Because I honestly believe that most people have the intelligence to see through someone like Brenda M.Negri, I have avoided addressing any of the absolutely ridiculous lies and wild claims she has made about myself as well as any other person who has bred a litter of Spanish Mastiff's in this country in the past year.
The only reason I'm even bothering at this point is that I honestly feel sorry for the people who may be too trusting or for those it simply hasn't occurred to to DO THE RESEARCH! I know that I have talked to many people who have been in contact with her and can only shake my head in disbelief at the stories they tell me! Considering the number of wild allegations she has made against breeders here, she has never once backed up a single innuendo or statement with any proof, regardless of all the times she has been asked. It's simply because none of it actually exists other than in Brenda's twisted and sick mind! One person on the LGD-L list summed it up accurately in a reply to yet another one of Brenda's ridiculous posts "If you can prove that to me, then I will believe these kind of sweeping allegations you make that have no base." (I can forward the thread to anyone who is interested.)
The Internet is an interesting place, but just because one person writes it on Facebook, doesn't mean that there is any actual truth to it!
Though some people will always prefer to believe the sensational lies over the actual facts, I'm sure it simply hasn't occurred to others to actually question the garbage they are being fed. The truth is out there for all to see if they only take a few minutes to look. Those are the people this post is aimed at so you don't have to go through what so many others have when dealing with this nutcase. DO THE RESEARCH on any breeder first! Enter a breeders name as well as their kennel name and READ what actually comes up. Be prepared because Brenda uses many, many screen names! I can tell you that the only negative you will see written about me is from Brenda herself. Brenda can NOT say the same. There is a reason she has been blocked, moderated or kicked off of almost every livestock guardian dog forum and Spanish Mastiff forum out there! And it certainly isn't because she is misunderstood~!
As long as you don't disagree with her, offer up an opinion different than her own, question her, suggest that she's wrong or tell her no, you may never have a problem with her. If you do, read any of these links to discover how viciously she attacks and belittles those that do...There is a pattern here that has become apparent to most everyone who has had any dealings with her both here and in EU. There are more, but you'll get the gist of it...
http://edgefieldsheep.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3728
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/SpanishMastiff/message/1612
http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=11525&p=7
Brenda has snapped like a rabid dog at every hand in the LGD community that has been extended to her in friendship and help.
Brenda keeps claiming that she is raising the bar when it comes to breeding Spanish Mastiffs in the US and the question that begs asking is HOW exactly is she doing so? She plans to breed the same bloodlines that others have numerous times before her over the years, she has not bred a single litter and yet she claims that hers will somehow be miraculously better than the very dogs she is reviling all over the Internet!? She says that most all the other dogs bred here "lack type, bone and wrinkle", yet they are out of the same lines that Brenda plans on breeding herself, lines that 5 of Brenda's dogs came from! She blasts Anne Lattimer-Goetz' dogs and yet they are the same bloodlines as hers, and in fact were sired by the father of THREE of Brenda's dogs. Do the research folks! Apparently Brenda is banking (literally) on no one having the intelligence to see through her lies!
She has no breeding plans posted that have not already been done here over the past 10 years. Maybe the reason she doesn't post extended pedigrees on her dogs is because people would quickly realize the truth of the matter. I have always wondered if Brenda would ever catch on to the fact that by bashing all the dogs here, she is in fact bashing her own future puppies!?
Raising the bar Brenda? I don't think so.
She claims that she is the first Spanish Mastiff breeder in the US to x-ray their dogs hips??? No, you are not! I've had dogs x-rayed, Anne Lattimer, Joe Himmelberg, Kymberly Hudson and Karin Graefe have all had dogs x-rayed at one time or another too. Brenda is not doing anything that hasn't been done here already over the years!
Brenda "raising the bar"? Not hardly!
As for Brenda's claim that I "don't believe in x-rays", that is just more of her twisting words into something they never were. What I have said is that though I think it is a fine tool for breeders, I don't believe it is the be all / end all, and that I am more impressed by fluid movement and correct legs with proper angulations. You can take two dogs with good hips and produce dogs with poor hips. That is a fact. You can also take a dog with poor hips, breed it to a dog with good hips and never have a case of HD in the resulting offspring. There is not enough background information available on any of the dogs in EU to determine if HD may or may not crop up a few generations down the line and frankly, some results are suspected to be false anyway. There are many contributing factors to HD other than genetics (environment, diet, etc).
