I put out some whiskers on some of my other groups to see if
anyone had cats at Angel Wings and got this back..
>From one of the other rescuers involved.....
Tad
Tad did you know that Angel Wings Sanctuary was actually
closed down for not treating the animals correctly. Here is a post
about an update on Angel Wings Sanctuary.
July 4, 2005
ANGEL WINGS (AW) ANIMALS HAVE BEEN RESCUED !!!
First off, since there is no need for secrecy anymore, let me
introduce
myself. My name is Holly, and I run the Stray Connection in
Knoxville, TN. The
Underdogs4cats represents a consortium of many individuals who worked
very
hard to rescue animals from Angel Wings.
The process began about six months ago when the two former Board
members,
Sue and Kara, secretly went onsite (to the Cats’ House specifically)
and took
pictures of the animals and conditions they were living in. They
presented
their findings to the Roane County DA naively believing that AW would
be shut
down immediately. Well, as we have learned, legal machinations take
time.
I got involved about four months later when it became clear that the
DA would
bring charges against Rehnee Harvey. At that point, we realized that
we
needed a plan to handle all of the animals we hoped to rescue from
AW. We began
the process of trying to line up foster homes, vet support, funding,
etc.
Peaceful Kingdom generously agreed to front the bill for this effort.
Several
local vets agreed to donate their time to exam and treat animals
coming from
AW.
Beginning in early Jun, Rehnee did begin to voluntarily turn over some
cats.
She voluntarily turned over 40 cats, 25 kittens (most of which were
born to
unspayed females), and 15 adults. All of the cats have been
examined,
tested, vaccinated, etc. If old enough, they are being altered and
put up for
adoption. Of the cats, one was very nonresponsive due to dehydration
and
starvation. She has recovered and is doing well. One has lymphoma
(probably not
Rehnee’s fault). One has non-regenerative anemia. We have sent a
bone
marrow sample out to test for Felv/FIV and are awaiting results. One
was FIV
positive.
In addition to the time and energy required to take care of the cats
we were
slowly getting from Rehnee, developing a formal plan for rescuing all
of the
tame the cats from AW was a massive effort. We estimated that there
were an
additional 40-50 cats on site. The problems of having enough crates
to
transport all the cats in one day and where to house that many cats
took a long
time to resolve. The DA requested a formal plan for rescuing the
cats, which
we submitted about 2 weeks ago.
Rehnee Harvey was charged with 37 counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty
on
Fri. Jun 24. The counts are misdemeanors, because it was her first
offense.
Because we had a formal plan in place for rescuing the cats, the
animals were
not seized and euthanized at that time. It took another three and a
half
painful days of legal dealings before getting access to the site. It
was
crucial that we get custody (ownership) of the animals so that a) we
did not have
to hold them as evidence for Rehnee’s trial, which is not scheduled
to start
until Mar 29, 2006, and b) there was no possibility that these animals
would
have to be returned to AW. On Thursday, Jun 30, an order was written
that
allowed access to all four properties where animals might be located
and legal
ownership of all animals was transferred to Peaceful Kingdom. For
legal ease,
we had to pick one lead organization to which all animals were turned
over.
The Stray Connection has assumed responsibility for all the cats.
Peaceful
Kingdom and Great Dog Rescue are taking care of the dogs, and Horse
Haven
took all of the livestock (goats, sheep, and horses). We mobilized
at the
Roane County DA’s office around 3 pm. We were accompanied by RC
Animal Control
Officers and Sheriffs.
There are three main properties. The Cats’ House has a house and
four acres
cat fenced in. Adjacent to the Cats’ house is Rehnee’s house.
She bought
this property about a year ago, left her husband, Terry, and moved
into this
house. Terry’s house is about 13 miles from the first two
properties. This
is where Rehnee and Terry lived until she left about a year ago.
Terry’s
house has six acres cat fenced in. The first stop was Terry’s
house. We
suspected that the cats had been moved from the Cats House to
Terry’s house. We
were correct. Cats galore. Terry’s house was worse than I could
have ever
imagined. The front of the house has a two-story porch which was
covered by
large canvass tarps to keep the sun out. Feces and urine covered the
floors.
