Via a little birdie, I found this story from the Richmond SPCA:
We learned early yesterday that WRLH, the local Fox affiliate located at 1925 Westmoreland Street in Richmond, had contracted a local pest control company to trap and kill stray and feral cats and kittens residing on and around the station’s property. This course of action was deeply troubling to us and I communicated to them our willingness to help manage and control the cat colony using non-lethal humane methods such as trap-neuter-return or relocation.[...]
I recommend clicking through to read the whole thing, including this afternoon’s update:
It has come to our attention that viewers calling Fox Richmond today have been told that the station has been actively “working with the Richmond SPCA” to resolve the situation regarding the colony of feral cats on and around the station’s property. The station is also claiming that they called the Richmond SPCA weeks ago and that they decided to bulldoze the cat habitat today in anticipation of our arrival, to make it easier for us to trap the cats.
These statements are completely untrue and we have asked that Fox Richmond and staff immediately cease making any such statements to the public.[...]
Wow, that’s awful. Sure, strays are a real problem—precisely the sort of problem the SPCA exists to address. For Fox to be this cruel and then be mendacious on top of it is just unconscionable. I certainly hope they resolve this situation with a bit more aplomb than they’ve shown so far.
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In case you’re wondering, Westmoreland St. is in the comfortable west end of RIC, not on some alley. That said, judging from her overly neat signature, the /blog poster/ could easily be some PETA wacko. They lie, provoke & exaggerate out of habit.
1: uh, her signature also indicates that she’s the CEO of the Richmond SPCA, but you know, you’re right. It’s probably best we start off with the ad hominem attacks now so we can get them out of the way.
Does no one care about the ADORABLE LITTLE KITTENS?!?!
I really hope that isnt true and that the station is cooperating to help these creatures. There is no reason why the colony cannot be managed. But I wouldnt be surprised if the station thought the best way was to kill them, cold hearted if they really do. I cant stand the FOX stations to begin with
A fox affiliate being deceitful? what is the world coming to?
wait, am I starting off with an attack by attacking the evil bad guy station?
/you decide
5: My sense—and I could be wrong— is the affiliates are less under the Murdoch umbrella than the O’Reilly Swirly-Eye Bots at Fox News HQ. Either way, nobody should get off for shameless behavior. I quote the fictional but poignant Herman Blume:
7: you are right. I’m being snarky. I was gonna launch into a bunch of generalizations about the tone/style of network affiliates in small cities, but who cares? not me.
/my source indicated that piranhas were a possibility.
can you be fair and balanced whilst exterminating life with extreme prejudice?
Even worse, someone said mendacious and 400 million Chinese are earthquaked and Iowa is underwater and we won’t have food in 5 years. But 20 kittens are homeless! Someone was cruel somewhere. Alert the media. Someone call Lindsey Lohan. The Department of Diversion needs you.
Please.
10: Talie, I refer you to my #7:
By all means, point to every example you can find of crappy stuff that happens in the world, from the smallest widdle kitty on up.
@9: i love your name. i haven’t seen you around, but i do believe there may be some sierra navadas or tecates in the fridge if you look under the lettuce. unfortunately, someone tipped the chipps on the floor. i just brush it off and decide if i am that hungry. cheers! (i’ll probably go back for the lettuce- you are welcome to share)…
@11:
you said widdle kitty. awahh! so swweet.(awahh).
/and i bid a fond sweet dreams to all. anon.
Yep. People treat cats like they’re trash animals. You can always pick up a new one for cheap or free when the old one gets too bothersome/expensive. This is unsurprising to me, not because its Fox but because its stray cats. Thank you Stanley for giving a shit when many people seem to lose all sense of right and wrong regarding felines.
@10 There is never a time when compassion or empathy are inappropriate. Because you may have compassion for small creatures, it does not rob you of your ability to have compassion for others. I promise, you won’t just run out. Some might say that treating the most vulnerable elements in our society (women, children, the poverty stricken, homeless people, animals, the disenfranchised etc) with care and respect is essential to being a good person. With out that, aren’t we all a little more monstrous.
I would also note that the City of Richmond does a decent job of not euthanising animals. Not one healthy dog or cat was euthanised in 2006, and a total of 1163 euthanised. http://www.ci.richmond.va.us/departments/generalservices/reports/AnimalStatisticsTable2006-MaddiesFund.pdf
Virginia Beach doesn’t break down their stats, but they euthanised 3929 animals in 2007. http://www.vbgov.com/vgn.aspx?vgnextoid=c662340df304c010VgnVCM1000006310640aRCRD&vgnextchannel=eb022e33cf91b010VgnVCM100000870b640aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default
Virginia is pretty good, but that fits with the North-South trend. When I was a cville resident, there were quasi-regular trips up to NOVA with dogs to adopt out there, since there are shortages in the colder-weather, more affluent suburbs of the North.
