Cat breeder dumps FeLV positive tortie cats in a field to die

A Cats Protection volunteer was angered by what very much appears to be an informal cat breeder dumping FeLV positive cats in a field to die. FeLV positive cats are those that are suffering from the feline leukaemia virus which can't be cured in which usually is fatal within four years.

Fearful, dark tortie cats with FeLV dumped in a field in the UK to die. Two have been euthanised. Image: Breckland Cats Protection.

It's a killer and a lingering death and what happened is that the Cat Protection charity euthanised two of the cats because the disease was too advanced, they say, and a third is too ill to be blood tested at the moment. 

Feline leukaemia virus is transmitted through saliva, blood and other body fluids. The allegation is that there is an informal cat breeder out there (there are too many) near Didlington, near Mountford, in the UK, who bred what appears to be dark tortoiseshell cat informally and because of bad management the cats contracted this viral disease and then he or she decided to simply throw them away which they did by putting them in sealed crates secured with zip ties and placing those crates in a field in Dinnington.

Fortunately, the farmer found them on October 17th and they were taken into the care of Breckland Cats Protection.

The volunteer, Ms Lardner, who I refer to is urging anyone who has recently bought kittens from this breeder to take their cats to veterinarian for a checkup because it seems very plausible that other cats from this person have also contracted this fatal disease.

Lardner said: "I'm just so angry, I can't get over it. This is the result of breeding and the market being so saturated."

Yes, the last thing that British society needs is a person informally breeding cats to make a few quid and doing it in such a bad way that they cats are unadoptable and have to be put down. And even if the cats were healthy, it's wrong. There are too many cats in shelters needing homes for an irresponsible, unscrupulous person to create more.

Final point: I have referred to "an informal breeder" because there are non-purebred cats i.e. moggies. If there were purebred cats this would have been a formal breeder, normally registered with a cat association and they would then be complying with much higher standards. It is the ad hoc cat breeders trying to make a few quid who really are a problem. It is not illegal to do this but it should be.

The report comes from the Eastern Daily Press.

Location: Didlington, Thetford IP26 5AT, UK

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P.S. please forgive any typos. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Woman ran Chicago marathon (3:31) and rescued and rehomed a kitten at the same time!

This is a great little story on Facebook. A Boston resident, Sarah Bohan, was a participant in Chicago's marathon. She was running the charity for PAWS Chicago. This is one of the largest no-kill animal welfare organisations in America. There were 482 runners on the team running for PAWS. A wonderful effort.

Sarah Bohan rescues stray kitten during Chicago marathon. Image: FB.

That would have been great by itself but Sarah went a lot further. She was on a personal best time when she noticed a scared and dirty kitten under a bridge at the 21-mile mark. She was not that far from the finish line really.

This is what she said.

"I saw this white fluffy thing scurrying under a bridge and recognized it as a dirty, scared cat that was obviously a stray separated from its mother. At that point, my personal record was out the window and I knew what I had to do."

She rescued the kitten and then walked for about a mile asking spectators if they would take the kitten that she'd rescued and rehome her. She found a woman who is a cat caregiver who promised her that she would rehome the kitten. Or perhaps she's taken the kitten in. The picture above shows the moment of handover.

Then Sarah continued her race and finished in an impressive 3:31:35, which is a good time.

Sarah did an amazing job. The only question I have is that we have to hope that the woman who took the kitten is the right one meaning she is genuine and will do a good job in either looking after the kitten or rehoming her. She looks genuine to me. Well done, Sarah.

The kitten has a Turkish Van coat for anyone who's interested. A very Mediterranean appearance.

Here is the Facebook post:

When you shoot feral cats, you psychologically harm the people who care for them

Even in Australia where the feral cat is a pest to be killed in any way possible (irrespective of whether it's cruel or not), often by shooting, there are volunteers who operate TNR programs to manage feral cat colonies. One of these is in Newcastle, Australia and this study refers to them as the 'Stockton Breakwall' cats. Under the orders of the local authority the feral cats were shot at. The intention was to kill them but when you shoot at feral cats you don't always kill them cleanly; in fact probably hardly ever. You leave them severely injured and dying slowly. Barbaric, I say. Unforgivable.

When you shoot feral cats, you psychologically harm the people who care for them. Image: MikeB

This study says that the culling process was mismanaged. They say that it was mismanaged in two ways both in the intended euthanasia (laugh) of the feral cats concerned and in the psychological harm that this process caused to the TNR volunteers.

And I love this study because it looks at the effects of shooting feral cats from the standpoint of the people who want to care for them and who do the right thing. TNR volunteers are great people because they deal with feral cats humanely.

