Poor FIV Cat PTS by Local CP Branch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mark]

I think CP Mission Statement should be challenged.

Cats Protection is the UK’s leading cat welfare charity enjoying the support of over 6,500 volunteers. Our vision is ‘to ensure that every cat is given the chance of a life where it will be treated with kindness and understanding of its needs’. We will achieve this through our three key objectives of finding good homes for cats in need, by supporting and encouraging the neutering of cats and by improving people’s understanding of cats and their care.

Having said, CP HQ took on our last FIV cat and he had improved his temperament and was in the rehoming block the last we heard. I think HQ shouldn't make it simple for branches for PTS without very good reason. This is my biggest gripe with them.

[Ela]

I think the best thing to do in this type of situation is for all concerned to contact CP HQ. Hopefully if they are aware of a problem they can see if they can do  something about it, although not I appreciate for the little on concerned this time.

[Michelle (furbabystar)]

My last vet was for PTS with FIV cats - He used to say it was the only way to try and stop the problem ...   idiot !

[Sylvia]

RIP poor little Sydney, and all my sympathies to Emma 

I am so disappointed that a CP branch could do something like this, when a home was ready and waiting for this little boy 

In this day and age, when so much more information is available about FIV, I would have expected them to act in a more enlightened way.  This makes me so very, very sad.

[Schmew]

That's such sad news, poor Sydney.

It is hard to believe it still happens now so much more is known about FIV.

[Gail Bengal Slave]

I thought they were supposed to help cats 

Poor lad - night night sweet boy xxxx

[Liz]

The branch is run by some of the old school types and they are always saying they need help etc but a few folks are *****ed of by them and we have been doing a bit of trapping for some farmers out here and then getting them done by opur vet under my Name and vets account and farmers pay me and take the cats back.

Any nice ones I move down the country to a nice CP branch and they home them on - it works nd thank god there are braches with folks who help and not hinder!

We as a couple put in nearly £4000 a year to CP to our old branch and do 300 miles to help out where we can and take on some of their impossible ones - in this years case its Miss Cissy aged 14ish, and Smudger and Ragamuffin about 7ish 3 ferals who the carer wanted to stay together and a nasty farmer was going to shall we say help them derpart the mortal coil in a not nice way!

These 3 are doing really well and use litter trays and will be integrated with my mob later this month once Gems 3 are up and moving!

I don't regret having Hissy Holly our FIV feral for anything my only regret is we could only be her carers for 8 months and not longer - she was a lovely tabby girl and is still missed by both of us and her beloved Sailor who shared her room to the end and has never entered it since she left us for the bridge

We would do it again and no doubt further down the line and depending on what we trap here will add another FIV soul to our ranks.

[Canterbury_cats (Sharon)]

This also makes me make an i am the rehoming officer for our CP, especially when i go to endless lenght to sort out FIV cats including taking them to other branches to get rehomed. The Thomas me and Mark took to HQ a few weeks back is now up for rehoming after no rescue would take him in this way and we were full up.. Its so easy to PTS, i agree its not easy finding homes but we do eventually.. What we would do with a FIV at the moment if one come in i am not sure as we are full up but we would sort something out... We are already on our 3rd FIV cat this year and i know that Folkestone branch has rehomed 2 so, but i do think HQ should hold a seminar or something regarding FIV so that all branches at least have the facts to hand and realise that with abit of effort they can be rehomed. Its probably because no one can be bothered to call around rescues or find other branches that would take a cat like this or spend hours on the phone or even getting in  a car and taking it to another branch..

I could never have it on my conscience that we didnt at least try!

Why would they PTS a FIV puss when they had a home lined up for it? Senseless

[Desley (booktigger)]

This is so sad, luckily not all CP branches are like this, mine has successfully homed FIV+ cats and allowed one to live his life out there as he also had cancer.
Mark - I always look at it that by doing it, we can help more cats, and try and change people's ways of thinking. Although my RSPCA do pts FIV+ due to similar reasons to what CP have said to people on this thread, so I Wont support them.

[ccmacey]

Yes I would say thats the awful thing in working for a branch, you have to follow their rules. But I suppose the worker must agree with them to work there. 

[Dawn (DiddyDawn)]

I used to think my friend who worked for the CP was brainwashed, she had her set way of doing things because that's how CP did it and she wouldn't budge at all.  I have though over the years, given her a few things to think about and why their way is sometimes wrong    She is coming round to my thinking on a lot of things but there's still some way to go    One dispute we are having at the moment is releasing female ferals too early after spaying.  I have always been told by my vet to try and keep them for 10 days, sometimes this is too stressfull but I usually keep them no less than a week before release.  Our local CP release them the following day and so does my mate    I've spent some time the last couple of days drumming it into her about keeping them a few days until she knows the skin is knitted together, I think she's now contemplating doing this but will probably change her mind again 

[ccmacey]

If FIV is that awful and harmfull for others how come humans dont get killed! Because that would be murder, well I feel this is the same for cats. What does cp stand for again???!

