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ABUSED BY SOMEONE;
THEN REFUSED BY THE SPCA-LA
Sweet Cat To Be Saved After People and the SPCA-LA Reject Him
Date: Saturday, May 1, 2005 Time: 10:00 am
Location: Long Beach Animal Shelter
P.D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village
7700 East Spring Street, Long Beach, CA 90815
"Starlight"
Someone tied a plastic bag around one end of this cat, and a rope to his neck so
tightly that it gashed through his skin, creating a deep ring of blood. The
other end of the rope was tied to the Long Beach Animal Shelter. Shelter
workers arriving for work the next day discovered him, untied him, and got him
needed veterinary care. As with all strays, he was impounded at the Long Beach
Animal Shelter.
Shelter employees were enchanted by his powerful personality, full of affection,
shining through his cage, overcoming his wounds and his fear. He is now known
as Starlight, for the glow of something positive showing the way. Starlight
loves all the employees; they were drawn to him with like affection.
All strays have a required hold period, giving owners a chance to find them.
Starlight's hold period expired on April 27th. Most shelters would make him
available for adoption on that date. Not so in Long Beach. Why not?
SPCA-LA sits alongside the Long Beach Animal Shelter. Most residents do not
know that SPCA-LA takes only some of the available animals to its side for the
public to adopt. SPCA-LA leaves many adoptable, young, friendly pets behind.
What happens to them? If SPCA-LA does not take the animal, then the public
cannot adopt the animal. The shelter has to kill them.
SPCA-LA could easily take more. "On a regular basis, about 1/3 of spca-LA's
cages sit empty," says Carolyn Stern of Animal Match Rescue Team, Inc. (AMRT), a
501(c)(3) non-profit animal welfare group which operates www.AMRT.net to help
shelter animals get adopted. Nor is the problem the animals themselves. "Most
are very adoptable," says Stern, from much personal experience. "In the last
year, my group has saved 150 Long Beach Animal Shelter dogs after SPCA-LA
refused to take the animals when it had plenty of empty cages. Already, Stern
easily placed 145 in permanent homes." Stern praises the Long Beach Animal
Shelter staff for working hard to save lives, but she objects to SPCA-LA not
taking the Unchosen when it has so much available space. "My foster network
does not have the million-dollar fundraisers that SPCA-LA has, yet our
volunteers are doing life-saving work which City of Long Beach residents have
been paying SPCA-LA to do." Laura Beth Heisen, an Officer of AMRT says, "empty
cages do not save lives."
SPCA-LA did not choose Starlight. This exceptionally sweet cat the employees
adore, who has been through so much harm at the hands of humans, and maintains
his great love of people, was left by SPCA-LA to be killed, along with all the
others, Unchosen by SPCA-LA.
Shelter workers and volunteers frantically called rescue groups to save
Starlight when SPCA-LA would not. Rescue groups are the only way an Unchosen
animal can leave the Long Beach Animal Shelter side alive.
Then another miracle for Starlight. Carolyn Stern of Animal Match Rescue Team,
Inc. will be rescuing Starlight from the Long Beach Animal Shelter Saturday
morning at 10 am. He will be transferred to
Cats Having Fun
rescue and will be ready for a new home in a couple of weeks.
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