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Old May 26th 04, 08:08 PM
Batson
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A reply from my friend herself.

The shelter in Anderson County is a "full service" shelter. They are
separate from the Humane Society which is a group of dedicated, unpaid
volunteers that take animals out of the shelter and place them through
offsite outlets, such as Pet Lover's Warehouse and PetSmart. I am friends
with some of these ladies, in fact three of the cats that were seized were
with me because THEY had no where to go with them. One of the ladies is the
President of the Anderson County Humane Society. The other is a member who
has made MANY adoptions offsite for the Animal Shelter (which is the "full
service" shelter I mentioned above.) She has told me that the standing
order for the animal shelter (at one point in time) was that any kittens
coming into the shelter, under the age of 3 months, were to be euthanized.
Even if there were empty cages. Every time I have gone into this shelter,
there are significant numbers of empty cages. This should never be the case
in this community. Also, I have ALMOST never seen the paid staff at this
shelter approach potential adopters when I have been in there. There is
very little screening, well, there is NO screening of adopters. In
addition, some of these cats are shy and would have behaved as semiferals
and would have been immediately euthanized. I was not comfortable with
relinquishing the animals to that shelter. I was not aware of any no-kill
shelters in the area with the exception of the Hendersonville, NC shelter
which is burdened with extreme overpopulation, in fact where two of the cats
in my possession had come from and for that very reason. The Greenville
Humane Society also kills semi-feral type cats and it's Director is lacking
in compassion based on my experience working in the Greenville PetSmart as
Services Director (responsible for the Luv-a-Pet center among other things).
You can read about her in my book someday.

In addition, the decision had to be made hastily. I chose to do what I
could do on the spur of the moment and under extreme stress.

Please feel free to respond to her directly if you wish, I will forward it
to her.

Thanks,

Renée

"Sherry " wrote in message
...
Well Sherry if I had told you the whole story then you would realize that
she's NOT a collector. She had to leave her home in SC suddenly (she was

in
the process of moving ) because the lady she was renting to demanded that
she take all the animals with her that were going to stay and be

eventually
taken to WI 5 at a time to be adopted out. She offered this lady FREE

rent
in exchange for taking care of the animals. When she saw that this lady

lied
to her and DID NOT come through on her part of the bargain, she had no
choice but to take them with her, she could not leave them ALONE!!! She

did
not even take ANY of her belongings with her, just the animals and what

THEY
needed. Nutro Max food, not junk cat food, litter boxes ect.... On the

way
to WI, they encountered a storm which damaged the covering to the

animals
trailer. They stopped several times to fix it and unfortunately some of

the
animals got wet. They made it to Oshkosh, put the animals in the basement

of
a house they were renting, to DE-STRESS with adequate food, water and

litter
boxes then she went to get some rest. (18 hrs drive from SC to WI) This

was
temporary and the animals had only been there 12 or less hours when a
neighbor complained of the dogs barking. "The "Humane" Society was then
called, and in doing what they called a "rescue" they terrorized them and
took 6 hours to get them into cages which my friend could have done
PEACEFULLY in 20 minutes, they refused to give any of them medication ( a
few of the cats had upper respiratory before they left) until they

received
her signature surrendering the animals over (but that's not called

neglect,
nooooo). Several of the animals were promised to her family the very

next
day. Several of the animals were her own personal pets. She would have

had
to pay $17 a day per pet (17x44 for ? long=????) to have kept them in her
name. She has given most of her money for the trip and to take care of

these
animals and not much was left. She is also currently working with the OHS

to
get donations to help with the cost of caring for the animals. She has
written extensive letters to the shelter with details of all the animals,
including their names, medical history, if they intended to be adopted

out
or kept by her ect... Remember she intended to continue to make trips

back
and forth from SC to WI to get 5 animals at a time as the state law

allows
and find acceptable homes for them. She uses Petfinder if you are

familiar
with that. You know a friend of mine called the OHS and they admitted

that
only a few of the animals were sick unlike the LIES Joni Geiger told to

the
news reporters that they were ALL sick The media wanted a story and the
Humane Society wanted to look like they were doing the animals a "favor"

and
"rescuing" them. Some of the cats are semi-ferals which my friend has

been
working with for months to tame down and get ready for adoption.

According
to the HS and their criteria they will probably be put down since they

don't
have the time or patience (like a true animal lover would) to work with

cats
who are not ready yet for adoption. All that work to get an abandoned

animal
to trust and love a human and what does it get? Killed! The animals in

the
newscast were healthy and the dogs were wagging their tails unlike the

words
that were being said by the reporter that they were all sick animals with
sad faces. Well I would be sad too if I were chased around by strangers,
taken away from my owner and put into a cage in a hostile environment!

Now
she faces possible legal charges for doing what she could to not abandon

her
animals in SC, put them in a quiet home to de-stress until the next day
until she could find more acceptable situation. She is called a

"collector"
and an animal abuser. I have seen those kind of people, they do not

properly
care for, feed, take time with, medicate, spay/neuter or love their

animals
much less adopt them out! They are just possesions to them and would have
left them to fend on their own in the situation my friend found herself

in.

Now hopefully you understand more of the story and truly do understand

that
she is not an animal abuser. I would NEVER align myself with any one like
that. Check out her "about me" page on eBay. Her name is

felineurgentrescue.
An animal abuser would never have done what she did. Poor lady is

mortified
and the media is making her out to be a villian. All she has ever done is

to
help these animals that would have died from starvation, disease or

allowed
to continue to multiply. Evidently in SC when someone moves who doesn't

want
their cat, they just open the door and let them "go with the wind". That
attitude is not acceptable to my friend and she devoted her life to

helping
those who could not help themselves.

Renée

The whole thing sounds sad. I guess the questions I have are, were the

pets all
neutered? Vaccinated? In her new home, did she have adequate facilities to
separate ill animals, and was it truly large enough to accommodate 44

animals?
If not, they should have been seized. One person just can't do it all. I

do
admit that the methods of that particular H.S. were harsh; and we all know

the
media loves to manipulate a story.
I have no doubt that your friend loved those animals dearly and did the

best
she could. But honestly, it sounds like she was over her head. We have

over 40
cats at the the shelter, and even in the facility, it takes a *staff* to

take
care of them properly. Not just one person. What I really don't

understand is
why she hauled so many cats across country, and put them through that

trauma,
instead of enlisting the aid of a rescue org. or shelter to help her

re-home
them in that state.