Nathan Winograd, one of America's great animal advocates, sets out six reasons why TNR programs are good for the community. A TNR program:

1. Improves the health of community cats;
2. Reduces intake and killing of community cats;
3. Reduces complaint calls to animal control;
4. Reduces illness in the shelter;
5. Reduces waste of taxpayer money on impound and killing; and, 
6. Increases opportunities to expand the lifesaving of other animals.

By contrast, he says that "lethal methods not only harm cats, they also harm people". The study I'm referring to is "The Impact of Lethal, Enforcement-Centred Cat Management on Human Wellbeing". Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13020271

In summary, they found that the bond between caregivers and cats was "as strong as the bonds with their own pets" and that the "the cats looked to them (the caregivers) to keep them safe and fed".

“I had a favourite called (Nala) and she was one of the ones that got killed… There’s people that really, really had such strong feelings for these animals… They are very loved.”

“They’re not feral. They’re pets waiting to go home, they really are. They’ve proven that to all of us that care for them. They just deserve better.”

“…the worst area. There was blood everywhere. All over the rocks, all over the pathway, like drag marks. So, once I’d sat with them, I’m going, ‘far out!’—something horrendous has happened here… I just started crying because the realization that out of the cats that were there, they probably only spotted about five. It was like, oh my God, what the hell has happened out here?”

“… two men came back in sort of like council suits, and they had some wheelie bins with them. They proceeded to scrub the blood away. They had cleaning products, and they were cleaning up the mess. We asked them what they were doing, and they laughed at us. That’s when we knew that this was something way bigger than we ever imagined.” 

We know that TNR volunteers give names to the semi-domesticated feral cats. They treat them as domestic cats and some of them are. They are adoptable. But they are living good lives in a feral cat community. The arrangement is beneficial for the human and the cat community. Why destroy that? And why destroy it in such a brutal and insensitive way?

I'll tell you why. It is because the Australian authorities across the continent have got it into their heads that they have to eradicate feral cats because they are preying upon their small mammal and marsupial native species. They want to conserve these small native species and of course I strongly agree with that objective.

But they can do far better in their objective if they looked to themselves and their behaviour. Human behaviour is far more destructive of Australia's native species then feral cat behaviour. Prioritise the most damaging cause of the gradual extirpation of native species which is human activity both in building new settlements as Australia is always doing to improve the economy and in terms of their contribution to global warming through the exportation of vast amounts of coal to China.

Australia has suffered from horrendous global warming events such as massive floods and intolerable heat waves. Look to yourselves I say and stop harming the kind and generous people who care for feral cats that were put there by human negligence.

It is unsurprising that feral cat caregivers suffer psychologically when their cats are shot brutally. The suffering was described as "significant". It led to "grief, trauma, poor physical health, and long-term psychological distress, including profound guilt, loss and the ability to eat" in the words of Nathan Winograd. Stop it!! You are insensitive and frankly ignorant when you order shooters to kill feral cats.

And what about the mistakes? Shooting someone's pet cat which must happen. Then you harm the owner psychologically as well. 

And what about shooting millions of kangaroos? 

Senior citizens should consider being cat nappers at local animal shelters

 

 

Terry volunteers daily at his local shelter to take naps with cats as you can see in the video.  I can't guarantee the video will stay on this page indefinitely. Sorry.

And as you can see in the video, he thoroughly enjoys it and is very good at it. He's made friends with the cats, and they've made friends with him. He says that the experience helps with his health and blood pressure et cetera. I just see a lot of positivity in the video. There's no downside to it.

If you are a senior citizen with time on your hands and if there is an animal shelter not too far from, this, I would have thought, would be an option.

Old hand of a loving cat caregiver and the appreciative cat. Image in public domain.

Not only do you meet the cats and provide them with a little bit of human warmth and comfort, you can meet the people who work there as well.

Every senior citizen needs to get out and meet people. It's a basic necessity for humankind. Humans are social creatures.

And connecting with domestic cats at shelter allows Terry to connect with nature. The domestic cat is wild at heart. The wild cat nature is just below the surface.

When you interact with a domestic cat you indirectly interact with nature.

So there you go, it is a project which is bundled up with positivity and goodness. Of course, you got to like cats and you can't be one of the 10-20% of the population who are allergic to cats.

But, then again, if you can't be a professional, unpaid cat napper you might do the same thing with dogs.

What if you live in an apartment and the landlord doesn't allow cats and what if you think that your lifestyle is not really suitable to look after a cat. But you love cats. You might find a compromise and become a professional cat napper.

