Companion animal treatment: The Shame of Cook County

Cook County has an atrocious history of cruelty to domesticated animals raised as companions. Litters of kittens and puppies are routinely dumped in the wilderness, where they doubtless succumb to predators. Until recent years, the sheriff’s office shot or otherwise disposed of unwanted domestic pets. The latest reported atrocity involved the brutal beating death of a stray cat in 2003, witnessed by tourists in Rec Park. The cat’s “crime” was being homeless and killing birds in order to survive. The life of the cat could have been saved; one neighbor had hoped to adopt it but it was murdered before that could happen.

In this incident, the County Attorney decided not to prosecute the clear violation of animal abuse statutes. Why not? Because the perpetrator worked for the Sheriff’s department and was well known to residents as the “enforcer;” whenever a pet “needed” to be eliminated, this was the guy to call.

Locals who abandon or kill litters of pets plead the “poverty” excuse. They can’t afford to get the mom spayed. In some cases they use “Animal Advocates of the Arrowhead,” one of True’s favorite charities, as a dumping ground for their unwanted offspring.

True prefers this solution to the abandonment of helpless infants in the wild; however, Animal Advocates can’t handle the geometrical expansion of pet population by irresponsible owners. Please read the letter below from Gay O’Donnell, who takes in those little ones and tries to find homes for them. Her job is made much harder by the pet owners who enable litter after litter. They find “good homes” if it turns out to be easy. In so doing, they decimate the pool of possible adoptive owners and they sabotage the work of spay-neuter programs.

If you can’t afford to spay and neuter your pets, DON’T offer them a home. If you think your sweet children need to have companion animals, you are WRONG. What they need is to understand that caring for a sentient being bred for centuries to provide human companionship is a great responsibility. Only in acceptance of this responsibility will your sweet children learn to be good people.

Gay’s letter is a wake-up call, if anyone cares to be awakened. Cook County is still in the Middle Ages where pussies were drowned in the well. Shame, shame, shame.

Here is Gay's letter:

Boreal folk;

Right now I have two litters of kittens to place.

Six were in a box on my doorstep, I had to hand feed. They were too young to be

away from mom. Almost ready to go now.

Five were brought to me by law enforcement this morning. They were found outside in a garbage bag. They are all fixed and have had shots. They were born behind a local

business and abandoned by their mother, nobody wanted them and they are still with me.

It is our policy to vet check and fix these cats but we can not afford to take these eleven in for the usual vet check,

We are trying to do a good job here but when we see people in the community getting kittens from people who refuse to get their cats fixed who continually offer them on Boreal and in the stores it is frustrating.

We need homes for abandoned kittens. If you would like to reserve one of these little ones e mail or call me:

387 1781 Gay

•Advocating for the stray and unwanted animals in the Arrowhead

Region of Minnesota”