This Mamma cat and her four babies have been brought into the Darebin pound in Victoria.
The babies are just 4 weeks old and unweaned. They need their mum to feed them and provide them her antibodies through her milk. They need her care and comfort so the stress of being impounded doesn’t kill them. And they need her to teach them the skills they need to go on to be well-adjusted animals.
This little cat family need compassion and care.
The Lost Dogs Home North Melbourne has taken Mamma Cat into their adoption program. She will be desexed, her milk will dry up, and she will be put into a home.
Her four little kittens – too small to live without her – have been left for dead.
Rescue groups have been given 48 hours to take these guys on as bottle babies.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: “Animal Management Team Darebin Council”
Date: Mar 27, 2014
Subject: 4 week old kittens for rescueDear Rescue Groups,
We have 4 kittens requiring a new home. Please see a list of the details and information we have available that has been sourced form LDH and the impounding officer. Please note no other information is available. These kittens has 48 hours from today.
Please note their mother in the photo has already been passed through for adoption, only the kittens need homing by rescue groups.
Ref Number: N81903, N81904, N81905, N81906
Type: Kittens
Colour: Tabby and Black/White
Age: approx. 4 weeks old
Temperament: LDH Assessment – ok to handle
Sex: 2 Females and 2 Males
M/Chip or Id: no
Health: Underweight but no other obvious health concerns
Being separated from Mum leaves these guys at extreme risk of infection and stress.
The Lost Dogs Home’s slogan is “compassion and care”.
Taking mum and leaving these guys to die is the antithesis of compassion and it certainly shows they don’t care.
LDH management need to take a good hard look at themselves. There is something heinously wrong with whomever is signing off on decisions, thinking this is acceptable from a community “shelter”.
| Update (Friday afternoon) Great news! Seems there’s room for the little cat family in the Darebin foster program after all!Must be serendipity… |
I shake my head in disbelief and belief when LDH’s name is used within the same article. This is downright cruel not only to the mother but to her babies. I am actually speechless at a decision that is so uninformed, cold, heartless and heinous. Leaving them to struggle for 48 hours instead of keeping with Mum until 8 weeks old and then separating. We need an inquiry into the happenings and doings at LDH. More transparency, less killing and evidence of compassion and caring. Maybe this should go to media……
Hope these babies are saved and given some form of a chance to fight to live…
Lost Dog’s (and Cats) Hell you need to take a long hard look at yourself and what you don’t represent in the true Animal Welfare World.
How ridiculous – giving everyone more work when Mum can raise her babies happily and healthily. They will be stronger for it – they need their mum. If she wasn’t alive it would be different but why on earth separate them?
What is the name of the mamma cat? Is it midnight?
A pound in Sydney did the same thing. The kittens went through hell, were unable to eat on their own. Not good enough. Not good enough AT all.
OMG, what are you guys doing???? Why take a mum away from her babies, leaving them to die??? Who does that????? How cruel and callus… :,-(((
I have spoken to the Lost Dogs Home and I have been told that mamma and babies are safe and sound TOGETHER at the lost dogs home.
Great news! I hope they stay that way!
How hard would it be to hold off on the desexing for just a few weeks? How hard???? A callous organization, with not a single speck of decency.
This is from Darebin
Animal Management Team
2:39 PM (4 hours ago)
to me
I received the following correspondence:
From: Animal Management Team
Hi Debbie
Thank you for your email. The 4 week old kittens are actually being fostered with mum until they are old enough to be rehomed. There was a miscommunication regarding their situation and we apologise for any distress caused. They already have a foster carer ready to take them in today.
I also received this correspondence today from the Lost Dogs Home.
“I can confirm that the mother cat and her four four-week old kittens were delivered back to Darebin Council today, are together and were never separated (nor was it ever anyone’s intention to separate them.) Bearing in mind the importance of keeping them together, a foster carer has been found to care for the family until the kittens are old enough to be weaned, desexed, microchipped and be adopted into their new homes.”
And if a breeder did something like that there would be hell to pay, but apparently its OK for a “rescue” organisation to sacrifice young live, cheap and expendable I suppose :-(
I have been given pics of mother cat and kittens together. They were never separated. These kittens were never ‘left to die’ as stated above. I think before writing up stories and blaming Lost Dogs Home it would be a good idea to get all the facts right first. It goes to show how you just can’t believe everything your read. The Lost Dogs Home and Darebin City Council have not lost any credibility from this story – but someone else has! :)
When Council send an email saying the high kill pound they’re tendering with, is planning on killing some pets… I’m inclined to believe them.
I’m glad that in this instance that Council have worked to find a way to see these guys saved. You know – that they did their job.