be a scam," said the boys' mother, Marisa Rinkel. "After he bit my son, we gave him back."
The story of Mark's lemonade stand was featured in summer 2007 on ABC's "Good Morning America" and CNN, helping him raise $17,000, more than the $6,000 needed to buy a service dog that was supposed to be trained to detect when his 11-year-old brother's
blood sugar was dangerously low or high.
Jason has hypoglycemic unawareness, which means he may not know that his blood sugar is out of control until he gets violently ill.
Mark, who lives in Aurora, obtained the dog named Jedi from Heaven Scent Paws, a company based in Missouri, and donated the leftover money to the company so other families with diabetic children could get their own service dogs.
Now the Missouri attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Heaven Scent Paws after receiving 28 complaints from consumers, including one from Mark Rinkel, who say they were scammed.
David G. Bandre, an attorney for Heaven Scent Paws, said the Rinkels' allegations are false and that Jedi has been a successful service dog with the family he lives with now.
"A core group of about 10 families who are unhappy with Heaven Scent Paws never followed through on their contractual relationship with the company, including the follow-up care and training at home," Bandre said. "These are people who expected to get home with the dog who alerted 100 percent of the time right away, and frankly, that defies logic after a one-week class in Missouri."
The dogs are supposed to respond by barking or making some kind of commotion when they smell the child's blood-glucose level dropping or rising — which puts the diabetic at risk for seizures and blackouts. The dogs can sometimes detect a rise or fall in blood sugar before a monitor can, Marisa Rinkel said.
The Rinkels took Jedi to seven experts who told them he was an ineffective service dog and that he was prone to bite people when scared.
Although the Rinkels returned Jedi, Mark won't get his money and donation back. Bandre says the family benefited from the company's training and materials while they were in Missouri.
"I suppose if the Circuit Court of Cole County (in Missouri) directs them to give it back, but absent that, no," Bandre said of the money.
The lawsuit filed by the attorney general says Heaven Scent Paws took thousands of dollars from consumers who purchased dogs that did not perform as promised and refused to return customers' money.
It also says Heaven Scent Paws misrepresented that its trained dogs could alert diabetics for low and high blood sugar when some of the dogs could not.
A hearing to set a trial date is scheduled Jan. 22.
Meanwhile, Mark's story of raising thousands to help his brother won him a $5,000 award from Prudential that required him to give the money to the charity he was working with.
Mark did not want to turn the prize over to Heaven Scent Paws and decided to start his own service-dog charity.
Mark named his charity Red Alert Dogs for Diabetics to raise money for other families who can't afford to purchase a scent-trained service dog.
The Rinkels eventually got Jason another dog from a different service-dog provider. The dog is a fox red British labrador they named Red.
Red starts to pace, wildly wags his tail and begins to bark when he detects that Jason's blood sugar is out of control.
"Red has saved Jason's life at least three times," his mother said.
Mark also is training a puppy named Lucy to detect the glucose scent so she can work for another diabetic child.
He hopes Lucy and the family she goes to can be used in a scientific study so that a device to detect changes in blood sugar through a person's breath can be developed.
Dr. H. Peter Chase, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, has expressed interest in helping Mark with the research, but they need to raise $30,000 in grant money to do the work.
"I want to figure out what the dogs are smelling and work with the scientific community," Mark said. "It would change the lives of thousands of people."
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
Comments
While the starting of the orgainization by the older brother in the article is admirable-being so young raises questions. Training service dogs is complex-it not only involves training. Training to detect drop in blood sugar is complex and not easy-it's not like responding to a seizure already in rocess and getting help or responing to a fall.
Training a service dog is a complex issue and there is never a "for sure" and people can't expect that-but Heaven Scent needs to be investigated. Anyone needs to look into an organization and ask questions before hand. This article illustrates this issue. Service dogs can be great-but anyone using one needs to be educated and dedicated.