Caboodle Ranch cat sanctuary raided, almost 1,000 cats taken away, largest cat rescue ever

[Liberal_in_LA]

Big Problems In Tiny Cat Town



The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals seized nearly a thousand sick felines from the Caboodle Ranch cat sanctuary in Lee, FL this week. The ASPCA reports that it is the largest cat rescue they’ve ever done.

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He later wrote on the Caboodle web site: “Monday morning a SWAT team came in gun to my head took me to jail on what they said was a misdemeanor charge… I posted bail the same day, but I’m not allowed back at the ranch. I have no idea what’s taking place there.” The bond was set at $250,000.

Five months ago, a PETA investigator worked as an undercover volunteer on the ranch and recorded video of cats suffering from respiratory infections so severe that “they gasped for air and struggled to breathe, drooled, and had bloody mucus clogging their noses.”

According to PETA , Grant allowed cats infected with fatal contagious diseases to roam freely through and beyond the ranch. He also attempted to “clean” the cats’ faces by vigorously rubbing their eyes, noses, and mouths with Clorox wipes, PETA says.

http://www.globalanimal.org/2012/03/08/big-problems-in-tiny-cat-town/68757/

[OneGrassRoot]

1. This is so heartbreaking...

I remember a few years ago when Caboodle Ranch was profiled on 60 Minutes or some TV show, and it really looked like nirvana for kitties.

It sounds like this may be one of those cases where he had good intentions but then something happened, he couldn't care for the babies adequately, and -- for whatever reason -- didn't ask for help and the animals suffered.

So very, very, very sad.

[LisaL]

2. I think the cat rescuers have good intentions but there are so many animals

that he couldn't possibly take care of them all.

[jsmirman]

3. Painful, so painful

I think you're probably right

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. don't cry. animal rescuers have hauled them away.

[jsmirman]

9. The question is what happens next to these animals

and the sadness of what may have been an opportunity to do some good lost to a lack of education and the right tools.

And if there was no spay/neuter practice in place...

And the lack of qualified veterinary involvement on site

I can't breathe when I read a story like this. It hurts.

(and I wish someone could use the land/facility to run this sort of place in the proper, responsible way)

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. something to make you laugh

Flashy Peacock Undermines Cat’s Confidence

http://www.globalanimal.org/2011/09/22/flashy-peacock-undermines-cats-confidence/51582/

[jsmirman]

11. thanks

the last few seconds did make me laugh. God, I love cats. I love all animals, but I really love cats - they have the most brilliant comic timing in the animal kingdom.

[hamsterjill]

25. I'm exactly the same way!

I got through 3 minutes of the 5 minute video and then had to go outside and suck in some deep breaths. It is simply horrible.

Done correctly, this situation had so much potential! It's sad that things have ended in this manner.

As you indicate - what will happen to these animals now? Most assuredly the majority of them are probably already euthanized. From the video, the URI's looked bad, but I've seen worse, and seen cats recover WITH the proper treatment. That said, most shelters and rescue groups don't have the manpower to devote the time necessary to get individual cats through tough URI's like what is shown on the video.

I echo your sentiment that I wish someone with more education, more resources, and some help could take over the facility and do something good with it.

Mostly, though, I wish I lived in a different world - where things like this didn't happen.

[bhikkhu]

4. ...and they had no spay/neuter program, with hundreds of cats?

That makes it even more criminal. I hate reading about this stuff, but even worse is the video from the ranch -

- (GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING!). I know PETA gets a lot of criticism for how they do things, but its stuff that needs attention, as hard as it is to see.

ed to bold the graphic and disturbing!

[LisaL]

5. You get that many cats together and they are going to have respiratory infections.

That same thing happens in shelters-cats get respiratory infections.

[EFerrari]

12. Who in the rescue community doesn't know that?

That's the thing we ALL battle.

What on earth happened at this place?!

[csziggy]

16. I get the feeling he moved on from cat rescuer to cat hoarder

[EFerrari]

17. Or maybe it became a business.

When I was fostering, I got all kinds of requests, mostly from people who had a friend who had died and were trying to place older cats in a safe place until they found a home or a sanctuary. And some of those requests came with money offers.

[csziggy]

20. Could be - in one of the articles it was mentioned that he was bringing in bucks

Something like $150,000 after there was a story on the Colbert Report.

