Many people heard the buzz about the Companion Animal Alliance (CAA) in Baton Rouge, LA and their supposed no kill efforts. Local volunteer Amanda Brice has put together a well documented 14 page recent history of the pound, aptly title “Not No Kill”. If you are unfamiliar with CAA’s story and/or if you would like to see how a volunteer can make an important contribution simply by documenting online activity, please take a look at this document.
Ms. Brice used to help out with the cats at the Companion Animal Alliance. She stopped visiting the facility because her offers to care for the stray cats, whom she felt needed the most help, were refused and she no longer feels welcome there. Management advised her that volunteering with the stray cats is a “privilege, not a right”.
Ms. Brice says that CAA does not vaccinate all pets upon intake and the sick cats are not separated from the healthy ones. One employee has been in charge of caring for the stray cats at CAA but when that person took a leave of absence, Ms. Brice says she saw the cats were being neglected. She offered to help but her offer was refused by management.
Ester was cat ID #34488 at CAA. Ms. Brice selected her to photograph and network because she had a URI and was being housed in the stray area which the public is steered away from at the pound. Ester’s photo was posted on a rescue group’s Facebook page on November 15, 2011. An adopter wanted her and called the pound on November 17 but no one ever got back to her. Amanda says Ester was killed shortly thereafter. I requested Ester’s records from CAA but the response was that her ID number was “not in system”. What happened to Ester’s records?
Delan was cat ID #24439 at CAA. Ms. Brice says an adopter wanted him and paid for him on November 17, 2011 but he wasn’t scheduled for neuter surgery until November 23. The adopter asked if she could take him home during that period and bring him back for the surgery but CAA refused, keeping him housed in the stray area. While waiting, Ms. Brice says Delan fell over dead in his cage. I requested Delan’s records from CAA but the response was that his ID number was “not in system”. What happened to Delan’s records?
I will be posting a follow up to review apparent discrepancies in the records of the other cats on the above list.
I reached out to CAA director Kim Sherlaw for comment but have not received a response.
Thank you Amanda Brice for speaking up for the stray cats at CAA.
Thank you Amanda!!!
Amanda, thank you for your clear and thorough documentation. Being a witness is an incredibly important contribution.
“Not in the system” sounds an awful lot like “shoot, shovel, and shut up”. How many others are “disappeared” like this?
And I see that we’re killing cats simply for being feral? Never mind that it’s nearly impossible to differentiate between a true feral and a “scared out of mind” cat….
I’ll say it again – if you are a shelter with no TNR program, you have no right to take in a feral cat AT ALL.
This is the kind of thing that is eye opening. BUT when you ask questions, rock the boat or otherwise cause trouble for someone – you will be banned! Trust me, i know! Bravo for doing what you can do!
You are doing important work, Amanda, and getting this into the public’s eye just might make a difference for those cats who are there or who will end up there. I’m so sorry those 2 beautiful cats, who had someone who wanted them, never had the chance. It’s so sad when these things happen . . . and happen they do all over!
*Sigh* When is stuff like this going to stop at shelters everywhere? Too much “catch, kill and cover up”.
Bravo Amanda for the hard work!
When WE ALL UNITE IN The FIGHT for the RIGHT to LIFE FOR ALL !!! Ban Kill Shelters & BSL Laws!! Too Many Healthy Innocent Adoptable Pets are Being Killed for Power, Pride & Profit!! WE HAVE TO STOP THEM NOW!! WE ARE THEIR ONLY VOICE ! BE BLESSED & BE A BLESSING
assisting w these pics was the first time I went into the stray cat area- and I will never forget that day. Ester and delan were very special kitties…. as were many others. They were still 2 to a cage then and many were so sick. We worked very hard to find them homes— My friends were the ones who adopted delan, they were very distraught when they got the call he died before his neuter and wouldn’t be going home with them.
Hm…. Notice the difference between the dates listed and the dates on the euthanasia log.
Thank you all for your support. I so wanted to believe CAA’s sincerity, but I saw such a discrepancy between what they said and what they did that I had to look at the facts. Reducing stray holds, banning volunteers, deleting a successful Facebook page, and many of their other policy changes have been steps in the wrong direction. Thank you, Shirley, for your insistence that every life counts and for giving us a platform to speak out on behalf of those who have no voice.
Thank you for standing up and seeing this through Amanda. It takes courage.
Please do not rescue if you are going to put him in an animal shelter…give him the right to fend for himself in the open, if he dies he dies fighting and of his own free will……not a helpless, undeserving death in the name of rescue or help in a shelter……
mikken: I cannot agree more! Unless a better situation is being offered for a feral* (*FOR WHICH READ: cats who find themselves in this state DUE TO HUMAN negative intervention or lack of responsibility or abuse/or HUMAN FAILURE to intervene at an appropriate time to help) … then it has to be made ILLEGAL to resort to ‘clinically cleaning up’ such HUMAN ERROR AND NEGLECT: by attaching a stigma and ‘blame’ to the animals … then costing these innocent, disadvantaged creatures their lives for this!
As HONEST, CIVILISED, THINKING humans, we cannot condone other lacking humans, who are prepared to do a ‘mop up’ of the lives of feral cats, to aid and abet such outrageous injustice (be the cats ANY TYPE OF DISADVANTAGED cats: i.e. feral, stray … or otherwise).
somebody needs to check up the director’s arse for the lost records……although there probably isn’t room with her head in the way~