Rescued Beamsville cats finding homes

Only 10 cats are still looking for permanent homes after close to 100 were rescued from a rundown Beamsville house this summer.

The gruesome situation at Merritt Road — likened to the scene of a horror film by at least one rescue worker — saw 98 cats and kittens removed from deplorable living conditions, while more than 100 others were found dead in barrels, garbage bags and under trees. The home is a rental property owned by Noor Teyyab. The Town of Lincoln ordered him to clean up the litter-filled home and property he has rented to a hoarder for years.

Despite the gruelling six weeks when volunteers spent every day on the 11-hectare property, this story has a happy ending, says Pam Huson, owner of Beamsville 4 Paw Rescue.

“It showed us how strong our rescue can be, the community can be,” she said. “It actually was exactly what I needed.”

Huson, who has been doing animal rescue for more than 20 years, said it’s easy to get hardened by the horrors she has witnessed — especially this rural property in Beamsville, which was the worst colony with which she has ever been involved.

But the community outpouring and support has shown her how much people care about animals.

People have opened their homes and adopted the cats. Some have donated money, food and litter, while local veterinarians have done what they can to help with costs to spay and neuter.

Dinah Nichol of Project Save a Cat’s Life, which was formed as a response to the situation at Merritt Road, has two fosters still looking for permanent homes.

Pumpkin, an orange tabby, is a feline leukemia positive cat, and Peanut, also orange, is feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) positive. But both cats appear “perfectly healthy” at this point, Nichol said.

Calvin, a loving but shy cat who needs a quiet home, is still at the Burlington Humane Society until he finds an owner.

Huson still has seven cats up for adop-ti on, including Suzie-Q, a one-and-a-half year-old tortoiseshell who was found with a dislocated jaw and crushed teeth.

“She’s the cutest little thing in the entire world,” she said.

Suzie-Q and the other remaining Merritt cats will be available for adoption at two events on Jan. 13 — one at Pet Valu on Upper Middle Road in Burlington and the other at the store on St. Andrews Avenue in Grimsby.

While almost all of the cats have found loving homes, the work is not yet done.

Nichol said a neighbour has told her they have seen three cats wandering around the Merritt Road property, so she has started putting food out again and visiting the site.

The same goes for Huson, who visits the site weekly and set up a wildlife camera to monitor activity on the site.

In the heat of the summer, the property was overgrown, but winter’s frost has made the property barer.

“We were still cleaning up corpses a few weeks ago,” Nichol said.

Because she still finds herself going back there, it doesn’t feel like she’s left the site completely.

But sometimes when she drives up, she said she’s reminded of the first few times she visited the property and was swarmed by cats onto the road.

“You don’t see that anymore and I’m very glad for that,” she said. “But when you go there, those things do sort of haunt you.”

There were cats experiencing starvation, some with wounds, and others who had to have their eyes removed.

All in all, only a handful of cats had to be put down, most of which had gone into liver failure from starvation, she said.

“They were so far gone we couldn’t bring them back,” she said.

Nichol recently went to visit their first adoption, Kevin, who is now the clinic cat for Orchard Animal Hospital in Burlington.

At seven years old, he was their oldest cat. He has FIV and he’d likely been hit by a car at some point, she said.

But like many of the others, he’s a wonderful success story.

“It’s just been such a phenomenal turnaround, literally rags to riches story in some of them,” she said.

The OSPCA said in August they had been investigating a possible animal cruelty situation at the property for eight months after receiving a complaint.

Kevin Strooband, executive director of the Lincoln County Humane Society, said the officer in charge of the investigation has put information together for submission to the Crown.

“We are continuing to work with the rescue groups to not only re-home any cats that need it but also to provide resources where necessary,” he wrote in an email.

According to the court process set out on the OSPCA’s website, an inspector may consult with a Crown attorney before laying a charge if he or she has collected what is believed to be enough information to pursue a criminal charge under the Criminal Code of Canada or the Ontario SPCA Act.

Under the Ontario SPCA Act, penalties include a maximum fine of $60,000, a lifetime ban on owning an animal and up to two years in jail.

Beamsville 4 Paw Rescue started a petition over the investigation, which now has more than 4,000 signatures. It can be found at change.org.

Both rescues say they can use all the help they can get — whether that’s through donating money or dropping off litter or food — to help with the remaining cats.

For more information or how to help, visit beamsville4pawrescue.com or facebook.com/projectsacl.

It’s just been such a phenomenal turnaround, literally rags to riches story in some of them.” Dinah Nichol