NC Man Faces Felony Charges after Saving 37 Death Row Cats
Edward McIrvin has done his level best to win the “Cat Guy of the Year” title. This volunteer at the Rockingham animal shelter in Reidsville, NC is facing felony charges for catnapping 37 cats slated for euthanasia.
McIrvin, who plans to turn himself in to Reidsville police on Monday, is working to find homes for all the catnap-ees.
“If I go to jail, I hope the cats are saved before then,” he said.
After breaking into the shelter and stealing the cats, McIrvin paid a veterinary hospital $5,800 to spay/neuter and board the cats for one week. The $5800 also covers adoption fees.
As of late Friday, eight of the felines had been adopted, and veterinary staff said there was a line of others waiting to adopt.
Kathe Nagy, office manager at Reidsville Veterinary Hospital, said the hospital did not want to press charges against McIrvin, but had no choice. Rockingham County contracts with the hospital for shelter space, and the cats are county property. The director of the shelter–who assisted McIrvin–may lose her job over the incident.
Like many shelters, the Rockingham regularly takes in many more cats than it can adopt out. According to Nagy, as many as 40 cats are brought in each week, and most face euthanasia.
McIrvin said Thursday he took the cats because he feared they would be euthanized. He housed them temporarily in a Greensboro office and planned to foster them.
“He did the wrong thing but for a good reason,” Nagy said. “He has a very good heart. He’s a lot of people’s hero right now.”
Nagy said many of them had overstayed the 72-hour mandatory hold period and would have been euthanized Tuesday. A total of 23 cats and 14 dogs were euthanized that day, she said.
Let Reidsville know that Edward McIrvin is a hero, not a felon:
Reidsville NC police: (336) 349-1010Rockingham County Animal Shelter
336-342-4022 or rjackson@reidsvillevet.com
[LINK: News-Record.com]
My heart breaks for this man. He obviously cares very much for animals & had the best of intentions to help those cats.
Because of his actions some have found homes that would have been dead right now.
Though I know how he went about it was not legal, I truly hope he does not get any jail time.
Especially when there are people to torture & kill cats & dogs & get nothing but probation. I hope the judge will be fair to this man.
We are purring that all those kits find forever homes before the week is up & that they don’t have to go back to that horrible place.
There should only be No-Kill shelters in this country & I wish there was a law passed like that so that those animals who find their way to the shelters are treated well, loved & helped to find their forever homes.
That’s where my hubby Feisal lives!! Oh, I do hope they’re not hard on the man! Like Oly said, people can do unbelievable things to hurt us and get nothing done to them but a slap on the hand.
How quickly he’s gotten so many adopted in a short time shows that the shelter obviously doesn’t make much effort to get them into homes. They see it as in the door, out the door and don’t care most times if you’re alive or not going out… so sad…
Don’t even get me started on what I think about this society, from the ground up, right, left, and center. But may Mr. McIrvin be blessed for his absolutely correct action, and may others take a cue from him. An action isn’t wrong just because a corrupt and immoral society says it is. We need to change the laws, policies, and the way society thinks. It should be absolutely unconscionable for ONE cat to lose his or her life for any reason other than incurable disease and chronic, untreatable pain.
Praying for those cats, and ALL cats.
PURRaise fur Mr. McIrvin – he gets my Guido 4 Paws UP award this week!!
I hope that the judge understands and he doesn’t get a huge sentence or anything. I think he should be rewarded not charged but I am not in charge…
Obviously a good-hearted man. I applaud him! As a volunteer at a no-kill rescue there are so many in need. We get hate mail from many people who want us to take thier cats in ,but as a non-profit with no donations coming in and no offer of any donation to help pay for their cats immediate care, we just can’t. There’s only two of us and we have to work full-time to pay our vet bills. Any new cat that comes in costs $100 right off the bat in tests/shots before putting it in with foster cats. I hope we can someday close the rescue because it’s no longer needed-that they all have homes. PEOPLE, GET YOUR ANIMALS FIXED!!!!! At some point people can’t expect to pass the buck on the cost of getting their pet fixed. They need to be responsible, stop the pregnancies from happening and stop expecting “someone else” to solve the problem.
We are so very glad that man is trying to save these cats, and we really hope he doesn’t get in trouble.
Right when I start to think there is nothing redeemable about us humans,a person like this comes along and makes me realize there are still good people in this world. We hope no criminal charges come out of this,I mean look,with a little more time and help,by taking these cats,several have found homes already
God Bless Him
This is one of the reasons why mom had to quit her job as a vet tech. Stupid laws that stand in the way for the greater good of the animal.
Please, does anyone have any links to the police or judicial system in Reidsville NY? I would like to send an email of support or call on behalf of Edward McIrvin. Perhaps a petition through care2.com?
VIRUS WARNING! I did an online search and found a link for the NC Reidsville police dept (Bing.com) and clicked on it. Immediately, I was informed by my antiviral program that a trojan horse had downloaded and been deleted. Instead of the Reidsville police, a bogus pharmacy page came up.
Make sure you view any link on your browser window very carefully before you click on it. This was a file embedded in the link. Obviously, someone is very pissed off with them.
Reidsville NC police: (336) 349-1010
Reidsville NC animal control (336) 349-1011
Hey! We needza to be cat chatting to da judge not ourselves… Let’s get our paws rolling in da right direcshun!
Here’s the contact details for the Rockingham County Animal Shelter so you can ask them to drop the charges. 336-342-4022 or rjackson@reidsvillevet.com
They are a small under funded shelter who also have a campaign to raise money to build an improved facility to open next year. So when you call/email them it would also be good to donate a few dollars to that. Here’s the link where you can read about it http://www.rockinghamcountyanimalshelter.org/about.cfm
Oh hang on I just read that the director in the email above may have been fired for helping…
Here’s the link to the contact us page for the vet clinic that owns the shelter
http://www.reidsvillevet.com/contactus.asp
i just called the police department and told them not to get him in trouble and they had no idea what i was talking about. i started yelling at them for trying to get him in trouble saying he was a hero and they didnt know what i was talking about.
If he was a habitual criminal that put a kitten in a microwave he wouldn’t even be facing a felony.
Instead of the shelter taking in animals it knows it can’t house and simply being a kill/dump zone and the vet hospital wasting it’s energy being a “narc” maybe they should use that energy to organize foster programs to take the weight off the shelter and provide low-cost spay/neuter…
Rockingham County sounds like it needs to stop contracting and get some outside help (can’t see the forest for the trees) and has a definate conflict of interest (ie covering their own butts).
This is NOT a shelter. It is a disposal. Adoptions? Riiiight…
IF YOU ARE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.
I agree with Bob!
And when public resources are scarce, do they really want to spend time and money prosecuting this guy?
Awwww, it breaks my heart that they are arresting this great man. He should be praised not arrested. He spent all that money because he loves the cats. I hope the law is lenient in his sentence. I know it is lenient with dog fighters.
Good point Ashley. Although since his is a much lesser crime (one would think logically) I’m sure his sentencing will be extreme (note the sarcasm). Justice is a joke