VIDEO: Humane Society Looking For Cold Hearted Cat Burglar

[Little Tich]

Source: CBS Detroit

DETROIT (WWJ) – The Michigan Humane Society is offering a reward for the safe return of a kitten that was stolen from the Detroit Center on Thursday.

A video captures the theft, in which a woman and a young girl are seen in the visiting area for adoptable animals, and the woman reaches in a cage and stuffs the 10-week-old kitten into her purse, and the girl watches to make sure a volunteer does not return to the area.

The kitten, named Misty Gish, is a domestic short hair with white and gray markings. She has recently been spayed, has a shaved belly and a tattoo (a circle with a line through it indicated that she was spayed). She has a microchip and has been reported missing to the microchip company.

Video surveillance cameras show a woman wearing a black T-shirt, black shorts, sunglasses, and carrying a large purse while entering the shelter with a young girl who was wearing a pink T-shirt and pink sneakers.

Read more: http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2015/09/09/video-kitten-stolen-from-humane-society-reward-offered-for-safe-return/

Note: Thursday means last Thursday, 2015-09-03.

[Egnever]

1. Cold hearted?

Seems to me it is the shelter that is cold hearted.

The object is to find the kitten a home is it not? So the woman did't pay the adoption fee. Big deal.

Now the shelter wants to get mom thrown in jail over it?

No sorry the shelter is the cold hearted one if you ask me.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

2. Hopefully they aren't selling the kitty to some Dr. Frist type.

I never heard of this until my friend listed a dog for free on Craigslist. He received numerous responses telling him he needs to charge an adoption fee greater than the experiment value.

http://m.humanesociety.org/issues/pets_experiments/qa/questions_answers.html
Fact Sheet: Pets Used in Experiments
Q: What is a Class B dealer?
A: Class B dealers are licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to acquire dogs and cats from “random sources” to sell them to universities and other research institutions for use in experiments. In contrast, Class A dealers can only sell animals they have bred themselves.
Q: Where do Class B dealers get dogs and cats?
A: These dealers obtain dogs and cats from various "random sources," including auctions, flea markets and animal shelters. Some Class B dealers have also been known to obtain animals from unregulated middlemen known as "bunchers," who have been documented acquiring lost, stray and "free to a good home" pets, and even pets from neighborhood backyards. After purchasing animals, the dealers typically hold them until they transport them to universities or other research institutions.

[840high]

3. I'm sure if the woman

had explained she didn't have the money - a deal could be reached. Mu shelter works with people. No need to steal. Not a good thing to teach a child.

[Egnever]

4. $500 reward

Doesn't indicate they work with people to me. Looks much more like they are more interested in punishment than working with anyone.

It strikes me as very odd behavior for a kill shelter to go after someone with such determination for taking a pet. Going so far as to label someone cold hearted and offering a bounty.

Not sure that is a great lesson for a child either.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

7. How do you know she didn't steal the cat to sell it?

People get "free" pets and sell them for experiments.

Pretty fucked up thing to do with a kid in tow. Who steals a pet for the family with a kid in tow and used as a lookout?

Of course, I never understood the people that would steal a Christmas tree from my buddy's front yard (happened more than once). Look at the tree daddy stole for the family.

It's fucked no matter how you look at it.

And how are they going to pay for food and medical bills? Or do they just toss it in the trash if it gets sick and go steal another one?

[Egnever]

16. So easy to point fingers

When you aren't the parent with limited funds.

[LanternWaste]

28. Also easy to point fingers when one denies other possible motivations for an act.

It's also rather easy to point fingers when one denies any other possible motivations for an act, and further limits themselves to merely one possibility in their own understandings of human nature.

[Egnever]

29. Yes you are right we should always assign the worst possible motive

To any situation.

[joeybee12]

33. Especially to thieves, right...nt

[REP]

36. If they can't afford the adoption fees, how can they afford food, cat litter, vet visits, etc?

The adoption fees are the cheapest things about adopting a new kitten or cat. The kitten will need a follow-up visit in a few weeks to check her incision and have the rest of her vaccines. She'll need to eat several times a day. She'll use a litter box - that needs to be cleaned. None of this is free.

[Egnever]

37. Have you had a look at adoption fees lately?

my last rescue was $250 that would buy months of cat food.

[LisaL]

38. It's $75 for the humane society in question.

[REP]

39. I just adopted two kittens, one feral, so yes.

I just paid over $90.00 for cat food yesterday - I don't feed cats disgusting crap. I actually take care of them.

