Last week 85 animals were taken out of a single house and delivered into the care of the Tallahassee-Leon Community Animal Service Center. After a busy weekend, the shelter is well on its way to finding the animals new homes.
The cats were all given names taken from candy: things like Nestle, O’ Henry, and Tootsie.
Animal Services Director Erika Leckington says the influx of animals was a challenge, but the shelter had a very productive weekend.
“The event over the weekend went excellently,” Leckington says. “We actually adopted out 67 cats overall, which is a record for adult cats on any weekend adoption event that we’ve ever had. Forty-eight of those cats were actually from the case, so in less than 48 hours a lot of those cats went from one situation, through the animal shelter, processed, made sure that they were wonderful and healthy enough to go into an adoptive home, and in their home.”
A court ruling last Thursday determined the animals – 85 cats and dogs – were in immediate danger and gave custody to the shelter. Tallahassee officials say Animal Control and Be the Solution worked with the former guardian over the past nine months to control the growing pet population.
In a statement released by the city, Animal Control supervisor Lt. Jeff Doyle says, “Going to court was a last resort but was an action that had to be taken due to the condition of the animals’ living environment.”
Leckington says many of the cats came to them malnourished, and some of them haven’t made it to the adoption floor yet.
“A lot of these cats came in as medium hair and long hair, so they were disguising their thin stature underneath all that hair,” Leckington says. “So while they presented themselves as looking very healthy on the outside in terms of their coat length, they actually were very malnourished.”
Animal Control brought in five dogs as well, and Leckington hopes they’ll be ready for adoption by this Friday. Of the 80 cats brought in, nearly 30 remain at the shelter—17 of which are healthy enough to be adopted right away.
