Correction: This story and its headline have been changed to accurately reflect Danielle Reno’s position at Unleashed as president and not the owner of the shelter, which is a nonprofit corporation.

Danielle Reno, the president of Unleashed Pet Rescue and Adoption in Mission, is defending herself and the animal shelter on social media as the state works to revoke its license.

Officials with the Kansas Department of Agriculture Animal Facilities Inspection program say they are in the process of revoking Unleashed’s license following an inspection of the shelter last fall.

Unleashed has came under public scrutiny more recently, too, following a Fox 4 report last month in which multiple customers and former employees cited a number of complaints, including “dog bowls full of cockroaches” and “injured or sick animals.”

Reno’s first public statement since news of the start of the license revocation process came in the form of a long Facebook post last week in which she defended Unleashed against “unjustified attacks” and urged supporters to send emails to the state agency in charge of overseeing her license.

Reno calls claims “lies” and “grossly exaggerated”

• In her Facebook post, Reno says three people — two former volunteers and a person with  “no knowledge of any internal or external policies” of Unleashed — are leading a campaign to “shut down Unleashed.”
• Reno does not name the individuals but says the two former volunteers have not been to the shelter in more than six months.
• “Their accusations are either grossly exaggerated or complete LIES,” Reno wrote.
• Court T. Kennedy, an attorney for Unleashed, told the Post there would be no additional comment beyond what was included in Reno’s Facebook post.

The shelter’s “existence is in jeopardy,” Reno says

• Reno goes on in her Facebook post to say there aren’t enough local shelters to take the amount of animals Unleashed saves and she sees “animals die… everyday, that we would have taken in.”
• “Our numbers are down, our donations are down, our reputation is threatened, our existence is in jeopardy, all because of this,” Reno wrote, in reference to the ongoing move to strip the shelter of its license.
• She proceeded to ask supporters, both individuals and organizations, to email KDA “to disprove the lies that are being told.”
• Reno also asked supporters to donate to the shelter, which is a registered nonprofit corporation, including via PayPal and Venmo.

Read the full Facebook post here:

Dozens of supporters have sent emails

• Kennedy forwarded the Post several of the emails that have been sent in support of Unleashed, including from people who have fostered and adopted pets from there.
• In one email, Jenna Ball writes that she and her family have fostered more than 200 dogs through Unleashed in the last five years.
• “I have personally NEVER witnessed neglect of animals,” Ball wrote. “I have witnessed only compassion from [Unleashed].”
• Ball goes on to detail several situations in which a dog would have died if Unleashed had not saved it.

The state says it is still receiving complaints

• Heather Lansdowne, KDA director of communications, told the Post via email the department continues “to receive citizen feedback” about the shelter the last few weeks.
• That includes both official complaints against Unleashed as well as informal feedback, she said.
• “Our goal is to protect animal welfare and ensure that licensed facilities are in compliance with the Kansas Pet Animal Act, so we will continue to pursue the legal process that will help us to achieve this goal,” Lansdown said.
• This effort includes the consideration of “factual evidence that demonstrates whether a facility is in compliance with that act and we apply the law equally to all licensees,” she said.