(September 3, 2021)
This has been a hard day. The kind of day that makes what we do extra difficult.
This morning, a cat in a carrier was discovered by our Critter Camp staff as they tried to enter the building through our Community Entrance doors. The carrier, left outside of the doors, had a gorgeous orange cat inside – except the cat was practically lifeless. He was cold, with a low heart rate, and was barely responsive to touch.
The cat was rushed to one of our partner clinics in town, and our Animal Care team authorized the clinic to provide any treatment necessary to try and save this cat. Sadly, nothing could bring him back.
To say our whole team is heartbroken is an understatement. There are tears, and there is anger.
Our team spends every single day trying to save and better the lives of animals who are lost, neglected or unwanted. And we do what we do because we get to see the end result: finding these animals a second chance, a happy tail.
What hurts most about this situation is that this cat was not given a chance. The cat was not surrendered into our care so that we could try and help him – or at the very least, humanely end his suffering with loving people surrounding him.
After going through our security camera footage (yes, we have cameras at our entrances), we can see that this individual drove up to the community entrance at around 8:30pm Thursday, dropped off the cat, and left. There was no attempt to call or knock on the doors. And you want to know the worst part about that? We had Animal Services Officers inside the building at the time. If a call was made to the building, our officers could have come outside and given this cat a fighting chance. The cat would have been shown compassion. But we didn’t know he was there…
Instead, the cat was left alone to suffer in his carrier for almost 12 hours until staff arrived at those doors the next morning. Writing that makes us sick to our stomachs.
This beautiful cat had no microchip, no collar, no identification. Initial assessment has us believe he was likely suffering from a urinary blockage, which would have been exceptionally painful and ultimately could have impacted his heart. Our anger is pushing us to find out what happened, so we are looking into performing an autopsy. We are hoping it brings us peace of mind to figure out what happened to this beautiful orange boy, but we know that nothing we find can change what happened during the final hours of his life.
Is the point of this letter to ask our community to help us find who did this? Maybe. If you have any information on who did this, please call us at 519-824-3091, or email info@guelphhumane.ca. We have already notified Provincial Animal Welfare Services (PAWS) to launch an investigation.
But the heart of this letter is to beg people to not abandon their pets to die alone. No matter what time of the day, even 2 o’clock in the morning, you can call the Guelph Humane Society and get help for an animal in distress. Our team would rather be woken up in the middle of the night to help save the life of an animal, then to know that an animal suffered and died alone.
Our tagline is: Hope. Care. Compassion. Those three things make up who we are as a team, and as an organization. And our hearts are truly broken to know that this orange cat was not shown any of those things.
Rest easy, Sweet Boy.
– From the Guelph Humane Society family
About the Guelph Humane Society
The Guelph Humane Society advocates for all animals, and in particular those animals whose lives it can influence, through care, education, community support, protection, and leadership. Founded in 1893, the Guelph Humane Society provides care and shelter for approximately 3,000 homeless, stray, injured and abused animals each year in Guelph and Wellington County. GHS is a registered charitable, non-profit organization that does not receive government funding. Visit www.guelphhumane.ca to discover more.