Author: Scott Patrick Smith

On the Morning of June 17th at 9:00 am, my Lucky hopped the fence and went missing. Between the phone calls, texts, emails, social media and driving around, I had about 25 people helping me find him in Dade County, Miami. By 11 pm, he’d been missing for 13 hours.

At 11:30 pm I got a call from someone telling me that a black dog was picked up by Miami Dade Animal Control at 7:30 pm. The woman sent me the picture that she saw on Animal Control’s website. That picture is on the right. I was 90 percent sure that it was Lucky, but that’s only because I know everything about him.

Does that picture on the right really do him justice? Not at all. Lucky actually looks like the picture on the left. How many other dogs and cats are waiting in shelters to be adopted or on death row because of a poor quality and blurry pictures?

That’s were HeARTs Speak steps in. The organization is comprised of 600 photographers spread across the US and 20 other countries. The photographers go into shelters with professional studio equipment and give the rescues the best chance possible of being adopted.

Each year HeARTs Speak increases the visibility of over 1 million shelter animals around the world. They are the first line of defense for the animals. Lisa Prince Fishler founded HeARTs Speak in 2009 based on her own experience in the adoption process with shelters. Even before the digital explosion the world has experienced in the last decade, Fishler knew that great pictures were the ticket out of shelters and into loving homes.

Friends, I’ve always felt a pit in my stomach for shelter animals. So much so that I’ve never had the courage to walk into a shelter until the morning of June 18th to pick up Lucky. I have been involved in rescues with sheltered animals and personally pulled many animals out of the streets, but never in a shelter until June 18th. I just find it way too heartbreaking.

HeARTs Speak understands people feel that way. That’s precisely why they go into the shelters for us and give the animals the exposure they need. HeART’s Speak even provides compassion fatigue counseling for their photographers knowing how emotional the experience can be. Keep Hearts Speak on your networks. They are an integral part of the animal rescue world.

Her best friend described Toyin as a Sad Girl With the Happiest Spirit.

Nigerian American, Tallahassee Born, Toyin Salu had a very hard life. She came from an abusive family, she’d been sexually assaulted several times and was a victim of sex trafficking. Toyin was taking refuge with local churches and friends during her last days. Anytime she and her friends reached out to the police and lawyers, it always fell on deaf ears.

In the midst of her extremely hard life, Toyin was an active participant and speaker at the Black Lives Matter protest in Tallahassee, Florida. You can see her video on Twitter protesting after transgender black man, Tony McDade was killed by police on May 27th. The video will knock your socks off. It’s hard to believe she was only 19 years old.

On June 6th, down on her luck again, Toyin accepted a ride back to church by a man dressed as a man of God. He offered her a place to sleep for the night, a shower and some clean clothes. Toyin accepted.

By the morning, she had been molested and escaped at 5:30 am in the man’s clothes. Toyin found the poise and composure to report all this over twitter. I have 5 of the tweets below. This is her Twitter account: @virgingrltoyin if you want to see all of them.

The tweets below were the last time anyone had seen or heard from Toyin again. On Saturday, June 13th, she was found murdered. The killer is in custody. It’s unclear if the murderer and molester are the same person. But, what is clear, is she had a life of hell and the system failed her. I’ll make some closing comments after the tweets.

Tweets below:

“Anyways I was molested in Tallahassee, Florida by a black man this morning at 5:30 on Richview and Park Ave. The man offered to give me a ride to find someplace to sleep and recollect my belongings from a church I refuged to a couple days back to escape unjust living conditions.”

“Going back to the situation that happened to me this morning, I did not fall asleep. He then asked me if I wanted a massage at this moment his roommate who was in the house was asleep. I was laying on my stomach trying to calm myself down from severe ptsd. He started touching-

“My back and rubbing my body using my body until he climaxed and then went to sleep. Before I realized what happened to me I looked over and his clothes were completely off. Once I saw he was asleep I escaped from the house and started walking from Richview Road to anywhere else.”

“All of my belongings my phone my clothes shoes are all assumably at the church where I’ve been trying to track since I sought spiritual guidance/ refuge. I will not be silent.”

“Literally wearing this man’s clothes right now DNA all over me because I couldn’t locate his house the moment I called the police because I couldn’t see.”

I’ll close with this, 19 year old Toyin Salau meant something to the world. She was important to a lot of people. Toyin was a bright light in a cold world. Let’s pay attention to other Toyin’s reaching out for help.

Say her name: “Toyin Salau.”

Being the Three Musketeer’s Human Father was the most important job that I ever had. Taking care of them was one thing. But, making them is happy what my life was about. I had that down to a science.

Patrick was violently killed on August 19th, 2018 right before his 6th birthday, I died with him that day. I’ve never been the same.

When Sammy died out of the blue on the morning of January 30th, 2020, I died again.

