Bill Carroll implored me not to rush to judgement about the Toronto Humane Society scandal as I was throwing my clothes on this morning. I silently promised I would, but I have to be honest, my happy side disappears pretty readily when I hear about people abusing animals. It’s like beating up on kids or midgets; I don’t need to explain why that’s wrong. And I’m pretty sure most people would agree with me.

The scandal centers mostly around allegations of abuse and mistreatment of the animals in the King Street shelter:

You know, all the sad-eyed kitties and puppies that make me wanna punch whoever hurts them in the friggin’ face!! How does that feel, huh?! HUH?!

*breathe deep*

*exhale slowly*

…

Everything’s good! :D

So yeah, I really don’t approve of that kind of behaviour. But Bill brought up a good point, many of these animals are brought to the shelter in this state. Of course some of them will look abused, that’s why they’re here. And yes, sadly, some of them die or have to be put down because their injuries are too serious. The shelter makes no secret of this:

However, three things have come together that make me look at the situation with a whole lotta suspicion.

First is my own, albeit single, interaction with the Humane Society in Durham. The facilities were nice, the animals healthy and clean, so nothing bothered me on that end. But the staff, I dunno, didn’t really seem to care a whole lot about animals. And I thought it was odd that they seemed to be dissuading me from taking home a cat: “that one’s not very friendly, that one’s very sick, she’s blind and tends to break stuff, he’s had the most vile diarrhea for months…” In some cases, the conditions for adopting a pet seemed a bit steep: no going outside, no interactions with other animals going outside, no other animals altogether, no flats, no rural homes, no children, no balconies, and a few other things.

Outside, someone claiming to be an employee (so it’s definitely true), told me that the shelter’s funding is based partially on how many animals it has to support. That would explain why they’d want to hold on to the animals, the old use-it-or-lose-it funding model. That would also explain why the King Street Humane Society would be so reluctant to put down animals, even if those animals have no option but to die slow, painful deaths.

I thought about the possibility of altruistic motives, you know: rover’s brought in, hurt, bad, barely breathing — mouth-to-snout resuscitation — charge paddles! CLEAR! … AGAIN! CLEAR!! … LIVE DAMN YOU!! LIVE!! Rover coughs, rolls over, and with the slightest wag of his tail whispers, “I’ve arways roved you.” I know, it’s a romantic notion but I guess it’s possible. But then I read about the mummified cat they found in a trap in the ceiling of the shelter. Police came in, arrested some of the staff, documented the place for evidence, and later came back to go through it in detail. That’s when the mummy cat was found. Wasn’t a cool out-for-revenge kind of mummy cat either, literally just skin and bones; must’ve starved in there. That’s not so altruistic.

And that’s the another thing…

I can’t imagine that the police would mount an operation so publicly, and that involved a whole organization, unless they felt pretty confident that they had some pretty darn good evidence. This story’s been floating around for the better part of a week and up until the arrests, these accusations had been around for a while before that.

"No sir, i especially don't like it."

This story must be absolute gold to the news people. Everyone and their horse is being interviewed about how shocked and sickened they are about all this, and the arrests of the shelter’s staff were out in broad daylight with the media camped out right across the street.

And I’m going to give the cops some credit and assume that they must’ve known this would happen. So I’d imagine they’d take more than a few precautions before busting down the doors – things like making sure they weren’t just arresting people on a hunch, stuff like that.

Okay, and finally, I had to ask Ollie. I mean, if anyone would have insight into this situation, it’d be a cat, no? With his natural clairvoyance and his own personal reasons for wanting to find answers, it was really a no-brainer.

After once again skipping his dinner, I added a “Y” and a “N” on the Ouija board I’d used previously, and placing some psychic motivators on them, simply asked Ollie if he thought if the people currently being charged with these crimes would be found guilty of them.

He hesitated for a bit, seemed confused. Then he wandered over to the “N” pile, sniffed it, and crunched on a pellet. Half of it fell out of his mouth but he didn’t bother going after it. I think what he was trying to get across was to indicate the course of the trial. Initially the defendants would get a nibble of innocence, for a while it’ll look like they’ll be walking out of there free.

Gut then Ollie ambled over to the “Y” pile and dug in. Clearly this cat has an appetite for justice! The interpretation: after a brief respite, the drooling jaws of the courts will come down on our defendants.

Bill Carroll was right to hold back on condemning anyone in this case, but obviously the time has now come for the condemnations to start flying. I believe my own conclusions have some merit, but if Ollie says they staff are guilty, that pretty much clinches it for me. I’ve never had a problem with his predictions before!