Cat shelter cages too small

A contributory factor in the firing of the director of the Montgomery Animal Resource Center, Mark Kumpf, was feeding the cats once daily to “limit the amount of faeces’ that they produced. Extraordinary.

It became clear that the center ‘needed new leadership and direction’. The Commissioners were ‘dismayed at the report’. Bob Gruhl was appointed Interim Director of the center.

Cages were too small and lacked enrichment

“Most of the cages in the cat stray hold rooms are too small and do not meet the needs of the cats.”

If you want to see the long report, please click on the link below:

Montgomery County ARC Shelter Assessment

Also the cats were held in cages of less than 11 square feet (about 3.5 feet by 3 feet) for up to 3 weeks. This was described as inhumane. There was no enrichment of the environment.

All the cats at the shelter had URIs. One died of the disease.

When cats were taken from the stray holding area to the lobby or adoption area they had to pass through the dog area.

The assessment was made by Team Shelter USA on Nov 26-30. It’s goal was to improve the operation and increase ‘live release rate’ (i.e. reduce euthanizations and increase adoptions to no-kill levels of over 90%).

Source: Dayton Daily News and the Montgomery County ARC Shelter Assessment.