Introduction: I confess that I am rather reluctant to publish this article because we have probably have had enough of Julianne Westberry. However, Eliza, has written what will presumable be the final article in this saga.
The reason for it is laudable because it seeks closure on the matter of identifying the cats involved. I think that this is a decent and sensible thing to do because after all these cats had owners at one time of one sort or another. The cats need to be accounted for. I hope you agree.
Here, therefore, is Eliza’s article.….
This article, possibly the last in the series on Julianne Westberry, is written to serve two purposes. All previous articles can be found following this latest article.
Since beginning these, I’ve been called a ‘witch hunter.’ I can assure everyone this is untrue. My main objective is to be sure this situation never, EVER occurs again. Hundreds of cats are possibly dead at the hands of this one woman who supposedly loves cats. Hopefully this story will locate a few more of the missing. It will also give those who have positive things to say about Julianne to do so here.
I’d also like feedback on whether what good Julianne did for however many years she was in rescue has now been canceled out by the deaths of at least 57 cats. Those are only the ones found dead in the home. A few of the survivors pulled from the Belton home aren’t expected to recover, due to organ damage caused by starvation. Whether any cats died at the farm, well, we’ll never have an accurate count on that.
Can someone who is responsible for so many deaths of beautiful, trusting cats ever rally back and become a respected member of the rescue community at some time in the future? Or will Julianne now be known as the hoarder who locked her cats in carriers, rooms in her home, and the crawlspace under her home without food or water and allowed them to die a slow and agonizing death? How do you bounce back from something this serious? Personally, I don’t think it’s possible to restore a reputation, once this much damage has been done. Julianne didn’t lose a bunch of cats to illness, which happens with a lot of death row rescues. She created a situation a cat couldn’t possibly live through. Trapped, starved and dehydrated is something done deliberately, and not an accident.
Personally, I have a lot of good memories of Julianne before her arrest. She was always quick to return messages on Facebook, and everyone in the rescue community thought highly of her. There were people in the rescue community who visited her home shortly after she moved, and there was no clue anything was wrong. Yes, Julianne has mental issues to deal with. The question is how far can a mental condition take the blame for leaving the cats alone, unfed, unwatered and-dare I say it-unloved? Keep in mind sociopaths and psychopaths also suffer from ‘mental conditions.’ That’s a medical diagnosis, and not an excuse for what happened to those poor cats.
I’m not surprised she still has friends who support her. There was a murder about an hour from me last year, where a man killed his girlfriend and four members of her family before killing himself. His family praised what a good cousin he was on Facebook. There are always people who will remain faithful to someone, no matter what.
Now for the second reason I’m writing about Julianne and her ‘rescues.’ Those of us in the rescue community have worked non-stop for the past week hunting down the almost 500 cats rescued by Julianne over the past year. Ash Truelove continues to add to the Dead of Alive album on her Facebook page. A few people have come forward saying they have one or more of the cats Julianne pulled from one of the near dozen shelters she rescued from. This is a plea to ask more to come forward.
Closure
This isn’t an effort to get a foster or adopter in trouble. We simply need closure that more cats are alive than dead. The number of those found alive has risen since many were dumped to fend for themselves on a farm. It’s sad a cat had a better chance of surviving a coyote than inside what was supposed to be a loving home.
If you have one of the cats in this album, please post a new photo to prove that cat is alive. We need some good news amidst all the death. If you don’t want to leave your name, that’s fine. Just please show us some of the cats survived, and that Julianne did some good during her time in rescue. Many of these cats may have been adopted out through Petsmart in the Anderson, South Carolina area.
Message to Julianne
Julianne, if you read this, please give us a list of those you know are dead. Only three have been identified from the house, and we need to memorialize those who died. Big Boy,Venus and Milly (along with their kittens) were identified through the microchips in these nursing mama cats. If you don’t know the names of those who didn’t survive, either from your Belton home or your previous residence, that shows how little you really cared.