Compare to Atlanta: ‘Atlanta area shelters kill almost 87,000 dogs and cats each year. While this number is down from a high in 2001 that reached over 93,000, pet overpopulation in Atlanta is still a problem of epidemic proportions. More pets are killed in Atlanta area shelters than in the entire country of Great Britain, New York City or the states of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, Oregon or Washington.’
http://spotsociety.org/spotsocietystatistics.htm
Yikes.
To be Fair and Balanced ourselves, we should probably seek the side of the Fox Station
/Just Sayin
Fair and balanced? What are we Channel 29? Since when are we fair and balanced? This could be a new trend to end our Cville boredom. It could also take up all my free laying around time. Hmmm…
@1. just to clarify, Westmoreland Street is in the West end of Richmond, but I wouldnt’ say that side of Broad Street is “comfortable”. It’s predominantly populated by warehouses and commercial buildings. Go a few blocks south, though and neighborhoods is pretty nice.
Also, not to attach the Richmond SPCA (afterall that’s where we got our awesome pooch), but just because they don’t euthenize a dog, doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Typically, they just don’t accept any animals that they think will require euthenization. That really helps thier stats. There are other animal shelters in town, that the animals are sent to, when euthenization is the answer.
In thier defense, though, thier policy of accepting litters of puppies or kittens is great. They will only take the pups/kits, if they can spay the mother. This prevents it from happening again.
I agree completely Rose! Just because they may not seem as important to you Taliesin doesnt mean they arent to others.
I’m going to Richmond with a bomb now. Be back in a little bit.
I knew shenanners would understand.
Who does this? This is a monstrosity. The Richmond SPCA is willing to help them out. And who in the hell is this pest control company that thinks its suitable to fucking exterminate cats like vermin? I want their names, I want their phone number. I’m calling this station too. Yes, there are too many cats but its because ignorant people don’t fix their cats. You don’t handle the result of your mistakes by wiping it out. Sweeping under the rug. You try to figure out what to do so it won’t happen again and you come up with solutions to the current problem as best as you can. Because life is still fucking life no matter how unimportant you think it is. This makes me SICK.
If this were a pack of feral [insert any animal other than a dog or cat] roaming the streets, no one would give a shit. I hate to be the one to say it but aren’t stray animals with no shots hanging out near people kind of a major health risk? I am not saying round them all up and kill them, but I can see why a business might grow concerned. One of their employees could have been bitten or scratched by this “pack” and maybe that prompted a phone call. I don’t know if that actually happened, but that’s the thing, no one knows. We are responding to “facts” that have been presented by one of the parties involved (not an objective source, obviously). This story sounds to me like a total one-sided exaggeration and vilification of a party without hearing their side of the story. I doubt that Fox in Richmond are a bunch of sadists that derive pleasure out of hiring hit men to murder widdle kitties. I’m with Thor on this one, lets look at the other side of the coin first before making a judgment.
@23: The answer is no. Feral cats were not waiting outside the station to bite and attack the people who worked there. They were probably just a nuisance. BTW, you can get zoonotic diseases from all cats and dogs, even your pets. Not just the wild ones. There is absolutely no argument in favor of the news station. You must be joking. I doubt they’re sadists too but the fact is that they BULLDOZED and they hired a PEST CONTROL company when they had other options.
@24 using the SPCA as your main source of information in this situation is like using Johnnie Cochran (R.I.P.) as your main source of information for the O.J. murder case. I would be more willing to believe a third-party assessment of the facts (or at the very least, draw our own conclusions after viewing a side-by-side comparison of both sides of the story).
Yeah, because the SPCA is soooooo corrrupt. WTF?
Yeah, WTF?
Here’s another source Odie.
A similar situation was a huge deal up in Chantilly VA a while ago:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/14/AR2008031402882.html
ask and ye shall receive, thanx Shen. that does help clear some things up. acccording to the article it sounds like the widdle kitties were scratching cars, and that’s what precipitated all of this. somebody’s Benz probably got scratched and all hell broke loose. it’s interesting that the FOX station seems to be staying mum about this, I can’t find any official comment from them. although, the article you showed me is from a rival television station in Richmond, so that might explain why FOX is demonized there. or maybe it’s because FOX is actually wrong here, as the evidence is pointing towards at this point.
