There have been threats to storm the hospital to grab him. It is difficult to know where to start in this updating story. You may remember Bart the cat who has been unkindly called “Zombie Cat” because he dug himself out of a grave where he had been placed after his owner, Hutson, thought he had been killed on the road. That is his story. There are doubts.
Mr Hutson has a neighbor whose name is Dusty Albritton. Dusty made a video which you can see below. In the video a voice says that when they found Bart on the road he was “moving and stuff”. This indicates he was alive when found. Dusty Albritton says that the woman who thought that Bart was moving was mistaken. She claims that the woman was in shock and made a bad judgement.
http://youtu.be/fpHzfQt12EY
The people who are now looking after him, Humane Society of Tampa Bay, say they will not return Bart to his owner after extensive treatment at their hospital.
They are not convinced of the veracity of Hutson’s account. They suspect foul play and cat abuse but have no firm evidence. There are suspicions that he might have been alive when he was buried, if he was buried at all.
The whole thing is highly confusing which is now being compounded by the fact that Dusty Albritton started a crowd funding page to raise cash for Bart’s medical expenses. She has raised over $7,000 thus far, which is far more than she had envisaged.
The money is not required for Bart’s medical expenses because the Humane Society hospital are able the fund medical treatment themselves through an emergency fund and donations.
As a result, Dusty has stated that she will return the money to those who donated and any money remaining will be given to charity including the Tampa Bay Veterinary Emergency Service. Will this happen when the dust has settled (pardon the pun).
In the meantime, it seems Bart is being attended to around-the-clock. He needs extensive medical care. He has regained his appetite and has even purred but we know a cat can purr for all sorts of reasons other than being content.
Bart is making progress but has some way to go. What is not making progress is the search for the truth. What exactly happened? Was Bart assaulted by his owner? We don’t know. Mr Hutson denies any wrongdoing and is demanding his cat back, when he is well. Indeed, there are calls from other people on the internet supporting him in his demand.
It actually goes further than that. As mentioned, there has been a phone call threat from an anonymous person or persons that people will be storming the Humane Society hospital to reclaim Bart for his owner. This has put the hospital on notice and they have been advised by the police to call them should the threat be carried out.
To add to the confusion, Bart not only has his celebrity name “Zombie Cat” but he also has a nickname which is Markie.
How will this saga end? Well, Hutson is going to have to go to court to obtain a court order to recover his cat because the Executive Director of the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, Sherry Silk, is determined to ensure Bart’s safety and she is not convinced that by returning him to his owner he will be safe. Accordingly, she declares that she is prepared to fight in the courts if needs be but she has stated that she may lose the court battle.
I believe that she is saying this because like everybody else we don’t know the truth behind the injuries suffered by this black-and-white random bred cat who’s lost his eye and his privacy.
Where there is abuse there are lies and there is fog. I am on the side of the Humane Society. They are asking that Hutson hands his cat over to them. Although he currently refuses, I believe he’ll comply in due course. Update: Hutson has sued for the return of his cat! He must be confident.
I’ve also tried to get others to write for the pet section of Examiner. The pay isn’t good but plenty have the ability to write and could actually be doing some good rather than complaining. People would rather comment that put out a few decent paragraphs and a photo in order to save a cat. I just don’t understand. Imagine if just 2 people from each state would write think of the lives that could be saved.
Spelling police after me again 🙂
I write for Greenville, SC. They have a very high-kill shelter. I wish the Examiner did have a National Cats division because I’d jump on it. I do the majority of my articles for the southeast. Florida is having a lot of trouble with their shelters, as is NC. Greenville is pretty good once you compare them to some of the others.
Dee I went in and got a lot of quotes from both sides. http://www.examiner.com/article/florida-cat-who-returned-from-the-dead-won-t-be-going-back-to-his-owner
I feed Michael ideas a lot these days because I like to read what he spins off from my articles 🙂
I see.
Don’t go to the Examiner.
Mostly just propaganda like The Inquirer.
Apparently you and Michael don’t have the same opinion of the above article. He emailed me and said it was very good. And many of my articles on there are to get shelter cats rescued before they are killed or to raise vetting funds after they’re rescued. So call it propaganda if you like.
I was just glad to see the Examiner finally print something about cats, albeit a very sad “something.” The Examiner is ridiculously dog-centric.
The readers are upset there’s not a cat Examiner category. It’s thrown in under pets. So I started a Facebook like page under Greenville Cat Examiner. I do articles about cats from all over the country. I’m not sure how many writers go as indepth at getting both sides of a story as I do. The #1 dog writer Penny Eims basically taught me to write more efficiently. I have a lot more people know me from Examiner but get better exposure on PoC.
Thanks, Elisa. When I arrived at the page I found I had an invitation to like it … from you … and since I think you probably don’t know which Susan is posting here, you must have invited me the last time I was bitching about the Examiner dissing cats. So I apologize for not liking you earlier, but I like you now!
