Had a kitten die in my hands!

Yesterday I went to my moms house and seen one of her little white kittens laying at the bottom of her stairs (she is a cat breeder). The kitten was skin and bones, had diahrea on the fur of its butt and was so flea infested that its skin was black with flea dirt and you could just see them crawling everywhere. I picked it up and it was losing body heat and very unresponsive. I did everything I could for it to get it to liven up but nothing worked and it ended up dying in my hands. Her comment to me was "I knew it wasn't feeling good, but I didn't know it was that sick". Come on now, none of that stuff happened overnight, she has a lot of sickly animals and she is a breeder of both dogs and cats. It is a hard situation having someone you love that lets animals go like that, I am very aggravated.

so.... your mom is a backyard breeder? Basically she breeds for profit only, not to better the breed? Does she do shows? By the description of the kitten, this baby, and probably the rest of the animals don't even have basic vet care...
That is just too bad... I am sorry you had to go through this... Animals should not be breading-money making machines, you know? Hearing about this sucks... It is sad... I hope you can educate your mom somehow

That is just so sad. I know this may sound harsh, but if her cats and dogs are flea infested and sick, she could be, and maybe should be, charged with animal cruelty. She has a responsibility to her animals to care for them and make sure they are healthy and well cared for. If she isn't doing this, she should be encouraged to relinquish her animals, for their health as well as her own.

You should call the police on her, and have the rest of the animals taken away from her before they all die to. Mother or not, that's the right thing to do.

I'm so sorry you had to see that, it wasn't your fault that the kitten died. But if you don't do something to help the other animals there, then your silence is just as bad.

Originally Posted by Dusty's Mom

She has a responsibility to her animals to care for them and make sure they are healthy and well cared for. If she isn't doing this, she should be encouraged to relinquish her animals, for their health as well as her own.

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Exactly. It might hurt to do this but you need to tell her she needs to improve conditions drastically or get out of breeding entirely. Set her a deadline and make her show you vet bills for proof. If she won't do it, turn her in.

Just think, if she let one kitten get that ill and die what was a slow painful death (starvation and anemia), how many others have suffered that you do not know about?

You know now and if you ignore it you'll be letting this happen over and over again.

I know it is what I have to do, I foster for rescues and fight everyday for the proper care of animals. I think next time I go over I am going to get pics of all the other animals that they have (wish I had my camera last night). They have one dog that lost all his hair and you can see the fleas crawling on his skin, it is horrible. The puppies that have are raised out in the barn which is filthy and unheated, the floors have at least a couple inches of dog waste on them. It is pretty bad and I hate seeing it..and there is one kitten left from the litter and I am so worried about him!

What a difficult situation for you, I'm sure it will be hard to report your mum but sounds like that is what needs to happen - or at least threaten it to see if she cleans up. Could it be things are so far gone she just doesn't know what to do?

RIP little one

sounds like you need to step up and report her. Depending on where you live, you should get an immediate response and unless they find something horribly wrong, she should get off with just a slap on the hand or maybe a fine. But, if you do report her do it anon. and then step out it. Let the authorities handle it. If you do indeed foster and care for cats, you understand what a nightmare these cats and dogs are being forced to live.

Is this a fairly recent change of behavior for your mom - if so, you might want to call her doctor as well - there may be a health issue underlying this.

I can only imagine how hard this is, but bless you for trying to guard the lives of these animals.

If it was my mom, I would enlist the help of others, get a convoy of vehicles and take every animal out of those conditions.

There is obviously something very wrong in that house. You now know about it and have a moral obligation to do something.

I know you will. You care so much for them...God bless you for doing something.

This website may help you.

http://www.animalhoarding.com/

I think everything has been covered by other posters. for all those animals and I hope that they all get out of those conditions and away from your mom. I hope you have the strength to do whats right in that kind of situation, which is report her and get ALL the animals out of there. With your connections with fostering and rescues, hopefully you can put those to work and get a lot of help to get those animals well and away from a horrible situation.

Autumnwolf, I have nothing additional to add except to say that I agree with the others and feel for you and the situation you are in. My heart aches for you, but I know you will do what is right for the animals and your mother from what you have written. They all need the help, and unfortunately that now falls to you to start the process.

Know that we support you and our hearts are with you!

Newt