[Egnever]

40. LOL its good to be comfortably situated

I guess poor folks aren't allowed to have pets.

Now you have to buy cat's $90 cat food or you aren't taking care of them.

[REP]

42. I'm sorry about your lack of reading comprehension

I have five cats. I make their well-being a priority because caring for a companion animal is a responsibility. Responsible people will find a way to make good decisions about the animals in their care. It's part of being an adult.

I guess you spend all your extra money on unnecessary apostrophes. Plurals aren't formed with apostrophes. HTH, HAND.

[LisaL]

10. If you can't afford an adoption fee (assuming that is the issue), how can you possibly

afford food and vet bills? Owning a pet isn't cheap.
If you can't afford it, you shouldn't be doing it.

[840high]

12. yep

[Egnever]

13. Cats are not that expensive

Food and litter is not that costly.

The adoption fees these days are ludicrous. I paid $250 for my most recent rescue. Could have gotten her cheaper at a puppy mill.


Regardless making someone a criminal over this is far more cold hearted than stealing a kitten in my opinion.

[LisaL]

17. Since I have cats, I know full well how expensive it can get to care for a cat.

Especially when they get older, and start having medical issues.

[Egnever]

20. Well since you are the only one to ever own cats

I guess I will have to bow to your expertise...

[Gormy Cuss]

46. Food, litter, shots, and an annual vet check-up is estimated to be about $500 per year.

That's a little over $10 per week although the cost would be lumpy. Would cost less if the owners don't ever take the cat to the vet.

This particular shelter charges only $75 for spayed/neutered and chipped cats, which is pretty inexpensive although still admittedly a high cost for poor people.

[Gormy Cuss]

18. Stealing a cat isn't a good lesson for a child, agreed.

This shelter charges $75 for a spayed, chipped cat and offers a $10 off coupon on their website. We don't know if the woman even tried to negotiate with the shelter staff before deciding to just walk out with the kitten. We don't know her motive for stealing the cat either but it's unlikely that this kitten will ever see a vet again if she stays in this woman's care because that chip will expose the theft.

That isn't a good outcome for the cat.

[bettyellen]

21. the way the kid happily skipped out of there, you can bet this theft isn't her Mom's first.

she has probably been employed as a lookout plenty of times.
It is a real shame her mom didn't put in some effort looking for a free pet through honest means. Poor kid is being set up for a lifetime of pain.

[Gormy Cuss]

22. And the way the shelter has responded may be an indication that they have a recurring

problem with people lifting animals.

[bettyellen]

23. yep- if you have such few scruples that you're using kids to aide in thievery, you're probably

laughing about how easy it was to friends who might try it even if they are not prepared to care for a cat.
This asshole could have found a way to get a free or lower cost kitten with little effort, but chose to involve her kid in theft anyway.
Poor kid thought the whole thing was fun, and that is going to hurt her someday.

[LisaL]

11. If you don't have any extra money, you can't afford a pet anyway.

Because if that cat were to get sick, how could they possibly pay vet bills?

[joeybee12]

24. Agree...pet adoption fees can be high...

But there's a reason for that.

[Eleanors38]

5. Or turn it over to PETA. You don't want that, do you?

[zonkers]

6. ARE YOU NUTS? Let's not put you in charge of anything.

[yellowcanine]

8. So you think people should just be able to adopt animals with no controls?

Shelters often waive adoption fees. I do not think people should be just walking in and taking animals. For lots of reasons which should be apparent.

[Egnever]

14. What a stupid response

I didn't say anything like that what I sad was making someone a criminal over stealing a kitten at a kill shelter is cold hearted.

I don't find stealing a kitten cold hearted at all when it is stolen from a kill shelter. Quite the opposite.

[yellowcanine]

26. So you say. Judging by what others are saying here - not so much.

There are, believe it or not, worse things for a kitten than being euthanized. Someone steals a kitten you have no idea what their motivations are. Besides, if someone steals a kitten, it cannot be properly adopted. How do you know the kitten would not have been adopted? Kittens are in fact, easy to find homes for compared to older cats.

[Egnever]

31. Well as long as we are throwing around wild speculation

How do you know these people won't treat the kitten better than anyone else would.

You don't, nor do you know the kitten would have been adopted.

I will stick with my original assessment That putting a bounty on this woman and her child is much more cold hearted. Than wanting and taking a kitten from a kill shelter.

