Chesterfield, Virginia, USA: In highlighting the scale of cat abandonment in the county of Chesterfield, Va, Lynne Layton, the director of Smitty’s Cat Rescue Shelter, told 8News that people abandon healthy cats at her shelter regularly but they dump and run. In general abandoning cats at shelters and on highways is a daily occurence. Even when it is outside the shelter it is animal abandonment it seems to me which is a crime in this county. Nothing happens to the people.
“Heartless. The only word to describe what people are doing to cats and dogs is heartless…It is an everyday occurrence here. Last week there were nine left over by that old house. These kittens were just left in their own faeces and urine.”
She said that someone dumped more than 20 adult cats near the shelter. When she went outside to see what was going on the person had disappeared. The cats just scattered she said.
“I don’t have the time or the resources to track these people down. At least they left them here.”
On another occasion 24 cats were dumped at her shelter. The person drove off. Perfectly healthy cats are abandoned near the shelter on an almost daily basis she says.
As I understand it the county does not accept owner surrenders because there are too many other cats some injured and sick.
So what happens to the cats abandoned daily? It has to be euthanasia doesn’t it?
Comment: If the problem is that bad something needs to be done about it at root. There needs to be genuine root and branch changes on cat ownership. This sort of approach is not mentioned in the story from the abc8News website.
This also happens at our shelter in Massachusetts too. In this state, it is a felony and we even have signage that specifies that surrenders are to be by appointment only and the penalties for abandoning an animal are clearly defined. It still happens. Many years ago in the winter, I brought in a large cardboard box outside the shelter thinking it was a donation of towels; that happens frequently. Lo and behold! A dog walker was struggling with a dog trying to get to the box in our office. Wondering why, I opened the box and there was a mother cat with newborn kittens! Just shocking!
Wow, that is shocking. It baffles me how people can do this. Is it guilt?
Two of my babies were left outside of m vet’s office in a box. That happens regularly. When I was last there she had 5 kittens who were 8 weeks old and 5 that were 4 weeks old. I think she had older animals but we were there because one of mine wasn’t feeling well and it was more than I could know at that moment in time. My babies are the sweetest animals that you could imagine. We went to be interviewed to adopt a special needs Sphynx and the vet had been socializing her with these two so she asked if we would at least take one for the Sphynx to feel more comfortable. Of course we took both sisters. What a blessing they all are. A plague on whoever left them like that. What horrible cowardice.