Anti Cat Watch

10 Cats Infected. Raw Pet Food Still Legal. Between December 2024 and September 2025, Los Angeles County recorded a cluster of 10 cat H5N1 infections — 9 confirmed, 1 suspected. The infections were traced to three sources: raw milk, raw pet food, and raw meat. Multiple cats died. Over 130 feline H5N1 cases have been confirmed nationally. The contaminated products included Monarch Raw Pet Food, which was confirmed to contain live H5N1 virus, and Northwest Naturals 2-lb Feline Turkey Recipe. A second cluster emerged in September 2025 with the B3.13 genotype circulating in US dairy cows. Despite this, raw pet food remains legal and widely available. CIDRAP: LA Cat H5N1 Deaths Prompt Warning About Raw Pet Food What Raw Pet Food Is Raw...

Cat From the Sky On November 19, 2025, at 8:17 a.m., Melissa Schlarb, 28, was driving on US-74 in Swain County, North Carolina, on her way from Robbinsville to her job as a bank teller in Cherokee. A bald eagle flying overhead dropped a cat through her windshield. The windshield shattered. The cat was dead. Schlarb was not injured. Her 911 call: "I just had a bald eagle drop a cat through my windshield." NBC News: Bald Eagle Drops Cat Through North Carolina Windshield How This Happens Bald eagles are opportunistic predators and scavengers. They regularly prey on small mammals, including cats. An adult bald eagle has a wingspan of up to 7.5 feet and talons capable of exerting 400 pounds per square inch of gripping force. They carry...

Hawaii's New Cat Sterilization Mandate House Bill 1736, introduced in the 2026 Hawaii legislative session, would require every cat over five months old in the state to be sterilized. Intact cats would be prohibited from being imported into Hawaii, with limited exceptions for licensed breeders and cat shows. Violations could carry fines of up to $1,000 per animal. A companion bill, HB 1594, would require documentation of sterilization for any cat or dog imported into the state. The bills are backed by the Hawaiian Humane Society, the American Bird Conservancy, and the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources. Hawaii Tribune-Herald: Bills Seek to Rein in Free-Roaming Cat Population Why Hawaii Hawaii's native wildlife evolved...

One Cat for Every Five Residents American Canyon is a city of 22,000 people in Napa County, California. It has between 1,500 and 4,400 feral cats. At the high estimate, that is one feral cat for every five residents. The American Canyon Community Cats Corporation, a nonprofit formed in 2023, has trapped, neutered, and returned or adopted out over 1,000 cats. The feral population has not meaningfully declined. Why TNR Is Not Working Napa County has one low-cost spay/neuter clinic. Appointment availability is chronically insufficient. The volunteer-run nonprofit can only process cats as fast as the veterinary infrastructure allows, which is nowhere near fast enough to outpace reproduction. A single unsterilized female produces an...

KitKat Is Dead. Waymo Lied. On October 27, 2025, shortly before midnight, a Waymo autonomous vehicle killed KitKat, a bodega cat known as the "mayor of 16th Street" in San Francisco's Mission District. KitKat had lived outside Randa's Market for six years. The neighborhood loved him. Waymo's initial statement: "A cat darted under our vehicle as it was pulling away." Surveillance video told a different story. What the Camera Showed Footage from Randa's Market cameras, first published by the New York Times and later obtained by Mission Local, showed: A woman crouching near the vehicle's front right tire, attempting to move KitKat away from the car. KitKat was positioned under the vehicle for approximately 25 seconds before the car...

Exotic Cats Loose in Baltimore On December 5, 2025, two African serval cats named Tazz and Meek escaped from the home of Brandon Haw, a former NFL safety, into the streets of Reservoir Hill, Baltimore. It was snowing. The servals — wild African cats that can weigh up to 40 pounds and run 50 miles per hour — were loose in a residential neighborhood. Maryland law prohibits keeping servals as pets. Haw claimed them as "comfort pets." The Capture Baltimore Animal Control captured one serval. Haw captured the other himself. Both animals were seized and relocated to a sanctuary in Hartford, Alabama. Haw was fined. The incident lasted several hours. Residents reported seeing the large, spotted cats sprinting through the snow-covered...

Sporothrix brasiliensis: The Cat-Borne Super Fungus Brazil is in the grip of the world's largest sporotrichosis epidemic, and cats are the primary transmission vector. The fungus responsible, Sporothrix brasiliensis, spreads through bites, scratches, and contact with wound discharge from infected cats. It causes painful, ulcerating skin lesions in humans that can take months to heal and, in immunocompromised individuals, can become systemic and fatal. The fungus has now spread beyond Brazil to Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and the United Kingdom. How Cats Spread It Unlike other forms of sporotrichosis, which are transmitted through soil and plant matter, S. brasiliensis has adapted to spread directly from animal to animal and animal...

