To all Pine Island residents

Oct 31, 2012 2 min read

To the editor:

I am a frequent visitor to Pine Island and have been for many years. In the early spring I attended a meeting about a new organization, the Pine Island Wildlife Sanctuary. I, like many of the guests at the meeting, was very excited at the idea and signed up as a volunteer and made a donation. In the following months I saw them at MangoMania and in front of Winn-Dixie signing up more volunteers and collecting more money. It seemed like a new and much needed organization to help the wildlife of Pine Island was taking shape.

Four months later the website is down, they are not returning calls, the veterinarian and secretary resigned and the PIWS has not made any comment or responded to many inquiries; nor have they accounted for the money or donations they received.

In my mind and that of many residents I speak to, is this now a case of fraud and needs to be investigated? What has the organization done with our money and donations?

We welcome a response from PIWS. We know they are business people with offices in Pine Island and Cape Coral, so we know they are local and must be aware of the public sentiment.

Unfortunately they have lost the trust of many Pine Island residents, some of whom would welcome a new sanctuary under a new leadership. As we all recall, our love for animals was evident when Winn-Dixie decided to remove our beloved cats and the uproar that followed. Please let us hope the PIWS was not a scam of any type and the money the president and vice president collected will be donated to a good cause.

Mike Williams

Rhone Island and

Pine Island resident