Shelter Staff Blackmailed into Taking Animals

Have you ever heard of shelter staff being blackmailed to take in animals that a person wishes to give up?

This has happened to Sue Sewell, Chairman of Hull Animal Welfare Trust, Hull, UK. Her rescue center is full or almost at capacity and therefore sometimes she has to turn people away.

Sue Sewell

Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

The staff say that they are being emotionally blackmailed into taking kittens. One visitor threatened to put four kittens into a bin bag unless the rescue center accepted them. Shockingly bad behaviour, I’d say.

“On Friday, a lady told us she’d put her cat and four kittens in a bin bag if we didn’t take them in.”

Sue Sewell said that pet owners are becoming increasingly abusive when told that the shelter is at capacity. This is an unpleasant trend. It reinforces what we already know: the irresponsible people who are more likely to abandon unwanted kittens to shelters are also more likely to be unpleasant. The problems that we have with pet ownership are caused by a minority of people.

In another related UK pet story, a survey by MSD Animal Health found that 77.5% of cats in the UK are not vaccinated against illness. Personally, I find this a surprising statistic.

Another statistic hints at the reason behind the high percentage of unvaccinated cats. Eighty-six percent of pet owners said they would vaccinate their pet if a disease was present in the area where they lived. This is a risky decision because it may be too late to vaccinate. Vaccinations are meant to be preventative measures. Perhaps they don’t understand vaccinations.

The stats indicate to me that people want to save on veterinary expenditure and risk the health of their cat in doing so. Often pet owners are unprepared for the true cost of looking after a companion animal. The failure to spay and neuter resulting in unwanted kittens (as shown in this article) is another example of how irresponsible people force the burden of their misdeeds on others at shelters.

This is a profound problem in society as it undermines the whole process and concept of the domestication of cats and dogs.

Sue makes a plea in the video to cat owners to neuter their cats.

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21 thoughts on “Shelter Staff Blackmailed into Taking Animals”

  1. My parents have lived next door to a vet clinic for 50 years and needless to say quite a few of our cats have more than likely come from there when gutless humans dump them there at night.3 of our 4 cats were strays.2 of them were young kittens and the other was about 2 years old when they decided to become part of our family.all my cats are desexed,microchipped,vaccinated and are dewormed and have flea treatment regularly. If I couldn’t do that for them I would feel that I have failed them.cats need health checks just as we do and if its good enough for us its good enough for them.if everyone that adopts a cat has them desexed asap these shelters wouldn’t be over run with cats and kittens and no one would have to be abused or blackmailed.the fault is totally on the pet owner for not being responsible and all it takes is missing out on a few luxuries in life to have a desexed,healthy cat..

    Reply
  2. This happens for the very same reason that people practice TNR. They don’t have the strength of heart required to end the life of an unwanted animal so they just dump the problem off on others and “let nature take its course”. They don’t care how those cats die so long as they suffer to death out of sight — they get to blame anyone but themselves for how all those cats suffered to death.

    You need only look to yourselves to see why it happens. You support the very same values and behaviors in yourselves and others. You’re just as despicable and reprehensible as those you blame for the problem.

    Reply
    • You are wrong again. You are saying that responsible cat caretakers are the same as the small minority who are irresponsible which is clearly stupid. I think you need to think more clearly and express you ideas more precisely.

      Reply
      • And you refusing to face-up to reality and facts is precisely why this is going to keep happening. 🙂 YOU perpetuate the problem! You ARE the problem! Until you start to promote responsible pet-ownership you can blame yourself for every dead-cat article on the internet. Your fault! 🙂

        Reply
        • No, Jim.
          You are a perpetrator of vermin birds who keep me awake, leave droppings on my car and porch, and generally annoy the heck out of people who don’t want nests in their trees.

          Even though my first line is to protect cats, you have no idea of how many neighborhood children I stop from using slingshots or BB guns to clip off birds or how many adults I prevent from taking brooms and swatting bird nests to the ground.

          Reply

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