South Elgin cat rescue group told to return Pepsi grant
A South Elgin shelter for feral and abandoned cats may have to close after receiving a letter from Pepsi asking the shelter to return a portion of a $50,000 grant it won in October.
Carol Schultz of the Guardian Angels Feline Rescue said she received a letter from Pepsi this week saying she must return the money she received through the Pepsi Refresh Project no later than Jan. 26.
The letter says that after an audit of the October 2010 online vote totals, Pepsi determined Schultz did not receive enough legitimate votes to put her in the top 10 (the top 10 vote-getters receive grant money), according to Schultz.
Schultz, though, said she has already used about $10,000 of the grant to pay for needed surgeries for the 30 cats in her care as well as gift cards to buy cat food for struggling families.
“There's no way we can pay them back,” Schultz said. “We're so in debt now.”
While the letter does not say where the disqualified votes originated, Schultz said, a woman who runs a wildlife sanctuary in Hawaii accuses Schultz and others of hiring a man in India to rig Pepsi's contest by generating thousands of votes with lists of valid e-mail addresses.
According to Ann Goody of the Three Ring Ranch in Kailua Kona, Hawaii, Schultz offered to help Goody and several other competitors win by connecting them with an Indian source nicknamed “Mr. Magic” and admitted to winning on the strength of his illegitimate votes.
“Mr. Magic has lists of e-mails that will register as real e-mail addresses,” Goody said. “They've got people sitting there (in India) voting for 10 different projects at a time.”
Schultz denies this and says that after Goody finished in 11th place in October, Goody repeatedly contacted her to find out how to win. To get her off her back, Schultz says she made up the story about paying “Mr. Magic.”
“It got to the point where I was just giving her information … and it backfired,” Schultz said. “She was tape-recording my conversations (Goody admits to this) and that's what she used against me.”
Schultz, who is 69 and retired, says she plans to contact Pepsi to try to resolve the situation. Meanwhile, she also has a potential zoning problem — prompted by media coverage of the Pepsi controversy.
A South Elgin zoning officer visited Schultz's home Thursday after the village learned she was operating an animal shelter in a residential area, which is illegal under the village's ordinances.
“You can't run a business like that in a residential district,” said Steve Super, South Elgin's director of community development. “An animal shelter is a special use in some districts, but not residential districts.”
The case is still under investigation, and Schultz has not been cited.
Schultz, who is also recovering from breast cancer, says she's about ready to throw in the towel, even though people continue to leave cats on her lawn and doorstep.
“We may be having a rummage sale,” she said.
Pepsi could not be reached for comment late Thursday, but Shiv Singh of Pepsi wrote the following in a Wednesday blog post: “After completing a thorough review of the facts related to this issue … and removing any votes determined to be fraudulent, we identified one idea during the October voting period that did not in fact place within the top 10 vote-getters in the category. As a result, the Pepsi Refresh Project has decided to rescind this grant.”