The 'Dead' Cat

A few observations about your various responses since that was the catalyst
for my rather disturbing post.

Hmmm, I find it more than a little condescending/insulting that you decided to
toy with us and fabricate a scenario intended to incite. Of course, you could
be toying with us now and fabricating the living cat. Actually, I believe you
that the cat is alive because I wasn't even sure from the original post whether
you meant you killed the cat or dumped the cat. Obviously, the latter. But I
don't know, here you had been a nice guy, telling us cute, sensitive stories
about Sammy, Cassie, and the babies that I, for one, looked forward to, and
then you decide to set up a little sting operation or whatever it was so that
you could then criticize us for not reacting to in the manner you deem
appropriate (bad sentence structure).

Well, that's too bad about the shelter situation in your area but Cathy is
right that the supposed murder of the tom (who apparently is not even
semi-feral by your description) far overshadowed what you were writing about
the shelters. Of course, we are going to react to the murdered cat over that.
And...we all have different shelter/humane society/rescue situations in our own
areas that are probably not ideal for the most part. Really, what were we
expected to do about the situation in your area? I don't even know where your
area is specifically but I don't imagine there's a whole lot I could do about
it. We all pretty much have to "think global, act local."

I'm glad the cat's not dead and I do suppose you have improved his life
somewhat but I just find it troubling/annoying/even almost "betraying" that you
made the whole bogus thing up. Hey, maybe since the cat is no longer in your
"area," that the guy you gave him to could TNR him, huh? What are the
resources in his area?

Your arrogance is paramount in your replies.

And your arrogance is paramount in your little mindgame.


Candace
(take the litter out before replying by e-mail)

See my cats:
http://photos.yahoo.com/maccandace

"One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other
than human." (Loren Eisely)

A few observations about your various responses since that was the catalyst
for my rather disturbing post.

Hmmm, I find it more than a little condescending/insulting that you decided to
toy with us and fabricate a scenario intended to incite. Of course, you could
be toying with us now and fabricating the living cat. Actually, I believe you
that the cat is alive because I wasn't even sure from the original post whether
you meant you killed the cat or dumped the cat. Obviously, the latter. But I
don't know, here you had been a nice guy, telling us cute, sensitive stories
about Sammy, Cassie, and the babies that I, for one, looked forward to, and
then you decide to set up a little sting operation or whatever it was so that
you could then criticize us for not reacting to in the manner you deem
appropriate (bad sentence structure).

Well, that's too bad about the shelter situation in your area but Cathy is
right that the supposed murder of the tom (who apparently is not even
semi-feral by your description) far overshadowed what you were writing about
the shelters. Of course, we are going to react to the murdered cat over that.
And...we all have different shelter/humane society/rescue situations in our own
areas that are probably not ideal for the most part. Really, what were we
expected to do about the situation in your area? I don't even know where your
area is specifically but I don't imagine there's a whole lot I could do about
it. We all pretty much have to "think global, act local."

I'm glad the cat's not dead and I do suppose you have improved his life
somewhat but I just find it troubling/annoying/even almost "betraying" that you
made the whole bogus thing up. Hey, maybe since the cat is no longer in your
"area," that the guy you gave him to could TNR him, huh? What are the
resources in his area?

Your arrogance is paramount in your replies.

And your arrogance is paramount in your little mindgame.


Candace
(take the litter out before replying by e-mail)

See my cats:
http://photos.yahoo.com/maccandace

"One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other
than human." (Loren Eisely)

What I find most frustrating about it it is the humane society despite being
better known and having more resources for low cost neutering programs is
offering absolutely no alternative when people come in with an animal.
They've seemingly alienated most of the veterinary assistance they once had.
The rescue group sponsored a spay day at their shelter last week - $10 for
males, $20 for females. Although they stopped taking reservations the day
before it took place, with the no shows they didn't even fill up to capacity
on surgery day. We're talking about 30 animals that could have been done.
They actually did 25.

