Spike with his foster Mom
“Our foster-kitten Spike had an upper respiratory infection that progressed to pneumonia. He stopped eating, so my wife and I fed him by hand every four hours for a week and administered his prescribed medications. When he didn’t improve after two vet visits, the shelter recommended he be euthanized, and I reluctantly agreed to return him to the shelter.
“Before doing that, I contacted a ’super-fosterer’ in Fairfax County we’d met recently through our blog. This woman has been fostering kittens for 20 years and handles the sickest and youngest kittens for over a dozen shelters and 20 rescue organizations in Fairfax, Loudoun, and PG counties. I asked her if she’d be willing to evaluate Spike and tell us whether she thought he could recover from his pneumonia.
“She agreed, so I drove Spike to her house. She told me she had nursed much smaller kittens with worse pneumonia symptoms back to health, then showed me how to use a cool-mist nebulizer to loosen the congestion in his lungs, and ‘coupage’ (a slapping technique) to trigger coughing. After two nebulizer+coupage treatments over a five-hour span, Spike’s breathing had improved significantly.
“I’ve met at least 20 vets during my years fostering, and most readily admit that they have little experience treating young kittens. The most knowledgeable sources on kitten care are super-fosterers, some of whom have written books on the subject. The Fairfax super-fosterer loaned us one of her nebulizers and offered to advise us during Spike’s recovery. She runs a 501(c)(3) and doesn’t charge for her services.
“I e-mailed the shelter when I returned home to tell them about Spike’s improved outlook. Within an hour I received a call from AWLA informing me that we had violated our foster contract by taking Spike to see the super-fosterer without their prior permission. I was told to immediately surrender Spike and our other five foster kittens, and that we had been terminated as kitten fosterers. AWLA sent an animal control van to our house a few hours later to retrieve the kittens and all our foster supplies.
“We provided a supportive environment for Spike, and he had bonded with us and the five kittens with whom he shared a warm, spacious bathroom at his foster home. Just as his prospects were improving, he was taken away and sequestered alone in sick bay at the shelter.
“Not informed what was happening to him, my wife and I spent five days worrying about him. When we heard he might still be alive, I sent e-mail to the shelter asking if we could take him back to try to nurse him back to health at our expense. The shelter called me an hour later to tell me they had euthanized him that morning.
“I’m convinced of two things:
1. Spike had a good chance to survive, had the shelter not removed him from the familiar and supportive environment of his foster home – a home that was providing free, round-the-clock expert care.
2. By denying Spike the support of his littermates and his people, the shelter subjected Spike to unnecessary depression and stress. The caged, solitary environment he was placed in by the shelter made it harder for him to recover.
“Our experience with Spike wasn’t the first time that AWLA policies or decisions led to unnecessary suffering or euthanasia for our foster kittens, but it will definitely be the last. I have spent many hours trying to understand why the AWLA treats the volunteers and staff who demonstrate the strongest attachment to cats and dogs the way it does. The best explanation I can come up with is that the top priority of AWLA management is something other than animal welfare.”
Poor Spike!! WHY does a “contract” turn into a death sentence? And why on earth was the AWLA so spiteful?
These are living beings!! When was the last time a foster CHILD was made to die because of a contract?
I so agree with the last paragraph of what was said about Spike, the shelter, its volunteers and employees. I can speak for the employees as I got the shaft unjustly. They tend to get rid of the people that care for the animals, (3 that I know, not including myself) and keep the ones who are only there for a paycheck. It seems they like the ones who don’t invest themselves emotionally. Funny, I thought that was what it was all about.
how would the community and the county government who runs the contract like to know that the League has a sick bay area where they put sick cats to be isolated from healthy cats. The 2 problems with there procedure.:
1. the cat sick bay is right next to dog sick bay so dogs that are barking and baying 24/7 are stressing the cats out. Anyone who knows cats knows that stress plays a BIG part in them becoming sick in a shelter enviroment yet they keep dogs in a area not 10 feet away.
2. they let the sick cats run loose and intermingle when sick bays is cleaned. The kennel manager thinking is that they need socializtion even if this means exposing each other to the different illnesses they may have.
3. On a side note they had 5 kittens die in about 3 months from panleuk in the shelter. Would you like to know how they dealt with such a detrimental disease? Esp. one that is extrememly contagious/fatal esp. to kittens. And how many cats were adopted out that were exposed to this disease because normal precautions were not be followed. I pointed out the issues numerous times and was was basically dismissed by management.