Humane Society

Re “Humane Society Ordered to Return Cats to Woman,” March 5.

Before joining the inevitable rush to judgment against the Ventura County Humane Society for its perceived persecution of a cat owner, anyone interested should visit the shelter in Ojai and view the hundreds of documented cases of real cruelty in which the society has intervened.

Obviously a mistake was made and the cats should never have been seized. Living in a house with 30 cats should indicate the need for cat licensing, not seizure!

Now that the Humane Society again has space to house animals in real need, let us hope and pray that their activities will not be hamstrung by one error in judgment and the resultant bad publicity.

At the shelter is what can only be described as a wall of shame--pictures of all the abused animals that have been rescued: starving horses almost too weak to stand, dogs that have spent their lives on short chains without protection from heat or cold, litters of unwanted puppies discarded in sacks, farm animals standing deep in filth, battered dogs and horses with open wounds and running sores . . . .

Cruelty does exist in our county, and the Humane Society is our first line of defense--often the only one the animals have. One mistake fades in comparison with all that the society has done and will have to do in the future. They need and deserve our support.

ELISABETH ARVIN, Ojai