SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — SCRAPS confirmed that the organization euthanized a lost cat Friday morning, the same day it was brought into their facility.
Thursday evening, Taija Nelms’ family cat “Dewey” wandered away from their Spokane Valley home. The next morning, when the cat still had not returned, Nelms was terrified.
After searching for Dewey, Nelms went to school and work. Later in the day she saw a post on Facebook regarding a missing cat, which she recognized as Dewey. The post said the cat was taken to SCRAPS.
“I… quickly got into my car and sped all the way to SCRAPS to hopefully retrieve my cat, but unfortunately that was not the case. They euthanized him within an hour of being there… and apparently they said he was in kidney failure. I found that out after probably an hour-and-a-half of being at SCRAPS it took them forever for someone to come out and talk to my mom and I,” Nelms said.
According to Spokane County, Dewey arrived at SCRAPS around 10:37 a.m. and was euthanized between 11 a.m. and noon.
Both Nelms and the County confirmed that Dewey was not microchipped, tagged, nor was he wearing a collar.
According to Patrick Bell, the Communications Director for Spokane County, a call came in to SCRAPS answering service Friday morning stating the cat was laying in a roadway and not moving.
“Upon being notified that a sick cat had been brought to the facility, our licensed veterinarian conducted a thorough medical exam on the cat, ran blood/lab work, and diagnosed the cat to be suffering from severe dehydration and end stage kidney failure. The cat was assessed to be actively dying on the exam table during the medical exam. Due to this medical assessment and with no indication of an owner, the decision was made to humanely euthanize the cat the same day to ease the cat’s suffering,” Bell said.
Bell told NonStop Local that this story should serve as an urgent reminder for the public to microchip and tag pets.
SCRAPS argues that because the cat did not have any identification, the only decision available to them was to euthanize what they deemed to be a dying cat.
Meanwhile, the Nelms family was devastated and infuriated to learn SCRAPS went ahead with euthanizing their cat so quickly and without waiting to see if anyone would come to claim him.
“For them to just kill him just because he… according to them… had kidney failure… And, even if that was the case, it was still my animal. It was the one thing I saw every morning, slept with every night. I took care of him like crazy. He got everything he wanted. It just hurts to know they could just do something like that to someone’s animal and honestly not care at all,” Nelms said.
Nelms told NonStop Local she wants to see SCRAPS leadership held accountable for this.
At a Spokane City Council meeting on Sept. 15, the Council voted in favor of an ordinance to limit when SCRAPS can euthanize animals.
The ordinance was introduced during controversy surrounding SCRAPS’ behavioral assessments.
It was voted on after SCRAPS euthanized 14 dogs that the county deemed dangerous following the assessments.
Spokane County commissioners, which operate SCRAPS, have requested a meeting with City Council members to work out their differences.
Council President Lori Kinnear says they agreed to a meeting, but a date and time have not been set yet.
