Argh! This reminds me of a bad experience at Northeast Animal Shelter (Salem, MA) this past summer.
I went with my friend that does heavy duty rescue work (rescue, foster, vaccinates, fluids etc) to Northeast Animal Shelter, a place we hate to go to because the women running it are so mean. But the Animal Rescue League- Salem branch closed in May so we are stuck with no help... (we had made friends with the staff at ARL to the point that they'd call us if someone wasn't doing well so we could come get them, do the medication and return later- all very hush-hush-don't tell!)
Anyway, we brought 4 kittens to Northeast, one was black and the fur on the tips of his ears was thin, so Angela (Northeast staff) grabbed him and said "Looks like ringworm!" We assured her that there has been no ringworm in the house and besides, why would one kitten have it and not the siblings and mother? Well, Angela was indignant, "It looks like ringworm so we'll have to put him under the light first and then let you know". And, AMAZINGLY enough, this woman who was convinced the kitten had ringworm, hugged the kitten into her long hair going in the exam room AND coming out. So, if you think a kitten has ringworm , why would you put him in your hair? She's a control bitch.
And so to continue, Angela checked over the other 2 or 3 kittens we'd brought in, she was handling them like they were evil, diseased infested rodents which pissed me off, so me and Angela got into a verbal fight (because I called her on her ringworm call which was neg. in the black light or ultravioletlight or whatever it is) so I told her she was "looking for a problem and who makes the rules here anyway, where is the owner, what the **** is going on here?" and I walked out (cuz my friend told me I should, I was too pissed and yelling in front of "customers"), but my friend stayed to see if they'd take the babies. But apperently, Angela told her that because of me, she wouldn't take my friend Jan's kittens.
Well, we know the REAL reason. They had plenty of kittens and didn't want anymore!
We drove to a shelter in Peabody and begged and pleaded, Even though they had no room, the manager tolok the babies till the shelter had room for them.
Tonight, I found out that Northeast has been calling some of the rescue people in this area to see if they have kittens (********- ok-be picking and create new rules when it's kitten season then call us when you need kittens...what a world we live in.)
Jan has a slew of kittens right now and we've seen a few preg. females in our area (chelseal, revere, east boston, lynn- all crappy areas). What to do with this magnitude!?
Well, we'll see, Jan has found someone to bring some kittens to Northeast in her behalf (since we're banned).
But there's more in Dorchester we need to get before they freeze! There's an alzhiemer's woman (I mean for real- she yelled at us last year that we are good for nothing teens that should get jobs (we're in our early 40s.) She's feeding a bunch of cats and kittens. the only warmth they have is under a car that's unused and under a carport, there's dry leaves under there that keeps them warmish.
I hadn't been over there in a year and made the mistake of checking on her house last week while in the area (I'm never in the area again cuz i changed job locations), So I walked around to the back of the house and saw probably 20 cans of cat food open up on a wooden table. Then, I crouched to look under the car that never moves under the carport. There were 3 cats huddled together and one was an orange emaciated-eyes-glued shut with illness huddled in there. Well, this was the beginning of a long project for us. I saw no kittens until I got in my car to leave and saw a funny white and black shape curled up inside the carport, against the house and not moving, I walked up to this and so quietly crept in case it was a kitten but questioned my eyes, (it looked like a rodent of some sort), The minute I realized it was a kitten, I scruffed it, it went nuts, nearly lost him but got a good grip and put him a sweatshirt i had in the car, and then in a canvas bag. Turns out he's a siamese and even though probably 12 weeks old is socialized already (7 days). Went back the next day, Jan butterfly netted 2 orange, 6 week old males- no other siblings evident.
So with all this going on....
The shelters are so picky- they'll only take cats from their town and small towns (like mine-Ipswich), ask what street, what address, etc, because they know the names of all the pets supposedly.