Zeppelin Melog

Review of World League for Protection of...

They lied: our cat is FIV positive.

They lied: our cat is FIV positive.

We saw our cat on a site listing animals in need of homes. That site led us to the WLPA. We made arrangements with the coordinator, Jonine (who seemed pleasant albeit rather outspoken at that time) to visit the cats on a Sunday afternoon. Our first impression of the WLPA (Gladesville) was that it was overcrowded and disorganised, although the volunteers were clearly passionate about their work. In short, we found a cat with whom we really bonded. Throughout the process, we made clear that we were looking for an FIV negative cat, as our new cat would be joining a household with two healthy cats. Jonine and a volunteer confirmed that our prospective cat was FIV negative, much to our relief.

We later made arrangements for adoption...and that s where our problems began. Interacting with Jonine was extremely frustrating to put it mildly. On several occasions, she made plans with us which she failed to follow through on including: (1) agreeing to drop off our cat and never doing so, requiring us to travel to the Newtown shelter at short notice to collect him; (2) ignoring repeated requests for our cat s papers to be sent (we are still waiting for them a month later); and (3) supposedly arranging for a vet to attend our home on a specified day, which never eventuated (we still don t know his medical history). The latter two examples struck us odd given the harsh and almost authoritarian manner in which Jonine instructed us to properly care for our cats (including recounting a very grisly cautionary tale of a cat being eaten alive by rats, but that s a whole other story).

Eventually, we called the shelter to request our cat s papers and Jonine answered the call. She scolded us for calling the main line, stating the volunteers don t know anything about the cats . She made it very clear that we should exclusively deal with her. She then insisted that taking our cat to our regular vet was a waste of time yet insisted that her vet visit our house. Again, we were open to this option, but the vet never showed. During this lengthy and condescending lecture, Jonine mentioned in passing that our cat had not had a blood test, much to our surprise and dismay, as a blood test is required to confirm FIV status.

Frustrated and worried by this turn of events, we took our cat to our regular vet, who confirmed that he had not been recently tested and was in fact FIV positive.

Long story not-so-short, we love him and are keeping him. However, his diagnosis has left us heartbroken (I m talking tears in the car after the devastating vet visit) and in a dilemma about how to keep our three cats distanced and healthy.

For an organisation that prides itself on animal care, Jonine and the WLPA are endangering the lives of pet cats by not being honest about their rescue cats FIV status. We sincerely hope this practice does not continue and that every rescue cat at the WLPA is afforded, at the very least, a basic level of care and assessment in future.