by Vicki Andis

Created on: May 13, 2009   Last Updated: May 14, 2009

Being a lifelong animal lover, I have always been a huge fan of organizations such as the ASPCA. The other day I needed their help with an abandoned mother cat, and her tiny kitten. Living in an apartment complex which does not allow animals, I had noticed a young mother cat and her kitten near the parking lot. The mother seemed to be getting thinner, and I began to think she did not have an owner. One morning, while taking my trash out, I heard a loud noise near the parking lot. You can imagine how disgusted I felt, when I saw that a group of young children were throwing rocks at the pair, and genuinely enjoying the pain they were inflicting on the animals.

I remembered the television shows I had seen about the ASPCA, and how they advise people to bring unwanted or abandoned animals to their facilities. I decided to rescue the helpless mother and baby, and take them to the nearest ASPCA center for help. The facility was quite a distance from my house, and even after printing out a map, I managed to get lost amongst the miriad of freeways I had to navigate to get there.

Finally, I arrived at the shelter, and carried the poor abandoned animals inside. The woman at the counter asked about the cats, and I filled her in on their plight. She said that the shelter would take them, for a fee of fifty dollars. I couldn't believe she wanted me to pay to drop off the neglected animals, which were not my pets to start with. Now I know that the ASPCA does great work, and I understand that they run on public donations, which benefit all of the animals they rescue, but I was unaware that you had to pay a fee to bring in a stray animal.

Having fallen on hard times myself recently, being unable to work due to a terminal illness, and barely able to keep up with my bills and other expenses, the fifty dollars seemed like a huge amount of money to me. Try as I might they would not accept the poor animals without the fifty dollar donation, and advised me to take them to a city clinic. She was happy to print out a map to a couple of these facilities, both of which were pretty far from the ASPCA shelter, and extremely far from my home. I tried to find one of the places she had told me to try, and after a couple hours of being lost on the freeways, gave up and went home, still towing the mother and baby with me.

I could not keep these animals, and the internet did not help much in the search for a no-kill shelter to take them to. Most of the shelter I found that I would feel good about taking them to were not able to help me. They were full, or they required me to foster the animals until they could find them a home. I was about to give up and put them back where I had rescued them from, when a neighbor told me about a place she had heard about. The mother cat and her baby were able to be taken to this great shelter, and to make it even better, this was a no-kill facility! They did ask for a twenty dollar donation, but hearing about my circumstances, they took the animals without the money, because they really cared about them. (I sent a donation in a couple weeks later, and was happy to be able to help).

I am still upset about the ASPCA, and the fact that they would not accept a pair of animals in need. I still watch the television shows about the ASPCA, and can't help but shake my head when they advise people to bring in abandoned or unwanted animals, and they will try to help them. I think people should give donations to this worthy cause, and volunteer to help out if they are able, but animals should not be turned away if a person can not afford to make a donation.

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