Animal Rescue Operating Under the Radar

This is an interesting example of an established American animal rescue operation, linked to Petfinder.com, with a decent website that operated “under the radar” meaning in violation of the local law (ordinance) that residents must only keep a maximum of five animals on the property.

This is a person trying to do some good while at the same time doing wrong both in respect of the law and in the way she operated. She failed to cope and I have a feeling that she might have been in it for the money because most of the cats were kept in an unlit basement. The cats (41 of them) lived in poor conditions and have been seized by the police. The owner refused to release the cats to the local authority.

Her name is Anette Traore. If I not mistaken this is a screenshot of her website.

Almost Home Animal Rescue

She had helpers. The website shows a number of dogs for adoption as well, yet the news story makes no mention of dogs. I suspect they are living in another house owned by the partners and the police should also have a look at those homes.

I couldn’t find an address on the website. The address provided is a PO Box number. Neither could I find a telephone number. Contact is made by email. There is a lack of transparency which is unsurprising as the operation was illegal. Although there is no news about prosecution or whatever. Therefore, strictly speaking, this is an allegation at the present time.

The photos of the cats and dogs for adoption on Petfinder are quite nice – good conditions etc.. The photos were taken in a local pet store it seems to me. Or something like that. Once again an apparent lack of transparency.

It is a shame. I suspect it is impractical or financially nonviable for an individual to start up an animal rescue operation from a dedicated facility that probably requires a licence, forcing people to operate from home. Perhaps something should be done about that.

Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.

40 thoughts on “Animal Rescue Operating Under the Radar”

  1. It’s easy to get carried away with animal rescue and bite off more than you can chew I stopped taking dogs in when people blackmailed me into it saying they’d have to get rid,they got a piece of my mind instead.
    I only have a few cats now and know my limits and anyone asking me to take more in gets a lecture on responsibility instead that you can’t just dump animals on someone else when it suits you.
    I feel sorry for those cats shut in that basement in poor conditions but I hope they haven’t got PTS now they don’t deserve that.

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  2. From the way the story is reported it seems that this woman has added and added to the cats in the basement and things have got right out of hand and she hasn’t been able to cope, surely it takes time to get into such a state so it doesn’t sound like a temporary problem and I hate to hear about multiple cats kept in filth and closed away from human company, if you’re going to have such a huge number of cats you need to be on top of cleaning up litter trays and anything that hits the floor too, plus about the health of the cats, fine if they really were all well but not so good living in such a crowd if there were infections being spread. The part about the cat with it’s head stuck is worrying, was it really stuck or at the time of the raid was it busy investigating behind the fridge or even chasing a spider! On the other hand there’s a nosey neighbour who seemed only too willing to talk to the camera, and then there’s Dee’s comment that she might have taken back two rehomed cats when she found out the new owner was planning to declaw them. So is she the classic cat hoarder who collects and stashes away cat after cat without any thought that she is doing more harm than good, or is it a case of someone trying to get her into trouble, sour grapes over the declawing issue. I hope we can follow up on this and get to know the truth, Dee if you learn any more please share it with us. Either way she’s bitten off a lot more than she can chew in my opinion, it’s easy to call yourself a saviour of animals but saving them is only the beginning, the keeping of them and feeding of them is equally important, saving them from one set of miseries to keep them in another is not rescue, it’s just hell of a different kind.

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    • Thanks, Babz, you are always so objective.
      I’m going to do my best to keep on top of this.
      If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. I’ll admit.
      But, my gut is screaming that something is wrong.

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  3. I’ve been so frustrated wanting to join in this page (and others on PoC)but my computer has been/may still be, on the blink, I post on PoC pages and click send only to see it disappear into thin air, but here’s trying again and hoping ……
    I think it’s very wrong to keep cats in a basement, no natural light, no fresh air and the litter trays filthy. all those cats shouldn’t be expected to get along peacefully either. I can imagine the quieter ones being bullied. This woman sounds to me like a cat hoarder, it’s not fair on cats to take too many to cope with. I know because we had a cat hoarder here and after we found out she was a conwoman and just using us for money and help and we challenged her, she kept us out and we were unable to see the cats indoors were OK, only the ones in the garden. It ended terribly when the RSPCA took 4 neglected cats away and the rest went to a sanctuary. What I’m saying is that one person can’t look after too many cats as they should be looked after. She had 15 cats and that was far too many to care about individually, so 41 definately was too many! Maybe this woman meant well and it’s easy to keep taking more and more cats thinking what would happen to them otherwise but it’s not fair on the cats
    So no Michael you are not setting too high a standard, all cats deserve to be cared for to a high standard!

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    • Thanks Ruth. I totally agree. I am pleased that you were able to get a comment published. I miss your comments! 😉

      This is a case of cat rescue that was bordering on or developed into cat hoarding (as you state). As I stated, money may have been another factor because on the website there was a PayPal donate button.

      I don’t know and I don’t want to be too hard on the woman because nothing is black and white, good and bad but this went wrong. She’s is possibly a good woman trying to do good in a difficult environment.

      However, I don’t believe a person can run a cat rescue with 41 cats, from home, illegally. It is too tricky and too difficult to do that.

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      • Thanks Michael, we can’t believe we fixed my computer problem by vacuuming the tower out, but so far so good…..
        Back to the topic….that’s something else, people who choose to rescue animals should be in a position to pay for their food and care without always badgering other people to give them money and saying that they can’t manage without help.
        Yes it’s OK for a genuine charity to ask for donations and have a paypal button but a person keeping a lot of cats in poor conditions in their house shouldn’t really expect others to give them money when it was their own choice to take in so many cats.
        We’d love to have more cats around but we know our limits and would never want to beg for money to feed our cats or to pay their vet bills.

        Reply

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