Approximately forty feral and stray cats make their home on the backside of the Hawthorne Racetrack in Stickney, Illinois. For the past seven years Carrie Gobernatz, the National News Editor for Horseback Magazine has lovingingly tended to these kitties, spending $130 a week out of her own pocket to feed them. Gobernatz has spent over $47,000 for their food, but this amount doesn’t include the cost of any necessary veterinary care.
To say that Gobernatz adores these kitties and is concerned about their welfare would be a huge understatement. The cats have grown to trust her. Whenever they saw her appear around their seven feeding stations, they would rush out to greet her; some of them even rubbing up against her.
However, several weeks ago, out of the blue, Gobernatz was informed by racetrack owner Tim Carey that he had decided to cut the number of feeding stations down from seven to two, leaving many cats without access to food and water. Because the racetrack covers an extensive area Gobernatz was heartbroken and extremely worried that many of the cats were at risk of starvation.
Explaining why they decided to reduce the number of feeding stations at the track, Hawthorne Racetrack released a statement. They claimed that Gobernatz placed food in the barn areas which attracted skunks, opossums, raccoons and rats which seriously endangered the health of the Thoroughbred race horses and it was time for a parting of the ways.
The truth is that Gobernatz built individual relationships with the kitties. Over the years she developed individualized special kinships with several of the cats; one in particular named Cheeto. Cheeto is blind and requires antibiotics which Gobernatz administered. Since his territory is located at a distance from the two allotted feeding stations it would be extremely hard for him to find food. Naturally Gobernatz was concerned about Cheeto’s welfare. One day when she spotted him she immediately offered to trap him to remove him from the track to care for him but she was denied permission.
According to an article in Steve Daleís Pet World, to ensure that the cats would be cared for, the racetrack and Tree House Humane Society, PAWS Chicago and Triple R Pets formed a coalition to keep the two stations open where they would be fed daily. And while that may sound like a win-win situation; if it were true, Gobernatz would be singing a different tune. She would be both thrilled and relieved that the cats were being fed.
However the controversy surrounding these feral cats continues. I recently spoke with Gobernatz on the phone. She is very upset and concerned about the cats because when the bustling activity is going on during the day at the track, it frightens them, and they won’t readily come out to eat. She has learned that their food is being removed at night when the track is quiet. Does this make any sense? And no one has yet reported that Cheeto has been sighted. What make matters even worse is that the rescue groups are proclaiming that feral cats can’t live indoors without suffering stress illnesses.
But Gobernatz is wiser. She knows her kitties. During the time she was permitted on the racetrack grounds, this devoted cat lover placed a huge number of feral cats into permanent loving homes where they are living the good life – indoors. In fact, she continues to receive offers from folks from around the country wanting to adopt these cats.
There are always two sides to a story – perhaps even three if the cats could speak. However this writer admires the way in which Carrie Gobernatz has cared for these kitties over the years. I strongly believe that if in reality things were the way the racetrack is painting them, Gobernatz wouldn’t be continuing to find ways to to make sure these cats weren’t going hungry.
This writer also remains curious as to why Gobernatz wasn’t given permission to trap Cheeto on the spot. Why is she being banned from visiting the track to find out what is really happening with these cats? Is there something to hide? Why do the cats living at the Hawthorne Racetrack continue to be shrouded in mystery?
You can help by signing a petition which has reached close to 37,000 signatures.
Since all the facts haven’t yet been revealed, I will continue to update this story as I learn more about it. I trust that cat lovers will want to know.
(see Carrie’s comment below for background information on this video)
Can I ask why you are still posting that link to a petition to support her and her manipulative cyber-bullying against the business-owner and so many others?
Perhaps you’d like to edit this article, with another–it’s topic being a retraction.
You might also note from those two photos of her “Rueben”, that in order to take them from those vantage-points she would have had to be much nearer to that cat than taking them during a “drive by” from a service-road because she was already banned, as she constantly claims. (Unless, for one of them, she was standing on the roof of a truck or suspended from a mobile-crane with a zoom-lens as she drove-by.) They may have even been taken only moments apart with the image-quality edited later, the watering-dish merely cropped-out in one of them.
