The Reality of Reactive Abuse: How Standing Up for Your Animal Makes You the Villain
We need to talk about what happens when you finally decide to stand up for yourself and your animal.
From 2024 to 2026, I dealt with continuous mistreatment and threats from Kathy Powelson, the Executive Director of the Paws for Hope Better Together Program. To be completely clear, these threats were not directed towards me, they were threats directed entirely towards my 13 year old senior dog. I took the hits, I absorbed the unfair treatment, and I stayed quiet while trying to manage it. No one saw the massive toll it put on my energy, my health, my fibromyalgia, my peace of mind, and my mental health.
But then the breaking point hits. You decide you have had enough, you gather your facts, you pull out your documented paper trail, and you decide to put the actual truth out in the open. And suddenly, the script gets flipped.
Flipping the Script and the Double Standard The moment you defend yourself, onlookers who ignored the original mistreatment suddenly pop up to judge your reaction. They call it "anger." They call it an "unhealthy cycle." They look at your loudest moments and completely ignore the years of manipulation from Kathy Powelson that forced you into a corner in the first place.
This is the exact anatomy of reactive abuse. The dynamic is simple but incredibly toxic:
The Power Trip: An executive director treats you poorly behind closed doors for years and you're animal suffers the consequences.
The Reaction You finally find the strength to speak up, go to the media, or expose the truth.
The Blame Shift: Because you did not take the mistreatment quietly, your voice is labeled as the issue. You become the villain just for refusing to be a victim anymore you become the problem.
They want you to keep quiet. They want you to do as you are told, and they do not want you to stand up for yourself or advocate for your animal. If you do, it goes against exactly what they don't want. But I was following the contract. I followed the policy, and I did exactly what it required.
How This Started in 2024 : How am I the problem when this started back in 2024 and has been going on ever since? I did not do anything wrong. All the way back in 2024, all I did was tell Kathy Powelson that I could no longer go to the vet every single week and every single month. I had been doing it for nine months straight, and it was mentally, emotionally, physically, and financially draining. I stated that I was going to have to talk to the board members. Kathy Powelson ended up adding them to the conversation, it was spoken about, it was dealt with, and everything was fine.
But right after that, Kathy Powelson’s behavior completely changed. She began looking for anything and everything, any single excuse, to terminate my dog's medical care.
The Unjust Termination of Medical Care. To terminate a senior dog's medical care is a completely unjustified decision. On top of cutting off my dog, they also declined an 8 to 10 week old puppy that was acquired to be trained as a certified service dog. Because my dog is a 13 year old senior Papillon, she can no longer take on that role. She cannot even step up into an ambulance anymore. By the time a new puppy goes through the entire process of training, public access tests, and final certification, my senior dog would be 14 or 15 years old. The Better Together program is supposed to be meant for exactly this kind of support yep my poor the 13-year-old senior Papillon is suffering the consequences? And now without medical care and same with my puppy which is so disheartening.
To have that vital medical care ripped away is disgusting. Any animal lover understands the heartbreak of this situation, especially when you are disabled, living with severe chronic illness, and surviving on a strict disability income.
There is a massive double standard here when it comes to the media. Kathy Powelson did an interview with Global News showcasing the program, and she even sent out emails to clients regarding a media request from CBC News Cross Country Checkup. She explicitly came to people enrolled in the program and asked them if they wanted to go on the air and talk about their enrollment.
So, it is perfectly okay for them to ask clients to go to the media when it provides positive publicity for the program. But the literal moment a client decides to speak up and tell the actual truth about their experience, suddenly you are told you are doing something wrong. The victim gets victimized even more simply for standing up.
Breaking Down the Termination Papers
Why is an executive director like Kathy Powelson actively watching and monitoring my personal blog? It shows a clear pattern of behavior and speaks volumes about her character. She was actively looking for an excuse to terminate my dog's medical care.
When you look at the official termination letter, it claims that I engaged in "harassing or inappropriate conduct" toward staff. Yet, there are absolutely no names, no dates, no times, and no places listed anywhere in those papers to back up that claim.
Instead, the only things they actually cited as "harassing conduct" were a few direct statements pulled straight from my blog posts. They literally copy pasted these exact quotes from my blog as their entire justification:
Kathy Powelson has turned this organization into a high school drama"
"She acts like a high school drama queen"
"Since 2024, the environment under Executive Director Kathy Powelson has become increasingly unprofessional and harmful"
"Kathy Powelson uses her position to pick and choose who receives support based on personal bias rather than the needs of the disabled individuals and their service animals"
"Kathy Powelson does not prioritize animals or people"
"She is biased against me"
Truth is Not an Attack
I am not attacking anybody. I am not attacking the program. I am speaking the absolute truth, and I have every right to talk about my experience. When the enrollment was active, and now that it is not, I still have the right to share what happened. They explicitly wanted clients to talk about their experience in the program. Now I am talking about my experience, and I am not a bad person for refusing to stay quiet I stuck up and advocated for my puppy and my 13-year-old. Senior Papillon for them to suffer is sad they will get the help that they desperately need. And I truly believe that Kathy Powelson has more intentions to her actions choices and decisions actions speak louder in the words at the end of the day. People make decisions and choices to get a reaction or outcome.
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