The story about a park ranger working at the Sandy Pines Recreational Community trapping a cat and then allegedly leaving that cat inside the trap to die has gone viral. In the meantime the administration at Sandy Pines have responded to the allegations on their website. I have read all the comments by visitors and the responses by Sandy Pines administration. My overriding impression is that the visitors are making wise and sensible comments criticizing Sandy Pines for a failure to act humanely in respect of trapping feral cats on their premises. Incidentally, the wider question is what happens to the feral cats after they have been trapped. They have failed to address that pressing and wider issue as well.
In this instance it is alleged that the cat was left in the trap to die. If that allegation is true then it would be a crime under the animal welfare laws of Michigan State. The reason why I believe that Sandy Pines are endeavouring to kick the problem into the long grass and bury it is because they classically say that they are investigating the matter.
This is the classic way that people accused on Facebook deal with these matters. They know that social media is very immediate. They know that in social media things come and go rapidly. It is a transient situation. Topics become hot and then they become cold very quickly. They become viral and then that viral activity dies away rapidly. Therefore they know that if they take a long time in investigating a matter the story will be dead by the time they have concluded their ‘investigation’ (is it actually happening?).
I would doubt we will hear from them in respect of the outcome of the investigation. It should not take no longer than a few hours or at a maximum one day to investigate in-house this sort of incident but the days will go by and they will become weeks and then the whole thing will fizzle out and the massive social media population on Facebook will have forgotten about it as fast as they had become involved in it. I would doubt that the police will be involved. The police may have advised Sandy Pines to kill the story. Police have a cynical attitude towards social media.
The conclusion that I have is that people should follow up on the stories days or weeks later and challenge again the accused authorities or commercial enterprises. In this instance somebody should ask Sandy Pines administration in about a fortnight’s time or more for the results of their investigation if, as is likely, they have not been published in the meantime.
Thanks Mike. This person is a troll.
This is flat-out false.
It is either a lie or the poster is misinformed.
Pulling cats from a shelter and setting them free is NOT a TNR strategy or practice. Nor does HSUS or ASPCA condone or approve of such practices.
You are mixed up I am afraid to say. It is not legal to trap cats and let the cat die in the trap as I have stated. This is not a double standard. If released cats under a TNR program die because of disease etc.. that is nature. But to negligently or malicously leave a cat in a trap that you have set is animal cruelty. Common sense. And if you can’t grasp that I feel sorry for you. You must be mentally deficient.
I realize it’s easier said than done, but if any residents of the local area of Sandy Pines are able to monitor the situation, and keep people informed via POC or social media, I believe that would help a great deal. Maybe even filing a complaint with the management, however useless it is, would continue to keep them aware that people are aware of this monstrosity. It is good to bring this subject up again, and to keep us reminded of other trespasses by greedy organizations against the best interest of animals.
But it’s perfectly legal and humane for anyone who practices TNR or RTF (return to field, pulling tame cats from shelters and setting them free in remote locations, a common practice promoted by HSUS and ASPCA) to allow cats to freeze to death–and worse.
Why the glaring double-standard all of a sudden? You yourself promote TNR. Are you now saying that TNR is inhumane and illegal?
The recreational area Sandy Pines says it is not Cruelty for a PARK RANGER (public servant paid by tax payers) to allow cats to freeze or starve to death . Humm that’s not Cruelty when people are being arrested for letting their animals suffer in this cold winter. Also Sandy Pines will not answer the question of what they have been doing with the cats the PARK RANGERS have been TRAPPING! I would suggest getting local media involved it is the only thing that seems to hold people accountable!