Lancaster S.P.C.A

Lancaster S.P.C.A. SPCA SCAM Lancaster, Pennsylvania

3rd of Jun, 2011 by User295200

-UNBELIEVABLE- It's amazing. All I wanted to do was find another companion after my 13 year old cat Bailey passed away from cancer. The Lancaster SPCA came to mind immediately since this is where Bailey came from. We (Me, my wife and my son), visited this shelter on April 29 of this year. We found two cats that we fell in love with. One, a 7 month old female, named Lilak, and an 8 week old male kitten. We had come prepared with our cat cage and wanted to take both cats home that day. And, after both cats being tested negatively for FELV/FIV, we thought we could take them home. We were told however, that they would both need to be spayed/neutered before we could take them home. We also told the shelter that we do not believe any living thing should be implanted with a microchip. We were told that our wishes would be honored, but found when we picked up our pets that this request was not honored. We arrived Tuesday to pick up our new pets, only to find that neither of them had the surgery. The 7 month old cat came down with a respiratory infection over the weekend, and they told us that the 8 week old was too young for surgery. Why didn't they just let us take the pets home on Friday? So, we had to set-up another appointment to get the cats spayed/neutered later in the month. This is tough for us as we are a working family, and the shelter is about 30 miles away. Needless to say, the very next day the kitten got sick too. The kitten got so sick that by the next weekend, we had spent over $200 dollars in Vet bills. Keep in mind that neither of these cats appeared sick in any way when we decided to adopt them. The 7 month old cat got well and was back to perfect health in only about a week. The 8 week old kitten, however, remained extremely sick. The 7 month old got her shots at the vet and a very good report from our vet. One week before the surgery was scheduled, we called the SPCA both to let them know that the 8 week old kitten was too sick for surgery, and also wondered if they really wanted us to drop off Lilak on May 30, as this would be Labor Day. They informed us that they would be closed that day, and would move the surgery up to Wednesday, and we could drop off Lilak on Tuesday, and pick her up Thursday. After work Tuesday, I took a perfectly healthy, now 8 month old cat to the SPCA to be spayed. I had a really bad feeling about the SPCA by this point, and even questioned whether we should take her to our vet and forfeit the $50.00 deposit. I was further horrified when the SPCA called me that Tuesday while on my way to their shelter asking me why Lilak had not been dropped off Monday. When I asked if they had been open yesterday, and told them it had been rescheduled for today, I got about 15 seconds of silence before they realized that I really am a responsible pet owner. Thursday, while at work, I got a call from the SPCA's vet. He told me that Lilak was way too sick to have surgery, and that he was next to positive that she had FIP. This was the virus that she had already tested negatively for, remember. This vet managed to talk my wife and me into signing the cat back over to the SPCA so that she could receive proper care. Since we were in total disarray and shock, we agreed. I stopped in after work Thursday, and signed over Lilak to the SPCA. I had a verbal agreement with them, that if her condition changed, that they should call us because we had become very attached to this cat. Thinking about the whole situation at work, I concluded that I really didn't want my family to have to watch another cat die, as they had to see Bailey pass away just a month earlier. Upon thoughts and conversation with my family Thursday night, we decided that we would rather see Lilak die happily with us in our home rather than at the SPCA. I called the next day (Friday) and left a message on their answering machine letting them know that we wanted the cat back. After leaving the message, my wife and I both tried to call dozens of times with no one answering the phone. Another thing we all did Friday was to do some research on FIV. We all thought it strange that a perfectly healthy cat was on her death bed and only had a few weeks, at most to live. The only symptom that Lilak had was the fluid around her stomach that the SPCA's vet claimed she had. I really doubted this diagnosis as Lilak had an incredible appetite, was very playful, loving and had no other symptoms whatsoever. Saturday (today, June 4), my wife called the SPCA (she was using the speakerphone). She got a hold of someone and asked if we could have Lilak. The person at the other end of the phone said "yes, she's in great health and is ready to be adopted at any time." My wife, perplexed, asked again, are you sure we are talking about the same cat? The lady on the phone said, "do you mean the 8 month old buff/white colored posted on the Internet?" The lady then described where Lilak was found, which, strangely enough was where our cat was found, and even had the name of Lilak. My wife said "yes, that's her," but before the lady could say anything else, we heard someone in the background saying "no, no, no." We were then put on hold. After about 3 minutes, we were told that, "oh, I'm sorry, you brought that cat in and she has FIV." We then asked if we could take her home to die peacefully, and again got put on hold. After about two minutes more they told us they would need to call their vet and ask him, since he was not there on Saturday's, and they would call us back. In less than 60 seconds, we were called back, and told that Lilak had just passed late Friday night. At this point my suspicions had finally gotten the best of me, and I went online and looked at the cats that were up for adoption. Sure enough, there was Lilak. Believe me, I know that cat. We then proceeded to the SPCA to demand our cat back. When they learned who we were, we got nothing but the run around. They even made us go outside of the buildings to speak to us. They insisted that Lilak had died last night. I assured them that this could all be remedied if I could simply see her dead body. They refused. I insisted that I could handle seeing a dead cat and no matter what I did, the answer was no. I asked 4 different people about Lilak on the Internet, they all confirmed that the Internet photo was indeed Lilak, but that it must have gotten up there by accident. I know that when we picked up Lilak that her profile had been taken off the Internet, because I wanted my sister to see what she looked like. I found that the profile was gone once we adopted her. When I questioned them about this, again, they insisted it was a glitch with their Internet site. At this point I was furious, and had to leave before someone got hurt. I never told them that I am an I.T. person, and that their story was absolute BULL! I never got a chance to tell them that I knew the pictures were new photos, and the collar she had on was a different color than the one we had, the one in the photo of her before we adopted her. I never got the chance to let them know that I knew the posting was new. The webpage had her listed as 8 months (it said 7 months before we adopted her), and when I checked the HTML code on the webpage, this was a non updating field. When we got home, Lilak's profile had already been taken off the Internet. Good thing I saved the page, and all the info and fields to prove this was a new posting. It's amazing how we never got a straight story. We caught them in lie after lie. I'm sure they have re-adopted her. Why would everyone know the cat we were referring to when we first called in? What is this place trying to do? I really don't get it. I knew there was something sinister about this place, I had such a strong feeling about it. But what do they really have to gain by conducting their business like this? I JUST REALLY DON'T GET IT!

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