Don't drink the Kool Aid!

This is from the comments section, but we're blogging it this morning to address all the issues this "Anonymous" user brings up. 

"I personally take offense to your site and blog and feel that you're not being honest and only stating what you choose to. Some of your info is complete lies."  

We take personal offense to all the needless killing at Capital Area. Please continue-

"I am a CAHS TNR volunteer. I have been since March of this year and I am limited on the amount of animals I can take in each week because they work with many others to bring in cats. I only know of one time in all these months that they did not have more cats than room for." 

That's great- if you want to actually give us proof and we'll change our site to reflect that fact. All evidence we find points to exactly the opposite. This site seeks to reflect the truth. 

"Unless, Colony Cat Rescue is paying for the animals they take in every week, they too are nothing more than a CAHS volunteer. Making arrangements with others is called coordinating, just in case you don't understand the definition." Thanks, we understand " If the burden is too much for Colony Cats Rescue, maybe they can give up those spots and when I receive calls for people in desperate need of help and all of the so called "No Kill Shelters" have ignored them. I along with CAHS can give them the help they desperately need. I could also introduce you to several other CAHS TNR volunteers that I have had the pleasure to meed and work with over the last several months" 

First of all, what the heck is up with up with people who keep bringing up "Colony Cats"? If you want to complain about a group go start your own website. This blog isn't run by Colony Cats. (Yes everybody cross them off your list) Anyway the point here is that people who "Drink the Kool Aid" and have been involved on a short term basis at Capital will be the the first to defend them. They are the exact type of good will that the executive staff exploit to make themselves look better. Have you had the pleasure of meeting any of the actual staff over the past several months? When you're in there for a few hours on one day, what do you think is happening for the other 165 hours of the week? 

As for the voucher program, again, it has been a wonderful success for the people I have come in contact with and allowed me to help more than 100 people in a short few months. It was not hard to share the info that I had and work together with those needing to help save a stray. You can't seem to understand the concept of someone granting money with strings attached." We don't understand? Check out "Wasting Donations" on the main site.  "That is usually how grant money is given and that is to insure (sic) that it goes where it is suppose to (sic) and not misappropriated.  If you think 1000 additional animals helped in a four month period is not doing something, what is wrong with you? Again, many of those I obtain the vouchers and took the animals to the vet for the people to help insure (sic) that it was successful. This (sic) were again people that could not afford to keep the strays and could not get the so called "No-Kill Shelters" to return their calls and they would have to surrender the animal to CAHS because they did not want to see the animal left out for various reasons."

My friend, you have so much heart and could do so much with a responsible organization. I urge you to switch allegiances! Let's address their voucher program. They received 115,600.00 to issue 1000 spay/neuter vouchers. (They said that some of it was for Humane Officers, who by the way are the one spot of light within the darkness they exude. Brooks, Kilroy and Brown: I want to see the accountability for what the Humane Officers got with MY tax money.)The vouchers are good for a 45 day period after which if the vouchers expire, never to be issued to that person again. From what we understand is happening, non-Capital rescuers are taking on all the burden of getting these animals into the veterinarians. When someone has more than one cat that needs fixed, like the 80% of people who apply for the vouchers, other rescues opt to bear the burden of this expense. Like you! If someone takes their pet to any of the veterinarians (with few exceptions) on the sheet provided with the voucher and they'll charge anywhere from $50-$300 in extra services to perform the Capital Area's "free" spay or neuter. If they had done ANY homework before throwing this program out there they would have known all of this. 

We'll put the "huge success" of the animals helped by the voucher program in perspective. For the few animals that get adopted from Capital Area, would you consider it a "huge success"? How about the puppies that are bought from Petland? Is Petland a "huge success" because they find homes for technically homeless pets? What about the 85% that are put down at Capital? Would you, my Anonymous friend, call this a "huge failure"? 

