11th Hour Social Media Blitz to Fight for Shelter Pets’ Lives

On Wednesday February 15,  Assembly Bill A05449A will be introduced in the NY state Ag Committee.  This quick kill bill is expected to pass and we need to make our voices heard tonight to keep that from happening.  This quick kill bill is of immediate concern to NYers because it affects their community pets but it’s also very worrying for pet owners everywhere because it sets a legal precedent for more needless shelter pet killing.

And once again, it falls upon “the irresponsible public” to stand up for the lives of pets because the multi-million dollar animal welfare groups won’t do it.  Where is Alley Cat Allies, the nation’s largest group advocating for feral cats?  They should be mobilizing their forces in opposition to this bill which will legalize instant killing for every feral cat in NY.  Where is Best Friends?  They ask people to donate so there will be “no more homeless pets” but this bill might as well be named “no more living homeless pets”.  Why aren’t they mass e-mailing members to take action against this?  HSUS?  Tuh, I know better than to ask.  And of course ASPCA is the group that is leading the coalition to get the quick kill bill made into law.

It’s up to you and me.  Again.  No matter where you live, please take action and voice your opposition to the ASPCA’s quick kill bill.  Then pass this information on to your compassionate animal friends.  Every voice counts.

As always, please keep your comments respectful.

With permission, I am sharing Nathan Winograd’s most recent post on the subject, complete with action items, below.  This is the most succinct explanation I’ve seen.  If you aren’t familiar with the quick kill bill and need more information, there are links at the end.

From Nathan Winograd:

If the ASPCA and Assembly Member Amy Paulin get their way, feral cats and scared cats can be exterminated immediately on intake in New York State shelters.
The ASPCA is pushing legislation sponsored by Assembly Member Amy Paulin that would allow New York State shelters to kill animals immediately if shelter staff determine that the animals are in “psychological pain.” There is no definition of what constitutes psychological pain and no standards to how it will be applied. For the first time anywhere in the U.S., shelters will be allowed to kill animals with no holding period of any time based on the animals’ perceived state of mind, giving regressive shelter bureaucrats unlimited discretion to immediately kill animals based on unenforceable, unknowable, and completely subjective criteria. Not only is this a real and immediate threat to shy and scared animals, as well as feral cats, but it is a very dangerous precedent to introduce in the animal control laws of our nation.

Whether you are from New York or not, please speak up for the animals:

• Email Ed Sayres: esayres@aspca.org

• Post comments on the ASPCA Facebook page: www.facebook.com/aspca

• Post comments to twitter: @aspca

• Email Amy Paulin: PaulinA@assembly.state.ny.us

• Post comments on Paulin’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/assemblywomanpaulin

• Post comments to twitter: @AmyPaulin

Learn more:

Gone in 60 Seconds

The ASPCA Fights for More Shelter Killing in NY

Can Anything Be Done about This Freak?

Paul Zhang has admitted to trapping dozens of cats in Queens and Brooklyn recently, taking them to three different vets to be killed.  Mr. Zhang says they are feral colony cats he’s been feeding and now that he’s moved to a new location, is doing them the “kindness” of killing them.

“I can’t bear the thought of my animals getting out or being abandoned,” Zhang explains. “So I did the best thing I can consider: For them to never experience any suffering. So I put them all down. Because I also think Animal Care and Control does shit adoptions. I’m sorry, I’m a little prejudiced but I’ve seen the people that come in to adopt there and I would never let my cats go with them.”

I’m sorry you’re a little prejudiced too.  But not half as sorry as I’m sure your feline victims are.

At least one of the cats he trapped and had killed at a vet’s office was someone’s pet cat named Anthony.  The clinic where Mr. Zhang says he had Anthony and several other cats killed is Antelyes Animal Hospital which says:

We did euthanize several cats for him, believing that we were doing the right thing. [...] After that we told him we will not help him anymore and to find another vet. He threatened to drown the cats at home. This when his true sick nature was finally displayed to us. We deeply regret that we even helped him for a short time.

And by “helped him”, the clinic means “killed cats”.  It sounds like if Mr. Zhang hadn’t made the drowning threat, the vet would still be pocketing the checks and killing cats.

Can’t the Mayor’s Alliance do something?

[T]he Mayor’s Alliance, for which he says he has helped TNR (trap-neuter-return) thousands of cats, has demanded he return the traps they gave him.

Uh – I guess I should say, can’t they do something meaningful?

ASPCA – this guy is rounding up cats and having them killed in your backyard.  Where are you?

NJ Colony of Golden Girl Cats Poses Extreme Awful Really Bad Risk

A small group of caring volunteers in Middlesex, New Jersey has been maintaining a colony of cats in the community for 8 years.  The colony lives in a field behind a church.  The volunteers bought and set up a shed for housing the cats, trapped them all, had them vaccinated and neutered, and returned them.  They now feed them regularly.  Over the years, the colony has reduced in size due to adoptions and deaths from 24 cats to just 10 today.

