The Itty Bitty Kitty Rescue
A healthy 3 week old kitten arrived at the ACC, and 45 minutes later was killed for “having no mother”.
No adopter or rescuer was given the opportunity to save this kitten.
On Mother’s Day, a mother cat and her two tiny kittens were on the ACC kill list. What in the world?
These are tiny kittens, some as young as two weeks old. Dying by the dozens in our NYC shelters. At Pets Alive we simply could not stand by and watch that. With the help of volunteer, John Sibley, we went in and took 64 kittens (and mamas) out of the NYC shelter system and saved all their little tiny lives.
It is for reasons like this that New York needs a rescue access law like CAARA. CAARA would make it illegal for shelters to kill animals without giving rescues an opportunity to help.
How can it be that the three week old kitten was not even offered to rescue to help? How is it that these decisions – life and DEATH – can be made so arbitrarily? At what point do people stop seeing each of these tiny creatures as little lives? Little beings deserving a CHANCE at a life? The kitten was completely healthy. There was no reason to kill her.
Pets Alive is committed to stopping the killing of all animals in the shelter system. We took 64 cats and kittens in one shot. 64. Think about that number. 64 tiny babies never having a chance at a life. Why? Who decides these things? With CAARA they wouldn’t have a CHOICE but to let us have a chance to save them all. That is why Amy Paulin’s bill is worthless, because HER bill wouldn’t stop this. This is why we NEED to pass a law like CAARA. To save these delicate lives that some organizations may not care about.
And some of the workers at the CACC do care. Some of them send us emails or get on the phone and ask for help. They feature a dog or a cat and personally take the time to write something about that animal, what they know about that animal. They reach out. They take pictures of the animals being held by people, poignant, loving, affectionate. And what do they get for it? Reprimands. Termination. It is forbidden to take pictures of animals WITH people in them, even though all studies have shown that this can increase adoptability. It seems to us that any staff member there that starts to actually care a little, either has to hide it, or risk termination. We’ve been watching this happen for years. Why does this continue in NYC? When will we get some sort of leadership that cares?
And the lack of care is monstrous. As you know, we have taken dogs from the cacc where their bladders were not expressed and almost burst (Robert). We have taken a cat with a broken leg (Gloria) that was left to sit there for weeks without any care.
And now look at THIS cat. We have named her Mitzee. Her medical sheet says this cat has conjunctivitis. I’m no vet but even *I* can tell THIS is not plain old simple conjunctivitis. A week later, a vet examination notes a possible ruptured eye. Possible? A week later? But no pain meds? No drops? No ointment? I know this is grainy, but look at this kitten’s intake picture a week before. Look how bad the eyes looked THEN. Now look at them a WEEK later. Was there any CARE for them, any treatment?
This is an absolutely disgrace and this is what goes on in your NYC shelters. The BEST city, the most FAMOUS city, one of the RICHEST cities in the nation.
Pets Alive will work feverishly to provide medical care and find loving homes for all of the “Itty Bitty Kitties”. Half of the kittens are at the Middletown NY sanctuary, and half are being cared for at our Elmsford, NY rescue center.
Little Mitzee, the cat pictured above is at risk of going blind. Our vets feel that one of Mitzee’s eyes must be removed and the other needs daily care and possible surgery in order to save her vision, if indeed it can be saved. Could it have been saved a week ago when she entered into the Animal CARE and Control Facility in NYC?
Maybe.
Where is the “CARE” part of Animal CARE and Control??
One of the kittens has no foot. Almost all are sick with URI and various infections. One has already passed away from a massive blockage in her little intestines. Did the staff not notice that she was not defecating? Within less than 24 hours of having her, WE did. But by then it was too late and we lost her early this morning.
Please note that this is not some hoarder. We did not go in and do a mass rescue. This is the New York City Animal Care and Control Facility. YOUR NYC shelter.
The cost to Pets Alive to save this many lives, and handle the medical crisis, the vetting, the altering and the caring for all these cats will be astronomical. But THEY ARE WORTH IT. These little lives are WORTH saving and WORTH having a chance. Please help us. Pets Alive is asking for donations to help not only this little kitten have a chance at life, but to help cover costs for all 64 of these saved lives.
How To Help:
Financial donations are urgently needed to help provide continued care and medical treatment for the itty bitty kitties, including Mitzee, who is currently undergoing treatment to try to save her vision. To help provide care for them, donations of kitten food, toys, and scratching posts are also needed. Please also consider welcoming one into your home. They should all be in a home, being loved. Please fill out an application now to adopt an Itty Bitty Kitty.
