It’s takes a low-down person to surrender their cat saying “we just don’t want her anymore.” That’s what a cat owner did last week at a North Carolina shelter (writes Elisa Black-Taylor for Examiner.com)
People who surrender their cat at an animal shelter should be asked standard questions and the answers logged onto a database. Perhaps it already happens at some shelters. We need detailed information on the reasons for surrendering cats. In this instance, the cat is a one-eyed black tortoiseshell. She must be female. Her name is Little Jo.
She was surrendered to a North Carolina, USA animal shelter, Cabarrus County Animal Control, and has until 13th May to be adopted otherwise she’ll be euthanised. This is a story which is repeated over and over again in the USA and Europe.
At least this ‘low down person’ was honest when giving her/his reason for surrendering. It is revealing though. I would not have the gall to enter a shelter and give that as a reason.
The words used are very similar to the sort of words that might be used when buying a new car or fridge. It gets a bit old and beat up so let’s change it. I don’t want a beat up car (cat) anymore. I want a nice new one.
The attitude of this person has not changed over the time she has looked after this cat. At the start of the relationship she was not committed to being a cat guardian for the lifetime of the cat. Little Jo is 2 years old. We have to describe this episode of cat ownership a failure if the owner gives up in under 2 years.
A total commitment to caring for the entire lifetime, come what may, is obligatory I feel. Of course some events will break that personal promise such as becoming very ill but even then the person can make alternative arrangements which are far better than surrendering to a shelter were death is never far away. It is a cop out. It is convenient.
Looking after a cat is not meant to be convenient. It is great but there will be some hard times and some expense.
For the sake of completeness, Little Jo is spayed and visitors can contact this email address to make arrangements for adoption: Je*************@gm***.com
Source: Reason to surrender beautiful young cat in NC
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Good news! I just saw on Facebook that Little Jo has been adopted! I hope that is true.
Wow, great news. Thanks for passing it on.
Angie,omg lass tis not ye fault,ye didnt know,please do NOT carry this upon ye shoulders,when I had my cat declawed which was the one and only time I carried that guilt with me for years because it was my choice ande ven after I became a vet tech it still stayed with me and all I worried about was my walls getting shredded and if I could go back in time I would not have done that to her and to hell with my wall paper so please find a way to let it go,I understand it will be with ye always but try to focus on the here and now by helping the voiceless today!
Thank you. Once my eyes were opened, my journey has been long. “Hearing” such words of encouragement are the light at the end of the tunnel. Having loving people to “hold my hands” as I walk away from the past is so encouraging. Thank you so much!
Irish, Thank you for sharing your own torture with guilt, and your realization that it was best to let it go, and focus on the present by helping those who have no voice.
Sometimes our own suffering can lead us into a whole new direction by giving our energy to others who are suffering, or as in my case, educating pet guardians. I share information I only learned after my cat suffered for 3 months, and I discovered that I couldn’t trust the vets. I did research every day for hours, which I continue to do.
My cat is well now, because of my refusal to give “blind obedience” to vets. I will only take her to a vet if there’s no hope that I can solve the issue.
Almost every day I talk with people who are in shock from what I share. I tell them to do their own research if they don’t believe me. I have no vested interest, as vets do.
This is a horrible story for Little Jo. My heart truly breaks for her and I pray that she will be rescued before Wednesday’s execution.
Sadly, I was forced to perform such a horrendous act 24 years ago. Back then, I was young and naive and truly believed that shelters helped animals. After all, I had adopted a kitten from one.
Before you curse me, please understand that this is a very hard thing to say. My mother passed away and I was left with the care of her beloved cats. I am not sure how many there were at that time.
My husband decided to move in with his brother and sister-in-law to help ease the financial burden for both families. She was pregnant at the time with their fist child. They were living with his mother and wanted to move into her mother’s house. Her mother had been killed in the house and her brother thought she would have too difficult a time living there. The four of us convinced her brother to let all of us move into the house.
