Cape Hatteras Island is a long, skinny barrier island off the coast of North Carolina. It appears to be quite near where the well-known author about cats, Elisa-Black Taylor lives. She has written for PoC for many years.
The mission statement of the Friends of Felines Cape Hatteras Island is to gradually and humanely reduce the overpopulation of feral cats on the island through an effective trap-neuter-return, vaccination and micro-chipping program; very laudable and exactly the right thing to do.
With great sadness it was discovered that three of the cats in a colony on the realty property facility which had been there for the past 15 years had gone missing. The colony is located near the Outer Beaches Laundry Building in Avon. It was discovered that cat had been killed and thrown in a dumpster. In addition, it appears that all the cats of the colony had gone and the caretakers of that colony do not know what has happened to them.
It seems almost certain that there is somebody out there who wishes to do harm to feral cats and I am afraid to say that that is not that uncommon.
A co-worker with Debbie Martin cared for the 12 cats of the colony . Debbie said:
“We would never have suspected in a million years that something like this would happen,” said Debbie Martin.”
“He [Debbie’s co-worker] had some very bad news for me, that he had found three bodies in the dumpster back behind me and all the cats were gone. We don’t know what has happened to them. I think it’s very sad that there someone out there that’s harming animals. This is Hatteras Island. It’s a national seashore and we protect our animals here.”
Of course, the police have been informed as has the Outer Banks SPCA who are investigating.
What I find particularly impressive is that the Friends of Felines cat loving group appeared to have pooled their resources and are offering a $1000 reward for information leading to, I presume, the arrest of the perpetrator of this criminal act of cat abuse/cruelty. It has to be somebody who is out to kill feral cats but at this stage it seems we have no further information as to the cause except to say that the cats appear to have been shot. The cause of death is being investigated.
People are invited to make a donation to assist which they can do by making a check payable to “Cat Lovers of Hatteras Island” and then posting the check to the Yadkin Bank, PO Box 770, Avon, NC 27917 ATT: KATE.
Dr Marty Becker (He has written 22 books that have sold more than 7 million copies) says: Blessed are the people who feed stray cats. He is correct.
Source: Examiner.com (thanks Elisa).
God, that sounds serious. I hope you are on the mend.
Many states have a Greenville 🙂
Lets just say I screamed, moaned, prayed for healing and prayed for death in the ER Friday night. For 5 hours.
Good news. The person who did all the bad comments on the Examiner article has had their info turned over to the Cape Hatteras police.
Ah..I got that wrong big time. Elisa, I am sorry to hear you are sick. I hope it is not serious. Get well soon.