YMMV

[bettyellen]

35. because she uses her child to assist in planned thefts? sorry- that is some FUCKED UP parenting.

she could have gotten a kitten for free, but risks the penalties and her child's welfare and teaches her to plan theft.
That kid is fucked if no one intervenes.

[LisaL]

9. A good rescue organization would verify if a person who wants to adopt a pet is a responsible pet

owner.

[Egnever]

15. Well they would go through the motions anway

My experience with adoptions has been they ask you questions but there is no verification of your answers you can tell them anything you want. Pretending that is verifying you are a responsible owner is silly.

It is more of a CYA than any thing else. It certainly isn't verifying anything.

[bettyellen]

25. they weed out the resellers, which is awesome. this woman is teaching her kid that stealing is a

game. The child skipped out of there as if it was a game- she has likely played before.
And when she gets caught as teenagers always do, her Mom will have only herself to blame for the heart ache that is going to cause.
If they really wanted to, they could have found a free kitten.
weeding out resellers and people so irresponsible that they do not consider pets to be an investment requiring resources and care should not have cats. I'm just glad they got a spayed one.

[Egnever]

30. Oh ?

How exactly do they weed out resellers? By asking them if they are resellers?

[bettyellen]

34. by not giving them away, for fucks sake. they need to pay for overhead and the care they give sick

animals. That costs money.
if this woman really needed a free kitten, she could have scoured the bulletin boards for one- therefore taking one out of the running for being snatched up by a reseller (if she is not one). Win/ win. That is IF she is going to take good care of that cat. But with what she is doing with her own kid- using her as an accomplice in theft, I would not bet on that being a great home. If you treat life as a thing to be used (her daughter) or a thing to be stolen, you may not have much respect for life at all. Sad all around.
Poor kid being used as a criminal like that. No way was it her first time.

[Egnever]

41. Possibly

That has no bearing whatsoever on putting a bounty on her head. How do you envision that working out in the end do you expect that will result in a good outcome for the child?

[bettyellen]

43. I could understand stealing food but this was a planned and unnecessary theft

Unless you're an anarchist I don't know what you're even trying to suggest. That it's okay to train her daughter into frivolous and unnecessary thievery? Like it or not- she is setting her child up to abuse others trust and chest them, to not even try to make an honest effort to obtain things?
Sounds like a shit thing to teach your kids.

[Egnever]

44. Again, While it certainly is not a good model of parenting.

Do you envision this bounty on her head to have a good outcome for the child?

I couldn't care less about the thievery from a kill shelter that in the end puts down any animal it deems past its usefulness date. My sole concern is that the bounty doesn't serve any purpose whatsoever other than in the end punishing a child who is likely not in a great situation to begin with. That IS cold hearted.

Do explain to me how this bounty is somehow helpful and not cold hearted. What good comes from it?

Obviously stealing from a shelter is not desirable behavior but that does not make the woman cold hearted. The shelter will survive without the $75 for the kitten. The child having a mother possibly arrested or unable to find work because of this could face a ton of negative impacts from this. Sure her mom should not be doing it in the first place but I am not in her shoes and don't know what drove her to do it. I do know that over a $75 adoption fee the shelter is more than willing to cause possible irreparable harm to the child and mother.

I don't find a kitten in a shelter worth that. Worse I find the shelters willingness to publicly shame a mother and child over it appalling. Spend the $500 on better security if stealing kittens is that large of a problem.

And once again for those in the audience who cant separate the theft from the shelters actions. Obviously stealing kittens from a shelter is not acceptable behavior I am in no way advocating stealing kittens from shelters I am simply disgusted by the shelters reaction to it.

But then people are much more important to me than kittens. YMMV

[bettyellen]

45. better the shelter catch her than another store- who would absolutely press charges

and better the mom gets busted before the kid get used to this life and imitates her Mom. The shelter is more likely to not press charges.
Sure any one or any business could live with getting thrived from once. But if there are no consequences it would be open season, and they would cease to function entirely. Does not mean there should be no laws against it- that is basically advocating anarchy.
The Mom is making really stupid choices and it is a shame she is using her kid like this- the sooner it ends, the better for that kid.

[Rex]

27. The purpose is to adopt out their animals, not for someone to come along and steal one.

If people are willing to steal a kitten, what else would they do?

[Omaha Steve]

19. Pet stores have live animal shop lift problems too

While some people can't give away puppies, kittens, etc.

[magical thyme]

32. well they've got good, clear video of her

hopefully somebody will recognize her and do the right thing by the kitty.