I may write about cats more than any other Examiner. I’m not sure. Anyone who needs an article on getting a senior cat out of a shelter or raising donations for medical for a rescued cat needs to PM me. I don’t see when I’m mentioned in a comment. I’ve cut back some on my days off but still cover emergencies. I focus most on seniors. My problem is people aren’t sharing. Last month I barely made enough to cover my internet plan.
Elisa, my experience tells me that the dog is more popular than the cat on the internet despite what people think and despite the “celebrity cats”. Do the Examiner admin discuss these things with you?
Susan, it is interesting you should say that the Examiner is dog-centric. I think the dog website is more popular than the cat website judging from my experience when researching. This is probably why admin at the Examiner focus on digs. I am just guessing. Even though the celebrity cat is outstanding, overall the dog is more popular.
I never hear from the administrators. I have to write original content for each article and I have the option of checking Google news if story is within 48 hours of breaking or Evergreen if its good forever. I usually just leave it blank because they make critical remarks that have nothing to do with what I’ve written and it’s not worth the headache. My problem is shares dropped from 76000+ in November to less than 25000 shares for January. In other words I’m not making much money and the animals in need aren’t being shared so more are at risk of euthanasia. I had 2 emergency dog articles for tonight but I do as many cat articles as either people send me or I come across. I have several Facebook walls I check daily for ideas.
Michael, the Examiner has a dedicated dog division. Elisa’s Greenville Cats is the only thing I see devoted to cats. And there are far more cats as companion animals in the US than dogs.
Susan, Greenville, NC is just a tiny spot in this vast country. Their impact is minimal. They don’t really matter.
Please explore further on The National Examiner.
Thanks Susan. I thought the dog and cat populations where similar in the USA. Also when a company has two websites, one for dogs and one for cats, the dog site does better than the cat site. This indicates more interest in dogs but I am probably oversimplifying things.
Are you saying the only cat stuff on Examiner is by Elisa?
Again, Elisa writes for the Greenville, NC Examiner which is just a miniscule portion of the Examiner. But, she makes a big impact in those confines.
Please explore further on The National Examiner.
Dee I know what Elisa writes for. What I am saying is that the Examiner has a national division for dogs, and doesnt have the equivalent for cats. I have “explored further” on the Examiner; not the National Examiner, which is not even close to the same thing. And Elisa is not in Greenville, NC. She is in Greenville, SC. Yes, it is a tiny spot in this vast country but if you aren’t in NYC or LA, most places are.
I think I have confused Examiner with another.
Old age brain atrophy, I think…
Dee you may be thinking of The National Enquirer. It was in the same class as Sun News and Weekly world news where you’d find 50 pound babies and aliens splashed on the cover.
I’m supposed to cover Greenville, SC only but so many from across the country reach out for help I can’t say no. I think there are a few other cat writers but don’t recall their names. I’ve covered Palm Beach a lot this year due to their 80% kill rate on cats.
Examiner does more than pets. I also write for them on geneaology and on parenting.
Michael I don’t know whether Examiner prefers dogs in so much as they have enough writers to report on dogs. There may not be the same interest in cats. I tend to get the most views on old cats needing out of shelters and on dogfighting busts. I did a dog article on a found dog who appeared well cared for whose pet parents never turned up to claim him. He went to rescue. That article got over 1000 likes.
Why you think it is propaganda? When I read an article on the Examiner I don’t see propaganda. Perhaps I’m missing something?
Thank you Elisa for feeding me these ideas. It is very good of you. Although I don’t like to do too many news stories because that means this website begins to compete with news websites which is difficult to do. That said news about cats tells us a lot about our relationship with cats and therefore the stories are ultimately about our behaviour and cat behaviour which is a subject matter suitable for this website.
That’s why I’m picky for what I submit to you. I do best with breaking news but I tend to know what PoC readers wither would like or need to know. A lot of my writing has to be done when I’m in the mood. I’ll continue to float ideas to you because many need to be covered but I just don’t feel like covering them. I have to back off on dogs shot by police articles from time to time. Those are mentally draining. I have learned dogs get preferrential treatment at shelters. Both in promotion and in the ratio of dog vs cat rescues.
Need to go now. Spelling police just knocked on the door 🙂
LOL. They are cruel.
Have we got to the bottom of the reasons behind this bias? It is a good story if we have good information.
And it’s good if you are competing with other news sites as long as you keep the balance. My thought is once a person likes a cat news site they return to it daily to see if anything has happened that they wish to read about.
No doubt in my mind. This cat was abused.
No account of what happened given by the “owner” makes sense.
I would be surprised if it went to court. But, if it did, I can’t see any judge returning this cat.
There needs to be a donation link in support of the Humane Society’s court costs.
Good idea on the court costs. I don’t think he’ll sue though. In fact it will be a test. If he sue he is confident. If not he has stuff to hide.