4 August 1 -7, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents ‘Doing Cats Dirty’ Animal rescuers claim Arlington shelter neglects, abuses. BY EMMA RUBY S crolling through the Arlington Animal Shelter’s list of adopt- able pets reveals dozens of cats — most of them kittens — wait- ing for homes. One kitten, less than two months old and speckled with brown and black markings, is pictured on the website with one eye nearly swollen shut. It is the latest evidence of Arlington Ani- mal Services’ long history of “doing cats dirty,” says Lisa Dennis, who started the group Cats in the Cliff to help with trap- neuter-return (TNR) efforts in North Texas. After years of working with cats, she says she knows an eye infection when she sees one, but recent experiences with the Arling- ton shelter have left her doubtful the kitten is receiving care for the illness. While Dennis primarily handles feral and stray cats, she recently took in a cat that, after 10 days in the Arlington shelter, needed to be euthanized due to a severe feline im- munodeficiency virus (FIV) infection. The shelter never tested the cat, whom she dubbed Otto, for the virus, Dennis told the Observer, despite it being a routine and inex- pensive test. “He came in and his little eyes were so beautiful. He was a chubby little guy, a com- munity cat. … He’d been TNR’d, so he was just living his life,” Dennis said. “He had the sad misfortune of being picked up by [Ar- lington Animal Services.]” A spokesperson for Arlington Animal Services told the Observer that Otto was not tested for FIV because he did not present any symptoms of illness during a 10-day quarantine period that began after the cat entered the shelter and ended July 18. Dur- ing that time, staff conducted “twice daily observations.” By July 19, Otto had devel- oped “crust around the eyes” and lethargy, the spokesperson said, and a rescue organi- zation was contacted to pick him up. Dennis collected Otto from the shelter on July 19, and photos shared with the Ob- server show his eyes were caked with gunk. Additionally, Dennis said he was breathing heavily out of his mouth and he would not eat food. The next day, a veterinarian ad- vised Dennis that putting the cat down was the best course of action, after which she turned to the shelter for answers. In communications shared with the Ob- server, a shelter representative told Dennis there was no record of Otto ever being taken in or adopted out. “I would love to help provide accurate and transparent information, but we do not believe this cat was ever in our care,” the employee told Dennis, who responded by sharing the cat’s adoption paperwork. Later, the animal shelter’s facebook ac- count posted they were “investigating the sit- uation surrounding” Otto’s illness, and shared Dennis’ concerns. (The shelter repre- sentative also told Dennis the kitten pictured with a hurt eye is receiving treatment pre- scribed by a veterinarian who is contracted by the shelter to work several days a week.) The spokesperson said that respiratory illnesses like the one Otto was diagnosed with are “not uncommon” in large shelters. “Staff asked a veterinarian to check the animals in the shelter, and the veterinarian was able to confirm that appropriate hy- giene and assessment protocols were in practice,” the spokesperson said. A Trend of Turnouts Debbie McClendon volunteered with the Arlington Animal Shelter for 11 years, during which time she prided herself on her care for cats. In 2013, she petitioned the Arling- ton City Council to approve a TNR program, which promotes the trapping of feral cats so they can be neutered before being returned to where they were found. In recent years, though, the shelter has shifted from the practices she remembers being standard during her time as a volunteer. Last summer, the rescue McClendon is a part of, Buddies Place Cat Rescue, was made aware of a mother and four kittens who had been brought into the shelter as part of the TNR program. While the mother cat was fe- ral, the four kittens had “barely opened their eyes,” and were friendly and adoptable, Mc- Clendon said. Once they were large enough to be neutered, though, the shelter returned the kittens to the streets. “It had been 42 days in an air-conditioned environment where they were given food and water by this shelter every day. They had never had to hunt for food before because they were nursing babies when they came in,” McClendon said. “So they spayed them on the 26th of June. On the 27th of June, they released them. It was 106 degrees that day.” When McClendon and other members of Buddies Place asked the shelter where the kittens had been dropped, they were given three different locations. The shelter said the kittens were released because they were feral, but after the rescue located the kittens a day later, McClendon noted their docile nature. She pulled the kittens out of a gutter and, after nursing them for several more weeks, was able to adopt them out in pairs. A shelter spokesperson told the Observer the kittens were released after displaying “highly stressed” and “unsocialized” behav- ior, which were deemed feral behaviors by veterinary staff. The shelter’s policy of re- leasing kittens one day after neuter surgery is in line with the protocols at a majority of 40 shelters surveyed by the Arlington veteri- nary staff, the shelter said. Because temperament assessments are done in the shelter where animals often ex- hibit symptoms of stress, “it is possible” the kittens later displayed friendlier traits, the shelter added. “At the time that these kittens were re- leased, Arlington Animal Services had 55 to- tal kittens, with 30 of them awaiting rescue due to their age/behavior,” the spokesper- son said. “There simply was not room at the shelter to continue to keep these kittens. The Arlington Animal Services staff was faced with the decision to euthanize the kit- tens or release them.” What happened to “Debbie’s kittens” is a trend, says Lisa Allen, a cat rescuer who vol- unteered with the Arlington shelter for two years. Also last summer, Allen beseeched the shelter to share the location of five kittens who were neutered then released into the summer heat. Emails shared with the Ob- server show Allen’s “devastation” after being unable to find the two-pound cats; many of her emails went unanswered by shelter staff. “I emailed the shelter manager begging to know where they released them,” Allen told the Observer. “I got at least three differ- ent addresses and none of them were cor- rect. They sent me on a wild goose chase. I drove around multiple times a day for months looking for them.” The worst part of the experience, other than the fact that the kittens were never found, was that she was “unable to get any- one to care,” Allen said. A spokesperson for the shelter said cats receive regular veterinary care and are fed twice daily. Most recently, McClendon said her res- cue pulled five kittens and their mother from the Arlington shelter after noticing signs of illness. Three of the five kittens tested positive for ringworm, and their “eyes were almost matted shut with gunk.” “There’s a lot of neglect going on. I mean, it’s cruel,” McClendon said. “Kittens are dy- ing.” ▼ DRUGS NOT-SO-TOTAL RECALL MUSHROOM EDIBLES LINKED TO ILLNESS STILL ON DALLAS SHELVES. BY JACOB VAUGHN T wenty days after Diamond Shruumz mushroom edibles started making people sick and sending them to the hospital, the company behind the product initiated a voluntary recall. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that the recall hasn’t been too effective. The products are still showing up on retail shelves across the country, including in Dallas as of last week. The FDA could initiate a mandatory re- call, but it hasn’t. Before doing so, the agency must first give a company the opportunity to recall products voluntarily. A recall is neces- sary when the secretary of Health and Hu- man Services determines a product is adulterated or mislabeled. The only time the agency has mandated a recall was in 2018 when salmonella was found in kratom prod- ucts from a company called Triangle Pharm- anaturals. | UNFAIR PARK | Debbie McClendon Two of the kittens released by Arlington Animal Services that were found by McClendon and adopted out by Buddies Place Cat Rescue. >> p6
