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Neighborhood cats being poisoned?
06/21/2012 6:56 AM by John M
Someone is either intentionally or accidentally poisoning neighborhood cats. I live on the 500 block of 32nd and we have found 2 of our local stray cats poisoned in the past week. One has died and the other is probably dying as I write this… but I cannot afford to take it to the vet.
My housemates and I always feed and pet them, so they have been coming to our yard to die. I’m not sure what’s going on, but it’s really horrible and if anybody has seen anything I would appreciate them coming out about it.
This may explain why we have found 5 dead young possums in our backyard in the past 30 days. (3300 block East Broad). Whom every is setting poison bait should instead call the city 311 center for animal control. Possums can be relocated and cats can be neutered and adopted – not dead.
I’m sorry to hear that this is going on.Feral cats are a huge nuisance and people are the reason they become a problem. It is unfortunate that someone would kill a living thing but I’m not surprised.
Instead of feeding them, you need to trap them and get them fixed. If they don’t get fixed the problem will continue! Can you tell if the left ear has been clipped? If not, they aren’t spayed or neutered. Contact Operation Cat Nip or Churchill Animal Hospital for more information. Currently, I have been trapping a feral colony of cats on Cedar St. I have trapped about 12 so far….
Feral cats may be problematic on some level…but they help people more than hurt. The cats keep the rats and mice away and…in the case of these being poisoned, there are only 3 cats on my block. Or at least there were only 3. I do agree with the trapping/fixing though. Good to know about that program.
I am certainly not for poisoning cats, but also consider their damage to birds is a lot bigger than most people realize.
http://ocpets.ocregister.com/2010/12/02/feral-cats-impact-on-birds-17-billion/75020
The feral cat population should be checked.
If you can, take the sick cat right away to Church Hill animal hospital. They help out stray cats all the time for free or cheap. I would be willing to chip in if there are any costs involved, just tell them Rachel Elves sent you. They’re located at 25th & Marshall and their phone is (804) 644-8200.
I’ve gotten over 10 cats fixed so far as well, I think more people should take advantage of the SPCA’s free program for feral cats. Thanks for feeding and caring for these cats that other people neglect. I have often ferals become tame enough to adopt after being fixed, with care and feeding by people – keep up the good work!
Also, I think you should call the police about the poison – people’s pets as well as ferals are at risk, and this person needs to be stopped.
Jan… I called the city and the health department about a rat problem on our block due to abandoned property and now construction stirring them up and they can not do anything because of “private property” issues. It is up to the owners to handle problems outside of city property.
Problems people don’t realize is that
1) These animals have a tendency to crawl under someone’s house and die causing other issues other than rotting smells.
2) the family pet may have a tendency to eat these dead animals and be poisoned themselves.
Yes, trapping is the better solution then calling animal control to dispose of them. And keep in mind also it is ILLEGAL to kill these animals, including Raccoons.
@ 3 & 5 thank you for doing the humane thing and trapping the cats for spay/neuter or pick up from Animal Control.
And if anyone wants to borrow my have-a-heart trap, I can show you how to use it. Just give a holler.
Rachel I will also kick in a small donation to Church Hill Animal Hospital if the poisoned cat(s) are taken there. To the original poster, PLEASE take any cat that is still alive to the animal hospital. I will call them to see if the cat(s) have been taken there and stop off with a check. And by the way, if you are able to pet the strays, they are not ferals, they were at some point someone’s pet. There’s a difference between feral and stray cats.
I don’t think 1 dead cat and one sick cat is reason enough to warn the neighborhood of a serial animal killer on the loose. Has there been any test to confirm they were in fact poisoned? Feral cats lead a rough life for sure, there are probably a thousand things that could cause a single cat to die. I agree completely IF anyone is setting poison traps intended for animals legal to kill, they should be extremely careful and responsible with how they use them, but this claim seems extremely far fetched.
Well I’ve called Church Hill Animal Hospital and they can’t take the cat, but said that maybe someone else would or there’s euthanasia…but animal control isn’t answering their phone. If anybody has a vet friend or something, you can call me at (540) 226-1406. Cat’s still hanging on, but just laying around.
Crd – just got off the phone with Shawn – he is taking the cat to Locke A Taylor’s vet at 9023 Woodman Road ((804) 262-8629). He has helped strays with similar medical conditions before. If anyone else wants to make a small contribution, please give me a call, and I can let you know how much of the balance needs to be covered. I will cover any balance not covered by donations. Thanks to my neighbors and all their helpful suggestions, especially to Shawn for driving the cat to the vet and for caring for these stray cats.
My number by the way is 804-937-3532
Good news from Shawn – the cat had a chip, so the owners were contacted, are covering the vet bills, and will finally be reunited with their pet. I believe this cat had been missing for over a year? Good to see a happy ending.
Good for you, Shawn! Glad to hear there was a happy ending for this cat!
I think this little scenario just illustrates the importance of keeping pet cats inside.
Just stating what should be totally friggin’ obvious..
A reunion with its owner is great news, but the best possible scenario is if the cat was not poisoned and it recovers from the condition from which it’s suffering. I hope Shawn or the cat’s owners will post an update. I it was heartening to see neighbors offering monetary assistance. Thank you also to Rachel for her efforts. She and Shawn may have saved the life of a beloved family pet and reunited the cat with its owners.
Free-roaming pets face many perils. My neighbor lost three cats to outdoor tragedies (car, dog attack and poisoning). I hope more cat owners will consider keeping their cats indoors. Statistics show that indoor cats live at least twice as long as outdoor cats.
