Transcript
Prison Cats Cry for Help Shaky is a black-and-white cat with no eyes and two broken hind legs. He has difficulty walking and constantly trembles. He lives on the yard of a maximum security prison. There are more than 100 feral cats living within the fences of Kirkland Correctional Institution, a state-run prison in Columbia, South Carolina. These animals have committed no crimes, but they are punished every day. People kick them, throw rocks at them, dash them with steaming hot coffee, spit on them, and poison them with medications. Some cats are blind, others are maimed, and all of them are suffering. Prison is no place for a feral cat colony this large. My heart goes out to these felines. They are all serving life sentences. None have received vaccinations, and when they are sick or injured, nobody takes them to a veterinarian. I often see dead cats lying on the prison yard, but due to the large number of kittens born each year, their population continues to grow. These animals desperately need a trap-neuter-release (TNR) program, the release stage of which will set them free somewhere far away from any prison. My friends and I have contacted numerous animal shelters and TNR programs in and around Columbia, South Carolina, but we've had no luck finding help for the cats here. The situation is getting out of control. I have never seen this many cats in one place before. Will someone please help these animals?