TORRANCE : Oil Refinery Criticized Over Removal of Cats
Mobil Oil Corp. is trapping and removing feral cats that roam the company’s Torrance oil refinery, despite protests from some employees and an animal rights activist.
About 50 to 100 wild cats have formed a colony on the 750-acre refinery grounds, and Mobil officials fear that the felines could trigger problems with plant machinery. So far, Mobil has trapped four cats, which were taken to an animal shelter and killed after no one adopted them.
Mobil spokesman Barry Engelberg said the welfare of the cats is the company’s priority, and that the animals were taken to a shelter in hopes they would be adopted. But officials of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals say that approach is flawed because feral cats lack the domestic traits that make for good pets.
Animal rights activist Marilyn Poblasco wants Mobil to spay or neuter the cats and move them away from dangerous equipment.
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