MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Middle Tennessee animal shelter is turning to the community for help amid a massive rescue operation involving dozens of felines.
Earlier this week, True Rescue — a shelter in Mt. Juliet driven by donations and volunteers — said it was called out to a home in Hendersonville, where more than 50 cats and kittens were living with a woman in a rough environment.
According to the organization, many of the felines needed medical care, but there was one newborn kitten who died.
“Most of these kitties on this case were unaltered males and females, so we knew we had to end this cycle, plus several births had already happened within the house in just the last week. There were 6 week old kittens that were extremely sick with upper respiratory infections, and of course large cat cases always involve parasites, fleas and other diseases for which we will test,” True Rescue posted on Facebook on Tuesday, Jan. 7.
The shelter learned of this case from a neighbor of the resident, who was reportedly cooperative and didn’t intend for this to happen.
“She got a bunch of cats that started breeding and it just got out of control, so her heart was in the right place starting out,” explained Amy Simcik, executive director for True Rescue. “When we saw some of the kitties that will lose their eyes, we knew it had just gone too far. And for some of them, had we been a day or two late, we’d be too late.”
True Rescue already has more than 300 cats, according to Simcik. This case is extreme, but it’s not rare.
“We probably have dozens and dozens of cases on the back burner like this that are large scale cases, waiting for us to help, so we try and do one a month,” said Simcik. “I think, in this case, it was just pure sadness walking in. Most of the time it’s anger.”
“It just broke our hearts; it really did. There’s just no other words,” she added.
Financially, cases like these create a heavy burden, especially for a shelter that is already at maximum capacity.
“One cat could cost us thousands of dollars in medical bills. To go through the spay and neuter…on average, every cat that we intake costs us around $125 to $150 per cat,” said Simcik. “Our rescue, because we do not say no to severe medical cases that are out in the field, we spend about $20,000 a month on medical bills alone.
So far, shelter officials said they have taken in 22 of the cats and kittens from the home, but they plan to retrieve the remaining felines within the next week.
“I can’t see an end to this anytime soon. We are literally in one of the biggest cat crises I have ever been a part of,” said Simcik.
The Sumner County Sheriff’s Office told News 2 that, as of Thursday, Jan. 9, criminal charges are not expected in this case.
If you’d like to donate to True Rescue, click here.
