A letter from a reader,
My name is Sue and last month I found 4, 2 week old kittens at my daughters primary school garden and rescued them. They were a little weak. I was concerned that they would not pass a shelter’s vet check, so I cared for them feeding them formula and keeping them warm with hot water bottles and blankets etc in a basket. I fed them every 2-3 hours and stimulated them to toilet.
At the end of their time with me, the kittens showed a hundred percent improvement and were all bright lively little bundles of trouble as you might expect.
The law in NSW regarding stray animals is that I am unable to surrender them personally to a rescue organisation and was required send the kittens to my local pound – Campbelltown City Council.
I telephoned to ensure that there would be resources to care for kittens so young and not weaned, I was assured it wouldn’t present a problem. I took the kittens to the pound on Wednesday 7th November.
Upon my arrival, two men checked the number of kittens and whisked them away as I tried to explain the details of the care I’d been giving them, due to their young age and great dependency. I was assured it would not present a problem, filled in the required paperwork and was told that I was welcome to telephone regarding their welfare.
On Friday I called to see how the kitten were doing. I was told they all had failed their vet assessment due to cat flu and they had been euthanised.
I have had cats all my life (and still do so), the kittens whilst in my care showed no signs whatsoever of any health issues. One smaller kitten ‘Angel’ was weaker than the other three, and whilst I am very aware that animals that young may succumb very quickly and acutely to any number of health problems, I found it difficult to believe that the whole litter became deathly ill in the few hours after I dropped them off.
My husband and I are both devastated. We feel we should have been informed and given the opportunity to make other arrangements for the kittens, if they weren’t able to be cared for. This letter is just to inform you of my experience and hope that something can be done to change the procedures at this facility.
Regards
Sue X
(Names have been changed to protect the parties’ privacy)
These four kittens look to be grey point tabby, cute little bundles of fluff, that if placed in a basket with a bow around their knecks would have flown out of any shelters’ door. They arrived at the pound at the beginning of November, a good few weeks shy of the kitten rush. They had a family who had been successfully bottle feeding them who, if asked, would have continued to do so.
And yet the staff at Campbelltown Pound thought the most appropriate outcome for them, was for them to be killed.
Regardless of your opinions on the pet industry or pet sales, if you’re still of the belief that ‘overpopulation’ is killing pets, then you’re simply wrong. Pets are dying because lazy and incompetent pounds are killing them.
Without strong action to revolutionise the long-term culture of killing – the recognition that the community is a resource, not just ‘the problem’ – and a declaration to lifesaving that includes details on how they will actually achieve their goals, pets will continue to be slaughtered en-mass both at Campbelltown and across the country.
Get furious. Our pets deserve better than this.
People have to tell the pounds and the councils what they want not the other way round. There is no point getting angry and not doing anything send them an email telling them how totally unacceptable behaviour this is to treat your animals and your rate payers in your community like this and you want to meet and discuss a way to stop this from happening again.
[email protected]
I fear that cat flu is the easy out for some organisations, makes the stats look better if they are killed due to ‘health issues’. Soon people wont take animals to welfare organisations because welfare seems to be a bastardised term.
I had a cat that rejected her kittens so I was left with hand feeding them, with a baby of my own it was just too much. I didn’t even bother with the council, I rang all the vets in my local area until I found one willing to take them on. Luckily they had a cat that was willing to adopt them, the kittens then went on to homes of their own. It didn’t cost me anything and I was able to ring them often to check how they were getting on, a much better option than going to the council where you don’t know what will happen to them.
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