Anyone in FL able to adopt a cat?
The 10th Life Sanctuary is a no-kill sanctuary for unwanted cats in Florida. Unfortunately, they were forced to shut down last week. Here is the e-mail that I got.
You may or may not have heard that we are in the process of shutting the sanctuary down. In about a week I'll be sending out a detailed newsletter telling everyone the full story of what happened.
The purpose of this email is to give you some background and ask you to follow the procedures described later in this email to take back your cat(s) or adopt new ones. These cats should not have to suffer. Please help.
Here's a brief status report:
Simply, animal terrorists, probably from the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and/or the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida (ARFF) (Google them), have been attacking us with a terrible untrue YouTube video about the sanctuary and physical acts against us. These people typically let animals out of cages, burn facilities that use or house animals, and go after executives of these facilities. They also destroy/steal files to make it look like the facility was not keeping records. In our case, they stole some written medical records that we are required to keep on-site. Our records were not kept on a computer (which they would have probably stolen, too).
These attacks were a good part of the reason we had to close.
On Monday morning November 16, 2009 we found 45 of our cats outside their pens in a nearby field. They were let out the night before. Later in the week someone broke into our building and let all the cats in the isolation and treatment areas out of their cages to roam freely inside our building. Unfortunately, our building has open windows and a number got outside. Whoever did this also stole the medical records that were on top of the cages. Monday morning, November 23, 2009 (a week later), we found a chicken wire wall had been kicked out of pen 3N and a whole pen of cats were wandering around outside.
Many, not all, of the cats that had gotten out over the 8 day period have been caught and returned to safer pens. We are trying to trap the rest.
The terrible untrue YouTube video and the pressure on the County Commissioners these terrorists caused (because of the YouTube video), forced Animal Control to create a major Task Force to investigate the claims shown in the YouTube video. Animal Control contacted Dr. Julie Levy of the University of Florida (perhaps the most knowledgeable cat veterinarian in Florida) to participate in the Task Force. Animal Control also contacted the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) in Washington DC and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (ASPCA) in New York City and asked them to participate in the Task Force. Both HSUS and the ASPCA sent a team of investigators and veterinarians.
The Task Force also included various law enforcement people.
The Task Force showed up, unannounced, at 8:30 AM on November 16, 2009 to see if they could find anything that looked like the YouTube video at our sanctuary. If they did, I probably would have been arrested for animal neglect. THEY DID NOT find anything like the YouTube video and I was not arrested.
They spent 4 hours checking out each of our cats. At the end, they had a meeting and then invited me into the meeting to tell me what they had found and what could happen based on their findings.
They found 13 cats (out of 600+) that, in their opinion(!), needed immediate veterinary care. (As you probably know, under the Florida Veterinary Practices Act, 474.203 Exceptions, paragraph 5a, owners of animals can legally provide medical care for their animals without a veterinarian's input - except for prescription drugs, certain vaccinations, and certain surgeries which a vet has to perform or prescribe).
Six of the 13 cats were already in our infirmary and being treated by us. The other 7 were in some of the outside pens that we had not (yet) found to be sick.
The Task Force vets said that if I did nothing, they could have me arrested for Felony Animal Neglect in which case they would immediately shut the sanctuary down and euthanize all the cats. It was not that one or two cats needed the immediate vet care, but that there were more than 10 - and 10 sick cats was enough to qualify for the Task Force to charge me with abuse - even though the remaining 590+ cats were within "normal" ranges. But they didn't charge me.
INSTEAD, they gave me 3 options:
· First, I could post a $50,000 bond to guarantee that the 13 cats and all other cats at the sanctuary would receive any needed medical care AND I'd have to provide financial proof that I could continue providing care in the future such as an endowment or trust fund for our cats. In addition to suffering from the terrorist acts, we were also out of money (virtually no donations in the last month) and could not post the required $50,000 bond that would insure the safety and well-being of our cats. We also had no such endowment or trust fund that could guarantee the future well-being of the cats.
· Second, I could euthanize all the cats. I did NOT want this option.
