The following excerpt is from a post on the Facebook page of the group Lost Pets of Baton Rouge:
We are sad to report that someone posted about their lost cat yesterday only to find out that his Lulu had been picked up by animal control and was at the shelter last week. Sadly, the shelter only holds a “stray” animal for 3 days before they are allowed to put it to sleep (mostly due to lack of space). […] There is a great chance that Lulu was euthanized last week when her 3 days were up.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, I requested Lulu’s records from Companion Animal Alliance (CAA) in Baton Rouge. Lulu had been trapped by a citizen and animal control impounded her at 7:50pm on Monday July 23, 2012. Her behavior was noted as “normal” by the impounding officer. There are no notes indicating she was scanned for a chip. CAA never determined her gender:
Her condition was listed as “appears normal” on two occasions:
But on another portion of her records, CAA lists Lulu as “aggressive”, which appears to be in conflict with the above entry:
In fact, a person who actually interacted with Lulu described her as “nervous but allowed petting” in this Facebook posting:
There are no notes indicating Lulu was ever scanned for a chip while at CAA or that any efforts were made to locate her owner. The times on the CAA records appear to be automatically set to 12:00 am. I think it’s worth noting that Lulu was impounded after hours, on the night of July 23. It’s unclear what time she was killed on July 26 due to the 12:00 am default timestamps but if it was before 7:50 pm on the 26th, then CAA held her for less than 36 hours. There are no notes indicating she was sick or that CAA did not have sufficient cage space to house Lulu. In fact, one might reasonably assume that CAA killed Lulu so quickly simply because they could.
Lulu was a pet who got trapped by a cat hater. Lulu’s owner was looking for her but by the time he found the Lost Pets of Baton Rouge FB page and posted her there, CAA had long since killed her. On the newspaper lining the cage in which Lulu is pictured at CAA, the word “Battleground” is visible. In the world of shelter pet advocacy, our battle is against shelter directors who insist on killing pets in the face of lifesaving alternatives. Lulu could not defend herself against those who killed her after she got trapped and impounded. She could not demand that she be sheltered by those paid to protect her from harm. She could not speak out about the failures at CAA and how she became a victim there. But we can do that. This is our battleground.
Not just the innocent cats & dogs unnecessarily killed, but it hurts people, society in general to steal the lives of pets without every effort to locate homes of & for every single one in their care. (care?)
Stories like this is painful for me to hear. Pet guardians all know the value of their fur-buddys, so why don’t shelters? The people running “shelters” aren’t normal poeple. There’s something seriously wrong with them and I believe it’s why they work in a profession where they can get away with killing.
This is just despicable. Its bad enough that they dont give at least a week for stray animals (what if you go on vacation and your dog gets loose or something?) but to basically go out of your way to kill an animal like that is awful. My heart breaks for the family.
SUPPORT NO-KILL WHEREVER YOU LIVE. PUBLIC PRESSURE IS VERY SUCCESSFUL OVER TIME!
Why is it they only hold cats for 3 days and dogs for so muh longer? People think just as much of their cats as they do their dogs. This is just simply unacceptable behavior for ALL shelters!! It makes me sick! I have always had cats.. up until right now and I was going to go adopt one but if this is as long as the hold them, I’m not sure I want to go this route. I hate like hell that they kill cats in 3 days .. that’s not long enough for the owners to even think about LOOKING at the shelters for them! Unfair and unbelievable! “Until one has loved an animal, part of their soul remains unawakened” Kathie
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It’s very hard to read your posts with all of the extra question marks. Please consider just using text.
These look to me like artifacts from speech recognition software, at least, I’ve seen them pop up in that context, when using it with programs with which it isn’t entirely compatible.
It totally depends on the shelter. Some dont even hold for 3 days. I don’t think most of them care if it a dog or a cat. Some shelters make NO effort to place animals. There are some shelters in this country that are empty- no adoptable animals!
I really feel for the pet parent. We moved because we lived next to a cat hater and she threatened to trap our cat and send it off to a shelter to be killed. She was a despicable person who is punished every day by being the person she is. In the meantime, we were much better off moving and we have all felt much better about our cat friendly environment we ended up in. As for the shelter, well, that is a battleground that I’m thankful for people like you making it real.
RIP Lulu. I hope that your owners decide to take some legal action against your killers. There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t have been returned to your family.
I talked to the owner and he said he is not interested in pursuing any kind of action. I’m sure the loss of his cat is devastating enough.
I can understand how difficult it must be, but until people stop letting these things happen without any consequences, they will continue to happen. Someone has to do something to let the authorities know they cannot just blatantly kill, kill, kill.
