The Lovewell family in Nebraska had 2 snuggly cats since they were kittens – Chloe, age 13 and Truman, age 7. Due to a chronic health issue with a family member, the Lovewells decided to take the cats to the Nebraska Humane Society where they believed the cats would find new homes. No one at the facility led them to suspect otherwise and had anyone done so, the family says they would not have left them there.
But that night, the Lovewells were unable to sleep and realized they could not bear to part with their pets, no matter what. They called the Nebraska HS first thing the next morning to let them know not to adopt out Chloe and Truman as they wanted them back. But their calls were sent to voicemail. And anyway, the Nebraska HS had already killed both pets:
Nebraska Humane Society spokesperson Pam Wiese said, “They were acting aggressively, hissing and spitting and swatting and we couldn’t really handle them. If you can’t handle them, you can’t get them into a kennel to get them into adoptable condition.”
It sounds like the cats were scared at the time they entered the facility – which is normal behavior for cats. The staff at the Nebraska HS should know this and should have protocols in place to allow cats time to settle. Instead, the facility apparently has a policy that if a pet is not immediately made “into adoptable condition” – wearing a bow tie and playfully rolling a ball of yarn around the cage I suppose – he needs to be made into dead condition. The Humane, it hurts.
The Nebraska HS says it will now explain to all surrendering parties that their pets might be killed. And someone will start answering calls from people wanting to reclaim their pets. Oh. I was hoping they were going to stop killing animals and conducting useless behavioral assessments at the time of impound. I guess humane doesn’t mean what I think it means.
Note: Comments bashing the owners for surrendering the cats will be deleted. Every single one of us has made decisions we regret. Sometimes we can correct them, sometimes we can not. This family tried. They believed, as most people do, that a place calling itself a humane society was staffed by animal lovers who would not kill their pets. Now they know better. Blame the people doing the killing.
(Thanks Karen for the link.)