A new show playing on the ABC ‘Vet School’ is set in Perth and last night featured a vet student’s experience of working in a shelter – the Cat Haven.
Now if you were a shelter about to have cameras visit, to film for a national – and maybe even an international – audience what would you do? Would you show your organisation as cherishing life, using donors funds to implement life-affirming programs and celebrate the impact your work is having on the community?
Seems almost like a no brainer. If your charity is founded on the support of pet lovers, then it makes sense that you would want to show your effectiveness. Your problem solving skills. And your absolute dedication to animals.
But even as the cameras are rolling, this ‘haven’ for cats can’t dig itself out of the mire that is a high-kill culture.
The show starts with a fresh faced vet showing up at the Cat Haven. She tells us that she needs to learn what it takes to be a shelter vet. Unfortunately, from there all she is taught is how to turn off compassion, promote cold-blooded indifference, and repeat the tired mantras of killing ~ “we have no choice”… “he’s gone to a better place”.
But mostly, she is taught that killing is appropriate, humane… and, contrary to what is often purported, chillingly easy.
The Managing Director of the Cat Haven waxes lyrical about irresponsible ownership being the cause of cat overpopulation, people not valuing cats and how their issues are ‘different’ to private practice. That is continuing the notion that shelters can’t be held to the same high standard of compassion as private vets.
Next, the vet student visits with a Cat Haven ranger to what we are told is a cat hoarders house.
Now, a hoarder situation is not ‘irresponsible pet ownership’ – it is a mental illness. And just as victims of domestic violence or other abuse deserve protection, the cats from this situation are victims who deserve compassion and care.
26 cats are removed from the hoarders property. These cats range in age from kittens, through to young adults. The vet student mentions she is keen to see them made well and adopted – and why wouldn’t she be? Anyone who loves and respects animals would want to give them a chance at a better life.
Even though these cats have been living in this situation for likely months on end. Even though provision could have been made to delay collecting these cats until a triage situation had been created. Even though these cats were victims who could and should have been offered protection…. all 26 cats are euthanised on arrival to the Cat Haven.
A 100% kill rate.
They couldn’t save even one of these cats. They have cat-flu – a perfectly minor illness in most instances – but it is a death sentence. Even as the cameras rolled, the Haven and its staff chose not to be heroes. But to instead perpetuate the myth that killing and clutching ones breast is an appropriate way to manage a shelter.
This student vet is asked to assist with the killing. A kind of perverse initiation where hardened hearts are celebrated and no one asks – could we be doing something, anything, differently?
You may remember the last time I blogged about the Cat Haven ‘rescuing’ cats in Perth. Cat lovers had seen a colony including some kittens. They got the attention of the local media. Cat lovers flooded the Haven’s social media sites wanting to help, universally condemning the local council who was being seen as not taking enough action.
The timing could have leant itself to a super successful effort to save lives. These cats were young and by all accounts human social. We could have fallen in love with them. We could have tracked their rescue from beginning to end. We could have been proud to have the Cat Haven working in our community.
The Haven ‘rescued’ seven cats. All seven were killed on intake.
Ironically, the only cats who were truly ‘rescued’ were those who were saved from being sheltered-to-death by the Haven, as local rescue groups stepped up, snuck in and removed the cats.
But why? Why when the Haven is given overwhelming community support – or a national audience – why does the answer always come back to killing?
The bizarre and disturbing truth is, even when presented with alternatives to killing, even when the community are standing by, even as other shelters halt the killing of healthy, treatable cats arguing that the killing is being done so at great expense and to no real community benefit – the killing continues.
Killing is seen as a gift. Killing is a good thing. Killing is a kindness. The killing is not the fault of the shelter. But it is a very good tool for berating the public. And after decades of using killing as the primary tool for managing the populations of their shelter, the killing will not end until the management who support this culture of killing are removed.
How many more years are we going to stand by and allow the Cat Haven to subject our pets to a 1970’s model of animal care – save some, kill the rest, treat the community with disdain at every opportunity; including killing cats on a national TV program to teach us all a lesson. How many more vets do we want to allow them to desensitise to killing and set up with the belief that these cat’s lives have no value. How many more years are we going to accept killing rather than demanding a truly talented, compassionate and solutions focussed team be installed, and killing for convenience ended.
