Tiger Ranch (A Cat Santuary) In Pennsylvania Raided For Neglet On Cats

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I was really shocked when I heard this story just now. One of the more famous, well-known pet rescue sanctuaries for cats, known as Tiger Ranch in Pennsylvania was raided on this past Thursday after a seven month investigation of the horrific conditions that existed there. This is a real blow to pet rescuers from many states surrounding the PA area as many had relied on Tiger Ranch to place unwanted cats there...many rescuers had great faith in the owner who claimed that any cat placed at her sanctuary would get the best care going. In fact, I belong to Feral_Cat News, a Yahoo group that often did have dealings with this sanctuary thinking that any cat that went there would have the best of care...what a friggin let down! Here's the entire article (Quote) PITTSBURGH: Animal rescue workers were seeking donations of animal carriers and other supplies to help hundreds of cats rescued from a facility where they had been living in squalid conditions. Officials discovered 600 to 700 cats — many sick and dying — during a raid Thursday at the secluded 29-acre (11.74-hectare) property known as Tiger Ranch. Thousands more are believed to be buried at the site in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Pittsburgh. Some 406 "very sick" cats were being treated Sunday at a temporary animal hospital, said Howard Nelson, director of the Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which organized the raid. Fifty cats have died since the raid, either because they had to be euthanized or from their illnesses, he said. Fifteen were euthanized at the scene and 105 dead cats were found in freezers, Nelson said. Roughly 100 cats remain on the property and have not yet been captured, he said. The sanctuary's owner, Linda Bruno, also known as Linn Marie, 45, was arraigned Friday on 13 counts of animal cruelty and neglect. She was being held at a county jail. It was not immediately known if she had a lawyer. The raid followed a seven-month investigation in which a former humane officer used a hidden camera to record conditions at the facility, where she volunteered. In a statement, the PSPCA requested donations of newspaper and pet carriers — including rabbit-size carriers and medium-size dog crates — for housing the surviving cats. It asked that donations be dropped off at the Clarion County Humane Society in Shippenville, Pennsylvania. Investigators said the cats were living in filthy conditions in multiple buildings, including one crammed with scores of cats huddled around a portable heater with no clean water and a single food bowl. Animal-rescue groups from several states often turned to the Tiger Ranch, which promised lifetime care for unwanted cats that likely would have been euthanized in overcrowded shelters. As news of the raid spread, horrified rescue groups flooded the SPCA with e-mails and posted frantic notes on Internet message boards wondering what had happened to their animals and how to get them back. "Many, many cats from Georgia went to Tiger Ranch," said Pat Dasenbrock, who works with cat-rescue groups in Atlanta. "A driver took cats by the van load — 50 or 60 of them there — twice a month." They traveled the 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) to Pittsburgh because many adoptable shelter cats in Georgia end up in gas chambers, generally regarded as an inhumane method of euthanizing animals, she said. "We felt so good about Linda," she said. "She told us she adopted 100 cats a weekend and that there was a long list of people waiting to adopt cats up there."..." Here's the article link http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/17/america/NA-GEN-US-Animal-Sanctuary-Raid.php Here are other articles related to this http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_557525.html http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/news_breaking/20080315_SPCA_tries_saving_Pittsburgh_shelters_cats.html I think what shocked me...many people here who know of my story of the cat population problem I had that was created by my mother...when I was searching for places to place my cats, many people especially rescuers suggested contacting Tiger Ranch since they trusted the owner....this isn't the first "sanctuary" that was closed down that was one that was recommended to me...there was another in the Comfort,Texas area called "Wild Cat Ranch" that was also later closed down for the same reasons as Tiger Ranch..the REAL eerie part was that I was personally in contact with the owner of Wild Cat Ranch who very charmingly tried to persuade me to send my cats to her...and she charged a fortune for her services, something like $1,000 a year per cat--of course since I didn't have money like that, I declined...but just imagine if I had, had the money and did send my cats there then heard of her place being closed down and the cats seized...she supposedly separated the sick cats (with feline leukemia) from the healthy, which wasn't the case Okay I can see pet rescuers trying to shelter unwanted pets and many do a great, fantastic job of it, but many have pets in their care that are of a reasonable number.....then you come across stories like this, where well meaning rescuers have pets by the hundreds---and I can't help thinking are they REALLY helping or are they just glorified pet hoarders in the guise of being rescuers....in any case this really is a blow to reputable rescuers