Adoption too late for cat

By Claire Le Noury

A nine-year-old homeless cat paid the ultimate price for a lack of communication between a potential pet owner and the Richmond SPCA.

Dalton Grady says she visited Isaac a number of times over a period of two weeks at the Richmond Petcetera Animal Welfare Centre, but when she showed up to adopt him, he had been transferred to the SPCA and subsequently euthanized.

"I am very hurt, appalled and livid at his senseless killing," Grady wrote in a letter to the News. "I had held Isaac the two previous days leading to his death, and knew he was well-socialized, loving, and healthy."

Pets are rotated at the Petcetera shelter roughly every two weeks. Grady says a store manager at Petcetera knew she was interested in adopting Isaac, but when it came time to transfer Isaac back to the SPCA, that particular store manager was on vacation and unable to communicate Grady's interest to the SPCA.

Petcetera declined to comment.

"It's really unfortunate that no one at Petcetera documented that there was an interested party," said Richmond SPCA branch manager Kim Marosevich.

Marosevich said Isaac had been in the SPCA's system for three months and initially suffered from respiratory problems. A foster home had been lined up for him, but fell through when Isaac declined to interact with people.

While Marosevich said Isaac's behaviour was not aggressive, she did say he was "non-sociable."

Marosevich added the SPCA does not have any firm timelines as to how long an animal can be in the system.

Grady, meanwhile, wants an investigation into the Richmond shelter.

"I think the city of Richmond should be looking at SPCA practices," she said in an interview.

Although she only knew Isaac for a couple of weeks, Grady says she felt an emotional connection to him.

"In my heart, Isaac was already my cat son," she said. "I'd like to offer a cat a home but right now it hurts too much."

published on 09/01/2006