HELP & ADVICE NEEDED!!! Neglected Persians kept in filthy house

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Anna1502
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HELP & ADVICE NEEDED!!! Neglected Persians kept in filthy house

Post by Anna1502 »

Hi.

I am in need of advice here.
I do occasional cat sitting through the Cat in a Flat website.
A lady has been contacting me over the past week requesting very last minute cat sitting for her 3 cats in her house. She has been in and out of hospital and said she is currently in hospital now after having had an operation and being in intensive care and on crutches.
I agreed to go over to her house and take the key from her sister who is also her next door neighbour.
When I met her sister outside, she warned me that the house stank and that I may not be able to manage to cope inside because of the smell and mess and also said that she had told her sister repeatedly to give the cats up because she can’t look after them but her sister doesn’t listen.
I walked in the front door and to my horror, there was cat poo everywhere, some on the hallway floor which I stepped on when I walked in and there were literally piles of poo heaped on the living room floor with just one litter box with heaps of poo in it.
I saw 3 Persian cats, one white one who was friendly but the others were scared and ran away.
In the kitchen, I saw water in two bowls and dry food left down in two or three bowls with pouches of whiskas and torn bags of dry food around.
The place had such a bad stench and with all the poo piled up on the floor, I could not clean it up and I had to consider the place a serious health hazard not only to the 3 cats inside but also to myself.
All the cats' fur looked matted and they all appeared quite subdued.
This cannot be suitable or habitable conditions for any pet, surely?
I called the RSPCA while I was there and reported the condition of the dwelling and the state of the 3 cats and gave the address of the house and the operator took it down but said at the end that it’s not known what will happen to the matter or whether an inspector will even come over to visit the place and the cats.
Apparently according the owner's sister next door, she doesn’t come to the house often and the sister said that she had reported the matter to the RSPCA 5 times but the RSPCA are not doing anything about it.
The sister feels really sorry for the cats and thinks the cats will end up dying there.
The cats need to be checked over and taken out of that place. It’s a pure hell hole.
I believe that the owner requests cat sitters to come over to feed the cats but when they come, no one can stand to be in that foul smelling disgusting filthy place for more than 5 minutes so they don’t agree to do any more than one day.

My heart goes out for the cats.
What else can be done for them, especially if the RSPCA won’t come out to inspect or investigate?
I for one, will not be able to go back there after tomorrow because of the unsanitary and extremely unhygienic conditions in the house and I’m scared in case I pass on anything harmful to my own cat at home.

The RSPCA are useless f****rs!!!!!!
What are they good for?
5 times the sister has called them to report on this and according to her, they are doing NOTHING!

Any other advice?
The property is in Hayes/Southall in Middlesex, West London.
Thanks.
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Lilith
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Re: HELP & ADVICE NEEDED!!! Neglected Persians kept in filthy house

Post by Lilith »

My god.

Yes, I agree, especially with the expletive.

What springs first to my mind is contacting the local council - I believe there used to be an 'Environmental Health Dept' but now it seems to come under the umbrella of the council. The place is certainly a health hazard - I'm amazed this woman's sister can live next door to it and do nothing. But of course the first priority is the cats. Could the sister be prevailed upon to act for the owner and give them up to a rescue or the CP? The CP can't walk in there and seize them, as far as I know.

It is of course almost kitten season and the rescues are filling up, but ...

Could the council be persuaded to put pressure on the RSPCA?

Well, those are my thoughts, just off the top of my head ... I hope other people can come up with more concrete advice.

Those poor cats ... Good luck and thank you for caring.
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Kay
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Re: HELP & ADVICE NEEDED!!! Neglected Persians kept in filthy house

Post by Kay »

just awful

might be worth contacting these people http://www.london-persian-rescue.co.uk/
Anna1502
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Re: HELP & ADVICE NEEDED!!! Neglected Persians kept in filthy house

Post by Anna1502 »

Hi,

Yes someone else advised me to contact the local council's environmental health dept to get advice if the RSPCA continue to drag their heels on this matter.
It was really quite distressing for me to witness what I did today.
I don’t want to go back there but I do so feel for the poor cats.
I think the owner's sister has to tread carefully as she gets a **** from her sister if she reports her. I can understand to an extent when it’s your own family member.
I have taken some photos of the mess and excrement on the floor with my phone and have decided to visit my local RSPCA clinic tomorrow and speak to one of their staff and show them the photos and tell them that someone from the cruelty and neglect helpline needs to come out to inspect the place.
I have a feeling though, knowing the **** at the RSPCA, that they will fob the duty back on me to call them and I will tell them that I already did log a call the day before and that I will be forced to contact the local council to report a health and safety hazard at the property and surrounding neighbourhood.
The place is a breeding ground for disease.
The staff at the RSPCA really need a kicking in the teeth!!! :evil:
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Re: HELP & ADVICE NEEDED!!! Neglected Persians kept in filthy house

Post by MiddleEarthNet »

I am shocked at what is being described.

