After an incident that left staff at The Guelph Humane Society in tears, the team is reminding the community that it is always there to respond to calls of animals in distress.
On Friday, the GHS released an open letter begging people not to abandon their pets alone after a cat in a carrier was found outside the GHS building Friday morning. The cat was found cold, with a low heart rate and was barely responsive to touch. It was rushed to a partner clinic but didn’t survive.
“To say our whole team is heartbroken is an understatement. There are tears, and there is anger,” read an open letter to the community.
“If a call was made to the building, our officers could have come outside and given this cat a fighting chance. The cat would have been shown compassion. But we didn’t know he was there… Instead, the cat was left alone to suffer in his carrier for almost 12 hours until staff arrived at those doors the next morning. Writing that makes us sick to our stomachs.”
The GHS team said security footage shows an individual drive up to the community entrance on Thursday night and drop off the cat. The team said it was heartbroken that the individual did not attempt to call the building or knock on its doors when it had animal service officers inside the building at the time.
“No matter what time of the day, even 2 a.m. in the morning, you can call the Guelph Humane Society and get help for an animal in distress. Our team would rather be woken up in the middle of the night to help save the life of an animal, than to know that an animal suffered and died alone," said the letter.
The GHS said the orange cat had no microchip, no collar and no identification.An initial assessment of the cat led the GHS to believe that the cat was suffering from a urinary blockage which would have been really painful for him.
“Our anger is pushing us to find out what happened, so we are looking into performing an autopsy. We are hoping it brings us peace of mind to figure out what happened to this beautiful orange boy, but we know that nothing we find can change what happened during the final hours of his life,” read the letter.
The GHS notified Provincial Animal Welfare Services (PAWS) to launch an investigation and is asking the community’s help to identify the individual in the video. Anyone with information is asked to call 519-824-3091, or email [email protected].
