Staff and volunteers at the Red Deer and District SPCA started their new year on a heart-breaking note — one of the worst cases of animal abuse they have ever witnessed.
The shelter has dealt with some extremely trying incidents involving innocent creatures subjected to unimaginable suffering at the hands of venomous, unconscionable pet owners. But the recent death of an allegedly abandoned cat in a rental suite hit painfully deep.
A maintenance worker brought the orange tabby to the SPCA shelter on Jan. 4 after he found it lying on the floor soaked in feces and urine, “completely dehydrated, basically hours away from death,” said SPCA executive director Julie Crawford.
“He was so dehydrated his eyes indicated extreme brain damage. He had no chance of survival” and had to be euthanized.
It’s alleged the cat, affectionately named Taylor by SPCA staff, was abandoned before Christmas — without food, water or litter for about three weeks. That’s the agony Taylor endured alone.
In an emotion-filled email to the Advocate, a distraught Crawford relayed the tragic story of Taylor, including a graphic photo of the dying pet, so disturbing it will not be published. It focused on the horrible reality of the situation.
In part, the email read: “Every day at Red Deer and District SPCA we see the results of the sad and inhumane treatment of animals, but today, I am especially sad. This morning a compassionate and caring employee of a rental housing complex brought us the remains of a beautiful orange tabby cat — remains — but he wasn’t yet dead. We have called him ‘Taylor.’ . . . All through the Christmas and New Year’s holidays he had no food, water or litter. He was found gasping for his last breaths of life, laying in his urine and feces. His eyes were dilated and his dehydrated tongue hanging from his mouth as he welcomed death and an end to his horrific suffering . . . I beg that people respect the life of their family pet, and if they are unable to care for it any longer, they act responsibly by finding the animal a new home. . . . Roses to the (maintenance) worker who brought Taylor to our SPCA this morning. How lucky Taylor was that the last hands to hold him were so kind and gentle, even though they were the hands of a total stranger. . . . Please know that when you abandon your helpless and innocent family members, they seldom live ‘happily ever after’.”
In an interview later, Crawford said: “There is nothing that can ever erase the memory of what we saw on that Monday morning — ever.”
Staff at the SPCA have some training to deal with such horrific events. But they also try to focus on the lives saved and the happy stories.
The happy stories are what this organization is all about. It’s through its proposed new facility — named the Animal and Humane Education Centre — that it’s hoped the happy stories can be told over and over again as the need grows to accommodate orphaned animals.
The $3.7-million, 12,300-square-foot centre, expected to open in March, has tremendous potential.
The project is still shy $800,000 of meeting the construction bill. But, as sure as this organization is determined to save the lives of the orphans it takes in, the money will be found.
Lives like Taylor’s depend on it.
Rick Zemanek is an Advocate editor.