Caring for feral cats at Hawthorne Racetrack outside Chicago
I heard this story on the noon news, and it made me very sad. Hawthorne is about a stone's throw away from where I grew up. There are stray and feral cats on the grounds and they hang around the barns. A woman who lives near the track goes each day to feed and keep an eye on them. The owner of the track has asked her to reduce the number of sites at which she feeds the cats, with the rationale that the food she puts out for the cats attracts rodents and other "critters" who could potentially transmit disease to the horses. I don't disagree with that. When you feed outdoor kitties around here, you feed the raccoons, the opossums, and even the occasional skunk. The problem I have with the situation is that the owner of the track is not allowing the woman a chance to try to safely trap the cats so they can either be taken to a shelter or relocated elsewhere. There are good rescue organizations in Chicago that could probably help her rescue these kitties and determine which of them are healthy, which need medical care, and which can be socialized and possibly rehomed. It would be good publicity for the track to show that they're doing right by the kitties.
I heard this on CBS radio reported by Mike Krauser, who also did the story about NUBS (No Unwanted BirdS). Here's his story http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/11/...or-feral-cats/
If you are into online petitions, here's one you can sign. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/153/1...-killing-cats/
Karen, I'm putting this in the Dog House because it involves a petition.
Thanks,
Elyse
CHICAGO AREA: Race Track Owner Denies Access to Colony Caretaker...40 Community Cats Starving to Death
Elyse posted about this yesterday in the Dog House (since there's a petition linked to it, but that's not in this post). Here's more.
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For the past seven years, Carrie Gobernatz has fed and cared for 40 feral cats at Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney, Illinois. That is, Carrie Gobernatz fed and cared for 40 cats on the backside of the racetrack up until a few days ago when the track’s security team informed the caregiver that she could only tend to the animals in two spots regardless of whether or not all of the cats could access the areas.
The racetrack’s owner, Tim Carey, told Gobernatz that he wanted all of the cats to be removed from his property even after he was made aware that tracks throughout the country have successful programs that allow volunteers to care for the community catsat their locations. Hawthorne Race Course’s backside manager, Tim Becker, apparently went one step further when he said he hates the felines at the racetrack, predicted that they’d all be eaten by coyotes and unmistakably asserted that he doesn’t give a damn about the cats.
When Gobernatz first started caring for the colonies of cats living on the backside of Hawthorne Race Course, she claims that two horseman at the facility told her that racetrack employees scooped up kittens from a horse stall and put them in the trash. Gobernatz further asserts that she rescued a cat from the track after receiving a call from a Hawthorne employee who said the animal was abandoned in one of the track’s rooms. Gobernatz says no one affiliated with the track bothered to investigate who was responsible for the animal.
Due to the now restricted areas that Gobernatz must confine herself to, some of the cats she’s been tending to for years are currently going without the food, water and medicine they need to survive. In a Facebook post, Gobernatz describes Cheeto's case as being exemplary of the suffering some of the cats are currently experiencing because of the decisions representatives of the Hawthorne Race Course have recently made.
Cheeto is a blind cat who needs to take Clavamox every day. When Gobernatz arrived at the racetrack earlier this week to transport Cheeto to Treehouse, a Chicago-based organization whose vet was willing to examine the cat, she was told not only that she wasn’t allowed to enter the area where Cheeto lives, but she was also not permitted to leave food or water for Cheeto and his brethren…and she was not allowed to give the Cheeto the medicine he needs to take every day.
Cheeto has now gone more than four days without food, water or medicine. And sadly, he is not the only cat living on the backside of Hawthorne Race Course who’s been going without the things cats need to survive.
Gobernatz needs help from the public to continue to provide help to the cats she’s been tending to for more than seven years. Please call or send emails to the Hawthorne Race Course employees identified below. Please do the same with the elected officials and racetrack industry contacts that are also identified below.
Only we, concerned citizens, can help Gobernatz to right the wrong that is currently being enforced by Hawthorne Race Course.
Hawthorne Race Course
3501 S Laramie Avenue
Stickney/Cicero, IL 60804
708-780-3700
Tim Carey, Owner & President of Hawthorne Race Course:[email protected]
Christina Vitone, Assistant to Tim Carey: [email protected]
John Walsh, Assistant General Manager of Hawthorne Race Course:[email protected]
Jeffrey Kras, Chief Financial Officer of HRC: [email protected]
Dennis Taylor, Director of Security of HRC: [email protected]
Rhonda Sosnowski, Marketing Manager of HRC: [email protected]
Jack Carey, Director of Food and Beverage of HRC:[email protected]
Stickney Police Department: 708-788-2131
Deborah Morelli, Mayor’s Office: 708-749-4400
Department of Agriculture: 217-782-6657
Governor Quinn
Office of the Governor
James R. Thompson Center
100 W. Randolph, 16-100
Chicago, IL 60601
312-814-2121
The Jockey Club
40 East 52nd Street
New York, NY 10022
212-371-5970
llinois Racing Board: https://www.facebook.com/ILRacingBoard