This is a slideshow from Fur ‘N Feather Farm, taken from their website (now off-line) which shows the interior and exterior of this cat rescue before it went horribly wrong. When I say it went horribly wrong I don’t necessarily mean that the actual cat rescue operation when wrong. I have spoken with the owner of this cat rescue and I’m waiting for her instructions. However, I’m not convinced at this time that what happened is as portrayed in the news media online.
In this instance the journalists and reporters have limited, one-sided information like all of us. That’s not their fault because the other side of the story is not being told. This maybe because of legal reasons. The cat rescuer is probably being advised to be silent by her lawyer to avoid potentially incriminating herself.
The more I think about it the more I realize that it is important that we let the owner of this cat rescue organization have her say before we make judgements (if she feels it is possible to do so). I am not defending the lady. I don’t know what the situation is. But we cannot judge her having heard the authorities speak about it to the cameras without her having the chance to defend herself. You know how it goes. I’m not saying that there is hype but there can be quite a lot of hype in these situations which can be magnified through postings, comments and further articles.
I won’t say more at this time. I hope that there will be a follow-up article shortly.
Fur ‘N Feather Farm – Who Runs It?
You may have heard about this breaking story (please read Elisa’s: Code Red: More than 300 cats seized as Hillsborough County case explodes). It’s been on the news and no names have been mentioned which is normal.
However, I have a natural curiosity as to who is the person behind this cat rescue. I want to understand why these events happen. I obviously have to be careful but her name has already been mentioned on a website called World Blogs. Her name is also being whispered on Facebook and among the cat rescue fraternity. That name is allegedly Jean Wilkes or Jean Wilkes-Wood.
She is described as the ‘President’ of the cat rescue according to World Blogs. She is in fact listed on Facebook as President of Wilkes Professional Reporting Inc..
The Fur ‘N Feather Farm website is down and inaccessible but I was able to reach the cached version. This is the version held by the browser which can be accessed. From this I gleaned some details. Below is a screenshot showing their mission statement. The mission statement seems like a very hollow and sad goal in retrospect if the allegations are true.
This is how I downloaded the slideshow of the interior of Fur ‘N Feather Farm. This slideshow is on the website, promoting the cat rescue. It shows us the way it looked at the time. We have not seen pictures of what it’s like inside at the moment. However, the authorities have described it as a pretty horrible situation. I don’t know if this is true.
Things may have got out of control because it seems to me that Jean Wilkes is not the sort of person who would end up in this situation. She is described online as being self-employed, the President at Wilkes Professional Reporting Inc.. She studied accounting at the University of South Florida. She went to Lacresent Secondary School.
Educated
In short, she appears to be well educated. I did try and telephone but did not get a response.. Update: I have now spoken with her and am awaiting her instructions on what she wants to happen. I have to be respectful. Her contact details are on the Fur ‘N Feather Farm website. I reached out to this woman to try and find out what happened.
I have some sympathy for her although all options are being explored by law enforcement and the authorities. She was allegedly cruel through neglect to the cats in her care. Several have been euthanized as being beyond treatment but perhaps she had just recently rescued these cats? We don’t know the true story and it can be hard to find the truth online.
Why Did It Happen?
However, I want to get inside the head of this woman to try and learn why it happened and to see whether this sort of catastrophe could be prevented from happening again. Cat rescues that go wrong are sad affairs. Sometimes the people involved have a criminal nature and it becomes hoarding. I do not believe that this is one of those cases. Sometimes it just goes wrong and they don’t know how to stop it or to call for help. I know some people just want to punish the woman. I don’t think it is that straightforward. Although whenever there is this amount of cat abuse there is inevitably lots of anger from a section of cat lovers.
Note: I stress I have spoken with Jean Wilkes. More to follow hopefully.
I volunteered to help Jean years ago and your instinct is correct she was a very kind lady. My concern at the time was more about the condition that Jean was living in because she always put the cats first. I told her at one point that she had to make one place free of cat destruction and she tried the photo she sent me had 30 cats visible …she thought that was fine…I tried to clean but it was a nearly impossible feat..she had a man who cleaned litter boxes but he left and I sat in my car and cried every Thursday…the cats at that time were fine —they were destroying the home. What happened was Jean’s husband who was a structural engineer left his position and was no longer able to fund the cats as before and people continued to drop off these poor cats…Jean would try to help each one …the one I remember best was one who could not even hold his little head up and she took him to the vet and spent hours with him and he did get better…I do not know how bad it got but I do know that Jean truly loved animals …she was sadly unable to know when to stop.I drove by the place not too long ago and it looks different so I imagine someone else lives there now..just so sad.
I read the updated story prior to reading this one. Judging by the slide show here, the place doesn’t look bad, except there’s an obvious lack of enrichment for the cats, plus there are areas that needed sprucing up. I’d be interested in how this story ends.
Your opinion of her mission statement is at odds with the general tenor of the article. Her goals are the same as all other sanctuaries.
Hollow? Nope, but I do not know how to address this concern.
Thanks Anne. Her mission statement looks ‘hollow’ meaning inaccurate based on what has reportedly transpired. But we don’t know for sure what has transpired. There are two different points being made but I’ll re-read what I wrote and amend it if needs must.