Cleveland, Ohio: An anonymous woman was filmed on security cameras dumping young cats near trash containers outside an animal hospital. It looks like one of those callous cases of cat abuse and irresponsible cat ownership but the woman has an excuse and it is quite a good one.
The woman contacted 19 News to tell them that on Wednesday night she went into the Great Lakes Veterinary Specialists (a 24 hr animal hospital) to relinquish seven stray cats that she’d rescued.
The woman who spoke to her told her that the hospital could not take the cats ‘legally’ and then suggested that she she put the stray cats in ‘pet containers’ at the side of the building.
She took the hospital employee’s advice and exited the building to search for the containers and couldn’t find ‘pet containers’. However, she saw four or five containers that looked like they were for trash but which were fairly clean inside.
She left the cats by the containers, she said. She called the hospital afterwards to say that she didn’t see the pet containers, but they were near the door by the containers.
19 News investigated and sought out the views of the hospital with the said woman accompanying them. The woman repeated her story to the manager and left the room we are told by 19 News.
In response the hospital manager said that there are no ‘pet containers’ outside the hospital. They explained:
“No. We do not have them, and I know that shelters they don’t have like drop boxes or containers outside to put animals in. We do not want animals dropped off outside of our facility outside or any other facilities.”
And that is where we are left. We don’t know how things panned out except to say the cats are okay and need homes. If you are interested please call 216-978-1200. The hospital manager said they were happy to talk to the woman to ensure that this sort of event was not repeated.
Comment: Maybe the hospital should talk to the hospital employee too. It is a story which does remind us that what we see does not always tell the whole story and we can, rarely, misinterpret what happened. That said, most often it is pretty clear from security videos that people are dumping cats when it looks like they are dumping cats.
Address of hospital: 4760 Richmond Rd, Warrensville Heights, OH 44128, United States.