Because THIS is the kind of life they have now. Now that they are with us. We take responsibility for all the animals in our care and we tend to all their needs. This is how every shelter should be run. Including the one in the most famous city in the world. Look at the BEFORE kittens on this page – from the CACC. And the AFTER kittens – at Pets Alive. Which do YOU think is the right way? Support no-kill. Support CAARA. Together, let’s put an end to this madness of murdering tiny creatures that haven’t even had a chance at life.
We are trying to pass legislation in NYS that would make this illegal. It would require the director to contact rescue groups and give them 8 hours to respond. Assembly Bill 07312 (CAARA) would empower non-profit animal rescue organizations to fulfill their missions, a right often denied to them by larger non-profit organizations and shelters. It provides whistleblower protection for rescue groups, creating an incentive for non-profit organizations to help end cruelty or neglect at shelters without fear of retaliation and loss of rescue access. It has specific provisions to ensure that these groups have the best interests of animals at heart and are able to care for them. And it prevents needless animal suffering by mandating precise, sensible, and objective criteria for determining which animals are dangerous or irremediably suffering and therefore exempt from rescue access provisions.
The bill will be voted on in the next week or two. Unfortunately, the ASPCA is trying to kill it, and the chair of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, William McGee, is willing to do their bidding by recommending that the bill be tabled. That will be the continued kiss of death for 25,000 animals a year who have an immediate place to go.
Please help us pass the Companion Animal Access & Rescue Act by Kellner. Use all three alerts to reach ALL members of the Assembly Ag Committee:
Be polite!
Use all three alerts to reach ALL members of the Assembly Ag Committee:
Alert #1 of 3: http://bit.ly/GJmNH9
Alert #2 of 3: http://bit.ly/GOUkwd
Alert #3 of 3: http://bit.ly/GHR7lW
Let’s stop the madness. And the murder.
Filed in Animal Rescue, Legislation, No-kill by kerry on May 16, 2012. There are 7 comments.
This week, there was an amazing article in Forbes Magazine.
So all over the nation the no-kill movement is growing and growing and growing. Building momentum. More and more people are getting involved, not accepting the status quo (that they “have to die, there are no other options“), and putting an end to the killing in their neighborhoods. BSL is being fought, kill shelters are frowned upon, TNR is supported and good is conquering evil.
I was wading through the hundreds of surrender requests we get each week. Almost none of them were dogs with no issues. Most of them had some sort of major aggression issue, or behavior issue, or were court ordered dangerous dogs, or had severe separation anxiety. Sigh. It is emotionally exhausting some days to read through them and I want to ask them all “why didn’t you address this behavior when it first started”? Why do so many people let it get to THIS point before looking to abandon the dog, when a little ounce of prevention could have been worth a hundred pounds of me taking their dog?
You ever read the newspaper and read about these dog fighting rings being broken up? Police or Animal Control moves in and breaks up the ring, arrest people, put a stop to it? We all rejoice. Yay. More scum put behind bars where they should be. More dogs taken from the terrible life they lived, the ONLY life they have ever known – a life of horror, terror, fear, abuse, misery and cruelty. Saved. Those dogs SAVED.
So we were able to get Oreo’s Law put forth again to the Agricultural Committee (Thank you Micah Kellner).
You all know that Pets Alive often goes head to head with shelters that are still practicing archaic policies that result in the killing of perfectly healthy and adoptable dogs and cats.
Ok…so when I wonder why Reno can save 94% of the animals that come through their doors, why Philly and Charlotte are making great strides toward becoming no-kill, why we can add Austin and Las Vegas and so many other cities to that list of places where no-kill is more of a reality than a dream, we have New York City…where Maddie’s Fund and the ASPCA have poured more than $20 million into making NYC No-kill, and Jane Hoffman hangs on by her fingernails to keep the Mayor’s Alliance deciding who will live or die needlessly while moving the goalposts of when New York will become No-Kill every year from 2008 to 2010 to 2012 now 2015.
I”m home. After I velcro my dogs off me and take a shower I settle down in front of my computer to really go over the emails I have received while I was gone. While we’re away Kerry and I always have our BlackBerrys and our laptops, but we only answer the urgent and emergency emails and trust that Jenessa and Janet can handle the uglies that pop up back home.