Advice needed.

crazycatfellow

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We live in a mobile home park. Me and my mother are caring for several ferals and I was doing TNR as a means of population control and ensuring roaming ferals were vaccinated. Most of my own cats were ferals I socialized and are near impossible to keep indoors. One of my mother's cats can cover the distance - about 20' in a split second to sneak out her door. We do keep a close eye on them and if I don't see them I go looking for them, they are all inside at night.

The home next to my parents was vacated a few months ago. The previous neighbors left the place in such disrepair and were utter slobs. They must have been throwing months worth of trash under the home to avoid paying for garbage.Two garbage cans they left behind sat full for over a month before someone took them. The home has been sold since to someone that claims he is going to do repairs but now claims it's his winter project. The place should've honestly been condemned. It's obviously unfit for occupancy, a fire and safety/health risk. We don't trust they are going to perform repairs. Despite knowing what condition the place is in the landlord rented the lot, I suppose the home isn't her responsibility but somehow I feel she could be held liable being aware of the condition of this place. But that's besides the point and not the reason I'm posting. The guy that is doing repairs on the place for his daughter is not a cat person.

I overheard this guy talking with a neighbor. Admitted he is going to place rat poison under the home and admits he is doing so because of the cats. Because he doesn't want to clean the garbage and secure the skirting so cats can't get under the home. He's going to leave the mounds of garbage under the home and place rat poison under there as a deterrent. We went to the landlord to inform her. She won't do anything, claims they can because it's their property. It sounds legally questionable to me. There are laws in place now to protect animals. Imho there is really no difference in leaving poison sitting around with the intent of deterring or "taking care" of the cat problem from feeding them poisoned food etc.. There are cats roaming around that belong to other tenants including our own besides the ferals and children out playing. What if the cats got poisoned or if a child got into it and was poisoned? This should be illegal and I'm sure it is. Landlord was shocked when I said we would involve the police if poison was placed under the home. Don't they know nowadays there's animal welfare laws in place to protect them besides poison being accessible to children that might get into it? Do we have any recourse, can we get law enforcement involved and will they do anything? If they want to put rat poison inside the home to address a mouse problem that's their prerogative. However they can't leave poison around where it's easily accessible with the risk neighborhood animals and small children can get into it. Considering their intent of laying poison I think it's open and shut but want to be sure I have recourse to prevent them from doing this. Landlord needs to be convinced to ensure other tenants aren't laying poison under their homes. 

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Contacting our SPCA is futile. I'm running into nothing but problems with them. I am going to be doing a boycott on social media of our local shelter to bring to light their discriminatory and unfair treatment. The local shelter appears to be biased against cats, showing favoritism and preferential treatment of canines. This is making it difficult for those of us trying to address the feral cat issue making TNR operations much more expensive and time consuming. They went from stringing me along with tardiness in scheduling appointments, borderline callousness to being passive-aggressive and blatantly disregarding me through refusal to acknowledge and respond to me. I felt as if I was being singled out (probably was), they don't care to hear from me much less assist me in any way. I'm not sure what other options I have at hand besides involving law enforcement.

Thanks.
 

shadowsrescue

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What a terrible ordeal.  I would think that you might be able to contact the non emergency department of your local police.  Tell them what you heard and ask if there are laws about animal cruelty.  You heard from their mouth that they are using the rat poison for the cats.  Hopefully they will help either by speaking to the new owners or helping you with the SPCA. 

Thank you for caring for the ferals and helping with TNR. 

One last note, I doubt cats would eat rat poison straight.  Yet, it could be mixed into wet food.  By adding it to food, I assume it would attract other critters as well.  Just keep doing your best and try to find the correct authorities to help.
 

ondine

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Have you tried contacting Alley Cat Allies? Alleycat.org.

They have a wealth of info and might even be interested in taking the case on. As an advocacy group for feral cats, they can bring the power of the media to bear on this.

I would also try to contact the newspapers - if there is a daily columnist who likes cats, he or she would really be a help.

God bless you and good luck!

Our shelter hated cats, too. They imported feral cats to euthanize from local counties for years. For the money! But recently, because of efforts by many, many people, they are gradually coming around and have begun looking at the situation differently. If you have friends who support feral colonies, perhaps you all can band together and start a movement.

It may not change their minds, but there is definitely strength in numbers.
 

kittychick

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Definitely contact alleycatallies.org. Their number from 9 am - 6 pm EST is 240-482-1980. You can get to talk to an actual person, and they can generally offer a ton of information.

Find out (the Internet is a great source) if you have any other local sources - if you can find a spay neuter clinic --they often offer help in just this kind of situation.
Good luck and keep us posted!
 
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crazycatfellow

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Thank you. Thankfully these new neighbors have not been back yet. Place is in such bad shape and we're hoping they cut their loss and moved on. We keep watching out for them to make sure they don't return to lay poison. Another thing that concerns me is there was a busted, leaking pipe under the trailer. The guy that is supposed to be conducting repairs claims he put antifreeze in the pipes. Naturally that made me suspicious and sounded very odd. We've been monitoring the outdoor cats in case any turn up sick.

My mother was in touch with a rescue group that helped find homes for a few rescue kittens. However they became overwhelmed and told my mother we are too far out to make the trip. I will contact this organization to see if there's anything they can assist me with.
 

msaimee

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If you're feeding these cats and they're not going hungry, then it's very unlikely that they will eat food that doesn't smell or taste quite right. Cats are very good at noticing when there's something "off" about food and will usually not eat anything poisonous. Only cats that are truly starving will venture to eat tainted food. That said, you make a very good point about the dangers of leaving rat poison outside. A hungry stray might eat it, a dog will likely eat any food outside, and a child could touch it and consume it. I would advise going to your local police station and talking face-to-face with an officer and filing a report that they will keep on record. Ask if an officer would be willing to pay him a visit and speak to him. Then when you see this neighbor is home, call the police and let them know he's home so they can speak with him. For many people, a visit from a police officer is enough to deter them from acting on their threats to poison cats. In most places, this is illegal (although I imagine the laws are a lot more lax in rural areas). I have enlisted the support of the local police on a few occasions, and they have been very helpful and supportive, so hopefully the police in your area will be helpful to you, too.    
 
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