Raw Milk Killed Two Cats and Blinded a Third Joseph Journell, 56, of San Bernardino, California, believed raw milk had "superior immunity and healing properties." He gave it to his 14-year-old tabby cat, Alexander, hoping it would help the aging animal gain weight. Alexander died on Thanksgiving Day 2024. Two days later, his 4-year-old tuxedo cat, Tuxsie, died too. A third cat, Big Boy, age 4, was hospitalized for a week. He tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza. He survived, but came home blind and paralyzed in his back legs. He is still recovering. A fourth cat, Cleo, did not drink the milk. She remained healthy. The milk came from Raw Farm LLC of Fresno, California. It was later recalled after testing positive for H5N1. PBS...

180 Cats, a Mansion, and Federal Fraud Charges Elizabeth Fischer of Wildwood, Missouri, was charged federally in May 2025 with access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. The charges did not stem from her cat hoarding. They stemmed from what she did to fund it. Fischer stole over $23,000 from her 79-year-old mother using credit cards. She continued using the cards after her mother died. She also sold her father's wedding ring, class ring, and gold watch at a pawn shop for $7,800. Meanwhile, over 180 cats were discovered living in the family's 5,700-square-foot mansion in Wildwood. When authorities removed the cats from the mansion, Fischer was later found hoarding more cats at an Airbnb at a separate location. FOX 2 St...

43 Counts. Second Time. In October 2025, Suzette Kay Stocker, 77, of 218 East Woodland Avenue in Ottumwa, Iowa, was charged with 43 counts of animal cruelty after 45 cats were seized from her home. The smell of the residence could be detected from the roadway. The interior was covered in bugs, feces, and urine. Officers described conditions as uninhabitable. Four of the seized cats were pregnant. All four litters born in shelter care subsequently died due to health damage inflicted by the conditions in Stocker's home. The kittens never had a chance. In 2017, Stocker was charged with 18 counts of animal cruelty in a nearly identical case. She was convicted. She served her sentence. She went home and did it again. KTVO: Ottumwa Woman...

22 Dead Cats in Morgan City On March 18, 2025, Morgan City police entered the home of Sheri Hite, 71, on McDermott Drive after neighbors reported perishable items piling up at her front door and a smell of decomposition strong enough to notice from the street. Inside, officers found 22 dead cats. Fourteen were stuffed in the freezer. Eight were in various locations throughout the house. Hite told police she had been picking up stray cats from Baton Rouge — over 90 miles away — "to care for them." She was charged with 23 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals. KLFY: Morgan City Woman Arrested After 14 Dead Cats Found in Freezer What "Caring For Them" Looked Like Twenty-two dead cats. No veterinary records. No functioning animal...

73 Cats in a U-Haul. No Food. No Water. No Light. On November 7, 2025, authorities in Tacoma, Washington opened a U-Haul truck parked at a Motel 6 on South 76th Street. Inside they found 73 cats. Ten were dead. At least one had been partially consumed by the surviving animals. The rest were emaciated, dehydrated, covered in feces and urine, with no food, no water, and no ventilation. Officers who examined individual cats reported they "felt no flesh between the skin and skeleton." The truck belonged to Naomi Erma Harrison, 39. The Charges Harrison was charged with 10 counts of first-degree animal cruelty and one count of second-degree animal cruelty. First-degree animal cruelty in Washington carries up to five years in prison and a...

Cat Ignites Apartment Fire in Greensburg, Displaces Four Families On February 19, 2026, a cat jumped onto a kitchen stove in a ground-floor apartment at the 200 block of East Pittsburgh Street in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. The burner ignited. The fire spread. Two other cats in the unit died. Four families were displaced from the four-unit building. A nanny-cam captured the entire thing. Fire Chief Tom Bell confirmed the cause: "The cat jumped up on the stove, ignited the stove with the burner, and that's what started the fire." The Nanny-Cam Evidence A camera inside the apartment recorded the moment the cat landed on the stove and the burner lit. The Greensburg Police Department has the footage but will not...

