Mo. animal shelter, website in dispute over $1 million makeover

ST. LOUIS -- Stray Rescue of St. Louis learned last May it had won a $1 million shelter makeover in pursuit of its mission to rescue, rehabilitate and adopt out former street dogs.

The group beat out about 1,000 other entries from around the country in a contest that garnered national attention.

But nearly a year later, the not-for-profit said it has gotten headaches -- but no money -- from sponsor zootoo.com, the pet lovers' social networking site founded by multimillionaire Richard Thompson, who disputes Stray Rescue's account of what happened.

Stray Rescue founder Randy Grim said Wednesday his group wired zootoo.com $170,000 of its own money and that Thompson pressured him into asking subcontractors, suppliers and labor unions to donate their goods and services for the shelter makeover.

Grim said he understood the $170,000, which helped pay for some preliminary work, would be reimbursed.

"We've yet to see one penny [of the $1 million]," Grim said.

Thompson, former chief executive of Secaucus, N.J.-based Meow Mix, said Wednesday he was "absolutely flabbergasted and shocked" by Grim's statements.

Thompson said the contest rules pledged "up to $1 million in value" to include cash and donated goods and services.

Thompson said zootoo.com has provided $400,000 to the makeover so far. Stray Rescue says most of that is in donated goods and services, or its own $170,000 that it wired to zootoo.com.

Grim and the makeover's general contractor, Dan Green, said they ultimately learned that the donated goods and services they were pushed to obtain went toward the $1 million.

"They've budgeted, bid and rebid," Green said. "We've wasted a tremendous amount of time because of [Thompson[']s] approach to the project."

Thompson said Stray Rescue's vision for a shelter exceeds what can be done for $1 million. But Green, who's earned nothing in the project, said Thompson agreed to a $2 million budget and then solicited donated goods and services. When they didn't come through, he scaled back the project to $1.7 million.

Green said Thompson also threatened to cut suppliers and subcontractors out of the project -- an assertion to which Thompson didn't respond. Green, who has been in business 30 years here, wanted no part of that.

Green dropped out last month after Thompson said $600,000 worth of electrical, plumbing and other work had to be donated.

"I'm not their donation solicitor," Green said. "I'm a general contractor. I'm not calling these guys and twisting their arms harder."

Stray Rescue wants to build a shelter from a warehouse donated by the former A.G. Edwards before the financial services company merged with Wachovia in 2007.

The build-out was an estimated $3 million; Stray Rescue had raised a significant portion of the balance.

Thompson said he will be in St. Louis next week to negotiate an agreement.

Janice Wolf, who runs a small, independent animal rescue in Gassville, Ark., said Wednesday that Thompson promised her on the Ellen DeGeneres show to build a barn and keep her in critter food for a year.

She got the barn and some of the food, but, she said, "he pressured local businesses to donate everything."

"He played big time to the cameras, and the press," she said. "But he pressured people real hard. He made a lot of enemies. He made some pretty big scenes."

Wolf, who owns Rocky Ridge Refuge, said "somebody needs to stop Richard from misrepresenting what he's all about, or force him to step up and become what he says he is."

Zootoo.com, part of Secaucus, N.J.-based Zootoo LLC, is wrapping up another shelter makeover contest. A shelter in Columbia, Mo., is among the 10 finalists.

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On the Net:

Stray Rescue of St. Louis: http://www.strayrescue.org/

Zootoo.com: http://www.zootoo.com/