My Husband insisted that I could NOT take the cats with me. I was allowed to keep my cat (the shelter rescue) and three of my mother’s cats. He didn’t feel that these three would be adoptable. It broke my heart, but I had to decide between the oath that I had taken before God or give my mother’s cats to a shelter for adoption. I believed that I made the right choice. I believed that the shelter would find homes for them just like my shelter baby found a home.
Fast forward to today: A couple of years ago, I found out from a friend who was an Emergency Medical Technician that the shelter I surrendered my mother’s cats to had an agreement with the local EMS training hospital. They sent live cats to the hospital so that EMTs could learn how to properly handle trauma patients, accidental amputations, and severed arteries. They used LIVE animals to amputate limbs in order for these students to learn how to close blood vessels and stop bleeding in trauma patients. I presume that the cats were killed when they ran out of limbs. I do not know if these poor cats were kept asleep the entire time they were at the hospital, but I doubt it. I don’t know for certain that any of my mother’s cats ended up there, but my heart says they did. None of them were little kittens. They had all been fixed.
I have been haunted with nightmares since then because I broke a promise to my mother just so two selfish, self-centered pieces of shit could toss us out in the street after they got what they wanted. I have even cried myself to sleep thinking about them. I feel like a horrible monster.
I pray that those cats and my mother are able to forgive me because I can not forgive myself. I feel as though I committed a great sin. I have even prayed for forgiveness. I know God will forgive me and comfort me someday. I guess it is not yet time for my sorrows to be comforted. Soon, I hope. I am so tired of carrying this horrific burden of guilt. That is the only reason I broke down and shared with you.
I know that most of you who read this will think “Good! You deserve to feel that way!” I completely understand how you feel. I just pray that none of you are forced into the same situation because it is not worth it to me.
Angie, I don’t feel like you deserve to feel the way you do. Not at all. I feel tenderness towards you. You have my love. You were forced to do what you did and you didn’t know what would happen. I hope you can stop feeling bad about. I can feel your pain.
Angie, please stop feeling bad about this. I believe God has already forgiven you. I want to thank you too for sharing this painful experience here. Your story is harrowing in respect of what the shelter did to their cats. I have never heard that before. It is shocking. There is no way you could have envisaged that that would happen.
I’d like to turn you comment into an article but don’t want to upset you. Can I use you comment as the basis of an article? If you say no I will totally understand.
Thanks for visiting and sharing.
Thank you Michael! I truly love all that you do for cats and their humans. I would be honored to help you write an article to help cats.
Great. I’ll do it within the next 24 hours. Thanks.
This is a very traumatic story and information I knew nothing about. Angie, there is nothing to forgive when you act in the only way you know how to, in order to protect yourself or loved ones.
You must realize it’s over, in the past. You only hurt yourself and others, by dragging guilt throughout your life. It’s actually a useless emotion, and serves no purpose.
Learning new ways replaces guilt, blame, shame, and fear. I hope that you can make space in your heart for love to replace all those negative emotions.
Thank you for sharing a difficult part of your life.
Wishing you Unexpected Blessings,
Sandy
Thank you so much for caring. It really means a lot to know that you are there for me, a complete stranger. Thank you! May God bless you as much as he has me.
I am so touched my strangers kindness that God has sent my way. This must be the closure for which I have been searching. Praise God for sending all of you to my rescue. I am truly blessed.
A least they took her to a shelter, there are people out there that would have taken her to a different neighborhood and abandoned her outside.
Yes, there is a perverse honesty about it. It is bizarre.
When I shared this poor moggie yesterday my blood was boiling and also she is a mirror image of my Trinity I had PTS 2 years ago due to stomatitis,if she wasnt so far away I would take her,gawds blood I hope she is pulled before Wednesday,this is my Trinity,hope the photo will upload!
Trinity is beautiful. Well done in successfully uploading the photo.
