AntiochTopples the 400 Mark in Disappearing Cats

Well, folks. Can you believe that it has only been two months since I submitted my first post to The Cat Site letting you know about the 250 cats that had disappeared from our City of Antioch? Yes, in just two months the total number of cats that have disappeared has risen to 409. This new total is only reflecting the Lost Cat reports filed up to the date of July 27th.
Just as I feared, if thing continue as they have we will no doubt be looking at well over 600 cats that will have disappeared from families here in our town by the end of this year. Again, I remind everyone these are just the cats that are being reported, the true figure we estimate will be closer to 1000 cats that will have disappeared from families here in our area.
I just don't know why this doesn't set off major alarms to all those agencies I have contacted regarding our situation. Yes, they all agree that something terrible is going on but all of these agencies like the HSUS and the AHA say that they don't investigate private cases. In other words, unless your a big corporate research laboratory abusing animals or something associated with a big name company that will bring them national media attention they basically aren't interested in your plight.
I don't know about you guys, but I think that the disappearance of over 1000 cats from a community of only 94K people (latest census figure)is a pretty big deal no matter how you look at it. This means that for every 100 persons in Antioch, which includes man, woman, and child, a cat has disappeared. Maybe I am being ignorant here, but that is extremely alarming to me. This many cats disappearing says to me that something really big is going on here and I can't imagine that all of these big name humane organizations can't see that.
What do we need to do? Knock them over the heads? I guess if we had some big movie star that lived here or some big named politician that lived here and whose cat disappeared, then we might see some action from these groups. Maybe they are not as humane as they protest to be? Hummm, I wonder?

Jewelcat

I am thinking along the lines of Dateline, Primetime....someone needs to let the wider public know what is going on. I am so sad for your situation and wish I could help, but the letters I have sent appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

Hey, don't feel bad. There was something very important that was accomplished as a result of your letter and all of the letters and phone calls from all of the other wonderful people here at The Cat Site. Your letters and messages gave me the strength and the fortitude to continue on with my search for the truth. I was at a very crucial point, emotionally, when I came here to The Cat Site for the first time.
I had been immersed in this investigation for 5 solid months, and I am now beginning my 8th month. I sleep, eat, talk, & work with nothing but this case on my mind. Even when you are putting every ounce of strength, both emotional and physical, into something, a goal if you will and you do this day in and day out, but it seems as though your always playing catch up or you always seem to be just one step behind sometimes it is even just an hour or two behind, nevertheless, you are still behind. Your whole thought process starts centering around one inevitable truth, and that is, that you simply cannot do it alone. Everywhere you go for help, turns you down. There are plenty of those who want to help but either they are too far away or they prefer only to offer assistance in the form of advice via the telephone.
Well, then you start to think about giving up. Throwing in the towel because you feel like your the only one who cares, so why bother. There just isn't anyway that you can do everything that needs to be done and especially to do them all within a time frame that would produce positive results.
That was me two months ago. I always seem to be right at that edge anyway if not for any other reason but simply due to the nature of what is happening, members of our family are disappearing without a trace. After a while, you start getting tired, very tired. When every request for help that you send out is answered with a denial, you tend to lose hope, too.
You make one last stab at it, just to see if anybody cares. You look for a way to revitalize your energy by finding someone, anyone at all out there that shares your spirit and your passion to end this suffering. To exchange your thoughts with theirs. Together you seek an end to this nightmare. Side by side, you look for the answers, the answers that will bring justice to the tragedies that are happening in your world.
Although, we do not yet have all the answers nor can we stop these crimes from happen, just yet anyway, but thanks to all of you, I have new strength and my passion is stronger than it ever was and I will continue on with my search for the truth. I will not and cannot quit for two reasons. One, because my heart tells me so very strongly, that somehow, and I am not sure exactly how, but somehow I will see my PeeWee and Betty once again. The other reason, is that I want to make all of you, those that stuck their neck out for me and my kitties and all of the kitties in Antioch, who took the time to speak out and show your support, I want all of you to be proud to say, "We know her, she is a member of The Cat Site Forum. She came to ask for our help one day, and well . . . now we are all friends and very proud of it, too."