I’ve included a few photos of cats who have made it out of Anderson County PAWS, and are sleeping in a comfortable home tonight.
Digit: This long haired beauty has an enlarged liver. They are doing iv and force feeding, with an exam scheduled for today. It will take a miracle for this poor beauty to survive
Lilly & Heather: Both are expected to recover and are doing well.
Tiggre & Buddy: Buddy was found alone and emaciated at the farm where many of the cats were left to fend on their own. Tiggre hasn’t been found at this time.
If you can help financially with the care of these cats, please send a few dollars to fothcas@gmail.com or smbob2@aol.com
For those of you who choose not to support Julianne, what was your breaking point. I’ll start out by saying my heart hardened toward Julianne after hearing cats were left to die in the carriers they were rescued in. This information is in the police report, and not an exaggeration. What was yours? And if you still support Julianne, please leave a comment as why you choose to do so.
Elisa
Prior Articles:
One – two – three – on examiner.com
There appears to be people loyal to her defending her. This is the wrong attitude. It is human focused (and misplaced) when this is a time to focus on the cats.
You speak for most of us. If people are defending her it is misplaced I feel.
I 100% agree with you. She is not the victim. The cats were. No defending this. This is sick and twisted behavior. So sad…so heartbreaking. What’s really sad in all of this is that she’ll probably get a slap on the wrist and 30 days in jail (time already served.) She’ll just move away to another county/state where she’s not known so well for all of this…and start the same crap all over again.
This is just completely heartbreaking. The more I hear, the more I truly think they died out of greed for pledge money…and that is so sad! I look at the kittens – and they are about the same age as two kittens I pulled 3 hours from being put to sleep at the end of April…and my two kittens are running around my house, romping away, completely happy and 100% healthy right now. They will get to sleep next to me tonight in a nice warm bed…with their bellies full as well as kibble and fresh water if they want to get up in the middle of the night to have a snack/drink as I sleep.
They have lots of toys and other pets to play with…and they live a great life…and have a great life ahead of them with me. They are so lucky and blessed that they didn’t fall into the hands of JW and it is scary to think that they really could have because apparently, she was in that shelter around the same time I was pulling that mother and babies here. Just look at how fast that poor mother went downhill…and those innocent babies never survived. So sad and tragic to think about what happened to them in that house of horror. The mother looked healthy in April.
End of June, she looks so sick – as well as blind…and tragically passes away in a shelter. The more and more facts that come out, I just can not stop crying over these poor innocent lives! I am a pretty new puller for Goathouse at Greenville AC…just started pulling a few months ago for them. I have also pulled for Meow House there too. I’ve pulled 12 so far, included the kittens I ended up adopting that I was talking about earlier. Every single cat looks up to me as their savior. Sometimes, I only get to spend just a few hours with them as I transport them to the loving, safe refuge 4 hours away. Whether it be they stay with me a while, stay with me overnight, or stay just long enough for a direct transfer…everyone one of them still falls instantly in love with me, and me with them. So…that being said…knowing how grateful each cat/kitten has ever been that I pulled from death row – this just breaks my heart. What kind of monster could do this? I didn’t know JW…and I’m glad I never got buffaloed into her BS.
How can anyone defend her after knowing and hearing about cats being kept in carriers to die, locked in cabinets, and locked in crawl spaces? How about the poor white kitty “Big Boy”…who looked like he was such a cool character and a super handsome fellow…who was finally set free out of the crawl space only to take a few steps of freedom and fall to his death right in front of the police?? How could anyone, knowing all this, possibly stand up for someone that was so cruel and heartless. If you can not provide a better situation in terms of foster care/foster home for an animal that you pull until the rescue is ready for you to deliver – then you have no business pulling. :'( I hope if you know this lady, you hold her accountable. Do not make her into a victim. She’s not the victim. The cats were – and she was the persecutor.
http://www.omcrescue.org/findme/collage.jpg