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15+ cats neglected.
I have a very good friend who lives at home with his mother, his 18 year old sister,and his 35 year old sister and her daughter. This woman (the 35 year old) is crazy. Among other problems she causes for this family, she has 15+ cats and two very aggressive dogs living in their garage.
Personally, I've only been in their garage once- they don't like me in there. The conditions are horrible. It's filthy, there's garbage everywhere, and the litterboxes go uncleaned. The woman puts out a few dishes of food, but it's hardly enough for all the cats, and that's assuming that the given food is divided equally between all of them. (obviously not happening.)
Only a few of the male cats are neutered, and none of the females are spayed. I am sure that none of them are up to date on their vaccines. My friend had told me that many of the cats have eye infections that have been going untreated for a while now.
My problem is, what can I do? I know I am capable of helping. I have a lot of experience with animals, particularly cats, and I am a student of vet medicine. But I can't get involved personally, because the woman would not allow me. She truly believes she's taking care of the cats properly, and gets very violent if you try to tell her otherwise. My friend knows that there are problems, and has tried to talk to her himself, but to no avail.
I am thinking about calling someone to go look at the situation, like a local shelter or animal control. My problem with this is that I am very close with everyone else in the house, and I feel that an experience like that could really distress them. One of my concerns, is that the family also has 4 house cats (properly taken care of) that they love dearly. Would animal control take them away too?
The whole situation bothers me deeply. I feel I really need to protect the cats being neglected, but I can't bear to cause disturbance in my friend's home.. Besides that, his sister will hold a personal grudge against me. I know it's the right thing to do, but it's a tricky situation. Can anyone help?
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Want to answer more questions in the Domesticity category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Pets?
You need to call animal control. When you call them it is anonomyous so they wont know you called specifically. They may play the name blame, but they will have no hard evidence that you called.
This next example isnt about animals, but its close to your situation.
My best childhood friend had a baby at an early age. She started leaving her baby home alone and going out at night clubbing, partying, etc. I would try my best to go over when she went out to watch the baby, but it started getting really bad. I sacrificed our relationship for her baby. I would never forgive myself if anything were to happen to that baby while she was out being an irresponsible mother. I didn't call CPS, but i told her sons father and also her parents about what was going on. Yes it compeletley destroyed our friendship, but believe me that baby was never neglected again like that.
You just have to think of the animals and how much they would appreciate to be taken out of that horrible situation.
there are three options for you. you can either try and talk to your neighbor and inform them how horrible the living enviornment is for them and how they could get into serious trouble if they dont get rid of all the animals. or you could call animal control and let them take care of it or you could ignore it and always feel really bad about not doing anything about it. its your decision. but best thing to do is call animal control.
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You need to call your local shelter or animal control. They may think they are helping the cats, but they are really killing them. Tell animal control you want to keep your identity a secret. Someone needs to help these cats. Its unsafe for them and the family that lives there.
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i think that you should find a no kill shelter right away and inform them. i work at my local spca in pennsylvania and its a no kill shelter. i understand your situation, my mom and i go through it a lot. but you need to think about the cats. if the woman that owns the cats gets mad at you and all your friends get mad, then you shouldn't be friends with them. i consider a form of animal abuse as seeing animals being abused and neglected and not saying anything about it. it just takes one call to your local animal shelter to possibly give those cats and the woman that owns them, a better, and more healthy lifestyle. even if you must take them to a kill shelter, they would at least be in a better place. i can imagine that at least 10 of those cats must be suffering every day from hunger, sickness, and neglection.
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The answer really is simple. Call your local SPCA and insist they investigate your claims. They have the authority to force the owners to comply with the law involving domestic animals. They can remove the animals, force the owner to vastly improve living conditions, confiscate animals and even take the case to court. They will ensure the pets welfare isd taken care of and follow up periodically with the owners. Theres no excuse.
"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
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You need to make the call. You really do.
She may mean well but she doesn't have the ability to care for 15+ animals. Nobody does. Nobody can take on such a huge responsibility like that and expect to tend to each and every one of those creatures 24/7 properly. 15 is entirely too many to be able to feed, nurture, wash, care for, and love on each day.
You need to give a call to multiple people. Animal control. The local law enforcement. No-kill shelters.
Tell them the situation. Be honest. The woman means NO harm to the animals but it's beyond her ability to care for them. She tries her best but it's time somebody steps in and takes control of the situation.
Eye infections are usually not actually eye infections in animals like this. It could be a respiratory disease that shows this sort of symptom. Many times animals like this can infect other local animals, including humans, and it can lead to some seriously unsanitary, unsafe conditions for anyone and everyone.
I once saw a show where what you described was happening. A woman had a "guess" of about 15 cats living with her. She thought she took great care of them. She loved them a whole lot. She tried to tend to them all, but some were sick and some she didn't see for days, if not weeks or longer. She was aggressive when authorities finally stepped in.
Turns out, it was against the law to own so many pets.
So, they took the kitties that were in her custody away from her. She was made to go through some animal-care classes to learn about her behavior doing more harm than good to her beloved pets. She was allowed to keep some of her kitties once she was done with the sessions. And she did. If I recall correctly, she was allowed to choose 5 or 6 healthy cats to keep. Unfortunately, MANY of her cats had been euthanize because of serious, untreated infection that had been slowly killing them for weeks. They were put down so that they no longer had to suffer what was going to happen to them.
They would very likely take the pets inside the house away, too, but if she was honest in her intentions of only trying to be a good pet owner, proved that she would try to get herself better educated about it, and was persistent on doing better then they would likely allow her to regain a few of her pets--but not all of them.
You need to make the call.
You need to.
You don't need to leave your name or number. You don't have to admit that you were the one who called. You don't need to say anything about it. You just need to call and say that there is a very nice, older woman who you know owns 15 or more cats and is UNABLE to take care of them properly. You don't even have to say "isn't" taking care of them. She is unable to. Anyone would be unable to. Chances are, she isn't even allowed to keep that many animals on her property.
Most of her neighbors probably know about her keeping so many animals. Any one of them could have made this call before instead of letting it get so out of control. Somebody needs to step in so that this woman can learn and grow. Those animals need a healthier situation if they are going to have GOOD lives, and the woman needs to learn HOW to tend to pets so that she can be a better person and achieve her goal in owning such animals.
Call them. If you choose to tell them that you made the call then after they calm down I think they will understand. It's no only harming the pets, but it's harming the entire household by keeping sick animals so close. Please call.
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Whether you are good friends with the family or not this is a clear case of animal abuse. There are 15+ cats living in a filthy environment and there is no way she can properly care for them and give each and every one of the cats proper attention.
You NEED to call animal control, You know about the abuse you need to report it. It is wrong
Please call your local animal control and tell them about the abuse, It's not fair to the animals to have to live in an unhealthy environment. If you are uncomfortable leaving your name, You can always report it anonymously
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