The 10 remaining cats are all senior kitties and colony caretakers would like them to live out their days in peace.  But suddenly it’s a hair-on-fire emergency to haul the cats off to the pound to be killed:

“For eight years, it has been an extreme health risk,” Middlesex Mayor Robert Sherr said, drawing groans from those who last week attended an emergency meeting of the borough’s board of health.

It’s been an EXTREME HEALTH RISK for 8 years!  Gah!  Think of the children!

But health officials say the cat community is unsafe, particularly with a preschool operating in the rear potion [sic] of the church.

“If I was the parent of a child at the preschool, I would be upset,” [Borough board of health president John] Madden said.

Yes, just imagine.  Your wee tot might see a cat from a distance.  And of course, seeing a cat is a good way to get RABIES!

And then, the inevitable:

“Managed cat colonies are not a humane solution for the cats because they still face a multitude of hazards, including cars, poisoning, animal attacks, inclement weather and human abuse,” acting county health director Katherine Antonitis said in a statement. She said rabies infections are more prevalent in cats than dogs.

Rabies!  RABIES!

As to how many kiddies have been infected by rabies from these elderly cats over the past 8 years – well, I guess it must not be too many or they would have mentioned it.  Church staff have reportedly had to cover the kids’ sandbox, which I’m sure is a terribly exhausting ordeal to suffer through each day, but isn’t that just good practice for any pre-school?

I know it’s a code red extreme health risk situation here with the grumpy old cats but has anyone checked to see how many kids at the pre-school have actually gotten sick from the cats vs. how many have gotten sick from getting coughed on, sharing toys, and eating food off the floor?  Maybe the borough should convene another emergency meeting.

By the way, does every man, woman and child have access to health care in Middlesex, NJ?  Cause if not, I wonder if the board of health might have any more pressing items on its agenda.

Action Alert Regarding Community Cats

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) hates feral cats.  As such, they are opposed to the only proven program – Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) – aimed at eliminating feral cats over time while minimizing costs.  That does not make sense, but then The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service isn’t exactly known for applying common sense to feral cat management.

In November, The Wildlife Society will hold its annual conference in Hawaii.  Among the workshops will be this one:

Influencing Local Scale Feral Cat Trap-Neuter-Release Decisions
Organizers: Tom Will, USFWS, Fort Snelling, MN Mike Green, USFWS, Portland, OR

In short, the USFWS is sending two staffers to Hawaii to conduct an all day workshop on how to combat compassionate citizens who are advocating for TNR in their communities.  If you pay taxes in the U.S., you are paying for this.  If you don’t like how your tax dollars are being spent here, Best Friends has an action alert all set up for you.

Update on Charlotte

Ona from Meows and BowWows sends in this update on Charlotte, the feral cat they rescued from a stick poking jerk at MAS in April.  Charlotte has been spayed, vaccinated and ear-notched and is now getting acclimated at her release site:

One large house, one large barn and acres of perfectly manicured grass and lots of trees. There is one lone cat named Barney that lives in the barn now. We decided to leave Charlotte in a kennel in the barn for a week and will release her next Saturday. This isn’t just a barn somewhere, it is a barn that people are in and out of everyday and the owners live in the house nearby.

Not too shabby, Miss Charlotte.

Thank you Meows and BowWows and everyone who contributed to the care of Charlotte and her newborn kittens.

By What Right?

What gives a taxpayer funded animal shelter the right to abuse and/or kill pets?  Is it the law of Finders Keepers?

“We got ‘em now so we can do whatever we want to ‘em”?

There are laws to protect pets from abuse and killing by private citizens.  Should animal shelters and their workers be exempt from those laws?

Susan Boyer is an employee at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg AC & C shelter.  She has been in the press, defending the actions of the workers who abused pets at the shelter:

“There was not one bit of animal cruelty involved with that,” Susan Boyer, a vet technician at the shelter, said. “I can say that 100 percent.”

Boyer has worked at the shelter in some capacity since the mid-1980s. She said the pictures of sedated cats posed with cigarettes and knives are examples of “bad judgment” by good workers.

“I compare that to if you’ve ever put your dog or cat in a Halloween costume,” Boyer said. “You’ve done the same thing.”

Graham is our beloved 11 year old Beagle who has undergone surgical cancer treatment more times than I care to recall and for whom I lovingly prepare homemade food and treats.  She has a bed in every room in the house, including our bed.  I have taken lots of photos of her over the years to share with family and friends because she is a light in our lives.  A couple of those photos appear on this blog.

The cats in the abuse photos were at the shelter because they were in need of protection.  That’s why all animals are at shelters.  If they were feral, they needed appropriate veterinary care, ear tipping and neutering before being returned to their colonies.  Hopefully the shelter works with colony caretakers to expand the number of managed colonies in the community.  If the cats were feral, they would have been frightened beyond imagination to be in the shelter environment.  I say again, they were in need of protection.