Transport can always be arranged, even across the country. If you really want her, please let them know.
There are many many organizations that provide transport for animals. If you’re serious Google it. I don’t have a list with me, but it’s really easy to find, if you search. Try “Animal adoption transportation”.
Bright Haven in Northern California is a shelter that cares for old, sick, and crippled animals, or those who’ve been left by an guardian that died. They always find transport for adoptive situations. I’ve seen it again and again.
Its sad when animals are treaded as old comodiry which can be desposed off. After spending years with an animal we grow fond of that pet but for some its just so easy to.get rid of them
Hi Vijaya. There are two types of people: the ones who see pets as disposable household accessories and the ones who see them as feeling beings and companions. There is a lot of human arrogance in respect of our relationship with animals. Thanks for commenting.
I do a LOT of shelter promotions for this shelter. They don’t play games and say they’re going to kill a cat and then hold it another week. This cat WILL die as soon as Wednesday morning without rescue. Read this. http://www.examiner.com/article/why-did-4-cats-at-cabarrus-county-animal-control-have-to-die
One problem this shelter has is it doesn’t offer public adoptions. I do Pinterest boards on the high-intake Greenville shelter and they have LOTS of adoptions. The Cabarrus shelter is out to kill, and it’s not for space or sickness. It’s because its KILL DAY!
The phrase “kill day” sounds like it comes from the days of Nazis and the holocaust. Then, when we think about it, it is similar, isn’t it? If we treated animals as our equals or at least less arrogantly what we do today, in the mass slaughter of animals, would seem akin to the holocaust.
What do you mean they don’t offer “public adoptions”?
Everything has to go through rescue coordinator Marleen Jenkins. You can’t go to the shelter and wander around the cages and pick out a cat to adopt. This is wrong. It means if a rescue doesn’t save a cat that cat dies on kill day. Which is tomorrow.
What a terrible reason to surrender an animal and know it will more than likely be put to sleep.some humans really are pathetic and don’t deserve to EVER own an animal.
A lot of the other reasons for abandoning cats such as “behavior problems” etc. (there are many vague reasons) come down to this one: I don’t want her anymore. It is the disposable household accessory syndrome.
A sad fact of life that some people treat their pets as disposable commodities akin to old household products that have outlived their use .Worst fact is that in Europe and America most pet owners who abandon their pets also know the fact that the cat would be killed if unclaimed.The most cruel and irresponsible pet owners. My sincere advice is that please don’t own a pet if you can’t guarantee it a lifetime of care and happiness akin to your own human family.
No one has worked out the percentage of pet owners who genuinely respect their companion animals to those who treat them as commodities. My guess is that overall, the latter outweighs the former, even today when we are meant to be more civilised.
Perhaps in the form that, in their next life they come back as an animal….and have the person who owns them give them up and say “I just want want him/her anymore”. Then they will learn what it feels like. I have never been fond of heartless people!!! Any pet you take…should be a “FOREVER PET”!!!
Oooops (my bad)*Should have typed: I just Don’t want him/her anymore.
I’m really hoping that karma comes back to bite these people in a big way when they get get old or sick or broken down. The kids dump them in a substandard nursing home and tell them “Sorry, we don’t want to be bothered with you anymore.”
“we just don’t want her anymore.”
What a callous attitude and a punch in the gut to those of us who still mourn the loss of beloved pets.
Michael, I do tons of sharing of anipals in need — this being one of them. . . I very seldom take the time to actually read some of them. . . it just breaks my heart DAILY, and I would be in tears ALL the time — especially reading some of the “excuses”. . . in my books, there is NO EXCUSE!!!!!!!! there are meds for allergies, move to a place that takes anipals. . .I could go on and on as I’m sure you’re aware. . . I pray for all these babies EVERY day. . . and KARMA to those idiots who surrender, abuse or otherwise harm or give up these innocent, god-given anipals. . . ♥♥♥