01/03/2025
Praying for this baby!💔
REALITY OF RESCUE: small rescues vs our county shelter
I debated long and hard about sharing Eve’s story in entirety. It continues to not sit well with me so I decided to share. The public needs to be aware of the disturbing facts.
Eve was hit by a car in Whitehall township, found by a Whitehall township resident. That finder contacted our county shelter, who I purposely will not name, but all should know. The finder told them the kitten was dragging her backend and had been hit by a car. They refused to help, they turned the kitten away. Three times to be exact, she was refused help by them, including 1 request by a police officer.
It is important to note this shelter has an on site community veterinary clinic and veterinarian on staff. They did not offer pain medication, humane euthanasia, treatment, intake, or even an exam.
It is also important to note that this shelter has a contract with Whitehall Township to assist their stray dogs, cats, and small animals, as it indicates on this shelters public website. Proof of residency is required—which the finder had.
The finder did not know what to do with the kitten, so the Whitehall police officer provided the finder with our number and said we do intakes on young kittens 24/7/365. Once we received the call, the kitten was retrieved and immediately driven to Valley Central Emergency Vet. This is when the veterinarian confirmed a shattered pelvis, provided her pain relief, and the treatment plan was discussed.
The reason why I’m sharing this with all of you…
That shelter is contracted, is paid, by the township of Whitehall to assist Whitehall residents in these situations. They refused to not only assist the resident in their contracted area, but they refused to offer a helpless kitten, suffering in excruciating pain with a shattered pelvis, any care or assistance whatsoever.
We were extremely lucky to have received your outpouring of financial support to help this kitten recover. When we post for donations, it is a gamble whether or not we will receive enough to cover their care. Small area rescues do not have the luxury of receiving corporate grants and large consistent donations. Small area rescues do not have the funding paid by local municipalities. Small area rescues rely entirely on private donors— usually $5, $10, $25 at a time. Small area rescues usually hold our breath, hope and pray for enough donations received to help that animal and then if the donations don’t come in, a fundraiser goes out quick. Someway, somehow, we work together to provide care to the ones refused by this shelter.
Small area rescues try our best to pick up the pieces the large county shelter refuses to touch. In Eve’s case, we offered emergency care immediately, the care this large shelter refused for 2 days.
Please, Support your SMALL RESCUES. Any one of them. Their existence depends on it. Your $25 donation to small rescues goes SO much further.
There is a huge difference between small privately run animal rescues, and the large county shelter. The rescues are rescues, the shelter is an animal welfare business that allowed a young kitten to sit in excruciating pain for 2 days without care.
Please understand the difference, please support your favorite private rescues. We all offer different kinds of help, we all have close community ties, and we all are the ones answering the difficult calls outside of business hours on holidays because that animal needs help.
Small rescues need you. Thank you.
If you have been affected by their lack of fulfilling their contracted obligations, you must make it known to the township officials and publicly. It will continue to happen if the right people are not made aware. I have notified the officials of Whitehall Township. Hold them accountable.
Eve's update: Her pelvis is shattered, her legs are not. We are giving her lots of restrictions, love and care. She returns to the vet for xrays next month to monitor her healing and progress. Once her pelvis begins to heal, she should regain movement of her legs, although she may suffer permanent growth impairments on her backend. It is too early to tell how she will ultimately heal. Dr. Dan at Stanglein Vet Clinic has accepted her case and we look forward to working with him to take care of her in the best way possible.
*also important to note, I have contacted this shelter to ask their criteria on intake, request their reason for refusal, and to obtain their side to this, no response has been received as of the writing of this post.
*this picture was taken immediately upon intake en route to Valley Central.
*Several people have requested how to donate, direct donations can be made to us at https://checkout.shelterluv.com/donate/fxy or consider donating to ANY LOCAL SMALL ANIMAL RESCUE. If you ever requested help from any small rescue, think of them upon reading this post and send them anything. I believe I can speak on behalf of all small local rescues, they all could use help right now. Thank you.
