Tiger Ranch... not good news

http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworl...,4118519.story
themorningcall.com
Hundreds of sick, dying cats found in western Pa. shelter

By Dan Nephin

Of The Associated Press

March 15, 2008

Hundreds of sick and dying cats were retrieved Friday from a western Pennsylvania animal sanctuary after an undercover investigation by a former humane officer said it had become a ''slow-kill shelter.''

Humane officials and volunteers said it could take at least until today to remove all the animals from the secluded 29-acre property known as Tiger Ranch Farm, about 20 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

Six hundred to 700 cats were on the property and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dead ones were believed buried on the land, said Howard Nelson, director of the Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which organized the raid.

''It's billed as a sanctuary, but no one person can take care of 750 cats,'' he said.

Owner Linda Bruno apparently meant well, but lost track of the needs of the animals she had hoarded for years, Nelson said.

''I found her to be in denial of the condition of the cats,'' he said.

Bruno, also known as Linn Marie, 45, was arraigned Friday on 13 counts of animal cruelty and neglect, but more charges were expected as subsequent cases were documented, Nelson said. It was not immediately clear if she had an attorney. She was being held in the Allegheny County Jail, unable to post $50,000 bond.

Animal control agents and sheriff's deputies arrived about 7 p.m. Thursday. By midday Friday, at least a dozen cats had been euthanized and more than 400 had to be medicated due to contagious diseases, officials said.

The SPCA got a search warrant after a seven-month undercover investigation in which Deborah Urmann, a former humane officer from Butler County who worked for Bruno once a week as a volunteer, recorded the operations using a button camera purchased over the Internet.

''She claims she's a no-kill shelter, but really she's a slow-kill shelter,'' Urmann said.

Urmann compiled up to 11/2 hours of video of the conditions in the fall.

Nelson said the animals were found in various places and conditions all over the property. Besides the hundreds of cats, Bruno had several dogs, several horses, a chicken and a goat.

Jenn, I started a thread in the Dog House about this. So sad.

In case people haven't seen it or don't go to the Dog House, here is an update:

Permission to cross-post:

The Best Friends network has started a forum for people trying to
retrieve or rescue cats from Tiger Ranch. Go to
http://tinyurl. com/2orwag

Jenn, this is so sad.:( Was this one of the places where you were trying to place Ally? If so I'm so glad that she wasn't accepted here.

About two years ago I had some cats that I sent to Tiger Ranch. After talking to the owner Lin Marie, I thought they would have a better life so I let them go. Now I believe they may have been some of the cats buried at Tiger Ranch. Only two weeks ago I was getting ready to send some more cats to Tiger Ranch. I am so glad I am a procrasternator. They are still safe with me. This is a terrible blow to our communities. Many people and cats have depended on Tiger Ranch to help them out. My heart also goes out to Lin Marie because I believe that she was trying to do a good thing, but it got out of control for her. I also believe that the community should have helped her financially. I am having a problem with too many cats myself. I have searched the internet, called everyone in town for help, and prayed that someone could help me and the cats. No one cares about cats. That is what is sooooooooo sad. My neighbors had four abandoned kittens in their yard. I begged them to let me get them out of their backyard and find homes for them before they were too old. They hate cats. They refused, and now three adult cats live at my house, plus the cats I already had, plus a brand new batch of six, three week old kittens. I was going to take them to Tiger Ranch. I have no clue what I am going to do because I am trying to keep clothes and food in the house for my five small children.They need spayed and neutered to prevent any more cats coming into this world. I am so scared that I am going to be the next house on the news and there is not a darn thing I can do because the vets make you get shots before you can spay and neurter your cat. I don't have an extra 300, 400, 600, or 1000 dollars to help the cats. If there is anyone who can help me through this dilema, please contact me. I need cats spayed, neurted, and worms and fleas. I need homes for kittens. It is only a matter of time before my four female cats have kittens. I saw the lady on the news last night and she had hundreds of cats. I need to stop my problem now before it is too late. I realize this. My problems all started when I tried to help homeless cats because they were scared, alone, and starving. Please anyone can you help me. I do not want to be a Tiger Ranch fatality. Rebecca

I was just talking with another shelter person tonight (Furry Feet Rescue), and she and her husband were telling me how the kill shelter in Easton had sent HUNDREDS of cats to that "sanctuary".

It is very possible that you qualify for S/N for free due to limited income issues & you just might be able to receive food for them, also.

Please try contacting the following:

http://www.neuterspay.org/cgi-bin/webdata_pro.pl
http://www.alleycat.org/contact.html
http://www.lovethatcat.com/spayneuter.html

Please keep in mind that the situation you are describing will not get better without spaying & neutering.

