This public letter was contributed by Lora Hernandez, President of Cat Crew California. The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent BenitoLink or other affiliated contributors. Lea este artÃculo en español aqui.
Hello, my name is Lora and I’m the president of the local animal rescue Cat Crew California. We are a non-profit committed to the animals in our community using nothing but donations. We rescue cats in medical distress, provide TNR (trap, neuter, release) and foster cats until we can adopt them to forever homes. We connect with our community as they reach out for help when they see an animal in need.Â
It’s no secret that animal welfare is lacking in our community. Budgets of various businesses, facilities, and shelters are prioritized such that animals are last on the list, leaving rescues like ours to shoulder most of the work—which we do, entirely voluntarily. A large portion of our mission is also education: we believe that children truly are our future, and teaching them about the impact and importance of animal care is a huge part of improving long-term animal welfare.
Which brings me to why I am reaching out today. We have been very diligently helping care for the feral cats at Maze Middle School for the last three years. We have trapped 22 cats at this location. When we trap, we take the to the vet and spay/neuter, vaccinate, treat for fleas, and deworm. Many of the cats trapped were kittens that we then fostered and adopted out, while some others went to barn homes. All of this was done completely using our donations at no cost to the school or the district. The remaining colony of about 14-15 cats were fed regularly by staff and 2 community members for many years. They all had names.
The feeders at the school recently notified us that the police told them they were no longer allowed to feed the cats. Shortly after, around the start of September, vehicles from ADM Pest Control started appearing and traps wrapped in plastic surrounded the once safe place for these animals. Wire was also put around the perimeter. Although this company claims to trap pests, we know otherwise. The once thriving colony is now down to only 4. In addition, multiple neighbors in the area are reporting pets missing.
This activity is both disgusting from a moral standpoint and a gross misuse of taxpayer funds. These cats were healthy, up to date on medical and well fed. They also acted as a natural pest control on the school property. To top it off, the way they were trapped and killed will not actually accomplish any goal of removing the cat population, since as soon as ADM is finished, more cats will move in to fill the ecosystem gap they left.
If the presence of the cats were a problem, the very basic first step would have been to reach out to the Hollister Animal Shelter, which would have immediately referred you to us, and we would have been glad to adjust our TNR efforts to meet whatever goal was desired in a humane and taxpayer-responsible manner. These animals’ lives did and do matter, the reckless damage to the local animal ecosystem matters, and the waste of taxpayer money does matter. Whomever signed off on this immoral, unethical, and amateur effort to kill or relocate these animals needs to be held accountable.
Please look into this, our community is outraged.
Sincerely,
Lora Hernandez
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