Terry snoozes with a shelter cat. Screenshot.

Terry Lauerman of De Pere 

This is a convenient moment to write a bit more about Terry. He's been around quite a bit and has become quite famous. He's in his mid-70s and has been dubbed "The Cat Grandpa".

He said: "I've always liked cats and I always had cats when I was kid, and I loved them. In many ways, I see my old cats in these cats here." 

He visits the Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary Inc. When I first saw him sleeping with a cat I thought it was just a one-off incident, but it isn't. He does it all the time.

The shelter said:

"We are so lucky to have a human like Terry. Terry just came along one day and introduced himself. He said he'd like to brush cats. Eventually it became everyday. He brushes all of the cats, and can tell you about all of their likes and dislikes. He also accidentally falls asleep most days. We don't mind - Cats need this! Terry is a wonderful volunteer. 😻❤️🐾 #nappingencouraged #grateful"

I love the way that Terry got up, got out of his home and introduced himself at the shelter. It started out by brushing cats and what a good idea that was.

At the time that Terry became well known and linked to the shelter, in four days they raised more than $40,000 and their website temporarily crashed as its server reported nearly 1,000 people visiting the website per second.

These days he is an official volunteer at the shelter. He first became acquainted with the shelter in 2016 at its previous location in De Pere.

Terry said that the shelter does not cage the animals. I guess this massively facilitates his interactions with them. The shelter relocated to Green Bay's Broadway District in 2017.

In his previous life, Lauerman was a Spanish instructor. Green Bay is a city in the US state of Wisconsin. Wisconsin is a US state in the east of the country and Green Bay is adjacent to Lake Michigan.

Volunteers sitting with the animals during 4th July firework celebrations

All that I have of this story is this photograph and it is a great photograph of volunteers sitting with the rescue animals at an unknown shelter in the US on July 4 to comfort them when the fireworks start to go off. It is a heartwarming photograph. A photograph to soften the hardened heart. A heart hardened by the usual hassles of living on this planet which for most of us isn't that easy at least some of the time. There are good people out there and they volunteer their time.

Volunteers sitting with the animals during 4th July firework celebrations. Photo: Facebook page of 'Artistic Freedom'.

I guess, too, that the people benefit because they are able to mix with like-minded people so it is a great way to socialise. And of course, they know that they are doing something good in helping animals who are already stressed by being confined to small cages in a noisy shelter with strange people wandering by from time to time.

I am sure that stress is the biggest psychological problem for rescue cats and dogs in shelters. It affects their behaviour which in turn affects their adaptability. For them it is a double whammy of stress-inducing influences because they are already stressed and they going to be stress some more because of the strange and loud noises. Well done to these people. The photograph caught my eye and I felt that I needed to circulate it on the Internet a little bit.

The Internet does not help me in trying to find out how commonplace this type of volunteer work is in the USA. My gut feeling is that it is not that uncommon but it is the first time that I've seen this kind of photograph and I have seen tens of thousands of photographs of animal shelters.

Nice snapshot of life as a TNR volunteer in San Diego, California, USA

This is a recent Facebook post from Karenna Huangg of Feral Cat Rescue (Helping Feral and Stray Cats). At the time of posting this, Karenna had added her Facebook post about one hour ago. She published a photograph of a dark alley (a good photograph as it is evocative of what life can be like when trapping feral cats to neuter them). She is waiting in this dark alley for a grey tabby-with-white socks to walk inside her trap. She said that he had to be hungry enough to try and get the food but that she had been waiting for 20 minutes and she was finding the experience boring. Totally understandable. Very boring and it must happen a lot.

TNR volunteer photograph of a dark alley while she waits for a feral cat to be enticed by the food in her trap. Photo: Karenna Huangg.

She said:

"Sometimes waiting in the alley until they go inside is sooooo painstakingly boring. Hope this dark grey tabby with white socks goes inside. I saw him by the wooden pole when I first pulled into alley. He must be hungry enough … ugh it’s been 20 min already. 😣"

They do great work which is often unpraised and unrewarded except for the fact that they know they are doing something good. I like these sorts of photographs because they tell us far more than mere words about what it's like to do this kind of voluntary work. They are amazing people who do this because they've got to fit what must be unsocial work (sometimes) around their lifestyles which sometimes can't be easy.

She caught the cat at 11:50 PM and was ecstatic 😄.

ASSOCIATED: 3 volunteers sacked over hot animal shelter.