Car Into Cat Rescue On August 17, 2025, a driver accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake and crashed into the ASTRO Foundation, a nonprofit cat and dog rescue in Oakdale, California. The vehicle smashed into the cage-free cat room where 15 cats and a volunteer were present. One cat, named Valeris, was killed. Six cats escaped through the hole in the wall. At least two of the escapees — Cherry and Faramir — remained missing for weeks. The volunteer was inches from the impact point. The facility had to temporarily close. CBS Sacramento: Oakdale Animal Rescue Crash Leaves Cats Missing The Impact ASTRO Foundation is a small nonprofit that operates on donations and volunteer labor. The crash destroyed a wall of the cat room...

Saskatchewan's Feral Cat Emergency It started with five cat lovers in Radisson, a small town in central Saskatchewan, noticing an increase in stray cats. By July 2025, they had formed the West Central Cat Care Program Foundation. Within five months, they had trapped, spayed, and neutered over 70 cats in the Radisson area alone. Then they looked beyond their town and realized the problem was everywhere. The Scale SOS Prairie Rescue, a shelter in Saskatoon, was so overwhelmed with cat intakes in late 2025 that it began searching for a new, larger building. The shelter's capacity had been exceeded by the sheer volume of cats arriving from communities across the province. Rural Saskatchewan — where farms, barns, and grain elevators...

The Sanctuary That Was a Graveyard In February 2025, Berkeley County Animal Control in South Carolina executed a search warrant on a property on Harriston Road in St. Stephen. The property was operating as a "cat sanctuary" run by Suzanne Marie Melton. Inside the rundown structures on the property, officers found 72 cats. Twenty-three of them were dead. Of the 49 cats found alive, 10 were in such deteriorated condition that they had to be euthanized. In total, 33 cats died as a direct result of Melton's "sanctuary." Melton was charged with 20 counts of inhumane treatment of animals. Count On 2: Dozens of Cats Recovered from Berkeley County Home The Word "Sanctuary" A sanctuary implies refuge. Safety. Professional care. In the cat...

69 Cats Alive. 28 in the Freezer. In May 2025, the Suffolk County SPCA executed a search warrant at the home of Stephen Glantz, 75, in Bohemia, Long Island, New York. Inside they found 69 living cats and 28 dead cats. Twenty-four of the dead cats were stacked in his freezer. Four more were found decomposing elsewhere in the house. The ammonia levels inside the home were so high that the building was condemned on the spot. The Conditions The surviving cats had upper respiratory infections, severe eye disease, and urine scalding on their skin. Several were pregnant. Three cats were in such advanced stages of illness that they had to be euthanized immediately. The rest were taken into emergency shelter care. Glantz was charged with...

A Man Died Trying to Save His 300 Cats From a Fire He Never Should Have Had At 7:15 AM on March 31, 2025, fire broke out at a house on Dourland Road in Medford, Long Island. Inside were 300 cats and one man: Chris Arsenault, 65, the founder of Happy Cat Sanctuary. By the time firefighters contained the blaze, Arsenault was dead and at least 150 cats had burned alive. Arsenault went in and out of the burning structure pulling cats to safety. Then he went in one more time and did not come out. A Sanctuary Built on Grief Arsenault created Happy Cat Sanctuary roughly 20 years earlier, after his son was killed in a motorcycle crash. He funneled his grief into rescuing cats. He lived in an 8-by-10-foot bedroom at the back of the property...

Stray Cat Bite Triggers Flesh-Eating Bacteria in 76-Year-Old Bakersfield Woman Nadia Watson was doing what millions of Americans do: feeding stray cats outside her home in Bakersfield, California. In August 2025, one of those cats got startled and bit her just below her right knee -- the same knee where she had a total knee replacement 18 years earlier. She wiped the wound with an alcohol pad and moved on with her day. Weeks later, she was fighting for her life. The Infection That Moves an Inch a Minute Watson's leg turned red, swelled up, and became impossible to bend. She went to the emergency department at Adventist Health Bakersfield on August 12, 2025. Dr. Timothy Galan drained her knee and started antibiotics. Two days later...

Seventy-Two Cats Seized From Biohazard Homes in Ashtabula County, Ohio On May 15, 2025, an officer from the Ashtabula County Animal Protective League and a city dog warden responded to a tip about inhumane conditions at a residence in Ashtabula County, Ohio. What they found was classified as a biohazard: urine-soaked floors, overflowing litter boxes, fecal matter caked into every surface, and a flea infestation so severe that multiple cats had gone blind from untreated infections. Over 40 cats were seized that day. Twelve days later, on May 27, the same individual's second home was raided. Another 28 cats and kittens, plus three dogs, were removed from ammonia-saturated conditions. Total: 72 cats, 3 dogs, one hoarder, two condemned...