Finally in this paragraph we hear the nay-saying about No Kill Shelters. (Paying attention, all other groups?) Again, No Kill has to be thought about as a process. What might surprise this person is that many shelters in Columbus do euthanize due to overcrowding, but you will never hear a complaint from us about these groups. Why? These groups have set goals for reducing euthanasia, pet retention and other innovative programs, and full adoption floors.  In short, they're actually TRYING to do something about their euthanasia rate. 

"At least CAHS has an open door policy, why don't you ask to see the homes that some of the so-called "NO-KILL Shelters" house their rescues in. If you and your blog site would like some true hard facts about all the hoarders in rescue in this community, I will be glad to supply you with a list of names, addresses, and approx. numbers of animals living in overcrowded conditions, not receiving their vet care and by admission of the very people that support this blog have so many animals that they don't even know if they are receiving enough to eat. Ask the other rescues if they have every (sic) been investigated for animal neglect. Let me know what answers you get."

OK again, this blog is only to examine the Capital Area Humane Society. It says so right there before you even post! Needless, we will allow your post just this once. Lets address hoarding in Columbus, which is a direct product of the behavior of Capital Area Humane Society for the past decade.

People who participate in cat rescue, in any respect, know what goes on over there. They know that anything they take over there will be inevitable killed after languishing in a steamy, scary cage for a week. While apparently some people aren't tortured by the faces of those they kill for no reason, most people are.  Therefore most people can't willingly send a mother cat and kittens, stray cat, or any other animal to the death camp known as Capital Area. So they keep them and try to find homes on their own.  They might try to get animals into other rescues, but they are just so overwhelmed that they can't take any more in good faith either. Meanwhile, Capital sucks up all the donations, grant money, and leave empty cages on their adoption floor.

But what if Capital were finding homes for 50% or 75% of animals that came through their doors? What if they had innovative adoption programs that got most animals out of their shelter alive? What if they embraced their rescue community and constructively engaged them in an effort to save lives rather than end them? "Hoarding" is considered a mental illness. Can you honestly say that all rescuers with lots of animals in their home are all mentally ill? Interesting juxtaposition: there was a woman about a year ago who was committed for drowning animals in her small Columbus apartment. She would see a cat or dog in what she considered a "bad situation", steal the animal (by her own admission) and take it to her apartment and drown it in a large garbage can. She stated to the T.V. cameras that "death is better than life on the streets". Now who seems mentally ill? Hmmmm....

"Why don't you do more rescue and give up the time and energy you have place in building this deceptive blog." 

We do rescue to the fullest extent, but without a major movement in the right direction, we're just spinning our wheels and so are you.

Also, remember CAHS is a private organization and they are able to operate because they have supporters. The people support CAHS because they understand that not all animals can be saved. If they felt the trend of the so called "No-Kill Shelters" was the way to go, they would send you the money, don't you think? Personally, if I was one of those financial supporters and I found out that my donation was enabling a hoarder to place diseased, injured animals into a neglectful situation, I would not be happy. Also, Jodi Buckman, was appointed by a Board and is given a salary approved by a Board. I would guess they feel that she is worth what she is paid and is doing what is expected of her.  I don't expect you to allow my message to be posted, but I will pass this on and I will go public to tell some truths that you choose to ignore. 

Well, we have not only allowed your comment, we have made it a main blog post! While CAHS does have supporters, those are waning quickly. Why do you think we have so much support for this effort? We addressed the No Kill movement (process, not policy) in an earlier blog so read up on it. You will probably realize that if you take all the effort to get people's animals to the vet to get them spayed or neutered, than you probably, at heart, support a No Kill process . Here's the thing about the board of Capital Area- most fundraising books or seminars or classes will tell you that you want to ask prominent people in the community to be on your board for the purpose of tapping into their rich friends and associates to get support for your shelter and raise money quickly. Capital Area has a board full of prominent people. Unfortunately when you do that with your ENTIRE board year after year after year you get people who are never in the shelter, never clean a cage, never foster animals, never see the faces of those who are about to be killed. They are to busy with other board commitments, (more non-profits than prominent people to go around) and doing what they are known to be prominent (wealthy) for.