Animal welfare group voices concerns with local shelter

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP — An animal welfare group is protesting after a local shelter cat, Cleo went missing.

Beth Frank, the president and founder of Community Cats United Inc., said her organization became involved with the Facebook group “Team Cleo” after someone in Florida saw a social media post and alerted her of a missing shelter cat named Cleoand three kittens unrelated to Cleo.

Frank alleges that a Bloomfield Township animal welfare officer dumped four center cats outside last November.

“All four of them were dumped outside Nov. 29 of 2023 in the cold, harsh Michigan conditions,” she said.

None of the animals, according to Frank, possessed the ability to survive outside on their own.

Cleo, a 19-year-old cat and a longtime resident of the center, was known to greet people at the front desk. She had dental disease, and her front paws were declawed. The remaining kittens were about 6 months old and reportedly were infected with ringworm.

Despite numerous searches conducted by township staff and, separately, by activists, the cats had yet to be found at press time.

Frank, along with other members of “Team Cleo,” said the center must be held accountable for “their actions of animal cruelty and neglect.”

While activists argue that the incident was intentional, Bloomfield Township Police Chief James Gallagher said it was simply an unfortunate mistake.

“I’m not firing someone for a mistake, with no prior disciplinary actions,” he said.

Gallagher confirmed that the township picked up four stray feral cats last July, one of which, he said, ended up passing away while being neutered by the county in October.

The cats, he said, were held in the township’s animal center for “way too long.”

“We’re an animal control center. We’re not an animal rescue, and we’re not an animal shelter,” he said.

After five months in the center, with no one wanting to adopt them, Gallagher said, he discussed with staff that they needed to get rid of the three remaining feral cats.

Unfortunately, he said, his words were taken literally.

“I was hoping they were going to give them to a barn or something,” Gallagher said. “We try to adopt out every cat we get. ... We usually give them to barns, but no one wanted to adopt them. No barns wanted them.”

Soon after, he learned an animal welfare officer had captured the animals from the center’s cat room and released them Nov. 29 in the township’s Department of Public Works Pontiac Annex, a piece of property near Telegraph and Golf.

The animal welfare officer reportedly used a live trap to catch two of the feral cats in the center’s cat room. But in the process, Gallagher said, unbeknownst to the animal welfare officer, Cleo entered the cat room through an open door and later made her way into the live trap.

Because all of the cats are black, Gallagher said, the animal welfare officer simply saw three black cats were captured and didn’t realize Cleo was in the trap when the trap was released.

The animal welfare officer only realized what happened after a volunteer asked where Cleo was, the officer and immediately reported it to a supervisor. The third feral cat was released separately at the same location the same day, Gallagher said.

“We sent (the officer) back up there to try to find them, and, unfortunately, (staff) can’t,” Gallagher said. “So we tried to feed them all winter long, per the law.”

Township officials also reported the incident to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, which handles the township’s licensing, and spoke to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for guidance.

“When we called the DNR and MDARD, they actually told us, ‘Those cats were your property, and you can release them if you want, as long as during the lean months you provide food and water.’ Again, that’s not what our plan was. It was a terrible decision. (The animal welfare officer) should have run it by us, but didn’t.”

After conducting an investigation, Gallagher said the animal welfare officer was disciplined, ordered to complete additional training and was written up.

He said the release of the cats was “a bad judgment call” made by a “good employee.”

“Let me be clear. It’s not a mistake that should have happened. I understand how it happened, but it shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “Unfortunately, (the staff member) made a big mistake, and we did an investigation. We held (the staff member) responsible for it and did as much as we could internally. … At some point, we just have to move on and make sure these mistakes don’t happen again.”

Since then, Gallagher said, they have stopped taking in feral cats.

“Per DNR rules and laws, cats born in the wild are wild animals, so if they are a nuisance for a homeowner or a neighborhood, we will help them and guide them on what to do, but we stopped taking them in,” he said. “My cat shelter, at one point, was overflowing.”

The township has also tightened up the shelter’s policies in response to the incident and had its employees undergo more training.

“We have to go backwards from the outcome to see how to fix it. Following our policy is how we fix it, and making sure that when we know we have these animals in our shelter for too long, there has to be a plan … Now, if we don’t have an animal relocated in 14 days, the supervisors in charge of the shelter need to know about it, and, at that point, we have to make a decision on what to do with it,” whether that is someone to adopt it, a barn to release to, or put it down. He said it all depends on the circumstances, the animal, etc.

Gallagher said his staff makes “every effort” to get the animals in the shelter adopted.

The Bloomfield Township Animal Shelter is staffed 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week. The shelter can be reached directly at (248) 433-7757 or email animalshelter@bloomfieldtwp.org.

To report a lost or found pet, for animal complaints about domestic animals or wildlife, or to report a deceased animal, call the Bloomfield Township Police Department 24/7 via the non-emergency line, (248) 433-7755.