Of these two photos of her “Rueben”, the first link for the December 12th one where she claims and tells the whole world that this cat is suffering and in pain,
https://www.facebook.com/525133524289856/photos/pb.525133524289856.-2207520000.1418577309./543248829144992/?type=3&theater
And this one of the very same cat taken at nearly the very same time, note the size and position of foliage and litter on the ground, the only thing changed seems to be the removal of what appears to be a watering-dish behind the tree,
https://www.facebook.com/525133524289856/photos/pb.525133524289856.-2207520000.1418577309./529181077218434/?type=3&theater
Why is one photo posted as a recent desperate plea for someone to vet this poor suffering cat, and the other posted a month earlier, November 10th, says absolutely nothing (if you read the comments) about this cat suffering and needing vet care?
The more you correlate her comments with her photos, the more you see the true nature of Gobernatz.
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Isn’t it interesting that there’s always some excuse of why the cats that needed vet-care, during the time that Gobernatz was supposed to be caring for them, is now suddenly the fault of Hawthorne. I particularly like her posting photos taken of the cats during the time she was caring for them (like her recently posted photo of her “Ruben”, the photo taken last spring), and is now blaming everyone else for the state of the cats’ health. The cats didn’t get that way overnight, they got that way from Gobernatz’s values and “care”.
(Example: She also invents the existence of more “Cheetos” to cover-up why the blind one was known by her and others for 2 years yet she did nothing for it, other than throwing food at it–telling all others, she’d take care of it.)
Isn’t it interesting that the outrageous histrionics about getting the cats into loving homes NOW was not done during the 7 years that Gobernatz was allowed to care for them? If Gobernatz’s self-documented care of these cats is any indication of what kind of homes she approves of, they are safer at Hawthorne to be trampled by horses one day. It was good enough for Gobernatz to leave them there without vet-care for 7 years, but suddenly it’s not an okay environment for them?
And isn’t even more interesting that the cats weren’t being sterilized during the 7 years that Gobernatz was supposedly taking care of the situation. She was using the Hawthorne property as her personal little cat-breeding program without vetting the cats, only feeding them. No different than any mentally-ill cat-hoarder or a puppy-mill that is shut-down for the very same kind of “concern” for animals.
“The real story about Saving the Hawthorne Cats”
https://www.facebook.com/savethehawthornekittysreal
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Of Gobernatz’s cats, either still at or previously taken from Hawthorne, their photos posted at this album of hers, https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.525164290953446.1073741829.525133524289856&type=1
I count approximately 31(?) different cats.
I count only 7 with tipped-ears. What a nice track-record of being a credible and “licensed” TNR caretaker.
Thank-you, Gobernatz, for so clearly documenting your very own negligent cat-hoarding activity! No wonder they wanted you out of there, you were only making matters worse and worse as each year went on. What was it going to be for next year, your demanding of 14 feeding-stations? Eventually taking-over their barns so you could breed even more feral cats on their property? If it was me and I saw what was going on, I’d have had the police cart you away and off of my property 5 years ago. The owners of Hawthorne were being astoundingly patient, and foolish for allowing the situation to last this long.
Who knew that she’d have willingly shared all this wonderful documentation to prove she’s a manipulative cat-hoarding liar. Can’t take it back now, Gobernatz, you posted them for all the world to see.
I hope that horse-magazine that she works for gets wind of this.
Oh BS she just cares….I’m sure you have money vested with the owners. Blood money. she loves animals you don’t
Thank you Michael…Carrie please consider working with, and not against these people, I know the cats and you are bonded to each other. I know you are passionate about this, but this passion has turned into revenge and slander, which pushes you even farther away from your goal of seeing them again..The cats would love to see you again.. the only way that will ever happen is if you shut down that site that slanders them and calmly and professionally, stop trying to get people to attack them… and privately try to work with them, after the slandering dies down.. if this cannot happen.. then you will have to accept the way things are now, which could be much much worse. That is the bottom line here. As of now they just think you are a trouble making crazy person. They most likely will not want to work with you now, but the way you are going about things, assures it.
Carrie Im sorry but it is looking more and more apparent why these organizations dont want to work with you anymore.
Lucy is right .. you are never going to get back in going about things the way you are, by harassing and slandering.. you will never get back in there , sorry, thank god the rescues are in the picture or NO one but Hawthorne would be in there. I dont understand why you keep slandering the rescues.
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