Hey, the world doesn't owe you a convenient, guilt-free place to dump off a
cat. Good shelters don't magically appear and bad shelters don't automatically
get better. Hardworking people get changes made. Yeah, busy people with
full-time jobs and families even. I think you mentioned lobbying your local
authorities to get changes made. What have you found out?

Sherry

What I find most frustrating about it it is the humane society despite being
better known and having more resources for low cost neutering programs is
offering absolutely no alternative when people come in with an animal.
They've seemingly alienated most of the veterinary assistance they once had.
The rescue group sponsored a spay day at their shelter last week - $10 for
males, $20 for females. Although they stopped taking reservations the day
before it took place, with the no shows they didn't even fill up to capacity
on surgery day. We're talking about 30 animals that could have been done.
They actually did 25.

Hey, the world doesn't owe you a convenient, guilt-free place to dump off a
cat. Good shelters don't magically appear and bad shelters don't automatically
get better. Hardworking people get changes made. Yeah, busy people with
full-time jobs and families even. I think you mentioned lobbying your local
authorities to get changes made. What have you found out?

Sherry

What I find most frustrating about it it is the humane society despite being
better known and having more resources for low cost neutering programs is
offering absolutely no alternative when people come in with an animal.
They've seemingly alienated most of the veterinary assistance they once had.
The rescue group sponsored a spay day at their shelter last week - $10 for
males, $20 for females. Although they stopped taking reservations the day
before it took place, with the no shows they didn't even fill up to capacity
on surgery day. We're talking about 30 animals that could have been done.
They actually did 25.

Hey, the world doesn't owe you a convenient, guilt-free place to dump off a
cat. Good shelters don't magically appear and bad shelters don't automatically
get better. Hardworking people get changes made. Yeah, busy people with
full-time jobs and families even. I think you mentioned lobbying your local
authorities to get changes made. What have you found out?

Sherry

"Sherry " wrote in message
...
Hey, the world doesn't owe you a convenient, guilt-free place to dump off
a
cat.

Guilt isn't even an issue here. If you hadn't worked it out yet, there is a
serious gap in availability of professionally run services for animal
welfare here. Screw the idea that I or anyone else is automatically
obligated to provide services for any and all strays that happen to wander
across my property.
If you want to talk about guilt I suppose a good place to start might be the
betrayal of people in this county who have supported this shelter with their
donations and now find the animal welfare they believed they were supporting
being ignored.

Good shelters don't magically appear and bad shelters don't automatically
get better.

This one had been very good at one point. It's a long way back to any sort
of service to the animals when their veterinary services are cut off and
they fail their mission to provide humane care to the animals their mission
statement says they are intended to serve. They have essentially become
nothing more than a pet store operating on private donations. Animals lost
or abandoned in this county suffer as though no organization for their
welfare exists and will continue to do so.

I think you mentioned lobbying your local
authorities to get changes made. What have you found out?

The city really has no ability to mandate anything since the shelter is
located outside their boundaries. The county commisioners tell me that
counties are very limited under state charter as to what sort of legislative
and regulatory authority they have. In this case - basically none.This
shelter has worked very hard over the past few years to terminate all
contractual relationships they previously had with city or county for animal
control services. The only relationship that exists now is an agreement to
provide rented shelter space for the dog warden's office which is operated
through the county sherriff's office.

"Sherry " wrote in message
...
Hey, the world doesn't owe you a convenient, guilt-free place to dump off
a
cat.

Guilt isn't even an issue here. If you hadn't worked it out yet, there is a
serious gap in availability of professionally run services for animal
welfare here. Screw the idea that I or anyone else is automatically
obligated to provide services for any and all strays that happen to wander
across my property.
If you want to talk about guilt I suppose a good place to start might be the
betrayal of people in this county who have supported this shelter with their
donations and now find the animal welfare they believed they were supporting
being ignored.

Good shelters don't magically appear and bad shelters don't automatically
get better.

This one had been very good at one point. It's a long way back to any sort
of service to the animals when their veterinary services are cut off and
they fail their mission to provide humane care to the animals their mission
statement says they are intended to serve. They have essentially become
nothing more than a pet store operating on private donations. Animals lost
or abandoned in this county suffer as though no organization for their
welfare exists and will continue to do so.