I’ll Never forgive this life for terminating Patrick and Sammy’s lives like that. They both deserved better. Grateful is not a word in my vocabulary any longer.

My other 6 pups (including Henry on the right in picture) are doing great. I am crazy about them just like with Sammy and Patrick. But, to act like we’ll ever be restored, would be disingenuous. And I’m not go to that.

Thank you Yvonne for your Father’s Day message today. I really appreciate that.

To all the Father’s out there, Happy Father’s day.

Sincerely, Scott Sammy Patrick Smith.

It was the murder that shocked the world. It was these worlds that shocked the world: “I can’t breath. Please. I can’t breath. Mama! Mama, I’m through.”

Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin tortured and suffocated African American George Floyd to death for 9 straight minutes. It was arguably the longest 9 minutes in history. The world died with Floyd that day.

Floyd’s death was the straw the broke the camel’s back (pun intended). This is the beginning of the end of Police Brutality. No more. In some cities, police officers are marching with protestors, taking a knee in the Kaepernick position and holding up signs against police brutality. That’s some positive change right there.

Murals of George Floyd going up in countries around the world. Even Iran put up a George Floyd mural. The world is tired of America’s police brutality towards black people. Americans are also tired of police brutality towards African Americans.

We all need the police. Nobody’s disputing that. But, we also know that the only thing worse than a thug, is a thug with a badge. We the people, are policing the police with our smartphones.

The US has an opportunity here to make it right. George Floyd did not die in vain. Black Lives DO Matter.

No lives will go in vain. No pain will go unnoticed. Amen.

Sincerely, Scott Smith

Have you ever seen an actual murder in real time on video? – Well friends, the suspense is over. 46 year old African American, George Floyd was suffocated to death for 9 straight minutes by Officer Derek Chauvins’ knee. Yes, his knee.

4 Minneapolis police offers responded to a call about a man forging a check to buy groceries at Cup Foods in South Chicago. Once the officers located Floyd, they asked him to step out of his car. The officers said he resisted, but they still managed to swiftly put him in handcuffs and bring him to the floor.

The officers noticed he was in medical distress and called for an ambulance. But that wasn’t good enough for Officer Derek Chauvin. He kept his knee pressed into Floyd’s neck like there was no tomorrow. Look at Derek’s hands by his upper thighs. Do you know why he keeps them there? – By keeping his hands almost to his waist level, it puts the full amount of his weight into Floyd’s neck.

Mr. Floyd was totally subdued on the ground. Zero threat to the police at that point. He had no weapons on him either.

If you watch the video you can hear Floyd say “I can’t breathe. Please I can’t breathe.” – You can also hear bystanders say that his nose was bleeding and he was becoming non-responsive. But that still wasn’t good enough for Officer Chauvin. He kept digging his knee forcefully into Floyd’s neck.

You might be asking why would the officer keep his knee lodged into Floyd’s neck while waiting for an ambulance? Great question. Clearly the officers knew he was sick as they were the ones who called the ambulance.

But Officer Chauvin enjoyed inflicting the pain on Floyd. That’s why he didn’t stop for 9 straight minutes. Chauvin even would arch his back at times to instill even more force into Floyd’s neck.

George Floyd was not only murdered, he was tortured and tormented to death for 9 whole minutes. That’s a long time while you’re choking to death.

The 4 police officers on the scene, including the murderer, Chauvin were immediately fired upon watching the video. I believe they are still getting paid. So, that’s kind of another bull_hit “Leave of Absence.”

Minnesota has not had the death penalty since 1911. It’s time for them to bring it back and execute Officer, Derek Chauvin.

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In observance of Memorial Day, we pay our respects to those that sacrificed their lives defending our freedom.

Although many have come to consider Memorial Day Weekend as the official kick off to summer, it’s meaning is much deeper and it’s roots are dated back to the end of the Civil War in May of 1865.

Memorial day is about being grateful for those that gave us the very freedom we enjoy with family and friends on this extended weekend. Remember, on Memorial Day, the American flag should be hung at half-staff until noon, and then raised to the top of the staff.

DriveWithCompassion wishes for a time where we show our respect to those in uniform by Not sending them into frivolous wars in the first place.

We want to thank retired armyman, Emmanuel Enrique Dextre for having The United States Army make this uniform for Sammy here in the picture. It’s not a costume. This was made for Sammy by the United States Army.

Sincerely, Scott Smith
Founder of DriveWithCompassion

What do you do when love someone more than the word “love” itself? – That’s an easy one. You put a tattoo of that someone on your body.

This is a future birthday present to myself. I had planned on having it done already, but the pandemic lock-downs obviously complicated that.

In the spirit of remaining consistent with living out-loud, this was another horrible year. Losing Sammy was another life changing event. The kind of event where your life can never be the same.