She was a gorgeous cat and obviously well cared for. We know they are too lazy to find the owners but in any event the shelter should have recognized her as easily adoptable. I want to add they make me sick, but I am tired of restating that. Btw, I am working on our Louisiana website page http://petadvocatesnetwork.org/wordpress/2012/09/01/the-public-doesnt-kill-shelter-pets-the-shelters-do-in-louisiana/ for our new national database of articles relating to shelter abuse and reform – will make pdf’s and add articles for this state and any others, please email me.
I am really crying now. My sympathies to Lulu’s human(s). And DAMN the CAA for being such a backward institution, like so many others.
I would like to know what the cat trapper told the aco/shelter about this cat. Did the cat trapper tell them that it was a feral cat/stray or that it had an owner? If this cat trapper was a neighbor and knew that was my cat, I would sue! Why does the city not have a program for feral cats-a trap, spay/neuter/release program? What is the deal with these cat trappers? I did not realize there were so many of them until I started reading stories about them!
What happened to not judging people who turn animals over to the shelter? Was this cat destroying someone’s garden, stalking birds outside a neighbor’s birdfeeder, attacking people walking by, sleeping in the street, or maybe it was peeing through the neighbors’ basement window? I have known all of these situations to occur. If the trapper was truly a cat hater, the cat’s body would have been anonymously dumped in the trash as opposed to being turned over, in obviously good condition, to the shelter. The cat was not wearing a collar so the trapper could not have called the owner if they had wanted to.
“If the trapper was truly a cat hater, the cat’s body would have been anonymously dumped in the trash…” Uh no – that would qualify the trapper for a promotion to PSYCHO.
There’s a lot we don’t know – did this cat simply escape? indoor and outdoor cat? lost? But the bottom line is that this cat had an owner who searched for her and she was killed before that could happen. And she did not deserve to die for being a cat! She is, clearly, highly adoptable, but I guess that didn’t matter either.
It sounds like killing was the first and only option and that’s just wrong.
IDK have many details on this kitty before she was trapped db but I do know she had a right to live, regardless of what anyone at CAA says.
ABSOLUTELY! That was my point – cats will do what cats do, but that should not be a death sentence for them. Just an excuse to kill, far as I’m concerned. She was a beautiful cat and was clearly well cared for. (And smart, too, to be nervous about being there . . .)
Stacey sounds like a cat hater! To even offer up the option of dumping a cat’s dead body in a dumpster makes me wonder about what you’ve done to people’s pets. Scary!
I’m inclined to agree with you there Shannon.
It breaks my heart to hear stories like this :( my heart goes out to lulu and her owners. Animal shelters should watch who they hire more closely
The very same scenario happened in Medford, OR this spring. A neighborhood cat hater trapped someone’s cat KNOWING who it belonged to and turned it in to the Animal Control saying it was a stray. The cat was terrified and “aggressive” and the dingbats they call “staff” there did not give it time to calm down or scan it for a chip. They killed it immediately. There was a huge uproar when it came to the attention of the public and now the animal control facility has had to become more accountable and change its methods.
working in a shelter it must be noted that all animals are checked for microchips and tags to do all possible to locate owners. the amount of animals pouring in the shelter is simply overwhelming. we are not psyco, killers or insensitive as people like to call it. we are having to find solutions for the astonishing number of animals that come into the shelters every day. if more spaying and neutering would occur in the community, there would undoubtly be more room and more time for “lost pets” to vacate there. every day 10-20 animals are either dropped off or picked up. tell me people..how will you house every animal in a no kill shelter. it is sad, this we know, we certainly dont like to have to do this, but until society steps up and can help control the amount of animals coming in the doors, we are left trying to find a soulution that others create. when the max capacity holds 400 animals, and more and more are coming in, what are we to do. all the best is done every minute of every day to adopt out as much as possible. ask anyone whom works in this buisness that is faced with it everyday and tell me then that they dont care or dont try. as hard as it is EVERYTHING about the animal is taking in consideration before euthansia. we are doing literally everything we can to get adoptable animals out. until things change in society, we are left cleaning up the dirty work. and also, that is not the legal records they posted on here as well as there is a 3 day hold on all animals, from then on it is a space, health, and temperment evaluation on all animals. instead of bashing shelters.. try adopting, fostering, donating or volunteering to help house the animals.
Jen: Many of us ARE adopting, fostering, donating and volunteering and housing more dogs & cats than we should. Many of us do everything possible to save lives, including trying our best to get YOU & other “shelters” to stop killing so damn much. There’s so many horror stories coming out of “shelters” it’s hard to believe any of them care for any life. I suggest “shelter” reform to do a little less killing & a lot more trying harder to find owners & adotive homes. Oops, I mean, a ‘lot’ less killing.
But thanks for being “one of the good ones,” Jen.