Rebecca,
I think you are doing a great thing and I think you are doin fine as long as you only have what you think you can handle physically, financially, and emotionally. Tiger ranch is a sad story and there are many people who are still supporting her. I too referred many people to her and use to help her at one point. I hope the best comes out of this and I hope Lynn is ok...she is very down right now, probably at her worst. I blame the vets for high pricing, the government for lack of funding, the public for not spaying and neutering, and the larger shelters and clinics for not stepping up their game to do what Lynn had done. Yes, it did get out of control, but the burden was on her to take in animals that the general public would have not have taken care of. What makes me mad is all the local shelters in our area all referred people to her....she someone that everyone else passed the buck to so they didn't have to take care of their problems themselves. I think some people on the news and so forth should give her some credit and the situation should have been handled differently. She should have been offered help financially and with problem solving rather than spyed on, hand cuffed and now she will never be allowed to have a pet of her own. No one talked to her as a person and said "Hey, were concerned and we have other ideas that might be better at handling your situation." People love drama...ya know. And yes, she probably has some issues going on herself now where she just couldn't do it anymore...I think I would to if I had 300+ cats to care for myself. All we can do now is pray for the animals, for our community, and for Lynn and hope that everyone around the U.S. learns from this situation.
Rebecca, if you call different vets and get a quote on multiple pet visit, they give discounts for seeing multiple pets at once. Also, look around your house for every penny and nickel and start rolling them...find anything in your house that you don't need and list it on Ebay...pick up an under the table job helping a local shelter or kennel for one day a week and save that money...you'll eventually get enough to atleast get some of them fixed. Hope this helps.
God Bless

This is a partial copy of an e-mail I sent out:

You want to know what I am amazed at?

How many times I read these discussions about people that do "rescue" & usually NOT one person on the forum has committed any true time to the place being discussed/bashed/ or commended.

I am even more truly amazed as to why I keep wondering about it?

Have you ever wondered about that?

Remember this one?

http://news.bestfriends.org/index.cf...307A371F47F219


*******
It's a sad state **** when no one will help seeing that someone is overwhelmed... I do NOT believe Lin Marie is or was a bad person as I do NOT believe Sara Whalen was, either...

Even **** ******* of **** couldn't wait to send out releases about what they saw there, as many others did also, but when she was alive fighting cancer for 2 years people kept dumping animals on her.

Something like this happening is on a much different level then this:
http://www.pet-abuse.com/cases/10948/OH/US/
Or This:
http://www.pet-abuse.com/cases/32/WI/US/

I really hope & pray the truth comes out & I am quite concerned if Linn Marie is out of jail & pray to God she isn't left alone... I worry...

No doubt she's rec'd 1,000's of e-mails, hate phone calls & who knows what vigilante has shown up to say something to put her over the edge... brings tears to my eyes wondering how she is doing.

& why people are now aiming their misguided anger at ***... when 9 other states,was it?, were sending there also...

Read on another forum that a kill shelter from Easton, PA sent felines there continually!

***
There aren't any easy answers to any of this but there might be future preventions...

Please take the time to get involved to "help" on a regular committed basis...

Rescue is hard work! Physically, financially, emotionally & spiritually rescue can be draining when there are more "arm chair rescuers" then there are soldiers in the trenches.

Please become physically involved on a regular basis somewhere, today.

Being committed to a certain time frame for volunteering might just help to run a place like a well oiled machine.

Now to those of you who are wondering do I "know" Lin Marie(?)....

The answer is "no"... I live much too far away from her as I did from Sara Whalen... for the record neither place have I ever sent an animal to.

Am I rescue? Yes... had I known about all of the places that needed help before I decided to start my own rescue I would never have started my own...

You ask "Why"?:

There's no need for it as I have seen through the years but there is an over abundance of need in places that already exist...

Please help us to continue our work in the "trenches" by helping us on a physical level.

Thank You

I just want you to know that there are many people out in the trenches working hard to help; you just don't hear about us, which is unfortunate (apparently we're not getting the word out as well as we'd like).

My personal focus is spay/neuter. I helped create several programs to assist bringing low-cost spay/neuter to my community (south-western Indiana). Last year, a few of my peers and I created a new local program offering free spay/neuter to dogs & cats belonging to local residents on welfare/medicaid. We try to advertise, posting fliers and handouts at low-income haunts and resource locations, listing information in newspapers, radio/tv, and even on buses. I transport animals to and from the homes to the vets to spay/neuter them. I also liase between owners and our local "kill" shelter to accept unwanted litters as long as the owners will allow us to spay and vaccinate the mother and babies for free. I even bribe some to allow us to s/n and vaccinate their pets for free by offering them free food, collars, straw for shelters, and even shelters. The result is that a few thousand animals have been spayed/neutered as a result of these programs, and several hoarders have been assisted and a few have even maintained a reasonable number of pets since we helped them.

