Reward Reaches Up to $6,000 in Cat-Dumping Case

PETA Joins Search for Culprit(s) Who Left Cats Sealed Inside a Plastic Tote Bag in a Parking Lot

For Immediate Release:
July 21, 2020

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

PETA is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction on cruelty-to-animals charges of the person(s) responsible for abandoning eight cats who were found in a Danville McDonald’s parking lot on Saturday afternoon. The Danville Area Humane Society has also offered a reward, bringing the total reward to up to $6,000.

The cats were found sealed tight in a plastic tote bag just before 3:30 p.m. The good Samaritans who found them rushed them to the Danville Area Humane Society, where they were treated for heat exhaustion and dehydration.

Seven of the cats—a 6-month-old white cat, a white mother cat with four white kittens, and a 1-year-old gray tabby—have recovered and will be available for adoption on Friday. The eighth cat, a 6-month-old with tortoiseshell fur, is still recovering.

“These cats could have been taken directly to the animal shelter for a chance at finding a loving home, but instead, they were sealed up like garbage and left to suffocate in the summer sun,” says PETA Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “PETA urges anyone who recognizes the cats to come forward immediately so that whoever is responsible for abandoning them can be held accountable.”

Anyone with information should call the Danville Area Humane Society at 434-799-0843.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.