By Elisa Black-Taylor
A Pickens County, South Carolina woman is grieving over the fate of her lost 17-year-old cat, who was euthanized at the shelter after the cat went missing.
Kelli Gandy, a Clemson resident, was worried about her cat when it went missing for the first time. Kelly had adopted the cat at a young age, and it would follow her around like a dog. In less than 24 hours, her cat was euthanized when it wound up at the shelter. Pickens County Animal Control said the cat was very sick and malnourished.
News media WSPA7 had to file a Freedom of Information Act request to learn why the cat was euthanized after trying for two weeks to talk to Pickens County Administrator J. Chappell Hurst, Jr. Hurst finally gave a statement to media a few days ago saying:
“That cat was in terrible shape. We put the cat down. I don’t apologize for that. We had to make that decision. We made it and we stand by it. That’s the end of it. I’m not worried about what the ordinance says. We have a right to make a decision of what’s in the best interest of an animal. And we made that decision.”
Here’s a video where news media spoke with everyone involved (as at June 1st 2015, the video is no longer available – sorry).
As it turns out, the Pickens County shelter may or may not have violated state law as pertaining to the hold on animals brought into the shelter. SC law states that all stray animals must be kept for a period of five days, after which time they may be legally euthanized or adopted out. Should a cat be wearing identification such as a collar, Animal Control is supposed to hold the cat for 10 days.
The cat was deaf, and old. Kelli says her cat wasn’t malnourished and had food available to her at all times.
WSPA7 stated in their report there is no exception to the five day hold, that all animals must be held as required by law. I did a bit of digging and found the shelter may have had the legal right to euthanize the cat. According to SC animal law, the law may not have been broken in this case. Under Article F (http://www.animallaw.info/articles/dduspetadoption.htm ) there’s a clause that read…..
“if an animal is extremely sick, believed to be experiencing extreme pain and suffering, or has a contagious disease, the shelter can kill the animal. Such determination of the animal’s condition needs to be made by a veterinarian or the shelter supervisor.”
Kelli has plans to meet with Administrator Hurst on August 12. She also plans to attend the next Pickens County council meeting later this month. In the meantime, Kelli and her family are heartbroken at the death of the cat they’ve had for so long now.
“We had no say whatsoever. We didn’t get to say goodbye. Nothing. Nothing. Now we don’t have her anymore,” Kelli told WSPA7.
Should a shelter have the right to euthanize a cat without informing the owner?
It’s scary to think a cat or dog turned into a shelter in poor condition is subject to euthanasia if that animal is determined to be sick or in pain. Shelter administrator’s apparently do have the right to euthanize. That still doesn’t make it the right thing to do. Don’t get me wrong. If an animal is in extreme pain and no owner can be located, that’s different.
It’s sad that Kelli never had the chance to say goodbye to her cat.
How does everyone else feel about this case? I’d suggest each of you check the laws in your state. I was totally unaware this is how SC deals with sick animals left at the shelters. This may be true in other states as well.
Elisa
Sources:
- http://www.animallaw.info/articles/dduspetadoption.htm
Hi Pam, that is the cat and he/she is soaking wet as you say. That was probably the only picture they had to hand. She just looks like an old cat to me. Certainly not a reason to circumvent the clear rules.
You paint a picture of callous, factory killing. I find it disturbing. I suppose they would say they have no choice but to euthanise so promptly because of the numbers of unwanted cats. I am not convinced that argument is a good one.
I totally agree, Harvey. The shelter is too keen to kill. They seems to have got used it. They have lost their sensitivity to treating each cat as a sentient being to be saved.
They probably thought the cat would never be rehomed so why bother and ignored the law. They also ignored the sensibilities of the cat’s caretaker.
But Elisa, you know you don’t normally see a cat soaking wet, even in stormy weather – they find somewhere to hole up to keep dry. The cat was either left in a trap and got wet, got rained on while in a trap in an open vehicle being transported to shelter, perhaps, or was bathed or hosed off at the shelter . . .
No word as to how the cat got to the shelter. This happened a few weeks ago during the time we had daily thunderstorms. That would explain the cat being wet.
Well, it doesn’t look like a candidate for immediate killing to me, Elisa – I see no nasal discharge, eyes appear clear, she’s apparently able to stand up OK. Do we know how she got to the pound? In a trap or brought in by someone? Maybe she was trapped and left out in hot sun and got dehydrated? A few years ago a couple I know were hospitalized one after the other within a couple of days. There was a bit of a feud with their neighbors because they’d reported the neighbors dog being loose and killing goats and chickens. So the neighbors took the opportunity to get back at them and trapped their cat while they were in hospital and took him to the pound after leaving him in the trap in July weather from Friday to Monday. He fortunately survived, the wife came home and found out, and I was able to spring him from pound in time. He was a young cat, but lost quite a bit of weight during his brief ordeal.