Most of the cats were hanging around the yard or porch. They were
quite
friendly and easy to catch. After crating as many as we could easily
catch that
were outside, we went into the house. Urine and feces covered the
floors
inside. The house was utterly filthy. I started moving the
furniture to look
for scared cats and discovered corpses. There were nine decomposed
bodies
inside the house and two fairly recently deceased cats in the front
yard. There
were a total of 14 dead animals (corpses) found at the three sites.
As a
result, Rehnee will be charged with an additional 14 counts of felony
animal
cruelty.
After going through the house, I took the first 35 cats back to the
unfinished basement of my house back in Knoxville for vetting. Kara
and other
volunteers remained in Kingston to visit the remaining two
properties. Two
wonderful vets, who donated their time and about 15 volunteers worked
for 4 hours
until all 35 cats had been examined, tested, vaccinated, treated for
fleas,
worms, and ear mites. Kara arrived at my house at 11:30 pm with an
additional
23 cats.
With the foster homes we had lined up, about 20 of the cats who had
been
vetted were placed quickly into foster homes. The remaining cats were
caged in
my garage. Most volunteers, after being up till 1 pm Thurs, went to
work
Fri. The remaining 23 cats were vetted Sat afternoon by another
wonderful vet
and eight volunteers who donated their time. Most of the cats
rescued from
the three sites were dehydrated, anemic, covered in fleas, had ear
mites, and
were painfully thin.
A total of 59 cats were taken from AW properties Jun 30. The vast
majority
came from Terry’s house. Only five were found at the Cats’ House
and 1 at
Rehnee’s house. Including the cats turned over by Rehnee before the
seizure,
the total number of cats and kittens taken from Angel Wings is 99. Of
the
58 cats taken from the premises Jun 30, 13 are positive for aids (FIV)
and
eight are positive for leukemia (Felv). Thus, 40% of the cats taken
from Angel
Wings were positive for aids or leukemia. The positive cats were not
kept
separate from non-positive cats as she told everyone. So far, three
of the 59
cats seized were euthanized because they were in such bad shape. We
do
believe that we rescued all of the cats from all AW properties that
were tame. So
far we have not euthanized any cats just because they have aids or
leukemia.
We want to wait a little while to see if individuals or other cat
rescue
groups will take any of these cats.
On a personal note, feel free to contact us but please be patient. We
have
barely had time to breathe since Thurs. We still have lots of work
to get
the remaining cats out of cages and into foster homes. Then we will
have to
have the unaltered cats fixed and begin the long process of finding
these
animals permanent homes. It has been a massive effort to date, and
we have a long
way to go. Rest assured, we are committed to the very end, but we are
already tired. Kara has been relentless over the past 6 months and
deserves much
of the credit. You can contact her at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) .
Carmen with Peaceful Kingdom is working very hard to get all of the
pictures
of cats and dogs catalogued and onto the web. Please be patient.
Pictures
will be available soon. Our Angel Wings site webmaster is on
vacation, so we
will be adding them to _www.peacefulkingdom.org_
(http://www.peacefulkingdom.org/) to start with. Eventually, the cat pictures
will be on the Angel
Wings site as well.
If there is one lesson that I would like the public to learn from this
experience is that there is a fate worse than euthanasia. Several
times a week,
The Stray Connection receives calls from individuals who have found
stray cats
but don’t want them and “can’t bear to take them to the shelter
to be
euthanized.†An animal left to fend for itself can end up like
those rescued from
AW. It is not a pretty sight and it is not a good life by any means.
Sincerely,
Holly
The Stray Connection
The
cats at Angel Wings Sanctuary in Tenn. have been abandoned and now
brought into a shelter where they are getting care temporarly...If any
one has animals there and wishes to claim them or look after their
future they could contact me....
We have pictures of the FeLV+ cats...There are a number of FIV and
neg. also....
If any of these are yours please let me know....
Tad
Do you Yahoo!?
Try
Yahoo! Photomail Beta: Send up to 300 photos in one email!
|
