I took notice of this reply and am posting it in the hopes that it will raise awareness about cats being stolen in Delaware County, especially in the Upper Darby area. As far as the
Animal Coalition of Delaware County being involved with some sort of "Cat Napping" ring, as the below poster suggests, I would have to say that in my opinion in this lawsuit happy day and age?
No Comment other than to say something does smell fishy here. Maybe someone over at the Delaware County Daily Times can investigate this?
Read on:
Anonymous said...
If you can, please post this in the hopes that people will see it.
Due to recent reports of missing cats in the Drexel Hill / Havertown area, I wanted to post a warning to neighborhood cat owners about the Animal Coalition of Delaware County, a local organization purportedly concerned with animal welfare and who place cats into foster homes and special sections at local PetSmarts.
This is an unsettling story in two parts:
(Part One)
Our beloved indoor-outdoor cat (a neutered, male, absolutely beautiful orange Main Coon mix who answers to 'Saab,' in case you've seen him) went missing from our Drexel Hill home and the area around it about a month ago. He was about nine years old, perfectly healthy, and a very solid animal capable of holding his own in a fight and finding his way home, so we believed him to be alive somewhere, possibly taken in by a concerned animal lover. We searched for him all over the neighborhood, knocked on doors, and registered a lost report with the Delaware County SPCA, heading there every day or so to check the intake rooms for him.
So far, no sign.
After weeks of looking for our boy, our family agreed that, since we had always been a multiple-cat household, we wanted to welcome a new kitten or two into our home. While still searching for our cat at the SPCA intake rooms, we kept our eyes open for kittens in the adoption rooms. When we could find no kittens at the SPCA, we reluctantly turned to Pet Smart and were immediately enamored with two little kittens, a brother and sister. We were told that they were adoptable through an organization called the Animal Coalition of Delaware County (AC DC) and that, pending a clean vet record, we'd likely be able to bring them home within the week.
Of course, that hasn't happened. Through we put in an application and have a vet record of always spaying, vaccinating, and treating (when necessary) our animals, some of whom lived with us for upwards of 20 years, we have not heard from anyone at the Animal Coalition, save once, when we were informed that the kittens would be carted around to "meet and greets" to ALL of the potential families, whose applications were allowed to pile up before any adoption could be finalized. (Wouldn't you think that, with so many cats in need of homes, one happy, loving home would be as suitable as the next?) We were also told that it would be "impossible" to keep up-to-date online records of animals' statuses... basically, from this phone call, we started to get a bad feeling from this organization of animal activists.
(Disclaimer: Now, we respect AC DC for being no-kill and for keeping their animals healthy, but right now, that is beside the point.)
(Part Two)
So, we are still without kittens and still missing our grown-up male. All of our friends know this and have been keeping their eyes open. One friend in particular, knowing how concerned we were and knowing that we had been looking at PetSmart, called this afternoon to tell us a rather disturbing story: the blocks immediately around her mother's Drexel Hill home have, in the past few weeks, reported FIVE missing cats. Very strange. What's more strange is this:
One of those five missing cats was a three-legged, micro chipped cat owned by a local veterinarian. She of course conducted a search, and that veterinarian FOUND her cat, three legs and all, sitting in an ACDC cage in the local PetSmart. A happy reunion? One might think. But the organization WILL NOT turn the cat over to its owner, despite her profession and her cries of, "But that's my cat!" Claiming that they found the cat wandering in a cemetery, the organization says that adoption offers are already pending on this three-legged animal, and they refuse to reunite this veterinarian with her cat.
It sounds remarkably shifty, and we, as a family of cat lovers still hoping for a reunion with our missing cat, are extremely concerned. Is this organization, which could be doing so much for so many animals, really plucking calm, peaceful cats out of residential neighborhoods and putting them up for adoption because they are so against cats being outside? (Prospective AC DC parents must swear to keep their cats indoors 24/7, and the organization reserves the right to make "home visits" to make sure that that is happening.)
Now, we have no concrete proof of any foul play, since the AC DC volunteers at Pet Smart will swear until they're blue in the face that that cat was found wandering a cemetery and that there's no way it could belong to the Vet in question. But putting the pieces together raises some very alarming questions and suspicions, and bearing that in mind, I at least wanted to call attention to local cat lovers.
So, if you have a cat who enjoys the freedom of some time outside, BEWARE. Some people believe that cats shouldn't be able to enjoy their God-given habitat, and it appears to me as though some of those people will sink so far as to snatch your beloved pet right off of the sidewalk in order to put it in a "better home."