But there were at least as many if not more reports that he really loved the cats and wanted to 'save' them. That is why I give the possibility he meant well but then got into the hoarder track and got way over his head.

Either was it was not healthy for the cats and they will be better off out of that place and his 'care'.

[EFerrari]

21. People's motives are most usually mixed.

Even if he got caught up in the money, he still could have cared about them.

And, unless I'm really wrong, most of those cats will be put down. But, at least they won't live in bad conditions before that happens.

[tkelly]

28. Cats will NOT be "put down"

Why do you think that most of the cats will be put down? My understanding is the cats are being treated and most of them can be brought back to good health. After they no longer belong to Craig Grant they can be adopted out. They will be given to shelters all over the US that can find them homes. Right now they are evidence of the poor care they received and the ailments they contracted because of the living conditions.

[EFerrari]

30. Because something like 7 of 10 cats that go to shelters don't make it out. n/t

[tkelly]

31. Cats will be found homes!

If this is like another cat rescue in Florida the cats will be given a chance to be adopted out in Jacksonville before they are given to other shelters. A call will be given out, first to former owners that want their cats back (and there are quite a few) and then to others who want to give a Caboodle cat a home. Then only shelters that think they can adopt them out will be given the cats. They won't be placed in shelters that may not be able to find homes for them. I don't know where you found your statistics (7 out of 10) but these cats will be given the best possible chance of finding good homes that they can. They will have a better chance than they did at Caboodle Ranch. Grant didn't believe in adopting cats out and the cats will be healthy thanks to the ASPCA and their volunteers. At Caboodle Ranch they were outside where they were vulnerable to predators (coyotes), the weather, illness from other cats, little or no vaccines, little or no flea control, they could get out of the fencing to face other dangers, etc. They are so much better off!!

[Liberal_in_LA]

33. good news!

[EFerrari]

36. ???

[EFerrari]

35. I'm not defending the way they were treated in any way.

"Approximately 5 million to 7 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year, and approximately 3 million to 4 million are euthanized (60 percent of dogs and 70 percent of cats). Shelter intakes are about evenly divided between those animals relinquished by owners and those picked up by animal control. These are national estimates; the percentage of euthanasia may vary from state to state."

http://www.aspca.org/about-us/faq/pet-statistics.aspx

But it isn't clear that most of these cats will go to homes. I hope they all do and they all won't.

[joeybee12]

37. For some reason, this is not uncommon, please start out

with good intentions, get overwhlemed, and they really do go a little over the edge because of it...the term "crazy old cat lady" has some basis in fact.

[EFerrari]

39. Yeah, there must be something in there

about not recognizing when you are overwhelmed and not being great at getting help. It's a "see something, say something" situation. Happened to someone I knew in the L.A. area but she was otherwise very sociable so there were enough of us to step in and help her get straightened out. Someone without a big social network like that would have been in real trouble.

[Gormy Cuss]

27. No spay/neuter program, cats ill with vaccine-preventable diseases, ringworm, etc = hoarder

unfortunately for the kitties.

[kestrel91316]

14. Especially when so many "rescuers" are anti-vaxers and vehemently

anti-veterinarian. They play doctor themselves but won't take their cats to one.

Not all rescuers are like this, but far too many are.

[EFerrari]

18. Wow. That sure isn't my experience.

In fact, the rescue group I worked with in Santa Monica is probably helping at least 4 vets keep their doors open.

[kestrel91316]

23. Rescuers engage in some illegal practices where I am:

1) Requiring the vets they refer clients to to charge the fees that they set (illegal price fixing) and not their regular fees, or they won't refer.

2) Practicing veterinary medicine without a license - having their adopters return to the rescue for future medical care BY UNLICENSED PERSONS rather than going to a veterinarian.

I'm not far from you, either.

[EFerrari]

24. I'm in the San Francisco bay area. n/t

[kestrel91316]

26. Oops - I missed the "ed" in "worked", lol.

[EFerrari]

38. Oh, that's all right.

There are definitely some people working in rescue that shouldn't be. Maybe I was lucky because I didn't run into many of them. I also don't have much tolerance for people who have bad boundaries or who fool around with animals so maybe I was unselected, lol, to spend much time with them.