Thank you everyone!

Jewelcat

Jewelcat .... AIM is still waiting to hear from you ... I talked to the director PERSONALLY. Let's just say some of those suspicions are right on the money. Let's talk soon.

FeralGuardian

I corresponded via email directly to the person that you referred me to and they said they couldn't help us. All they wanted to know was whether or not all 400+ cats disappeared at the same time from one location or if they disappeared at different times from different locations. Other than that they said they could be of no help to us.

So, I am not sure why they said I hadn't contacted them?

Jewelcat

PS - I will forward to you the email I received from them.

She was concerned that you might have misunderstood her. And yes she was also concerned with the dogs. But ... She does want to talk to you. She has some contacts that "I" think you might want to have. I am also waiting for you to e-mail me the "property" info you have.


FeralGuardian

San Jose had a situation in which many cats were diappearing and reappearing dead. I don't know what the number was, but the local news stations covered it. They thought it was some crazed person killing these cats. It turned out that it was a coyote. We don't live in an area that has coyote's but one strayed and found it's food with small animals. I too have had cats disappear and know the feeling of helplessness.

I would make sure that predatory animals aren't a cause. Also, look through the paper in the local sections and find the names of reporters who write general interest stories. Submit your story and hopefully it will begin to generate some buzz. The local news stations won't pick up anything unless there is some real interest in it. Papers, however can help create that interest.

keep us posted!

Yes, thank you for your helpful hints. We have done numerous things to bring awareness to the situation here. If you go to my original post titled, "Please Help! Over 250 Cats Have Disappeared from Antioch", and read through all of the correspondence you will get a much better picture of what we are dealing with out here.
We know that the disappearances are human caused and we have been investigation this situation for going on 8 months now. The #450 refers only to the cats that have been reported missing, the true number we estimate to be closer to 600-700 cats that have disappeared.
We have been able to gather physical evidence along with identifying some patterns to the disappearances. Our problem is that our Animal Services Dept. has only one officer right now so they do not have anyone to investigate this situation, our police force and city council refuse to authorize any funds for an investigation to be conducted by a third party stating "these are just cats and we will not authorize any more money to be spent for the care and welfare of cats".
So, we just keep watching the number grow higher and higher without any resources to help us stop what is happening.

Thanks again for your concern.

Just to enquire what the situation is there now?

I finally tracked down the poisoning of my local cats -- I have personally lost six and maybe seven since they started in January.

The story is that we had a sudden explosion of vermin populations due to the very warm winter. In addition, it was the year that agricultural fields owned by religious people are left fallow in accordance with biblical law. This meant that the grain fields, in particular, were left after they reseeded themselves. The uncut grain helped to provide extra food to fan the explosion.

So in January, the regional council began to poison rats -- and all cat owners know that rat poison is also a cat-killer. Meanwhile, homeowners were also urged to put down poison, and only last week a young man came to the door handing out FREE rat and mouse poison packets. Meanwhile, they repeatedly poison the sewers garbage cans, landfill dumps, etc. This has totally destroyed the cat population, feral, stray, and, in many cases, domestic animals all together.

The poisoning has been sanctioned by the Ministry of Health apparently, because the numbers of rats and mice pose a serious health hazard. Because most of the cats are dead, there has been a corresponding rise in snakes (many of whom are multiplying to take advantage of the mouse numbers) and cockroaches, since the cats are their natural predators. Plagues of Egypt. At this point, the situation is sort of hopeless...

I am hoping that you finally track down the people responsible for your ghastly situation. That poor little injured kitty. Were the vets able to successfully rescue it in the end?

Blessings on your efforts,