Geez. I admire her effort, but I hope she finds a way to do it right. You know, in a place that doesn’t smell like cat piss.
I only read to page 3, though, I might have missed some more of the "crazier"stuff.
Just because she means well doesn’t mean she’s doing the right thing. If not all her cats are fixed, there are sick cats mixed in with healthy cats, they poop on the floor, etc. (all from page 5, jessondair), then clearly she’s doing the animals no favors.
Meaning well doesn’t mean doing the right thing. For the cats’ sake, I hope they’re removed and placed somewhere where they receive proper care.
I know a man who runs an honest cat shelter with over 100 cats. He’s retired; he used to show Bengals, and still breeds them for sale to support his efforts. I’ve seen his place. He has the cats spread out over several acres of property, many in roomy cages, some in his house, some that are feral or close to it living outside. ALL are fixed. All except one single cat, which had been rescued from a terrible situation just the week before, were in glowing health. ALL use litter boxes. ALL get a consistent diet. All get regular treatment for fleas/ticks/anything else. All have proper shelter in all weather. His house is spotless, ZERO cat odor, even though he shares it with about 30 of the cats. He’s a perfect example of the fact that it’s possible to have this many cats and do it right.
This lady ain’t doing it right.
Mamma Tiger, you’re right. She isn’t doing the cats much good right now, but you see, i think it’s because she’s been trapped in a situation where she doesn’t have money, help, or landlords that would let her stay.
Granted, she should get them fixed and seperate the ill from the healthy but it’s just not possible right now. I also believe that she is one that is really trying to help, unlike those other few who had many cats/dogs but they abused them (i heard of one man that put one of his cat’s eyes out because she trashed something of his[[ from the SPCA {animal shelter} flyer]])
She should give away a few to the animal pound, those that are very old or very sick. They could be cared for, but a faster and less painful death is also going to help.
I’m sure if she got the money, she’d become as good as the man you told us about, and thus get people to come and visit and maybe adopt.
I just hope her situation workes out fine and fast, but most of all, i hope all those cats would get cared for one way or another.
Mama Tiger, I too know of someone like that. The majority of cats she gets homes for. She breeds horses and stuff.
Her place IS a bit messy, but it’s not, OH MY GOD A SHIT HOLE!!! More just not very neat freak type.
But she’s wonderful, and she takes damn good care of those animals-she INSISTS they all be fixed.
I’d say the woman sounds like a hoarder.
At least she gets them veterinary care. That puts her leaps and bounds above the average “crazy cat lady” in my book.
That’s odd, Opal. Mine seem to think they get way too much veterinary care. (You use them for venipuncture practice once, and they never let you live it down.)
This woman makes me ill. She is an example of a person who should not be allowed to have animals.
People who love animals and truly want to do right by the animal take them to the vet for routine health care as well as emergency care. They separate sick animals from healthy animals, and take precautions to prevent diseases from spreading. There is no mention in the article about the lady vaccinating or spaying/neutering these animals. (But she probably thinks its cruel to vaccinate her cats, because a shot or needlestick is a form of torture.)
It’s no wonder that she only has an average of 2 adoptions per month–who in their right mind would adopt a cat from her? It’s probably not litterbox trained/housebroken, probably has Feline Leukemia/FIV, hasn’t been spayed/neutered, and has no vaccine history with any veternarian. Not to mention fleas, mites, and diarrhea from the lack of a consistant diet.
There are ways to run a shelter and not be made of money. I know that one client at the office where I work has over 50 cats that she keeps and more strays/farm cats/feral cats that she works with and will adopt out. Any animal on her property gets a feline leukemia/FIV test, distemper and rabies vaccines, and spayed/neutered. When she adopts out the animal, a copy of the medical records go with it. All animals are fed one consistant diet and all get fresh water. She’s never had a Feleuk/FIV positive cat on her property, but if she did, she does have a place to separate it from the other animals. She’s a farmer, and her husband is a trucker. They don’t make a lot of money, but all of her cats are loved and healthy.