· Third, if I relinquished ownership of all the cats to LaBelle Animal Control (they oversee our sanctuary), HSUS and ASPCA would fund and mobilize their Disaster Relief Teams to come to the sanctuary to vet each cat and then try to place them in their networks of sanctuaries, shelters and rescue groups. They said they will try to place even our sick (FIV and Leukemia) cats -- and our ferals. But they made no guarantees on placing ALL of our cats... they would do their best and try to place them all... those that couldn't be placed by December 8, 2009 would be euthanized.
I had no other choices. I have not been able to find a really wealthy person in the almost 8 years of operating the sanctuary that I could turn to for help. I had to take the third option in an effort to save as many of the cats as I could.
On Tuesday November 17, 2009 I signed over ownership of the cats to Animal Control. The cats remain at the sanctuary but I have to continue providing the necessary labor to clean and feed the cats. Animal Control would provide the food and litter. The labor, electric and other operating costs I'd also have to provide (or the deal was off). I've been able to raise enough for payroll, but am still $2,500 short for the other things (a $700 electric bill, a $500 garbage bill, etc.).
Six days later, at 7 AM Monday November 23, 2009, the Disaster Relief Teams showed up at the sanctuary. About 30 vehicles, including mobile vet hospitals and equipment trailers, and about 75-100 volunteers swarmed over the sanctuary grounds. A truckload of food, litter and carriers arrived from PetsMart Charities. The teams commandeered our building and set up exam rooms... each cat was going to be fully vetted and given shots (whether they needed them or not).
I am thankful for all the help. At this writing, almost all of the cats remain at the sanctuary (the 13 that needed immediate veterinary care are at vet in Ft. Myers). I'm sure that Animal Control, HSUS and ASPCA will do their best to relocate our cats - their Disaster Relief Teams are spending $1,000s to vet and place each cat... If they just wanted to euthanize them, they would have just sent a few vets and volunteers and it would be over in a day. But they didn't and I'm impressed with their efforts to save these cats. (I'm also glad that there are no other disasters occurring right now, no Hurricane Katrinas, etc., or these teams would probably not have been able to come to 10th Life to help us.)
Part of their relocation effort for our cats is to contact prior owners of cats that came to our sanctuary and see if the prior owners can take their cats back (if the records are available and were not stolen). Most people who gave us their cats gave us their cats because they had a problem with them and I doubt that many will be able to take the cats back. But the more that can be re-homed, the better.
Animal Control has set up an adoption outreach program... if anyone wants to adopt any of our cats please submit your transfer request -http://www.ufsheltermedicine.com/documents/TransferRequestForm.pdf (if you are a 501c3 organization) or adoption/reclaim application http://www.ufsheltermedicine.com/documents/AdoptionApplication.pdf (for individuals or original owners) applications today.
There are approximately 200 healthy friendly cats and 150 healthy ferals. The remaining cats may be sick with FIV or FeLV or may need minor medical care. There is one totally blind and deaf black cat.
Scan the completed form and email it to: dougmorgan@citylabelle.com
or fax it to 863-675-0037.
With this number of animals, there is great need. I hope you'll find a way to join the effort to re-home our cats. There are many very friendly cats that crave attention; some are declawed.
These cats find themselves looking for something to be thankful for this holiday - please help.
I know that some will not get placed before the Dec 9 deadline when HSUS and ASPCA will finish... The remaining cats will probably be euthanized.
I don't know if anyone has called you about taking back your cat(s), but I do know that a team from Animal Control is calling prior owners to see if they can take their cat(s). You can also call LaBelle Animal Control at 863-675-3381 and leave a message if you want your cat back - but you'll be told to download the above forms, fill them out, and email or fax them back to Animal Control.
Bottom line: we haven't been able to find all the cats that were let out of their pens or cages. Therefore, returning these cats to their prior owners may be impossible.
It would be helpful if you have the microchip number for each cat (if you chipped the cat(s) before I took them from you). It is unlikely that we gave you the microchip number we inserted into the cat upon arrival at our sanctuary because you had no need for that information once they were admitted to the sanctuary. We file by sequential chip number, not by the name of the person who gave us their cat... so to find your cat, we will need a chip number.
Be sure to include the chip number(s) when you contact Animal Control. And ask them how soon you can come get your cat(s).
More next week.
New e-mail: