A New Bern, North Carolina woman has accused her local shelter of lying about the condition her cats were brought into the shelter after she was displaced following Hurricane Florence. Their fate will be determined in court next month.

The owner has to go to court to bring Butter & Trappy home (WNCT)

Rebecca Brooks thought she was turning her cats Butter and Trappy over to Colonial Capital’s Emergency Humane Society with the understanding they would provide care until Rebecca could return for them.

Rebecca lost just about everything in Hurricane Florence and was glad Colonial Capital’s Emergency Humane Society was offering to take pets in and keep them safe.

In an interview with WNCT News, Rebecca detailed her situation at the time

“We had about a foot of water in the house, we decided we couldn’t leave the pets. The paperwork was noted that they were not being abandoned and this was a temporary situation.”

The Craven County Sheriff’s Office and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture were contacted and say Rebecca turned in cats who were in bad health and full of fleas. Rebecca has filed a lawsuit and will go to court next month to fight to get her cats back.

Rebecca has a former volunteer in her corner. Teri Hartley remembers seeing Butter and Trappy when they first came in. She did the intake forms that day and remembers Butter and Trappy being in good health. When Teri found out the society was keeping the cats from their owner she stopped volunteering for them and is helping Rebecca.

WNCT reached out to Colonial Capital on Thursday and have yet to hear back from them. Sheriff Hughes with the Craven County Sheriff’s Office told WNCT News the only thing she can do it to go to court.

It’s a disturbing situation when a shelter is accused of lying. Let’s hope Rebecca has the necessary paperwork and perhaps even recent veterinarian records showing the cats were healthy. It’s good she has Teri helping her since she was the one who saw them when they first arrived.

Have any of the readers ever run across a case like this one where the shelter was accused of lying about the health of a cat? I’m just curious…