According to Ms. Boyer, if I wake Graham up from a nap, put her in a Halloween costume and snap a photo for a keepsake, I am doing the same thing as drugging a frightened cat I’m being paid by taxpayers to protect, posing him for a degrading photo, posting it on Facebook for a laugh, then killing the cat and tossing him in the freezer to await, I assume, the Dead Cat Man who rummages through cat carcasses at NC shelters and picks out which ones he’ll pay the shelter $5 apiece to take to his dissection specimen business.  Although Graham can not speak, I dare say she would object to the comparison.  I know I do.

As Graham’s owner, I have the right to dress her up in a costume for a picture if I so choose.  (She may of course decline to cooperate.)  By what right do shelter workers drug, pose for photos, then kill homeless cats?

Excerpts from Ms. Boyer’s recent Letter to the Editor appearing in The Charlotte Observer:

The feral kitten was not tranquilized; it was being held for a photo ID.

If this is accurate, I interpret this to mean that all feral kittens are treated in exactly this manner for photo IDs.  That is, they all have pens jammed in their mouths, paws placed upon the pen, and are positioned over the kill log.  Disgraceful.  By what right does the shelter treat kittens this way?

The feral cat was tranquilized, along with probably 10 other feral cats that day, to allow for nail trimming, vaccinations, etc.

If accurate, the shelter is tranquilizing batches of feral cats to give them pedicures and vaccines before they are killed.  Does the Dead Cat Man pay extra for cat carcasses with recent nail trims?  Are all sedated cats posed in life-devaluing ways for laughs or was this the one and only time anything like this ever happened?  By what right does the shelter treat feral cats this way?

Yes, those feral cats were eventually euthanized. Maybe if more cat rescue groups got involved, there would be other options.

Blaming the public – really?  Maybe if the shelter chose to neuter and return feral cats to their colonies instead of posing them for “funny” pictures and then killing them, more people might be interested in managing feral cat colonies in the area.  By what right does the shelter kill feral cats?

Here is a video of Ms. Boyer addressing the Cabarrus Co Commissioners Meeting this summer.  In her comments regarding the use of the gas chamber vs. killing of shelter pets by injection, she describes the latter as a “morale booster” for shelter staff.  She also claims to have personally killed more than 10,000 pets.  By what right is an animal shelter employee allowed to kill over 10,000 pets?

We are a no kill nation of compassionate pet owners who love and respect our pets.  We object to anyone comparing us dressing up our beloved pets for Halloween to abusing and killing feral cats in a shelter.  We are calling your bluff on needless animal shelter killing and abuse.  We know better.  Join us.

PETA Advocates for “A Quick and Painless End” for Feral Cats in MD

PETA writes in a letter to the Prince George’s Co Council in MD, dated September 28, 2010:

We have been contacted by concerned Prince George’s County-
area citizens about a push by a small group of citizens to legislatively legitimize their hobby of feeding feral cats, without regard for the health and welfare of other animals or taxpayers in the community.

A fringe group of crazy cat ladies who will be the death of us all…

We strongly support the current law in Prince George’s County, which rightfully cites citizens who fail to properly care and house animals in their custody.

Where are the tens of thousands of citations for PETA then, pursuant to their failure to care for pets in their custody?

We receive countless reports of incidents in which cats—“managed” or not—suffer and die horrible deaths because they must fend for themselves outdoors. Having witnessed firsthand the gruesome things that can happen to feral cats, we cannot in good conscience oppose euthanasia as a humane alternative for dealing with overpopulation. Please know that this stance is based solely on what we believe to be the most humane option for these animals.

Yes we know PETA believes killing pets is “the most humane option”.  PETA makes that clear year after year by killing thousands and thousands of homeless pets without even trying to find homes for them.

PETA supports the efforts of animal control agencies when they rescue cats from the streets, even if a quick and painless end is the best that can be offered.

I notice they don’t reference any alternatives (such as cat sanctuary) that don’t involve death.

Communities that wish to effectively address animal overpopulation and its attendant public health and safety concerns can make serious headway by implementing ordinances that require citizens to spay and neuter their own animals, forbid the sale and trade of intact animals without a costly permit, and require local animal shelters to remain accessible and user-friendly by accepting all animals at all times without fees or reservations.

Oh do tell us how to run a successful shelter PETA – what size walk-in freezer do you find works best for storing the bodies?  And by the way, mandatory spay-neuter laws do NOT help pets and there is no such thing as “animal overpopulation”.  But don’t let the absence of truth slow you down.

Food left out by citizens who insist on feeding feral cats[...]

God damn them to hell!

[...]and leaving the animals homeless to fend for themselves attract a variety of other animals, including those who are considered “pests” and are common rabies vector species (raccoons, foxes, etc.).

So we’re all going to get rabies tomorrow if we help feral cats to live?  It’s a miracle we’ve survived as long as we have!

A response, all facty-like, from Prince George’s Feral Friends, dated October 11, can be read here.  The group has filed a lawsuit against the county for “imputing ownership of feral cats by virtue of feeding them”.