You know all it is is having one less un-rehomeable mouth to feed.

You would think people in this roll would be taught to understand these illnesses more.

[Dawn (DiddyDawn)]

Michelle I have been in the same situation and said I would take the cat home with me, they only agreed if I would pay the cost. They do not have the right to tell you they are going to pts said cat.

This is how it usually works, if they are funding it the vet has to do what they say     I know with the ferals, my friend took some in for spaying/neutering, she was informed they would be blood tested on the say so of CP.  What she didn't realise was they would be euthanised if positive, and sadly 2 were, both youngsters and in good health   

This is why whatever happens, I will only do rescue on an independant level, I then have the say on what happens to any cats in my care, and euthanising FIV babes does not come into the equation.

[ccmacey]

This is awful and would also be the actions of my local cp.

Michelle I have been in the same situation and said I would take the cat home with me, they only agreed if I would pay the cost. They do not have the right to tell you they are going to pts said cat.

Who gives them the say anyway! 

[bunglycat]

That branch should be shut down 
I have no patience with people like that -bloody  the lot of them.
Poor little Sydney cat  and poor Emma  to you .

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

That is so terribly sad and only 18 months old 

RIP Sydney and I am sure the others on the Bridge will tell you many of us are not like that.

[Yvonne]

Liz - I am so sorry


    Sydney

[Mark]

It's hearing things like this that make me wonder if I should volunteer for CP - even though our branch would NEVER PTS a cat unless it was very sick or too badly injured to help. It's about time they had a blanket policy. I have been thinking about my will lately and would never leave my money to any charity that killed animals needlessly. The same reason I would never donate to Cancer Research UK as they experiment on animals. I would never contribute to any kind of animal suffering. 

[koscha (Ruth M)]

Scumbags,  scumbags!
Harry my fathers cat was diagnosed FIV+ at the age of 6.....apart from dental problems which meant every tooth in his head had to go he had a fantastic life until he passed away from liver cancer last year age 15.  Long painful death I think not! his biscuits went down whole no messing!

My sympathies to poor Emma and Sydney 

[Michelle (furbabystar)]

That is  terrible !  CP.....poor Emma and poor Sydney xxxxx

The Father of my Issey's kittens turned out to be FIV...He was a stray cat and one day i caught him as he was injured, I had asked the local branch for help and was told to take him to a local vet.
He was tested for FIV/FeLV and came up as positive, as he was down through the CP they instructed for him to be PTS.
I said he could be signed over to me but the CP would not allow it, I even begged !!

  So the only thing i could do was be with him as he was PTS.

[Dawn (DiddyDawn)]

This doesn't surprise me in the least, evil    Our local branch does the same with the ferals, whether they are healthy or not, FIV is a good excuse for a death sentence.  I often wonder how they can sleep at night   

[Sam (Fussy_Furball)]

Poor Emma and poor Sydney!

RIP Sydney ... you knew love and friendship little man I'm just sorry you weren't allowed to experience it for longer.

[clarenmax]

I can't believe that, this sort of thing makes me MAD 

My boy was only 2 when he was picked up as a stray, he tested positive, but he's fine, and now nearly 10 years old and living the life of riley wrapping me round his paws.

If the cat is older and sick I can understand maybe pts if there's no hope, but for a young otherwise healthy cat, its just terrible, I hope they can live with themselves ............ 

I though there was supposed to be more knowledge out there about this sort of thing now 

RIP poor little dude x

[Liz]

I am spitting feathers to put a finer point on something that happened yesterday and involved the local branch of our CP

A girl trapped a tom cat she had been feeding and CP said they would neuter him for her - she was surprised but agreed that they could pay for it and she would make a donation to them.

Poor Sydney tested positive for FIV whilst under anasthetic and they put him to sleep - he was 18 months old and would have had a forever home to

It makes me so mad but the lady from CP said she could have another cat from them!  Emma the girl involved is beside herself and doesn't want anything to do with them, she was willing to keep her little stray but CP advised her it would have a slow painful death and putting to sleep was a kinder action!

I wish she had paid attention at our team build and she would have remembered that we would have tried to help her and poor Sydney stay together with help from another CP branch with a kinder FIV Policy

No wonder they are desperate for helper me for one I won't be attending or donating sod all to them and will make my felings known as it is our vets practice and they should know they could have phoned us if CP were going to do this and we would have helped out