Update:

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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Cat hoarder was rescuing cats from cat hoarders in Florida

NEWS AND VIEWS - FLORIDA, USA: This is a sad story because Michelline Toulouse was an animal rescuer worker volunteer. And now she's been charged with animal cruelty (9 counts) and theft. She had more than 50 cats at her apartment in very poor conditions. Previously she had allegedly stolen $300 from the rescue organisation she worked for: Saving Sage Animal Rescue. She was caught on surveillance cameras.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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She was sacked for the theft. A colleague visited her home to check on her and discovered the filth and 50+ cats. They were malnourished and 10 were dead. The scene was the usual cat hoarder scenario: mess, urine, faeces and the stench of ammonia. Some of the cats were living in the walls.

Michelline Toulouse. Video screenshot.

It transpired that Toulouse had been to cat hoarding houses to rescue cats! It is very strange that a cat hoarder was rescuing cats from cat hoarders. She had her own rescue called Love is Feral. She was involved in trapping, rehabilitating and rehoming homeless cats in Florida. That was her front, her image.

Toulouse was saving cats during part of her day and allegedly killing them during the remaining part through neglect and hoarding.

Cat hoarder was rescuing cats from cat hoarders in Florida. Screenshot.

Her boyfriend also faces charges. Cat hoarding is a mental health issue. It has been called a specific mental health issue but it is an extension to the hoarding of inanimate objects. Hoarders don't have the capacity to make a decision about divesting themselves of the objects they hoard so they never release them. It is about risk aversion and the inability to make decisions.

P.S. I am unsure but I think the rescue is named after Sage the cat who was brutally killed and the perpetrator never found. 

Many volunteer opportunities available at Cats Protection

There are many work opportunities available at Cats Protection, the large UK cat rescue. I was surprised at the number. It is a huge organisation run by volunteers. They helped 126,000 kittens and cats in 2020 - 345 per day according to a tweet. They also say that they help around 200,000 cats and kittens per year. They are reliant on their more than 10,000 volunteers.

Volunteer at Cats Protection. Photo: Cats Protection

There must be a continual demand for volunteers and my research indicates that this is true. They have a useful 'search for opportunities' page and using three different addresses and a 10-mile radius there were around 10 posts available each time.

Here's a video which may help:

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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Shelter animals transported out from the path of Hurricane Ida

America has a wonderful system of transporting shelter animals away from disaster zones so that those shelters are freed up for animals caught up in the disaster and the resident animals are moved out of harm's way. This works so successfully because of the wonderful volunteers who carry out the work with passion and commitment and because there are efficient air services which carry out this work. 

Shelter animals transported away from the path of Hurricane Ida. Photo: People.com.

America is a large country and therefore a lot of the time transporting shelter animals out of the path of a hurricane means putting them on an aircraft and flying them hundreds of miles.

In this instance, Hurricane Ida was classified in Louisiana as a Category 4 storm on Sunday afternoon. Before it hit landfall animal shelters and rescues has made preparations by transporting their animals to areas outside of the storm's path.

One shelter which stepped into the fray and did their bit is Helen Woodward Animal Shelter based in California. They took in 40 cats and 25 dogs from a transport flight planned by the well-known charity Greater Good Charities, in less than 24 hours.

Their website tells me that they have three arms to their charitable work: empowering people, safeguarding animals and preserving nature. As for safeguarding animals they say that they transport at risk pets to safety among other services.

The charity contacted Helen Woodward Animal Center asking for help. The adoption services director of Helen Woodward Animal Center said that it was one of those moments when animal rescue becomes a life-saving mission. She said "without a place to put these dogs and cats, many of these orphan pets would face a tragic end. We couldn't say no."

They are now looking for temporary foster care for the 65 Louisiana cats and dogs in their care. This is the way shelters deal with spillover numbers. When they have too many cats and dogs, they can go to their volunteers who live in the area who willingly provide foster care services to rescue animals. It greatly extends the scope of a shelter. Foster carers provide essential work.

Another shelter which stepped up to the plate is Operation Kindness based in Dallas. They took the ground route and drove a transport vehicle to Louisiana, filled it with young shelter animals and took them out of the path of the storm. They took, in all, 20 dogs and 31 cats in the age range two months to 16 years from Jefferson Parish Animal Shelter.

These lucky 51 companion animals are now looking for homes in Texas. Applicants can apply through their website at operationkindness.org.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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Many other organisations worked together to help protect Louisiana's shelter animals from this devastating storm. It is a good example once again of how animal rescuers can work together so effectively to save lives.

TNR volunteers spend money on cats before they spend it on themselves

Often, TNR volunteers spend money on cats before they spend it on themselves, which is why Feral Friday's free spaying and neutering service provided by the Golden State Humane Society, in Long Beach, is so welcome. They don't operate the Friday service every week because of insufficient funding but on this occasion, on August 23, they operated the discount service because of a $1,500 grant from Petco Love, the pet supply company's non-profit foundation.