[truedelphi]

40. Same here. Cat Connection in Marin

Is very pro-veterinarian. Granted they work out deals with vets so they don't pay full price for spay, neuter and vaccines (or meds) as they pretty much have to get a deal, in order to get care for the numerous cats.

They foster kitties out till the kitty gets a forever owner.

[EFerrari]

41. Yeah, my group was anti-broke, lol.

But two of the organizers had excellent relationships with a number of vets and they used to take us fosters in with them sometimes so the vets got to know the core group. These folks were also very strict about screening adopters. In fact, they almost refused to adopt to me until I signed off on having my kitty indoors only, which is how I met them.

[truedelphi]

42. Thanks for your being a foster mommy.

i have had my main kitty Chellbie for five years next month. And not a week goes by that I don't offer thanks up for the lady who fostered him while Cat Connection looked around for a full time parent. (She cried when he was placed with me, but he needed more room than she had.)

And I signed paperwork saying Chelbs would be indoors, which I pretty much have kept faithful to.

Although this past summer, he was having a "relationship" with an adolescent skunk. So I made sure he had supervised outdoor visits with Lady Skunk.

Two Am, and there we three would be, out in the moonlight. The Manx cat catting around for his skunk-ie lover. I had to sit out in my PJ's watching the two of them glimmer and twinkle at each other, from opposing sides of the hill below the house. (He's fixed too, so I'm not sure what this was all about. But he refused to stay inside if she was looking for him.)

[Liberal_in_LA]

43. skunk cat love story made me laugh. thanks

[EFerrari]

44. My cat is indoors only and now, my other guys are too.

Those ladies probably saved one or more of them from being stolen or hit by a car. I loved fostering. It gave me a mental break from other things that I had no control over whatsoever. It was great to see the little guys heal up and become playful and land a good home.

[bhikkhu]

22. Maybe, but I'm sure there's a point where money decides the issue for a person

Imagine trying to do all the regular care needed for hundreds of cats! You would need a staff just to keep up with litterboxes and cleanliness...

[jsmirman]

7. Oh, God

no, God, no

[Warpy]

6. Good intentions + no education = disaster

Had he been mentally equipped to keep on top of the health of all these cats, his would have been applauded as a wonderful no-kill cat rescue. Unfortunately, he lacked the education to know what to do about sick animals and quite possibly the mental ability to gain it because I know from earlier stories that some people had tried to work with him.

Likely the cats didn't suffer quite as much as they would have if they were abandoned on the streets--they did get fed, if sporadically. However, he's needed to be shut down for months and I'm delighted they finally did it.

In related news, there's a story on a blog about a cat hoarder who was, um, very affectionate with her animals. The sick ones were put down and tested and more than half of them were found to be rabid.

Cat hoarding isn't only dangerous for the animals. It can kill the owners, also.

[marasinghe]

13. you said it in a nutshell.

to quote that old neanderthal, 'Dirty Harry Callahan', in 'Magnum Force': ".... a man's gotta know his limitations ....".

it's the old conundrum: is it better to take care of a very few & make sure they are really well & happy, or, is better to help everyone you come across & do it half-assed? 'cos no one can save the whole damn world by themselves for sure. i go with the "few, well cared for" view, myself.

sorry situation.

[Arugula Latte]

15. Oh no ... This is horrible and heartbreaking ...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. What a shame. I remember seeing something about that place

and thinking how cool it was, and how wonderful the man was who put it all together and was taking care of all those homeless cats. Sounds like the whole thing got away from him. Very sad.

[Lisa0825]

29. I was uncomfortable with his set up from the day I first read about it.

People must have sent me articles about that place 30 times, and it drove me nuts because they all thought it looked so cute and perfect. Well, for who knows how long, he didn't even have a way to protect them from predators since they were outside cats! It was like a coyote buffet! He had posted pleas to raise money for a "coyote proof fence." He should have had that damned fence before anything else!

This is so sad. Things like this are why I can't believe in god anymore. How could so many innocent creatures be allowed to suffer if there were actually someone "all knowing and all powerful?"

I am close to a local situation that had a tragic ending, and I have had so many nightmares due to it. I have to go cry now.

[RedRocco]

32. though I have no problem with him being shut down,

one has to wonder if a SWAT team was necessary.

[lonestarnot]

34. Fucking A. Clorox wipes! He should be made to wipe his ass with those for about a week.