The shelter where I volunteer is a no kill shelter unless the cat tests positive for Feline Leukemia or Feline Aids. If they do, they are immediately euthanized. That day. ?? What I'd like to do is to convince them to give me a few days to see if I can find anyone who will adopt these cats before they are killed.? I understand the theory of the shelter. But they don't look at FeLV + the same way I do.? They truly believe that this is a cat with a death sentence.? Since I have a boy that has lived with me for two years, and lived well, I see that these cats may have a long life ahead if given a chance.? And I know that in some cases you can test a cat, have it test positive, and then test it again in a few weeks and have it test negative. ? This is a small new shelter and they may be amenable to discussion.? And since I had a vet tell me that I should have this cat euthanized when I took him in to be neutered, I guess it's a particularly sore spot with me.? I think the General is pretty happy that I didn't listen to that vet.
Sidney and the General -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 8:24 am Subject: [Felvtalk] Euthanizing FELV+ cats in shelters With respect to the general practice of euthanizing FELV+ cats in shelters, having fostered many cats from a big city shelter that of course was underfunded and understaffed, I can say that in my city it is impossible to find foster homes, never mind adoptive homes, for all that test positive. Very young kittens cannot be tested reliably and of course, the need for foster homes for the littlest babies is great. When fosterers finally test those kittens and find out that one or more is positive, there are really only a couple of options. That home can keep the kitten sequestered if possible for retesting when older or take it back to be euthanized. Then what happens if the kitten retests positive? Or what about the older cat that is infected shortly before it gets into the shelter and tests negative when going to a foster home but if actually carrying the virus? In my case, I ended up with 3 positive one year olds along with my adult cats who are vaccinated. I have decided to no longer foster any other cats because, outside of the logistics of separating which would be too hard in my situation, I don't want to introduce a new stressor in the house that might trigger the FELV to become active in these positive ones. My answer is to care for these positives for the rest of their lives. However, I fostered and found adoptive homes for > 100 kittens and cats in the last two years but now, because I am hospicing these 3 cats, it is fair to say that a good number of cats will die in the next two years as the kill rate is significant here. It is a really painful fact that I could save the lives of many more than three cats if I put these FELV+ cats down. Therefore, because healthy happy well adjusted wonderful pet cats are put down every single day of the year in my city and probably most other big cities, I think that a policy of euthanizing cats that test positive for an incurable illness before euthanizing healthy adoptable cats makes sense. _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