How many more thousands of cats have to die from the process of being ‘rescued’ before we say enough?
As a vet student, this makes my skin crawl. I know when I’m forced to do desexing placement at LDH I will be asking questions.
So pleased other people also reacted as I did – the irony is that I have adopted cats from the Haven and they have all either come with cat flu – or contracted it when going back there for sterilisation! A course of antibiotics and all is well! Absolutely sickening that this sort of misinformation is being perpetuated by an organisation that says on it’s vans that every life is important!!
Well I’ll no longer be supporting cat haven if that’s their attitude!!! Thanks for posting and informing us
I have had experiences with RSPCA, none have been pleasant. I have found them to be so disdainful of the public and have a mindset that every case deserves the same end, the needle. Only if one of the staff decides to save a animal does it have a chance. Then it needs to be very saleable or good for promotional work, even after doing the job they can then face the needle. With all the No Kill rescue shelters looking for support WHY do people still donate to a organisation that gets large grants from the government still would rather kill than except any help other than money ????
I’m sorry but this was a brilliant piece of WAKE UP to those stupid people who insist on having so many of these beautiful creatures but refusing to make the choice to prevent so much unwanted breeding and worse – inter-breeding for the sake of not spending dollars on sterilisation.
They were all sick with an untreatable virus. They would carry this into new homes.
And yes I obtained my beautiful cat from the Cat Haven. She is a loving and healthy cat, but all shelters have limits.
Don’t be such do-goodies that you cannot realise how necessary this piece of video actually was.
They had the flu. I assume you don’t nip to the GP and ask to be euthanised each time you get the sniffles – neither would your private vet recommend death for a pet with cat flu.
These cats were savable. They chose not to save them. This needs to be condemned.
Here’s how a more progressive shelter dealt with a cat flu outbreak. Spoiler alert – it didn’t involve a bulk barbiturate overdose:
https://m.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=251629725619
Flu is NOT an incurable illness. Even Cat Haven have come out and admitted this. Go to their Facebook page and scroll down to their post about Vet School. They are very clear these cats were not killed because they had flu – that is treatable.
Did anyone ask why these 26 cats killed then? If all 26 of them weren’t killed for ‘flu’ – what was the reason they were all unsavable?
P.S. I am a Vet Nurse of 30yrs and am not opposed to euthanasia when an animal is in need of very expensive surgery, putting excessive burden on the finances of a refuge, nor if the animal is unmanageable either in nature or medically. This a reality. An unpredictable vicious animal should not be rehomed putting the public at risk. My problem is the RSPCA do not bring in handlers of many years experience when necessary. They instead rely on those ,who have at best past a few courses, volunteers who have little experience with large numbers of balanced dogs, or new vets with little practical experience (and under pressure) to make an informed opinion. We all know they hate what they consider interference by outsiders. Many things need to change and it needs to start at the top!! Always very difficult in any organisation, but well overdue in the RSPCA.
As much as I love and adore cats, intact cats who do not have responsible owners are predators and a pest like rabbits, foxes, camels, pigs, dogs , goats and the other introduced species into our country who only have humans as their predators. In the u.s vet students can catch, desex and release felines because they have naturale predators to keep the population in check. But not in Australia so I have to say it may make me anout cast to say some have to be euthanised in Victoria there are laws about how long they are kept about a month. But unfortunately not all can find homes. Thus some have to die
What a pile of rubbish.
In the US, the stabilisation and reduction of the cat population and shelter intakes has come about because of TNR, not in spite of it.
Tens of thousands of cats are desexed every year in the urban environment.
More and more cities are coming to the realisation that removing a few thousand cats each year and killing them was not helping the cats, was wasting community resources and was doing nothing to bring down or manage their numbers. It is pointless and inhumane.
If you are, like most people, concerned about the welfare of wildlife, then it makes sense to work on programs which can achieve the demonstrable aim of reducing the number of homeless cats. Shelter killing has never achieved this.
It’s only when we stop doing something that has never worked and start working on those things that do – will we ever bring our cat problems under control.