Let’s Adopt! Global (LAG) is an animal rescue organization founded in Turkey in 2008 by Viktor Larkhill and Fulya Ulusoy. Since 2011 it has had headquarters in Massachusetts, USA. It is a non-profit animal rescue. Yet for some reason which I am yet to fathom it courts massive controversy. One possible reason, it is said, is that Viktor Larkhill is an outspoken person who has rubbed people up the wrong way. There is a bunch of women who have publicly claimed on Facebook and perhaps other online media that the owners of Let’s Adopt! Global are acting fraudulently. These are the “LAG haters”.
Update July 2022: His organisation is now called Let’s Adopt International. Their website tells us that the rescue organisation began on January 8, 2008 in Istanbul Turkey. Viktor Larkhill tells us that his desire to rescue animals came when he stood outside a veterinary clinic in the rain while his dog, Simba, died on the operating table when he shouldn’t have. He implies that it was because of a lack of proper care due to a lack of facilities which caused Simba’s death. The next day he embarked “upon a mission that would change the lives of thousands of animals and their families”. He says that over the years his rescue became known for “veterinary excellence at the service of homeless animals”. His rescue started to receive “pleas for help from the world over for animals in extreme conditions, abused animals with impossible injuries”. They say that they are in extreme rescue because “we will go to the end of the earth to save a life. Extreme because we only work with the very best veterinarians, contributing to progress and excellence in veterinary medicine”. And finally, “because we live in a cruel world and aim to be a beacon of hope for animals that are otherwise abandoned to die alone.”
The charity is registered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands by the way. And if you leave a legacy in your will you need to have their tax ID which is on the website.
This page was written on April 10, 2015. That’s more than seven years ago. People have commented and their comments may help us understand the situation. There is a video (date March 30, 2022) in the comments section of his rescue. He is courting more controversy because his rescue center (or one of them) is in a residential area and his neighbour is giving him hell – please scroll down to see the comment and video. I don’t know in which country this rescue is based. His neighbour appears to be speaking in Spanish. I think therefore this is in Spain. It does seem a bit murky but I can’t criticise because I don’t know. His name is a bit strange because isn’t he Turkish? Perhaps he has changed his name?
To be fair there is a lot of fraud in animal rescue because there is potentially, a lot of money to be made in animal rescue on social media, particularly Facebook. There are many animal lovers with some disposable income. You can tap into it if you are smart. I called it the dark side of animal rescue. But I don’t know enough about LAG to make an assessment as to their honesty. From what I see they do fantastic work, genuinely rescuing animals. Here is a video on their YouTube page. Their Facebook page is used to encourage donations.
Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
I’ll write a page later today about a lion rescue that they are involved in. They do present a bold image, perhaps brash and brazen which may upset some people. But if it is effective, who cares?
Things became heated and serious. What appears to be constant sniping and criticism by detractors forced LAG management to commence defamation proceedings in the summer of 2013. I don’t know the outcome, which is strange. There are 38 defendants in the USA, Canada, UK, Germany and Turkey.
One of the defendants is a newspaper: Toronto Pet Daily. Another is Barbara Nemeth who I believe is an American. She counter sued or was prepared to sue in a civil action of harassment against the management of LAG.
LAG state in the defamation papers that they are…
the victim of a defamation campaign led by the defendants against its good name and reputation. According to the claim, some of the most egregious allegations by the defendants accuse Let’s Adopt! Global of stealing donation money for the personal gain of its officers; that Let’s Adopt! Global tortures, murders, and rapes animals; and that Let’s Adopt! Global defrauds its donors.
Also, a website has been created by supporters of Let’s Adopt! Global. Click here to see it.
The authors of the website state that…
a group of women have been trying their best to harass, sabotage and hinder Let’s Adopt! Global in and outside of Facebook with only one goal in mind: to undermine and destroy the work of Viktor Larkhill and LAG.
As there are 38 defendants there are quite a lot of people who are against Let’s Adopt! Global. Why? What evidence is there? Can someone assist in a comment?
Below are some more articles on animal rescue.
I have watched the first dozen minutes of the video which was published on March 30, 2022 and therefore it is quite recent. And you are right that this is a dog and cat rescue centre in a residential area which is unwise. There is no question about that. The rescue is in the wrong place and I don’t know why he has his rescue centre in the wrong place. He says that he has a hybrid model namely some foster carers and a central rescue centre where cats and dogs are housed in two separate buildings. The pink building houses the cats and next to that building is this female neighbour who rants and raves against him and his shelter.
Listening to her, she does sound deranged but my gut feeling is that she is drunk. She is drinking and becoming very aggressive. But that is no excuse and it seemed very peculiar, as you say, that he doesn’t talk to and try and find a compromise of some sort which would, I have to say, be very hard to organise because once you have a shelter in the wrong place the only way to fix the problem is to move the shelter to the right place.
But when I wrote this article a long time ago this man was being attacked then and I’ve not got to the bottom of that and the comments on this page don’t, it seems to me, get to the bottom of it either. Why is he attacked all the time? I don’t know by the way where he gets his money from! Update: I have found his website where he asks for donations. I presume donations but I don’t see the pathway except he is in partnership with other rescue organisations so perhaps he gets the money from them.
I wouldn’t be as critical as you are about this man. He seems, by the way he is talking to be genuine. He doesn’t seem devious. He sounds believable although, as mentioned, his operation is in the wrong place. And as other people have commented, rescue centres in residential areas are a real problem to residents. Particularly with dogs because they bark. This is a nuisance. It might even be a legal nuisance which is actionable.
And sometimes cat rescue can smell a lot with ammonia because the rescuer simply does not cope in keeping the place clean. Bad odours leaking out of a rescue can be an equally bad nuisance to neighbours.
Here is the video:
Yes you are right .Jealousy is the only terrible motive I can really think of that drives these idiot people!! I suggest they hovout and stay busy rescuing beloved potential pets instead of wasting their time and those that support lag!! Two thumbs up for your comments.
I have read some of these ridiculous comments about Victor Larkhill.. Where does the person accusing him of sending 100 dogs to China think he found all these dogs. He must have scoured the streets for months to find that many dogs.
I don’t think a girl like Maribell, who obviously has a great love of animals, work for a man accused of the monstrous deeds they have thought up.
Why when somebody is doing such a great job for abandoned and abused animals, have to put up with such ridiculous ideas that some people cook up to hurt him
Thanks for the information
It was my worry too that these people are deliberately harming animals to make money, hence I ended up searching for information on the organization and people. The cruelty these animals suffer is extreme and unusual. I think they are the abuser or paying others to abuse animals.
Thanks, Estelle, for contributing. Appreciated.