All of this was in a discussion on the Spanish Mastiff Yahoo group and can be verified. (BTW, Brenda managed to be the first person to ever be kicked off of this group!)
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/SpanishMastiff/message/1321
I would be more inclined to get a dog that has a single parent with a moderate rating than I would from parents with good ratings that lack adequate angulations or are cow-hocked. I had a dog with the same type of poor legs that many of Brenda's dogs exhibit, talked to other owners of dogs with similar issues and we all saw those dogs breaking down and / or crippled beginning as young as 3 years old. Do you honestly believe that I care that my dog x-rayed with good hips when she couldn't get up without struggle because of her poor rear legs??? The difference is that my dog wasn't bred, while Brenda plans to breed all of hers regardless of being cautioned over and over about the probable consequences and being told of what the rest of us dealt with. The same issues, heartbreak and expense that those who buy pups from her will likely have to deal with as well.
Yes, I do take issue with that sort of callous disregard for both the breed AND the people who will suffer along with their dogs! She downplays the structural faults on some of her dogs and says that her dogs movement is "sloppy" and that they are "outgrowing" their cow hocks. At 14-16 months old, an SM should not have "sloppy" movement and dogs don't "outgrow" structural faults such as these.
I talk at length about these subjects on my blog because I feel very strongly about the very problems Brenda tries to make seem insignificant.
http://spanishmastiffs.blogspot.com/2011/10/evaluating-structure-of-spanish-mastiff_23.html
Hell, she even plans to breed a dog that (according to Brenda) has an "atrophied leg"! Will the money she makes from those puppies justify what she will put the dam through to carry a litter?
Good luck folks, because Brenda doesn't believe in contracts, which means you won't have a leg to stand on! She has also stated over and over that she doesn't do spay/neuter contracts and "if someone buys a dog from her, it is theirs to do with what they want". Can ANYONE tell me how it can be good for the breed to have non-breeding quality pups bred!!?
'Raising the bar' Brenda? No. Not in this lifetime!
Brenda has falsely claimed that I am out to make a quick buck off these dogs. That I am "cranking out litters" and that I am a "puppy mill"... What a crock! I have had Spanish Mastiffs for NINE years and have had FOUR litters! Brenda has not even had the breed for two years yet and plans to breed FOUR Spanish Mastiff litters this year alone (8 litters total according to her)! So with the facts laid out, tell me who do you think is really "looking to make a fast buck" off of selling puppies and who is the puppy mill??? Do the research folks!
She goes on and on about the prices charged by others... Yet I've sold pups for less than what she has listed for any of her planned litters long before Brenda ever came on the scene and I can tell you that I sure wouldn't sell an unregistered pup for the $1500 Brenda's asking! What about her supposed 'Boz' Shepard's priced at $2700? hmmm.
And since I mentioned it (and Brenda never stops mentioning it), in regards to the pup I made the colossal mistake of selling to her that she keeps saying is unregistered...Brenda got the paperwork (I have copies and her signature from USPS), she just never bothered to send it in to FCI! According to her, she has not registered any of her imports, yet why does she continually harp on one dog but not the others? Because it is nothing more than an effort to deceive others into believing yet another lie... I also asked to take the pup back from Brenda and she refused. Maybe because she knew that I could have undone the damage she did and turned that dog around and made her into a good LGD? That wouldn't have suited Brenda's purposes. She states that the dog lacks "type" yet she looks exactly like her grand-dam Florita (mother to Brenda's brindle male)!
Like most cons, I will grant you that she is very talented at reading people and telling them what she thinks they want to hear. I initially fell for her lies as well and was incredibly surprised when she originally put up her website and I discovered just how thoroughly she had deceived me and the sheer number of lies she had told. She is a chameleon that changes her story depending on who she is talking to or what forum she happens to be on.
She will talk about how her dogs would "attack a child running towards her gates just like an adult" on one forum, and yet writes on her site that they are child safe! She writes about how her dogs are socialized, but then states on another forum that she seldom gets visitors so her dogs are aggressive towards strangers. How do you socialize a dog without people?