I think you mentioned lobbying your local
authorities to get changes made. What have you found out?

The city really has no ability to mandate anything since the shelter is
located outside their boundaries. The county commisioners tell me that
counties are very limited under state charter as to what sort of legislative
and regulatory authority they have. In this case - basically none.This
shelter has worked very hard over the past few years to terminate all
contractual relationships they previously had with city or county for animal
control services. The only relationship that exists now is an agreement to
provide rented shelter space for the dog warden's office which is operated
through the county sherriff's office.

"Sherry " wrote in message
...
Hey, the world doesn't owe you a convenient, guilt-free place to dump off
a
cat.

Guilt isn't even an issue here. If you hadn't worked it out yet, there is a
serious gap in availability of professionally run services for animal
welfare here. Screw the idea that I or anyone else is automatically
obligated to provide services for any and all strays that happen to wander
across my property.
If you want to talk about guilt I suppose a good place to start might be the
betrayal of people in this county who have supported this shelter with their
donations and now find the animal welfare they believed they were supporting
being ignored.

Good shelters don't magically appear and bad shelters don't automatically
get better.

This one had been very good at one point. It's a long way back to any sort
of service to the animals when their veterinary services are cut off and
they fail their mission to provide humane care to the animals their mission
statement says they are intended to serve. They have essentially become
nothing more than a pet store operating on private donations. Animals lost
or abandoned in this county suffer as though no organization for their
welfare exists and will continue to do so.

I think you mentioned lobbying your local
authorities to get changes made. What have you found out?

The city really has no ability to mandate anything since the shelter is
located outside their boundaries. The county commisioners tell me that
counties are very limited under state charter as to what sort of legislative
and regulatory authority they have. In this case - basically none.This
shelter has worked very hard over the past few years to terminate all
contractual relationships they previously had with city or county for animal
control services. The only relationship that exists now is an agreement to
provide rented shelter space for the dog warden's office which is operated
through the county sherriff's office.

"MacCandace" wrote in message
...
A few observations about your various responses since that was the
catalyst
for my rather disturbing post.

Hmmm, I find it more than a little condescending/insulting that you
decided to
toy with us and fabricate a scenario intended to incite.

I'm glad it did incite. You see, we thought we had a pretty good shelter
operation here. Turns out we don't. What we have now is a surprisingly bad
example of what happens when a group of people ( their board and director)
stray from the mission and are accountable to nobody. The animals that
require services do without.

The scenario regarding the old tom will probably play out many times over in
this area for quite some time to come. State and local laws give cats the
same status as a wild animal, meaning the the protections required for a
domestic pet, shelter, food, etc don't apply. They also can be killed off
the same as common vermin by property owners. The only applicable laws
covering that would be very loosely applied cruelty laws. Consider how
difficult it would be to prosecute someone for killing a rat on their
property. A cat would get the same consideration legally. Without shelter
services for these cats, the instances of cruelty are certain to increase.

"MacCandace" wrote in message
...
A few observations about your various responses since that was the
catalyst
for my rather disturbing post.

Hmmm, I find it more than a little condescending/insulting that you
decided to
toy with us and fabricate a scenario intended to incite.

I'm glad it did incite. You see, we thought we had a pretty good shelter
operation here. Turns out we don't. What we have now is a surprisingly bad
example of what happens when a group of people ( their board and director)
stray from the mission and are accountable to nobody. The animals that
require services do without.

The scenario regarding the old tom will probably play out many times over in
this area for quite some time to come. State and local laws give cats the
same status as a wild animal, meaning the the protections required for a
domestic pet, shelter, food, etc don't apply. They also can be killed off
the same as common vermin by property owners. The only applicable laws
covering that would be very loosely applied cruelty laws. Consider how
difficult it would be to prosecute someone for killing a rat on their
property. A cat would get the same consideration legally. Without shelter
services for these cats, the instances of cruelty are certain to increase.