I haven’t posted anything for over a month since I have been busy with other projects and my personal life. The last column I posted was from February 20, 2016. It was a relatively short column I wrote commenting on how stupid “Prestigous Pets” of Dallas, Texas was to file a lawsuit against Robert and Michelle Duchouquette for a 1-star Yelp review. Much of what I reported came from two online CBS video news reports where they displayed court documents on national TV. I took the extra step of closely studying and watching the news videos to discern the details from televised documents. I found a lot of interesting details not discussed in the original story.
Anyhow, the “Prestigious Pets” column was supposed to be a one-off story. But today, I received an email notification from an unnamed “representative of Prestigious Pets LLC” to take down my story.
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From: Prestigious Pets <prestigiouspetsdallas@yahoo.com>
To: mattXXXX@gmail.com
Subject: https://defiantly.net
I am a representative of Prestigious Pets LLC. Your company has published a story regarding Prestigious Pets, LLC that contains defamatory statements and negative statements that violate a contract between a party and Prestigious Pets LLC. Please remove the story promptly.
Intrepid – Defiantly
P.O. Box 6391
Columbus, GA 31917
Thank you!
Prestigious Pets, LLC
214-912-7799
Reg Office Hours:
M-F 9am-4pm
Sat 11am-3pm
Sun Closed
The contents of this e-mail message and any attachments are confidential and are intended solely for addressee. They may not be copied, distributed, forwarded or reproduced. The information may also be legally privileged. This transmission is sent in trust, for the sole purpose of delivery to the intended recipient. If you have received this transmission in error, any use, reproduction or dissemination of this transmission is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please immediately notify the sender by reply e-mail or phone and delete this message and its attachments, if any.
I assumed the email came from business owner, David McWhorter Kalle McWhorter. No ethical lawyer in good standing would send a blind email from prestigiouspetsdallas@yahoo.com asserting the incorrect things he did. This guy is seriously brain-damaged in trying to send me a takedown notice. Does he even have a clue that I (with the help of my legal and support team) won a unanimous victory last year with the Georgia Supreme Court regarding online speech issues?
Here was my email reply to prestigiouspetsdallas@yahoo.com:
Dear Unnamed Representative of Prestigious Pets LLC (presumably David McWhorter),
You have sent me a very foolish email request given your recent situation. I assume you are objecting to my recent column about various news stories about your efforts to sue a Texas couple (the Duchouquette’s) for giving your business service a negative Yelp review.
https://defiantly.net/prestigious-pets-stupidly-sues-customer-for-negative-yelp-feedback/
I presume you know that your story was well covered nationally by the Dallas Morning News, Fox News, USA Today, and The Daily Mail to name a few sources.
I have re-read my column and much of the information I reported conveniently came from the two CBS video news stories which show the content of the court documents.
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2016/02/17/yelp-review-lands-couple-in-court/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/yelp-negative-online-review-texas-couple-sued-jeremy-stoppelman/
Other information came from public records freely available online.
It is apparent you did not read my column carefully. Do you know what the Streisand Effect is? I made mention of it in my column. Well, you are starting it all up again.
I can promise you that my one short “negative” column on a small website does not compare to all the wonderful media attention you managed to get for yourself based on your foolish lawsuit against Michelle and Robert Duchouquette.
And regarding your comment about my “violating a contract between a party and Prestigious Pets”, I am not a party to that. I have no agreement with you or anyone else to NOT write or publish information that was already put out publicly by the two CBS video news stories and other news reporting organizations. If you want to be upset, go complain to them.
In closing, I will NOT remove my column. I stand by what I wrote as being factually correct and my “negative” opinion is entirely appropriate. If there any facts I have inadvertently missed, I will happily correct it. Absent incorrect facts, I will not change or take my column down.
My suggestion to you is to let it go. Give it up. As I wrote in my column, you seriously need to cut your losses and just move on. How much more negative publicity do you need? Why are you trying to revive a story that has gone stale?
Matthew
I am still deciding on whether or not I want to call CBS News in Dallas or any of the other news media who reported on the original story. Do I let my email response and this new column stand alone? Or do I take it further? I may reach out to the Duchouquette’s and show them the takedown email from Prestigious Pets LLC. I wonder what they would say if they knew that Prestigious Pets is still trying to “motivate” people into taking down unfavorable comments about them.
May 6, 2016 UPDATE: The lawsuit filed by Dallas lawyer, Bill S. Richmond on March 28, 2016 reveals that Prestigious Pets LLC is owned by Kalle McWhorter, not David McWhorter.
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This moron is most certainly craving attention..I generally don’t write about or cover jerk offs that complain about negative YELP reviews on my blog, but since I’m kinda bored I’m feeling compelled, I guess I’ll put on a little background music( None other than Barbara) and do a quick post!
You may not write about such things but I know you are a big supporter of the Streisand Effect.
oh damn, I’m forbidden??? too late…I’ll be anxiously watching my inbox for a “confidential” nasty gram.
Matthew, forget the Streisand Effect-What about the Amy’s Baking Company Effect? the Gordon Ramsay Kitchen Nightmare fiasco? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/amys-baking-company/
What this company is doing is what Amy did…
That Amy’s Baking thing was a once in a lifetime event,I doubt we’ll ever see anybody top that!
I’m not so sure Amy’s breakdown is an isolated incident. The team behind Prestigious Pets appears to share the mindset as Amy has.
They need to a little emotional self-control and learn to chill out.
It finally reached Sacramento today. Geez we are slow here. Lol
I could not love this page more!!! Being an animal lover and living in Dallas… Regardless of what is or isn’t on yelp, Prestigious Pets has a VERY BAD reputation… They are ALWAYS hiring because they cannot keep employees. Anyways just wanted to say keep on keeping on with this page. So awesome.
Curious, any updates on this? Did they push harder?
Prestigious Pets lost and I heard they were going to appeal
Where did you hear that they were going to appeal? I am curious.
In Dallas on the local news after the hearing when they announced PP lost
There are more updates in the court docket. However, it will take a bit more time to write about it. However, here is a page I created which lists updates by Public Citizen and Paul Alan Levy. https://defiantly.net/index-to-prestigious-pets-texas-lawsuit-updates-by-public-citizen-paul-alan-levy/