The only joyful moment I had this past year was when I got my big dogs back from Puerto Rico. My 50 year was two thumbs down. That comes on the heals of my 49th year, which was two thumbs down as well.

I wish I could size it up differently, but that would be disingenuous because it’s not true.

Karen Kirkman Hanckel and friends that reached out, I really appreciate it. You’ve all stuck with me from the very beginning. It’s been about 10 years now. Although I am ungrateful in my life at this time, I am grateful towards your friendship.

We’ll see what happens from here, but I am very displeased with the last 2+ years. Keeping it real.

Sincerely, Scott Smith, Sammy and Patrick’s Father, and General to the greatest Wolfpack in the history of the world. Wolfpack 8 to be precise.

As if the meat industry wasn’t cruel enough, the meat producers have ramped up their death tactics amidst the coronaviurs.

The world’s meat supply and demand chain has been through off kilter like never before as a result of the pandemic. f the As such, farms and slaughterhouses are way overcrowded. So overcrowded that the meat producers are inflicting unspeakable atrocities on these innocent animals.

Here’s a couple of their tactics:
1. Gassing them to death
2. Digging holes and burying them alive to suffocate.
3. Burning them alive if they are sick and contagious
4. Shooting them
and Etc.

Barry Smith, my father used to tell me stories about the Holocaust and Auschwitz when I was growing up. I’d like all of you to know that what I wrote above about factory farming and the coronavirus, is not just reminiscent of Auschwitz, IT IS Auschwitz.

Don’t ever forget some of the culprits/companies below:

Smithfield
Krogers
Tyson Foods
Allen Harim Foods
JBS Slaughterhouse
Daybreak Foods

All of these animals’ lives meant something to many of us. But now they’ll just be written off as a loss against taxable income the way anyone of us would write off a loss.

Going vegan or vegetarian is imperative. But, equally important is for companies to stop putting profits before lives. Just because there is a demand for something, doesn’t mean it should be supplied. It’s supposed to be “Lives before Profits.”

No lives will go in vain. No pain will go unnoticed. Amen.

Sincerely, Scott Smith, Sammy and Patrick’s Father and General to greatest Wolfpack in the history of the world. Wolfpack 8 to be precise.

Happy Mother’s Day – A True Warrior

– You were my Mother and Father since 1984.
– You made sure I finished high school in 1987
– You made sure I finished college at NYU in 1993.
– You helped get me my first job on Wall Street.

– I moved in with you at 40 years old when you had open heart surgery on April 21st, 2008. I then supported you and 3 other family household’s through the banking crisis.

– You destroyed 3 different lawyers that tried to take Sammy from me from 2012 through 2015. That was a 4 year battle.

– In 2014 you were targeted in one of the worst landlord/tenant cases in NY State history by the coop board of 11 Wooleys Lane in Great Neck, NY. They targeted you because you lived with your granddaughter who looks black and has an Afro. I annihilated the 11 Wooleys Lane Coop board and their lawyers while I was living in Puerto Rico. We kicked their asses and won the case.

– You came to Puerto Rico in May of 2018 for 6 weeks when I was the target of a scandal involving an animal rescue incident. We had no water or power the whole time.

– You came back to Puerto Rico in August of 2018 when Patrick was killed for another 6 weeks. We had no kitchen or A/C the whole time.

– You took in Sammy, Henry and BabyLady in Florida while I was preparing to leave Puerto Rico after 4.5 years.

– You made sure that I had a home within 6 months so I could bring Lucky, Rocky and Polar Bear to Florida and restore my family.

– I just took down Philip Capolongo of Fortius Holdings, the man who defrauded you out of $20K right in the middle of coronavirus. I wiped his business out in one email.

– My mother and I have Not had a happy life together. But, we’ve gone to war for each other when it counted.

– We have one more war to fight together. That war is JusticeForPatrick. That story is upon us and will be added to this list next Mother’s Day.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom. You’re truly are a warrior in every sense of the word. And as your son, I am a gladiator like never seen before.

Sincerely, Scott Smith, Sammy and Patrick’s Father, and General to the greatest WolfPack in the history of the world. Wolfpack 8 to be precise.

It was the Summer of 2013. Sammy and I spent the day together in Times Square, NYC. We were just a couple of kids kicking together. Young, wild and free. And in a blink of an eye, 7 years passed and he’s gone.

The only thing I can say is that when you’re standing inside of a moment, you’re standing inside of a future memory. Now, that happens to be logistically true. But it also pays me no solace in Sammy’s absence. I’d prefer no logic in order to have him back.

It’s like Forest Gump’s Mom used to say, “Death is just a part of life.” But, it’s like Forest used to say about that, “I sure wish it wasn’t.” – I agree with Forest Gump. I wish it wasn’t part of life either.