Could contacting the Cats Protection help? I don’t know if they can put pressure on the RSPCA on your behalf. But they possibly have inside contacts.
Anna1502
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Re: HELP & ADVICE NEEDED!!! Neglected Persians kept in filthy house

Post by Anna1502 »

Well thanks to Kay for the link to the Persian Cat Rescue.
The whole saga cut a bit short is below....
I spoke to a nice lady who runs the charity who took the matter very seriously and said that she could come to take the 3 cats on Friday as long as the sister next door could sign the cats over to her.
If the sister didn’t agree then plan B would be for her to chase the area manager from the RSPCA as she works alongside the RSPCA and get one of their officers to come over.
I went to the house again on Wednesday evening and spoke to the sister of the owner over the phone and told her that I showed photos of the filth and squalor and state of the cats to the RSPCA clinic and that they said that this is an animal neglect case and that her sister could be taken to court for animal cruelty and neglect and would she sign the cats over to the London Persian Rescue. Now this was a lie but was the advice from the lady from the Persian Rescue gave me because a lot of the times, these threats do work.
Unfortunately the sister refused citing that her ill sister would go absolutely mental if she found out that she had signed over her cats away and that there was too much family drama.
The only other option she suggested was to contact the owner's daughter who lives in Wimbledon and used to live with her mother in the house some years before as she may agree to sign the cats over.
I got hold of this daughter and explained the situation although she was extremely defensive of the family tension and issues but did say that although her mother loves the cats, she doesn’t realise that she is just too ill to look after them and that she also had contacted the RSPCA twice but nothing had been done.
Anyway to cut a very long story short, the daughter negotiated that she was willing to sign over the white Persian to the Persian Rescue charity because that one sheds a lot of hair and that she would take the other two grey ones back home with her to Wimbledon and give them to a friend of hers who has cats and is looking for more.
I advised the lady at the LPR of this but she wasn’t that happy but after allowing the daughter to speak directly to the lady from the rescue charity they came to an agreement that the daughter would come over to the mother's house on Frida6 evening to take all 3 cats and then on Saturday morning, the daughter has arranged to meet the lady from Persian Rescue outside a South London station to hand over the white Persian Cat.

This evening I went over to the house but didn’t go in and waited in my car for the daughter to arrive and when she did, I witnessed her take the 3 cats out of the house in cardboard carriers with the food from the kitchen and put them in the boot of an uncle's car and drive away.
Let’s now hope that at least the white Persian if handed over to the lady at the LPR will get a good check over at a vet and can be rehomed to a nice place.
As for the other two, I can only hope that don’t end up going back to the mother's hell hole of a den.

I gave the mother's house key back to the sister's house next door and texted the mother in hospital to say I could no longer do the cat sitting.

Hope I never have to deal with such an ordeal again...... :!:
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Kay
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Re: HELP & ADVICE NEEDED!!! Neglected Persians kept in filthy house

Post by Kay »

I'm so glad those cats are out of that awful place

and it's good to know a specialist rescue came up trumps - I used to belong to the Russian Blue Club and know the members move heaven and earth when it comes to rescue, but of course they deal with far far fewer numbers than general rescues

sad that the super rich RSPCA once again fails to do even a modicum of what their no doubt expensive TV ads promise the gullible public, but great kudos to you who have saved these cats when it was not your job to do so
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Re: HELP & ADVICE NEEDED!!! Neglected Persians kept in filthy house

Post by booktigger »

Actually Kay, you might be shocked at what pedigree rescues deal with - I used one years ago for a manx we were struggling with, they helped around 400 a year, compared to our 100, partly because they helped more multi cat households.
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Re: HELP & ADVICE NEEDED!!! Neglected Persians kept in filthy house

Post by Lilith »

Wow, congrats, Anna :D

But what peculiar people! I hope the handover goes ok and that you hear the white cat's safe - and that the other two find a good home too - please keep us updated if you hear anything.

Yes, you'd think pedigree rescues would be a mild affair compared with what goes on in moggie rescue, but sadly, not so. When I was in the Northern Siamese Club I often heard some sad tales ... 'owners' who should never have taken on an earthworm, never mind a lively and sensitive breed of cat, and I can imagine longhair rescue is just as bad if not worse, as Persians tend to attract that certain kind of people who go for glamour and fail to understand the need for daily grooming, as well as the fact that inside that bundle of fluff there is a CAT.

Do hope that these three have now fallen on their paws.
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Re: HELP & ADVICE NEEDED!!! Neglected Persians kept in filthy house

Post by Sniper1 »

I have just thoroughly read this post and in over 30 years in rescue this kind of situation and much worse is no stranger to me but what appalls me is that no one has mentioned the person with failing health who obviously needs help not just blame its a disgrace that anyone known to live that way is not helped the involvement of various bodies would have sorted the situation for person and cats age's ago housing, social services for eg its a sad world that cannot care equally for human and animal welfare
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Re: HELP & ADVICE NEEDED!!! Neglected Persians kept in filthy house

Post by Lilith »

Hi, Sniper, on re-reading the original post my impression still is that the owner IS receiving care and treatment for her disabilities, but lives elsewhere and has apparently abandoned these cats, apart from calling in sitters now and again who, like the OP, are faced with more than they'd bargained for and can deal with. Also this owner seems to be bullying her family if they attempt to get help for the cats and, judging by their behaviour, they seem scared of her.

If that owner was still living there and attempting to care for the cats I too would feel compassionate towards her. More than compassionate.

But in these circumstances I maintain that the cats come first, and I hope that now, thanks to the OP, they're being cared for as they should be.
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