Carrie Kiddle and Christian speak to the Herald. Christian saved Carrie Kiddle's dog Roxy after she was hit by a van. / Video by Jason Oxenham
A couple who loaned a desperate dog owner $13,450 to pay for life-saving surgery after the dog was run over say the woman has not paid back the money as agreed.
Andre and Rachael van Niekerk met with police on Friday to lodge a formal complaint after repeated failed attempts to get Carrie Kiddle to pay back the loan.
But Kiddle said a charity she organised to raise the money fell over and she still planned to repay the money.
Kiddle's plight was publicised by the Herald after her dog Roxy was hit by a van outside her Albany home just before Christmas.
The mother-of-four set up a fundraising page on Facebook and accepted $1500 from a passerby who took Roxy to a nearby vet clinic and paid the money for initial treatment.
When the van Niekerks saw Kiddle needed another $13,450 to save British Bulldog cross Roxy's life they contacted her and offered to loan their savings to the cause.
The animal lovers said Kiddle, a stranger to them, agreed to pay back the loan within six weeks.
"On the Facebook page when she asked someone to pay that $13,500 temporarily for the surgery, she stated on there that she didn't expect it to be a donation and that she'd pay it back within four weeks and it was just because of the time of the year, and that she hadn't been able to get the funds from the Facebook fundraiser into her account," Rachael said.
The couple, who rescue animals in their spare time, sympathised with Kiddle and Roxy and made a verbal agreement to lend the money.
Carrie Kiddle visiting her dog Roxy at ARC vets in Albany after she was hit by a van at Christmas. Kiddle was loaned money to pay for Roxy's life-saving surgery. Photo / Supplied
They then paid the costs to specialist hospital Animal Referral Centre.
Veterinarian Dr Fiona Park previously told the Herald the vet hospital owners agreed to "cap" Roxy's bill at $15,000 despite estimating the true cost of treatment would have been $20,000-$25,000.
When the van Niekerk's lent Kiddle the money her Facebook fundraiser entitled "Save Roxy" had already netted more than $5400 but Kiddle told the Herald she was having trouble getting the money released from Facebook.
She also ran an online auction that local businesses donated goods for.
After six weeks when Kiddle had not repaid the money the van Niekerks agreed to extend the repayment deadline to April 6.
In an email to Andre on April 3, seen by the Herald, Kiddle said: "I have tried everything to raise this money [sic] unfortunately I'm out of options [sic] is there any chance of you taking out a loan and I'll pay the repayments plus the interest to cover the cost."
The van Niekerk's rejected the offer and engaged a lawyer. This week the Auckland couple went to police.
Andre and Rachael van Niekerk are still waiting for repayment of the $13,500 they lent a woman for vet fees four months ago. Photo / Michael Craig
"We're now getting into quite a lot of difficulty ourselves. It was our entire savings," Rachael said.
"We have rescue animals that we have vet bills piling up for. We have black mould in our house that we need to do quite some extensive renovations to get sorted. So it's becoming quite stressful."
Andre said it did not occur to them to make Kiddle sign a contract.
"Given the fact she had a third of the funds raised on Facebook already and we thought, 'Yes it's a difficult time of year, everyone's gone away and she's got kids'.
"We thought we can help her out in the short-term until people come back and she can get all her fundraising together."
Carrie Kiddle's Facebook post on the Save Roxy page, outlining her plea to borrow $13,500. The page has now been made private. Photo / Supplied
In an email to the Herald on Friday, Kiddle, 37, said she had been in hospital but that Roxy was almost 100 per cent recovered.
She said despite trying very hard, the silent auction never hit reserve and the Facebook funds "were a nightmare to get through".
"They [the van Niekerks] got frustrated, as I could understand as I never thought it would take this long to fundraise the money back.
"This situation went from bad to worse and all I want is to pay them back and end this nightmare."
It's not clear if the money raised on Facebook was released to Kiddle and the page is now private.
Rachael said her mother donated $20 and had not been refunded. It's also unclear what happened to the auction items.
Kiddle, a motivational mentor according to her voicemail message, previously said she was "in awe" at the kindness of strangers and called the first Good Samaritan a "Christmas angel".
Christian, who did not want his surname used, said last week he did not want to talk to media about the $1500 he paid for Roxy's initial treatment.