Yeah, remember when that local guy got mad at a neigbor cat because it would walk on his expensive car? So he shot it? Yes, death is the answer. The point is, they had options on dealing with the cat issues and they chose the worst possible one. And as for comment form Fox, give them a call. I did and a lady told me they were NOW working with humane societies to take car of the situation. A bit too late if you ask me though. Sounds like some cats already had their lives taken. For scratches on car paint.
I wouldn’t mind a feral cat moving in if it would cut down on the squirrels from the shallow gene pool in the city. Those things are scary.
What I don’t understand is why would the Fox station lie about contacting the SPCA?
why would the Fox station lie
Seriously? I mean, that is pretty much what they do. I think its on page 37 of the Operating procedure hand book…
33: To be charitable, it sounds like maybe Fox’s PR department got out ahead of the operations department, saying they were working with the SPCA—because they were planning on it, as determined in their emergency crisis meeting five minutes before—but they seemed to have said so before anyone bothered calling the SPCA.
/just a guess
Your charity. It is not welcome here.
/flames!
I mean what a waste of perfectly good puntable kitties. The skinny ones are the best, cause they travel the farthest and you get a bigger puff of fur on impact.
Oh Gobbler you are just asking for it with that comment.
@37: Shut it.
Saw a few cVillains expressing their disgust over on the Richmond SPCA’s comments. Way to go!
We could have given them to the Marines to throw off cliffs. At least then the puppies would have been safe.
I called the extermination company and asked if they do this to cats all the time. They said no, this was a special request and they will no longer offer those kind of services. Wow. They only murder cats for Fox.
echo! Don’t be animalist.
In fact, I can’t find ANY places online that include cats in their list of “pests”. Wonder if what Critter Control did is legal?
Puppies > kittens
Puppies > kittens
Well of course echo prefers dogs. He went to Tech, right?
/Vick Vick Vick Vick Vick
Shenanigan – I think you and I are roughly on the same page, but I think many places consider cats pests (from a quick google search):
* http://www.hawkeye.ca/animal_control/cats.shtml
* http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?IA=WO2005053392&WO=2005053392&DISPLAY=DESC
* http://tulsa-ok.yellowusa.com/Pest_Control.html
* http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006050903027
* http://www.metrojersey.com/pestexterminators.htm
* http://www.ae.utexas.edu/cats/allarticles.html
(I have no idea whether the particular extermination of these cats was legal.)
Also:
* I have a feeling the number of places who do engage in the extermination of cats as pests is artificially low because often animal control will do the job for free, whereas you can’t get animal control to deal with bugs.
* Given the widespread sensitivity to cats and dogs, you’d expect extermination services to deal quietly with those types of animals. Anyone who wants them exterminated will call the exterminator without first checking that they deal with cats. They only have to advertise the general service, and the business, if it exists, will show up.
* So, my guess is that the level of acceptance and demand for such services far outpaces the level reflected by the number of companies advertising the services explicitly online. (Which I don’t find pleasing – I’d prefer things be otherwise.)
Oh wait, I found an extermination site that says it gets rid of cats. And what a coinky-dink, the dude went to Tech.
How to get rid of cats
This site is terrible. shen, don’t read it. If you do read it, don’t read number 5.
@48: I won’t read it. I don’t find that type of humor even remotely humorous.
I really don’t have a problem with cats. I had 2 growing up. I just prefer dogs.
Kitties and puppies I will talk about but I am not touching an alma mater discussion with a ten foot pole.
@51 but… the two are so closely related?
Yeah I kind of wondered how the two crossed?
53: That was my fault. I was joshing echo about dogs and parleyed it into an attack on VT, you know, to lighten things up. On the internet.
parleyed s/b parlayed.
Love for shen!
@34 —HAHAHAHAHA!! -good one
Just let you all know there is a difference between stray cat and ferral cats. Stray cats are ones that use to have a domesic life and ferral cats are born wild from other cats and do not make good house pets even if they are rehab.
P. S. get off my spelling errors. I don’t care.
But stray can refer to any homeless cats. And ferals may never be domesticated but can happily exist in colonies if fixed.
Update: The man who exterminated three of the feral cats is being charged with three misdemeanors.for animal cruelty.
gawddammit
60: fixed; sort of.
Shenanigans is the coolest poseur I know.
ahahahahahaha
62 = Fake Thor.
P.S. If you are insulting people with my name, it’s not like I can’t tell who you are.
Oh noooo. And then you’ll spank me???
@65 Yes and spank me next as well!