That's all well and good. One of the 17 cats went with the man to the hotel, one was returned to its owner, and one was euthanized due to extreme stress. That left 14 cats at the shelter. It took a little while, but the man was able to find housing for them, 10 cats in a 10x10 heated shed. The remaining four cats were signed over to the shelter, where they would go through their mandatory wait period(4 days) and then be evaluated by the shelter staff to determine if they were eligible for sale. The owner had requested that the cats be spayed/neutered and rehomed, however the release form he filled out and signed did detail that the shelter was NOT a no-kill shelter, and that euthanasia due to temperament was a possibility.
Now, this is whre things get very convoluted. See, the former owner went to the shelter to check on his cats, and the shelter manager told him they had been moved to a farm as mousers and had not been spayed/neutered, but that any future kittens would be taken in by the shelter to be desexed and rehomed. The man has made several varying statements concerning that conversation, which range from him being mildly concerned from the initial reports (they were inside cats, they didn't do much hunting, but thought it was better than living in a cage) to out and out disgust in the later interviews(they were indoor cats, how dare they keep an unneutered male and unspayed females together), but t was consistent that he was accepting of this story, until he told his friend.
Well, his friend badgered the shelter manager until she relented and admitted that the cats had been euthanized. And, as we all know, when an animal is killed, the world stops spinning and hell comes to earth, and the RARA's gathered their torches and pitchforks again. The pound's facebook page had to be removed due to the number of threats they received, and an emergency council meeting was called. Facebook itself sort of imploded as people continued to argue about the issue, and for a while it was all that was discussed by the locals.
The result of the emergency meeting was an unpaid suspension for 2 weeks of the manager.
Now, to say this upfront now, I am sorry those cats lost their lives. However, nothing will bring them back to life, and I maintain that the animals died not because a shelter manager was powerhungry and sadistically wanted to "murder" all the poor innocent animals. I do not believe that the man was tricked into surrendering his cats, nor that he was lied to about the potential fate of his cats. I personally believe that this man was intending to buy the cats back once they were spayed/neutered, so that the surgery would cost him just $85 per cat, rather than the 300-500 it generally costs. Otherwise, why else would he have turned the cats over to the pound, rather than driving 5 minutes further to the no-kill Humane Society that would have happily helped with the cats, had they been asked.
Some have sited that this was because the pound waived the surrender fee - I am sure that the humane society would have done the same, had they been asked. I believe it was because the pound had no wait period, no home/office/vet/landlord/personal reference checks required, no million page long adoption form... No one to frown on the fact that the man kept 17 cats in his home(this is not against local bylaws, the area has no local bylaws concerning the number of cats in a home).
As far as I can see, while it is unfortunate that the cats were put down, the woman was doing her job in putting them down. They were displaying aggressive behaviour(behaviour that the owner minimized in a recent interview stating that all cats hiss and will take swats at people... Do you know the last time I heard one of my cats hiss? Neither do I, because it was that long ago.). The shelter mandates a 4 day holding period before evaluation, and the cats were held that long and did not pass the evaluation.
It was the man's choice to release the cats to the pound, rather than the no kill shelter just a short distance from the pound. I am not the type to routinely kick people when they are down, however a woman is being vilified for doing her job. Though I have asked, no one can answer why the man did not even call the humane society to see if they would be able to take his cats, no one can answer why he chose the pound that is known to euthanize.
It has become a witch hunt, with fights happening routinely over the incident and people reacting with misplaced emotions.
And while I said that the manager was suspended for 2 weeks, it needs to be noted that the shelter board seems to have sided with me, as they have stated on several occasions that the issue is not with the cats being euthanized, but with the shelter manager telling what she thought was a white lie to spare a man's feelings.
I am hopeful that in the future this results in a clause in the surrender contract that the owner is releasing all rights to information concerning the whereabouts of the animal they surrendered, and does not result in local bylaws being passed that limit the number of cats in a home.
The Articles
http://www.durhamregion.com/news-story/5278399-shelter-of-hope-manager-suspended-over-euthanization-of-cobourg-fire-victim-s-cats/
http://www.northumberlandnews.com/opinion-story/5290589-shelter-of-hope-s-policies-need-review-after-four-cats-euthanized/
http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/2015/01/28/shelter-of-hope-euthanized-124-cats-in-2014
http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/2015/01/26/owner-was-lied-to-about-cats-fate
http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/2015/01/27/shelter-manager-suspended