There is another client similar to this woman. She only comes in when she’s got an emergency. She’s got about the same number of animals, but she won’t adopt any of them out. None are vaccinated, all have fleas and mites and worms. None have been feline leukemia/FIV tested. All have free roam of her neighborhood. Some have been spayed, but that was due to uterine infections or rupturing of the uterus. None of the males have ever been neutered. The cats have free roam of her neighborhood, have diarrhea from lack of consistant diet, and are in horrible shape. Our doctors called the local shelters and warned them not to adopt out animals to this lady because she won’t provide consistant care or any sort of routine vet care. She’s been fined before for breaking state rabies laws, and had her animals taken from her several times.
If I were her neighbor, I would call local authorities and have them ask her for proof of rabies vaccination of the cats. If she doesn’t have that, chances are that she’s in violation of state law and can be fined and have the animals taken away from her.
Yes, she has threatened suicide over it. Yes, she’s sent letters to the editor about this. But if she’s violating state law, she’s a criminal. She needs to face the consequences for that. (My opinion is that if she’s threatening suicide over her cats, and if she’s attempted suicide in the past, then she’s mentally unstable and instead of focusing on trying to “help” these cats she should be in therapy or treatment trying to help herself.)
When you stop taking care of yourself and your surroundings there’s a problem. If you can give an animal $1,000 surgery, but don’t have a means for personal hygiene you need professional help. This isn’t clear, rational thinking. I don’t care how you cut it. Putting healthy animals with ones carrying feline AIDS is cruelty to the healthy animals.
Instead trying to shut down Whiskerville she should give the healthy cats to the woman who is licensed to care for them. She could still pay for the animal’s surgeries, food, etc. She should take her stripping money to get a bath, cat pee free clothing and counseling.
There is no mention that she doesn’t, either, but thanks for jumping to a whole assortment of knee-jerk conclusions. :rolleyes:
Actually, it says on page 5 of the article that all her animals haven’t been spayed/neutered. I couldn’t find any mention of whether the animals have had veterinary basic care, however.
Sounds like someone who is out of touch with reality. I’m sure she has good intentions and truly loves animals, but she needs some psychological help before she will be able to truly help them.
I was a bit taken aback when I noticed the reporter uses the phrase “cat shit” in the article though. Usually that word is bleeped out by papers, isn’t it?
I agree with those posters who note that she has some emotional issues. In the report it mentions marriage as a means to get out of the house (often sign of abuse of some sort) and her relationship with her siblings sounds disfunctional. At the risk of reading too much into this, I think she needs to help herself before she tries to help the cats This isn’t a psychologically healthy way to live.
She sounds REALLY unstable to me. I’ve known a few “crazy cat ladies” myself, and I think she sounds more like a collector TRYING to sound like a shelter. There’s obviously something wrong with her. She sounds like she suffers from paranoid dilusions or something. Also, any person who would just take in cat after cat after cat and allow their living situation to deteriorate into basically living in cat waste needs to get their priorities straight.
She sounds like a collector-paranoid, smelly, the animals are all unhealthy.
She won’t quarantine the animals-that’s really bad. And the kitten who was dying-it would have been much better off being put to sleep.
Cat abortions-that’s one thing the woman I mentioned above talked to us about-if a cat comes to her she gets it fixed-even if it’s pregnant, because there are just too damn many kittens in the world to take care of. And she hates having to do it, but it’s a fact of life.
This woman is scary. I wouldn’t get an animal from her. Nor would I take one to her.
I read the entire story. Man, it made me sad. 
Lest anyone misunderstand my position… I agree that things are Not Right here. I simply think that it could be so much worse… she doesn’t have dead cats under her sofa cushions and stuff, after all.
I think Toyya Braskey thinks she’s doing the right thing. She means well, but she’s allowing her empathy to get the better of her. She truly believes that allowing a cat to die “naturally” is much more humane than putting it down. In the article she mentions that getting a needle in the heart would be terrifying for a kitten, but she doesn’t seem to consider how the animal might be suffering while dying from a spider bite.
The story was so sad.
She doesn’t need to have dead animals under the sofa for it to be a bad situation, Opal. Here’s hoping she gets the help she needs.