Registered Veterinary Technician Tracey Murphy, left, and Ruby Areilla prepare a cat for a neutering surgery at Golden State Human Society. Photo by Harry Saltzgaver, Grunion Gazette/SCNG.

Golden State's Executive Director, Alexandra Casswell, correctly stated that the volunteers won't stop. They really don't stop because they are driven by compassion. There is a huge body of people, nearly always women, who can't let feral cats struggle and starve and do nothing about it. 

They have to get involved. So, this service is a welcome relief to the expenditure which I'm going to guess is potentially or actually a constant worry because a lot of volunteers are on tight budgets. Perhaps they are women living alone who obtain a lot of satisfaction from what they do and rightly so.

The first Feral Friday event took place in October 2019. Golden State has neutered 88 feral cats with this discount service so far in 2021. They believe that in neutering 88 feral cats they have prevented the births of 352-562 kittens. That's a lot of pain and distress avoided.

These cats are probably better described as 'community cats' as they become semi-domesticated through their contact with the volunteers. Long Beach's Animal Care Services endorse the TNR programs.

In case you are unsure, TNR stands for trap-neuter-release which is the standard and most humane method of stabilising feral cat populations. It is far superior to the concept of elimination through inhumane means which almost invariably leads to the vacant space being occupied by incoming feral cats.

Polystyrene cooling boxes modified to be used as homes for feral cats

Photo: Regina Cat Rescue on Facebook

This is a cool (excuse the pun) way to quickly make feral cat homes. They keep the cats warm during winter which is coming up. The idea comes from Regina Cat Rescue. They are based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The boxes were used to transport blood products before they were modified by the volunteers. It's great to see recycling like this. Last year they found that the boxes kept a temperature of 20°C during the winter. I presume this is with a cat inside! They hand out about 75 shelter boxes annually to residents who want to help feral cats in the area. I flag up some potential health issues with Styrofoam in another post.

Source: CBC.

You Never See Bad People Helping Feral Cats

Stray cat and kittens. Photo in public domain.

It is a point that needs to be made and I'll make it briefly. You'll never see bad people involved in caring for feral cats in TNR programs or simply feeding them.

They are all good people with good hearts. However, you will see bad people trying to kill feral cats or harassing volunteers involved in TNR programs.

There is a notable divide in human personality traits. I am not saying that all people who dislike feral cats and TNR are bad people; far from it. However, there is quite a lot of bad human behaviour surrounding feral and stray cats such as throwing them against walls or into lakes, or kicking them, or shooting them, or poisoning them or making the lives of cat lovers intolerable. These are all crimes. They are bad ignorant people who commit them.

This is significant. It confirms to me that treating feral cats humanely is the only way going forward and that means TNR. It would be wrong to dismiss the actions of good people involved in caring for stray and feral cats as misplaced and the people delusional.

They realise that there is an ethical mandate to look after feral cats and to reduce their numbers slowly in an humane manner. The bad guys, the cat shooters and abusers, lack the education and sensitivity to understand the moral obligation to treat these cats humanely.

They are simply ignorant oafs. Stray and feral cats divide communities. They are argued over at council meetings. City councillors should be decent and wise people. They generally are which is why when they thrash out a strategy on how to deal with feral cats in the community they almost inevitably come up with a decision which leads to treating these cats humanely.

The wise know that TNR and decent behaviour towards these cats is the only way. Don't think culling cats is a sensible alternative. It's immoral and ineffective in the long term.

Should cat rescue centre staff wear plastic gloves, aprons, foot covers and arm protectors?

Should cat rescue centre staff wear plastic gloves, aprons, foot covers and arm protectors and throw them away each time they leave one of the cat's pens?



The intention must be to reduce the transmission of contagious diseases from cat to cat via humans but the downside is (a) expense and (b) more plastic to be thrown away and is it recycled?

Evesham Cats Protection

Cats Protection in Wickhamford near Evesham have introduced this new anti-contagion regime and the staff are up in arms against it. They say the cat charity has 'lost sight of its main purpose' and is wasting donated money.

I'd imagine that is is very expensive to throw away these plastic items every time a staff member moves from one pen to another and it must slow down the work at hand too.

Cats Protection defend the method by saying that they adhere to strict disease control measures. They say that the prevention of disease is a way of reducing environmental hazards. They said this because they realise that producing piles of plastic waste achieves the opposite.

Source: Worcester News.