Many of the cats and litters I helped get spayed/neutered and vaccinated were originally strays taken in by kind-hearted, low-income people. They usually didn't find out about us until the strays had bred a few litters and they realized they were completely overwhelmed and sought help. There have been dozens of these situations where I found these people sharing table scraps with 20-30 cats, several pregnant or nursing new litters, many sick and parasite-infested. I would hook them up with pet food, get the cats veterinary care, and they would care for them until they were healthy, spayed/vaccinated, and adoptable. Then I would work with the shelter for the animals to be relinquished when the shelter could take them.

Since there are WAY, WAY too many cats in our community and plenty "free to a good home" all over the place, we must export to rescues out-of-state. Tiger Ranch agreed to take (unsure: I believe about 20?) cats/kittens from us every six weeks. The ones I would send were usually healthy, socialized, spayed/neutered, and vaccinated, so they were adoptable.

It will take years for our spay/neuter efforts to be significant enough to be felt at the local shelters. The overpopulation is that much out of control. Everyone I know has a house full of animals (owned or fostered), or is active in some aspect of animal welfare work. I focus on spay/neuter rather than rescue since rescue will never improve until the numbers become reasonable.

I drive transports from my local shelter to rescues, and sometimes volunteer to drive a leg of other rescue transports. I foster for the shelter occasionally. I maintain a spay/neuter website (although I'm about two months behind on it). My home phone number was posted everywhere for the past two years, until we could no longer afford a phone. I still spend money I don't have on gas to get animals to the vet to be spayed/neutered or from homes that rescued strays off the street to the shelter. I have a stash of crates in my garage that are constantly used and sanitized. I'm on call for all sorts of emergencies and events. I'm on the board of a local animal welfare coalition, and I attend as many public meetings as I possibly can regarding local animal welfare groups or issues.

I'm not saying this to brag. I just want you to know that there is an army of volunteers just like me who work away, often behind the scenes, who don't spend much time posting online what we do. Yes, there is definitely a need for more volunteers. Yes, there are way too many people who are eager to make helpful suggestions yet few who are willing to take action or do the work involved. But you are definitely not alone, and rescue is not the only worthwhile activity helping animals.

Please don't think I'm scolding or preaching. I hope I'm not sounding harsh; that's not my intent. I know how discouraging it can be to participate in forums where there are many well-intended contributors and few actual volunteers. I sincerely thank you for helping strays. I'll keep trying to stem the tide by making s/n services available to everyone so there will be fewer of them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Reliable

You want to know what I am amazed at?

How many times I read these discussions about people that do "rescue" & usually NOT one person on the forum has committed any true time to the place being discussed/bashed/ or commended.

---

Many of us on this board do rescue in our own neighborhoods and counties. Many in rescue are doing rescue for their neighborhood and towns, which is how it should be. There are those who may be able to do rescue in different states or across the country, which is very commendable.

While assumptions should not be made about other rescues, there are times when you see that intentions that were meant to be good, ended up causing more harm than good (as in Tiger Ranch). Just because a person has not committed time to the rescue that is having a problem (due to location, time or other valid reason), does not mean one cannot have an opinion about the state of that rescue.

The more that the facts have come out about Tiger Ranch, the sadder it has become. While I do not think the woman running it is a "bad" person, she really needed to get more help in order to truly help those animals.

I can see both of your sides...and I hope this situation really helps with more programs and awareness. spayneuter...I think what youre doin is awesome! Keep it up! I think this situation will bring about a lot of debate on both sides in the public...which is good. I think it's time that it be discussed from everyone...rich, poor, rescuers, or politicians...it's time to try to get it under control. Lynn is very nice and didn't have enough help. The undercover video has just come out....www.wtae.com or www.kdka.com. Warning...some of it is hard to see. What I didn't understand...but because it's been so long since I helped her, I don't want to judge...why were the sick and dying animals still with the one's that looked healthy? Also, I can see her point on euthanasia, but not sure if I agree on it. Yes, she's right...we do not put down our people when they have AIDS or Herpes and so forth. But, I do agree with euthanasia when it's time, thats just my personal feeling because I hate to watch animals be sick. But, some of the video, people may not understand the signs of Herpes and FIV and when they see the video, they're going to think it's harsh, but Herpes and FIV is not necessarily fatal right away. They still have time, but they should be kept seperate from other cats. I'm curious, what does everyone else think about euthanasia?
Also, just wanted to let ya know...you have all come up with some really good ideas and sources for spay/neuter. When I come across people who need help, or I find a stray litter of kittens, I will refer to this site. Thanks.
God Bless you all for your help and the cats that have survived.

I found this on another board.


Videos from March 2008 and October 2007:

Tiger Ranch Owner Says Sick Cats Planted Before Raid
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/...67/detail.html