Guiding Eyes for the Blind sues dog handler for return of Mackenzie

Guiding Eyes for the Blind Inc., a Yorktown Heights nonprofit organization that breeds and trains guide dogs for people with vision loss, has accused a volunteer dog sitter of refusing to relinquish Mackenzie, a 3-year-old female yellow Labrador Retriever.

Guiding Eyes accused Kiira Chernik Wolfe of Durham, North Carolina, of breach of contract in a complaint filed June 11 in Westchester Supreme Court.

“Wolfe has failed to return Mackenzie,” the lawsuit states, “a unique animal having been bred and raised purposefully with the expectation that she would produce litters of exceptional potential guide dogs.”

Wolfe”™s attorney has moved the lawsuit to U.S. District Court, White Plains, and has indicated that he will file a counterclaim for fraud.

Guiding Eyes seems to be more interested in producing an “excessive number of litters,” according to a June 1 letter written for Wolfe by Albany attorney Maria Isabel Guerrero, than in protecting the health of the mother dog.

Mackenzie was sired by a Labrador Retriever from France to introduce genetic diversity into the organization”™s colony and avoid inbreeding, Maria Lazzaro, manager of Guiding Eyes”™ foster program states in an affidavit.

Mackenzie was assigned to a volunteer puppy raiser and in 2019 was determined “fit to become a brood dog.”

She was assigned to Wolfe, who then lived in New York City, to foster her during the breeding process.

Guiding Eyes claims that Wolfe never signed and returned the foster agreement that spells out everyone”™s responsibilities.

Mackenzie came into heat in late 2019 and was mated, according to Lazzaro, and in January 2020 produced a litter of seven healthy puppies.

She was returned to Wolfe in March 2020.

Guiding Eyes requires foster handlers to keep dogs within 90 minutes of its Canine Development Center in Patterson, Putnam County, according to Lazzaro, for services such as breeding and quarterly medical evaluations.

But Wolfe allegedly “decamped” with Mackenzie to North Carolina, according to the lawsuit, and has repeatedly ignored written and oral demands to return her.

Guerrero said Wolfe moved to North Carolina because of the Covid-19 pandemic, with “Guiding Eyes”™ knowledge and consent,” and Wolfe stayed in touch with Guiding Eyes for wellness check-ins.

The attorney also states that Mackenzie had developed mastitis ”“ an inflammation of the breasts that can lead to an infection ”“ from nursing her puppies, and that her personality changed after the pregnancy from happy and outgoing to depressed, reclusive, agitated and overprotective.

Wolfe claims she heard that Guiding Eyes “might want 40+ puppies out of Mackenzie,” according to the Guerrero letter.

“This is NOT a reputable breeding practice, nor one that considers the health of the dogs,” the letter states. “In fact, it more closely resembles practices of volume breeders solely consumed with production of puppies.”

Wolfe offered to make a $100,000 donation to Guiding Eyes, in exchange for Mackenzie”™s release from the breeding program, according to Guerrero, but the organization rejected the offer.

Wolfe also sought a commitment from Guiding Eyes to limit the number of litters from Mackenzie, Guerrero said.

“Instead of listening to Kiira”™s concerns over Mackenzie”™s health and continued breeding,” Guerrero states, the organization is retaliating with legal threats and demands to return Mackenzie, “yanking her out of the supportive home she has known for the past two years and most of her life”

Wolfe is represented in the lawsuit by Suffolk County attorney Richard B. Rosenthal. Guiding Eyes is represented by Rye Brook attorney Robert L. Byrne.