Video captured a couple who were seen dumping a cage full of kittens in San Bernardino as temperatures reached triple digits.
On May 30, Elisabeth Lomeli was driving with a friend when she spotted a man and woman dumping the cats near a remote dirt lot near East 40th and Harrison streets.
“That’s not humane,” Lomeli told KTLA’s Shelby Nelson. “Imagine yourself sitting out there with no water, no shade.”
Lomeli recorded the incident on her cellphone. When the cats did not immediately leave, the female suspect is seen tipping the cage on its side to get the animals out.
Inside the cage were four kittens around six weeks old and an adult cat that was believed to be their mother.
Lomeli and her friend decided to pull over and confront the couple. The female suspect claimed her local shelter wouldn’t accept the cats, which prompted her to dump them. She also claimed the cats were all strays that she had taken in.
Lomeli’s friend, Kossondra Villasenor, recorded the incident on her phone. At one point, the suspects became combative, leading to a heated verbal exchange.
“You’re mad because we called you out about the cats,” Villasenor is heard saying. “You guys came to dump cats. It’s hot. This is not humane at all!”
Lomeli said she decided to take the cats instead of allowing the couple to abandon them.
“I had to run and get a box because they didn’t even want to give us the cage,” Lomeli said.
As they went to retrieve boxes from the car, the adult cat, believed to be the mother, ran away from the area. The suspects, who appeared irritated, packed up their cage and drove away.
Lomeli and Villasenor reported the incident with San Bernardino City Animal Services. An out-of-state rescue shelter has since accepted the kittens into their care.
However, the kittens’ mother remains missing. Workers with another rescue organization, Cats of San Bernardino, have been searching for the cat have had no luck in finding her.
“We’ve been going on foot, using a drone, passing out flyers,” said Jaina Spagis, director of Cats of San Bernardino. “We’ve been able to find three friendly kittens and a cat in that area while we were searching, so we believe that either someone else is dumping cats here or that couple had dumped some other cats in the area.”
Kris Watson, Director of San Bernardino City Animal Shelter, reminds the public can it is a criminal act to dump animals in public spaces.
“This is illegal abandonment of animals,” said Watson. “It is illegal to abandon any domestic animal, a cat or a dog. You could be facing prison time, high fines and/or probation.”
The San Bernardino Police Department told KTLA they have launched a criminal investigation into the incident.
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