I’m saddened to hear that C.H. Animal Hospital would not take the cat in. I know they’ve done more than their share for strays in this neighborhood over the years, but to turn away a good Samaritan with a sick stray, that’s hard to imagine. I worked for a local veterinary hospital for many years and they never turned away a sick or injured animal.
First want to say that I LOVE locke taylor. he is our vet.
second, so glad the cat was taken it and had a chip. was it poisoning then?
Just so everyone knows, C.H. Animal Hospital would have, but could not due to not having any availability. Their docs were booked solid.
Glad the cat is safe. Has anyone decided to address the other problem? Cats that need to be spayed or neutered!!!! Just curious to see if someone will step up to the plate and trap the cats. If they aren’t feral maybe they can be adopted.
Sorry I didn’t see this earlier. Really glad to hear the cat’s owners were found but I have to agree with others, I’m still concerned about letting pet cats outside. Not a good idea.
Shawn, do you know if this one was actually poisoned? And if so, from what? A leaking car radiator putting antifreeze out will taste sweet to a cat but also poison it, but that’s accidental if the car owner doesn’t know it’s leaking.
Glad we had a happy ending for this one kitty!
Thought the SPCA or animal hospitals ran clinics around the city every so often making arrangements for spay-neuter requests appointments… like the rabies shot clinics?
@ Eric – free spay/neuter was already addressed in #5.
@ChimboResident, allbark and others….I’m a cat owner of 8 years and wholeheartedly agree with you that pet cats should be controlled (almost) as much as dogs. (1) From the pet’s pov, they live much longer. (2) From the neighborhood’s pov, you don’t have someone else’s animal crapping in your space, chewing on your plants, using your bird feeder as a buffet, etc., etc., etc. (3) From the birds’ pov, life is a bit easier. House cats do kill a LOT of birds. My cat has been an indoor cat her whole life, except when I’m outside and can supervise her. Cats learn what commands mean, just as well as dogs do. The difference, and it’s a big difference, is that cats are not pack animals and so have zero deference to “authority” just because it wants to be “authoritative.” So, you have to train a cat with more negative reinforcement (i.e., spray bottles of water) than a dog, which gets high on positive feedback. On the other hand, there has never been a story about a house cat mauling someone.
The bottom line is that IF you put out poison, put it where domestic animals can’t get to it, even if you don’t have pets of your own. That stuff should never ever be left in the open. As much as I hate it, I do put out rat poison under my house. My fear of a rat infestation is higher than my guilt over using poison. However, I put the poison under my house and my crawl space is secured. I have dogs and there are a couple of cats on my block, so I make sure no one but possible rats can get to the poison. Death from poison is a terrible way to die – painful and slow (for rats, as well as any other animal). I work out a veterinary hospital and we see several cases every year, both cats and dogs. These cats are outside through no fault of their own – whether they’ve become lost or abandoned, they are feral, or their owner has allowed them to be indoor/outdoor.
@Fish: You totally cracked me up with the house cat mauling comment! Thanks for the laugh!
This has been going on,unfortunately, in church hill for several years – our cat was poisoned nearly 7 years ago…and so was a dog.
Final update: bad news. I just spoke with the cat’s owner who it turns out lives on my block. She also owned the other two neighborhood cats. All three have died and antifreeze was identified as the poison. All three cats were fairly elderly, so they did live long lives…but it’s very unfortunate and the family had a rough time. Anyway, I hope people will be more careful with both their pets and antifreeze. I really hope this was just an unfortunate accident.
Shawn, I am afraid antifreeze is an old trick to get rid of stray cats and they usually won’t just drink it. It is usually mixed in food. Anyway, that is illegal and hope the owner can find out who the culprit is so they are charged with animal cruelty. Or better yet, make them eat something soaked in antifreeze!
I found one poisoned in my backyard on 38th ST two nights ago. We are trying to take care of it but I am afraid we may have found it too late. We are taking it to C.H. Animal Hospital in the morning but I think I already know the prognosis. I wish I would have known the signs sooner.
Post addresses of where the cats died/were found dead and I will create a map in an attempt to locate the source.
My three dogs had to be treated for rat poison ingestion last week at the Emergency Vet in Carytown at a cost of $500.00. We discovered that a neighbor had hired Critter Control to combat her mouse problem. Critter Control places bright-blue blocks of rat poison around and under her house every 3 or 4 months. The problem exists when a poisoned mouse makes it into another house and is chewed up by the pet that discovers the slow-moving critter. Because we couldn’t be sure which dog had chewed up the dying, poisoned mouse we had to treat all three dogs at the emergency vet to be safe. They all are on “restricted” exercise for the next 30 days in case they injested the anti-coagulant rat-poison that can make them bleed internally at anytime. What a nightmare!!! A nightmare that cost over $500.00 too! We need to ban critter control and other poisons from our neighborhood to prevent any more cats and dogs from getting ill.
Mary Anne.. I am sorry for what has happened. On our block we have rats, not mice, and poison for them is much more stronger and larger quantity. They go to a water source to drink after eating the poison and usually die nearby any and everywhere and to some dogs and cats, an easy meal if it was a fresh death. Food chain and the poison goes along with it.
When we had to take care of rats on our property we use the old fashioned rat traps baited with cheese and peanut butter. The traps are put in a paper bag on its side so disposal is much easier.
With abandoned and blighted properties on our block they nest and travel depending on the weather and nearby activity.
Someone is poisoning cats and baby stray kittens in my park. Not the first time this has happen. When I was a little girl someone poisoned all 4 of my cats. We do suspect a certain person. The same person who did this years ago. What do I do to end this. So far 9 cats lost their livrs.
What park? Where is this?