Four cats meowing loudly and desperately reaching their paws through the bars of a wire kennel. That was the first thing our ARL Animal Services officer saw when responding to a call about multiple cats trapped inside an abandoned van.
We were called again yesterday – this time to rescue dozens more sick and suffering cats. This is our third large-scale cat rescue in the last three weeks … and the total number of cats from these cases is now up to 103.
When our Mobile Rescue Team received a call to help a family struggling to provide for a large number of sick cats and kittens that had multiplied in their home, we didn’t hesitate. We knew we had to help.
ARL Animal Services officers found 15 animals crammed into a small trailer home, filled with junk and reeking of urine. They assisted Des Moines Police with the removal of a dog, eight cats and six rabbits from a toxic, trash-filled trailer in southwest Des Moines.
This senior boy (we estimate him to be at least 10) arrived at the ARL after a good Samaritan found him and rushed him to us for help. He was in pain, confused and unable to use his leg – it appeared he was hit by a car.
Humphrey’s thin body was hot to the touch and covered in sores when he arrived at the Animal Rescue League. At only 8 weeks old, his ribs showed clearly through his patchy fur. He had obviously never had proper medical care.
The Animal Rescue League’s Mobile Rescue Team spent hours removing 30 cats and kittens from a home in Pocahontas County after being asked by local law enforcement to assist. The cats and young kittens had been left by their owner — shut in a hot, filthy house, without any food or water.
The pups were emaciated, their fur stained from lying in their own waste. They were so weak from starvation and dehydration that their legs shook as they walked.
When the ARL officer arrived, she found a Great Dane, named Kal, shut in the crate with no food and no water – wasting away in an apartment where people were living. And no one was helping him.
Goldie arrived this week with two large wounds on his head, one of them very deep at the base of his ear, painful, and oozing. The larger wound is so bad that today he went under anesthesia for a procedure to help with his healing.
