This is a pretty typical story and I would like to present the arguments for and against the “euthanasia” (killing in real terms) of this cat as taken from comments.
Background
- Place: America
- Cat: Mistoffelees – a black and white indoor cat who escaped to the outside. She was spayed and declawed. She was said to be underweight with a scratch on his nose by the Humane Society. She had no microchip .
- Cat Owner: Mr Brooks
- Humane Society: Harford County Humane Society
- Director of Humane Society: Dave Fang (an appropriate name?)
Mistoffelees got out while Brooks was out. A neighbour took her in and turned him in to the Harford County Humane Society because he did not know who owned the cat (hard to believe?). Brook’s girlfriend called the Humane Society the day after she went missing. After Mr Brooks contacted the Humane Society again, Mr Fang told him that his cat had been euthanised because:
“the cat appeared to be feral and they put feral cats down,”
Mistoffelees was killed by the Humane Society soon after he arrived. Fang said:
“….Mistofeleess’ ears were pinned back, she was hissing and biting and did not calm down after a ‘cool off period’…. the decision was made that this cat could not be safely handled, was a threat to the staff and, from a medical perspective, to every other cat in the facility,”
Comments – for and against
| Arguments Presented For Killing Mistoffelees | Arguments Presented Against Killing Mistoffelees and Counter Arguments |
| She was like a feral cat | What do you expect cats to do when they are in strange places with strange people? This was a stupid assessment. |
| She was underweight | Does she look underweight? Is this an excuse? |
| She had a scratch on his nose | Big deal. A lot of domestic cats have scratched noses. |
| She was not microchipped | Yes, this was a mistake but it does not warrant killing the cat. |
| She was hissing and biting. | To be expected of an indoor cat in a strange place being handled by strange people. This may not be true because the neighbour appears to have handled the cat without difficulty. Is Mr Fang just justifying his actions? |
| A member of the shelter’s board said they would review their policy on holding animals. Admission of failure? Or just kicking the problem into the long grass? |
What do you think?
My thoughts: I don’t think I need to spell them out. A phone call was made to the Humane Society soon after Mistoffelees went missing so they were put on notice that he might be there and that he had an “owner”. That should have been enough and the excuses made for killing her are feeble.
Here’s a petition to sign
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-humane-society-of-harford-county-enforce-a-mandatory-72-hour-hold-on-all-animals-admitted-2
….. even if the owner was an idiot for having the poor cat declawed (unfortunately there are still many people in NOrth America who are ignorant of what is truly involved , and are even talked into it by vets, which is disgusting)
and their having poor Mistoffelees declawed made the biting much more likely….
but at least Mr. Brooks was looking and didn’t want his poor cat DEAD.
In this final wrong done to the cat it is the (In)Humane Society squarely at fault.
There is no need to just automatically kill even the genuinely feral cats when instead they could be TNRd .
( Actually I don’t know for sure Mr. Brooks is the one responsible for having Mistoffelees declawed. We adopted an 11 year old cat who was already declawed and I woudn’t like someone to assume I was the one to make the choice to have his paws mutilated. so I guess I should not assume it either. )
Agreed. The so called Humane Society acted distinctly inhumanely. This might not surprise a lot of people as it seems to be fairly commonplace.