Humane Society for Greater Nashua workers had to euthanize 21 severely diseased cats aged 6 weeks to almost a year old after the animals were dropped off outside the Humane Society’s Ferry Road facility.

“The cats and the kittens were all in extremely poor health conditions,” said Tammy DeVito, the Humane Society’s director of animal care. “The medical conditions were horrendous. It appears they had a severe virus that has been untreated for some time.”

  (Photo courtesy of the HSFGN)

The felines were suffering horribly from a virus that had long gone untreated and caused lesions on their faces, eyes and tongues, and severe dehydration. Some had lost one or both eyes because of the virus and teeth because of terrible infections. Others had pneumonia

DeVito was one of the two people who assessed each of the doomed kittens and later had to euthanize them when it became clear there was no way to help them.   “We were hoping that some of them would be in better shape, but that wasn’t the case. Euthanasia was really our only option,” she said. “There was really nothing that we could do.”

DeVito is reaching out to whomever dropped off the animals in three RubberMaid bins because she fears they have other animals that need help.  “We’re concerned that there may be other animals in this person’s home because these animals are all young,” DeVito said. “We would really like to reach out to these people to offer some assistance because obviously other animals in the house are probably equally ill.”

  (Photo courtesy of the HSFGN)

Nashua police Lt. Raymond McDannell said police are on the case and could pursue misdemeanor cruelty to animal charges, depending on how successful they are.  “There is an active investigation to hopefully find the person who dropped these cats off,” McDannell said.

Anyone with information should call Nashua police at 603-594-3500, the Nashua Crimeline at 603-589-1665 or the Humane Society at 603-889-2275

Reference:

The Telegraph