Cats Rescued From Hoarder Looking For a New Home

“Miraculous” is how staff member Judy Deaquair describes the recovery of Mittens, one of the 60 cats recovered from what animal professionals describe as a “hoarder.”

 “They were all in good health, which often that is not the case,” said Denise Deisler, executive director of the Humane Society.

Mittens is a black, short-haired cat who occupies one of the many cat condos at the Society’s rambling headquarters at 2515 14th St. W. in downtown Bradenton. Several of the cages are draped with towels, providing privacy for the cats still distressed from the move out of their home. The majority of the cats recovered in this operation are black and short-haired. All are looking for homes.

Rescuing cats and dogs who have been hoarded is only one of the many tasks the Humane Society works on to make this a better world for man’s best friend.

A major success has been the spay/neuter program, which is working on minimizing the feral (living in the wild) cats around the county and assisting families who wouldn’t normally consider or could afford having their animals spayed or neutered.

“These are high-volume, high-quality and low-cost surgeries,” Deisler said. “We attended national training at the Humane Alliance in Ashville (N.C.), which is the gold standard for these procedures. Last year we performed 6,000 surgeries in Manatee County. We are seeing the impact as the number of animals being euthanized is dropping. Not only did fewer cats and dogs enter the county facility, 931 fewer dogs and cats were euthanized.”

Thanks to PetSmart Charities, a limited number of free and low cost spay/neuter services are available for residents in certain zip codes areas. These must be “owned” cats, not feral cats. Call 941-747-8808, ext. 302, or e-mail clinic@humanesocietymanatee.org.