I understand the rest of the animals also need help, but that is what I am saying, you have to know your limit, enough is enough, if you can not take anymore, then ask a friend, money is tight for all but come on, foster and care for the ones you can do not put them in worse circumstances, at least if they are free roaming, they have areas to run and play, spay or neuter them medicate if need be and then let take them to some farm area and let them live.
Cherie
"Gloria B. Lane" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
"Gloria B. Lane" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Thanks, Mia -
for anyone who has been in or near the rescue effort, it's easy to
understand how the "overflow" of animals can lead to a difficult
situation. I'm not anywhere near your location, but I do understand what
you're saying. So many of us rescue to the point where we're comfortable,
and don't take in any more. What about the rest of the animals? Who takes
them? Do we turn our eyes and minds away? We really have no solution,
except for killing off the overflow, which is difficult for many of us.
We're all hurt by the overflow of animals, the lack of consciousness about
spay neuter, and the irresponsibility of people who dump their animals when
they're tired of them. We're try to deal with it.
As for "disposing" of dead animals, if you're not in a location with lots
of digging space, what do you do? I grew up in the country. We buried our
dead. When I first heard about putting dead animals out with the garbage,
I was horrified. If I were in NYC, or East Orange, don't know what I'd
do. Perhaps try to make arrangements with a hopefully friendly cremation
company.
I read this article to educate myself, but I definitely feel sympathetic
toward the Kitty Kind and toward Marlene.
Gloria
At 09:56 AM 5/24/2005, you wrote:
>Hi everyone!! My name is Mia and I am a fellow rescuer in the New York,
>New Jersey and Conn. area. I am not making an excuse for Marlene from
>Kitty Kind nor am I happy with the situation in which she has put the
>Kitty Kind organization but, I do know about and I am very familiar with
>this rescue group since it is in my area. I am not apart of this
>organization but please listen to what I have to say about it:
>
>This situation is extremely horrible and very unfortunate but in the end
>it will be this rescue group and the kitties that suffer. Please do not
>make it any harder for these cats to get adopted. This group has lots of
>volunteers and fosters who put in all their free time to help some of
>these and their own cats and have nothing to do with this situation nor
>did they know anything about it. I believe that the overflow is what led
>Marlene to this situation, again I am not making an excuse for anyone but
>please do not punish the many volunteers, fosters and kitties for this.
>There are so many kitties in need of a home and by making it harder for
>them to get their cats adopted out doesn't help anyone.
>
>
>
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>DNA - Marlene Kess & Kitty Kind Rescue, East Orange, NJ.
>Hundreds of dead cats found in yard.
>
>
>-------- Original Message --------
>Subject: DO NOT USE-KittyKind -CAT RESCUE-in Orange, NJ
>Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 12:19:35 -0400
>
>Hundreds of dead cats found in woman's yard
>E. Orange resident operates rescue agency
>Friday, May 20, 2005
>BY BRIAN T. MURRAY AND KASI ADDISON
>Star-Ledger Staff
>Over two decades, Marlene Kess built a reputation in Manhattan as a
>caregiver of last resort for homeless and dying cats. If her rescue and
>adoption agency, KittyKind, couldn't place a sick animal, she took it home
>herself, overseeing its recuperation or caring for it until its death.
>Yesterday, authorities discovered what Kess' philosophy looked like in
>practice. Summoned to the woman's East Orange home by a neighbor complaining
>about a stench, city health inspectors found 48 cats inside the house -- 38
>of them in one room -- and more than 200 dead cats stuffed into garbage bags
>in the back yard.
>The sight of so many decomposing corpses -- and the fetid odor they
>produced -- sickened animal-welfare officers and others who responded to the
>two-story home on State Street.
>"Oh my God, it was awful," said Michael Fowler of the Associated Humane
>Societies, the state's largest shelter group. "The smell was horrible."
>Kess -- the 56-year-old founder and executive director of KittyKind, which
>operates one of New York City's few no-kill shelters -- moved to East Orange
>from Manhattan in July. Dozens of cats, apparently, moved with her. More
>arrived while she was there.
>"She claims that she takes in sick cats -- cats with feline leukemia -- and
>that she is a known rescuer who people will bring their cats to when they're
>dying," said Sgt. Joseph Bierman of the New Jersey Society for the
>Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
>When those cats did die, they went into large, heavy-duty garbage bags. Then
>they went into the yard, which backs to a parking lot used by the East
>Orange Board of Education and the East Orange Community Charter School.
>Bierman said he counted 21 garbage bags, each containing 10 or more
>vermin-infested carcasses. In some cases, he said, the cats had become so
>decomposed a precise number of bodies could not be determined. Kess had been
>placing dead cats in the yard since she moved in, Bierman said.
>"I haven't seen anything quite like this," Bierman said. "Certainly it's an
>unusual incident."
>Kess, seen arguing with animal-welfare officials outside the home, declined
>to comment.
>She was cited for several East Orange health code violations, among them
>keeping an unlawful number of animals, harboring dead animals and creating a
>potential environmental hazard by keeping the corpses on her property, city
>sanitary inspector Frank Habegger said last night.
>In addition, the SPCA charged her with 38 counts of failing to properly
>shelter cats. The counts stem from the cats being locked together in a front
>room. Some of the cats were healthy, while others were ill. Under state
>regulations, anyone keeping large numbers of animals must separate the sick
>from the healthy.
>Ten other healthy cats were roaming free in the house.
>Both investigations were continuing. This morning, public works crews were
>expected to remove the carcasses from the back yard, and necropsies were to
>be performed on some of the animals to determine a cause of death, said
>Darryl Jeffries, a city spokesman.
>Kess was allowed to keep the 48 living cats in her home because she said she
>would separate the sick and healthy animals, Bierman said. SPCA officers
>were planning to return to the home to ensure she does, he said.
>She apparently planned to bury the corpse-laden garbage bags in a large hole
>that had been recently dug in the back yard, Bierman said.
>"It was almost like a grave," he said, describing it as about 5 feet deep
>and 7 feet wide. Kess told investigators she planned to plant a tree in the
>spot but hadn't yet gotten around to buying one, Bierman said. A handyman
>employed by Kess told investigators he dug the hole for a pool, the
>investigator said.
>Kess is well-known in cat rescue circles in Manhattan, where KittyKind
>operates a shelter within a Petco at Union Square. A longtime resident of
>Greenwich Village, she has been quoted frequently in small community
>newspapers about her efforts -- and struggles -- to care for cats that
>nobody else wants.
>"Animal overpopulation is a big problem," she told one community newspaper,
>the New York Resident, in 2002. "People are very irresponsible."
>Despite the difficulty placing cats, she has criticized New York City's high
>euthanasia rate, and she has championed the idea of seeing cats through even
>terminal illnesses.
>Not all animal-welfare advocates agree with that philosophy.
>"There are some things worse than death for animals, especially when they
>are sick and people are trying to needlessly extend their lives because they
>want to save every animal," said Roseanne Trezza, executive director of the
>Associated Humane Societies. "They refuse to recognize that we simply can't
>save them all, no matter how much we all care for these creatures, and no
>matter how much it hurts to euthanize them."
>
Have a purrfect day
Cherie