What so many experienced LGD owners and breeders find worrisome is Brenda's continued use of scare tactics (the big, bad mega wolf) and her promotion of aggressive LGD's and fighting dogs to deal with them. Her lack of knowledge on how LGD's really function and her lack of experience will lead to disaster as pointed out here.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/SpanishMastiff/message/1608
As for her claims that my dogs use ramps, that particular fabrication came from this thread
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/SpanishMastiff/message/1509 This just shows just how Brenda twists any innocent thing said...
Most of what Brenda states is just too ridiculous to even bring up except for the amusement factor...
Like my adding a thousand hits to my site every night! Too funny! The problem with that bit of nonsense, is that 1) it doesn't happen and 2) it's not possible for me to change my counter. It reads one ISP and will only register/add that ISP one time regardless of how often that person returns to the site. Could it be Brenda projecting her own lack of integrity and dishonesty onto others again??? Accusing others of what she is guilty of herself? She does tend to do that quite a bit!
She is continually claiming conversations that never took place, "Lois said this" or "Lois said that" yet I haven't spoken with this nut in well over a year! Lets see the records of these supposed phone calls Brenda! Even when you've had people call me to try to get information, I don't waste my time talking about something as inconsequential as you.
Her claims that I have 'bad mouthed breeders on my website" is just more projection by her! She's the only one that has been doing that!
According to her, I'm jealous of her, well respected breeders in Spain are jealous of her, Kangal breeders are jealous of her, people in the LGD community are jealous of her (people who have been working with all LGD breeds for decades), people who breed mixed LGD's are jealous of her. Maybe she needs her medications adjusted again...I hear that paranoia is a symptom of mental illness.
Just for giggles, I love where she claims 40 years of ranching experience here
http://edgefieldsheep.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3715
I wonder when all that happened? I don't recall there being alot of big ranching operations in Laguna Beach, CA where she was raised? Since she is only in her 50's, was that before or after she worked for a legal office, the TSA, CA. Highway Patrol or unemployed while living off her mother's income and 2 acre hobby farm (oops, sorry! Ranch) the past five years or so?
She says that she is the first to bring over a dog from del Viejo Paramo. Big surprise... NOT TRUE! I referred her to them after I bought my female and was actually nice enough to put Brenda's dog from the same kennel on a plane and send him to her when I picked up my girl! She has actually only brought over 2 dogs so far that aren't related to dogs that were already here.
As for Brenda's ridiculous claim about my dogs not working? Too stupid for words! Anyone and everyone that has been to my farm will tell you the truth of the matter. At my old farm, the goats free ranged 24 acres along with my dogs and birds, at night they were locked into their own pasture. Some dogs would be in the pasture with them, some had perimeter duty. Some got to sleep in the house. Photos have been on my site for years and anyone with a lick of sense can see that my dogs do in fact work. The goats and birds would not be comfortable with them if they didn't. Since we've moved to our new farm, the goats and dogs are confined to their 9 acre pasture with the exception of our two house dogs (who have always been house dogs).
What does it say about Brenda as a 'breeder' (and I use the term loosely!) and as a person who claims to be devoted to the breed, that she has done her utmost to try to turn what has been a wonderful and positive experience for so many owners and breeders here in the US and make it appear to be something ugly and negative. What kind of legacy is that?
Everything I have said here can be verified with copies of e-mails and links (many, many more than the few I've posted here). I'll be happy to provide them. Can Brenda show proof of even a single one of her accusations? No.
She doesn't know the meaning of the words integrity or honesty.
A little interesting background information on Brenda M. Negri. I don't know if the author is 'all there' either but she profiled Brenda to a T and we are obviously seeing the same tactics employed by her in regard to myself and other breeders here in the US.
http://barbarahartwellvscia.blogspot.com/2010/12/profile-of-tsa-criminally-insane.html
From another post that I unfortunately find quite believable based on my own experiences with her. "Negri's mother, her fifteen year old son and others have expressed their concern to witnesses over what they described as Negri's "unstable" mental condition, apparent paranoid delusions and bizarre behavior."
http://barbarahartwellvscia.blogspot.com/2007/01/just-facts-report-on-brenda-negri-aka.html
I don't believe that I will need to post anything further on this subject and will go back to enjoying my dogs and my life. This was much more than than the topic deserved anyway...
Lois Jordan http://www.fallcreekfarm.net
