On 5/6/2014 2:49 PM, Ophelia wrote:
>
>
> "Moe DeLoughan" > wrote in message
> ...
>> On 5/6/2014 1:57 PM, Cheri wrote:
>>>
>>> "Moe DeLoughan" > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>>> On 5/6/2014 1:01 PM, Ophelia wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> "Moe DeLoughan" > wrote in message
>>>>> ...
>>>>>> On 5/6/2014 10:57 AM, jmcquown wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> A few years back a woman I know in England (from another ng)
>>>>>>> was in
>>>>>>> the hospital for a period of time. A friend was cat-sitting
>>>>>>> for her
>>>>>>> two cats. One of her cats was elderly but under a vets care.
>>>>>>> One day
>>>>>>> the cat was out for a stroll. Some woman saw the cat and
>>>>>>> assumed it
>>>>>>> was a stray. She picked it up and took it to the RSPCA. Without
>>>>>>> even
>>>>>>> attempting to find out whether or not the cat had a home, they
>>>>>>> euthanized it.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Imagine coming home to that. IIRC it took quite a while for
>>>>>>> her to
>>>>>>> find out what happened to her cat.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> A year or so ago in my area, a family's cat ran away from its
>>>>>> home. The
>>>>>> family searched to no avail. Several weeks later they discovered
>>>>>> on an
>>>>>> online bulletin board that their cat had been found and given to a
>>>>>> no-kill
>>>>>> shelter in a nearby town. They called the shelter, described their
>>>>>> cat and
>>>>>> the shelter confirmed its distinctive meow. But they refused to
>>>>>> give
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> family their cat back. They refused to let the family _adopt_
>>>>>> their cat
>>>>>> back, even when the family offered to pay the adoption fee.
>>>>>> Instead,
>>>>>> they
>>>>>> placed it with another person. The shelter told the press that it
>>>>>> was the
>>>>>> family's fault for letting their cat run, and they had
>>>>>> absolutely no
>>>>>> intention of telling the family where their cat was now living.
>>>>>
>>>>> That sounds like theft! How dare they refuse to give her property
>>>>> back to here (because leaving aside the affection, that is how it
>>>>> would probably be seen in law!
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Turns out the law here says that after holding an animal for five
>>>> days, animal impound facilities are free to dispose of pets as they
>>>> please. The shelter said they had the cat for over two weeks. So
>>>> they had the legal right to hand off the cat to whomever they chose,
>>>> and they were quite obnoxiously adamant in their opinion of the
>>>> cat's original family unfitness to own a pet (because the cat wasn't
>>>> neutered, wasn't chipped, wasn't collared, and was found straying).
>>>
>>> I agree 100%, love your pets, give them what they need, or let
>>> somebody who will do the right thing, do the right thing.
>>
>> The family claimed the cat was collared, but it had a habit of
>> slipping its collar, and it had escaped outdoors. As for being
>> unneutered, they said they just hadn't taken it to the vet to be
>> fixed yet.
>>
>> A place I used to work at was a warehouse on the edge of a
>> residential neighborhood. One spring we had a problem with a
>> neighbor's cat. It had a collar, but no tag. It was very, very
>> sociable - so much so, it kept sneaking into the business and ending
>> up getting locked in overnight. I wrote a note and taped it to her
>> collar, asking her owners to take better care of her. After all, she
>> could've gotten injured or poisoned in the warehouse. Nothing
>> changed. Then one day she came into the store but was limping and
>> shying away from everyone. She had a couple of good-sized wounds
>> that were infected. I had my sisters come pick her up and take her
>> to my vet, whom I'd phoned and assured I would pay for the kitty's
>> care. The vet said she'd been attacked by another, larger animal,
>> and the wounds hadn't been treated, so they got infected.
>>
>> She stayed with me till she healed up, then I gave her away to a
>> very good home. She lived a very long and pampered life, and I'd
>> visit her occasionally.
>>
>> Oh, yeah - several days after she'd showed up injured at the
>> warehouse, a woman came asking about her. The owner told her the cat
>> had been badly injured and an employee took the cat to the vet and
>> then gave it away. She begged for the return of her cat. She said
>> her kid was crying for it. The owner said they weren't crying after
>> the cat had been injured and the wounds got infected, so they didn't
>> deserve to keep it. And good day to _you_, madam.
>
> Yes, I would want to remove an animal that was injured and uncared
> for. Was that the case with the cat that was given away by the animal
> centre?
>

The shelter said the cat had been brought in by a man who'd found the
cat hanging around his house for the past several days. The shelter
said the cat was in 'terrible condition', but did not elaborate. In
fact, they hung up on the reporter who called them in an attempt to
mediate the dispute and hopefully get the family's cat back. (It's one
of those newspaper columns where people having a problem with a local
business ask the columnist to intervene on their behalf.)