Reporting Animal Cruelty: What You Can Do

Visiting this blog and others like it means that you care deeply about the welfare of not only feral cats, but domesticated animals in general. As much as you educating yourself and taking action helps so many, there are other people who are careless and ignorant when it comes to interacting with animals. Alley Cat Allies is an organization that works in communities to champion low-cost spay and neuter policies and programs, as well as lifesaving Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) and Shelter-Neuter-Return (SNR). They also specialize in areas like veterinary outreach, disaster response and legal advice regarding cats. Alley Cat Allies has hit many hot button topics in the feral cat arena. One issue that they covered back in 2018 that I believe is particularly salient was how to navigate animal cruelty perpetrators in one's own community.

In their article "Animal Cruelty Suspects Must be Prosecuted to Protect Communities" published in October of 2018, they outline an unfortunate case of animal cruelty that unraveled in Taylor, PA, angering much of the community. Taylor is home to a feral cat colony that one landlord saw as a nuisance rather than a part of her town. Alley Cat Allies reported that,

Landlord Jennifer Oustrich allegedly poisoned at least two feral (also called community) cats at the property she owns and rents out in Taylor, Pennsylvania, just outside Scranton. When she allegedly killed the cats, she also tainted the values of her community. 

Oustrich was reportedly angry about the community cats getting into the garbage of her tenants, and had vented to neighbors of her intent to poison the cats. Necropsy reports, administered by local police with assistance from Cornell University’s Veterinary Medical Center, revealed that industrial rat poison mixed with dog food was set out for the cats, which slowly and painfully killed two cats, and possibly more.

Oustrich had many options available to her instead of being inhumane to living animals. Something as simple as providing her tenants with animal proof garbage cans would have prevented the suffering of these animals. Thanks to Governor Tom Wolf's Libre's Law put into effect in June of 2017 increasing penalties for animal abuse, Oustrich was arrested on two felony charges of aggravated assault, as well as six other criminal counts.

Alley Cat Allies left us with this call to action,

Alley Cat Allies urges the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office to prosecute this case to the full extent of the law.  We must ask every state to prosecute abusers so they can never maim, starve, poison, or kill our animals or our justice systems again. It’s what the animals deserve.

If you witness or hear about any possible case of animal cruelty, please contact your local authorities or the Department of Agriculture. I've linked two resources to read up on what your state's animal cruelty laws are so that you know what to demand of your local authorities for the sake of any abused or neglected animal.

Animal Cruelty Laws State by State
The Humane Society of the United States' State Animal Cruelty Chart