POLK COUNTY, Fla. — A Polk County woman’s pictures and videos about the living conditions of animals, specifically cats, at Polk County Animal Control have gone viral on social media and sparked debate.
“I was going there to look for a missing colony cat, not to take pictures or videos,” Natalie Scott said. “But what I saw, I just had enough. It was just awful.”
Scott said she observed that they were too hot and living in filth with no water or food.
“They looked dead. They weren’t just hot,” she said. “The babies were not anywhere near the mother. The mother was just shoved in the back of the metal crate. These are hot metal crates.”
We asked if any of the animals she saw were dead, and she said no. In fact, she said an employee did go back and check the pulse of each cat to make sure they were alive.
“Why would she have to do that if they were fine?”
The sheriff’s office oversees animal control. They let ABC Action News inside the shelter to show us what it looked like.
We were able to shoot some clips with our phone. Yes, it is hot, but that’s because it’s an open-air facility. The animals were all in crates, and there were several huge fans. Each fan was working, and they were all on.
“It’s too hot. They need AC,” said Scott.
We received the following statement from the sheriff’s office.
“The social media post regarding Polk County Animal Control is complete fiction, and we are outraged with this woman’s bald-faced lies. Our cats and dogs are housed in a kennel with thousands of square feet, a very high ceiling, huge fans and a ventilation system, and all of the animals have food, water, and shelter, as well as an on-site veterinarian. There were not, and are not, any cats in distress. Our Animal Control staff members are singularly focused on providing medical support and tender loving care to the pets in our facility, with the goal of finding each and every one of them a loving home. Perhaps the woman who was so concerned about the cats she saw there should have focused more on adopting them than trying to ‘go viral’ on social media with her lies.”
“I have hundreds and hundreds behind me as well as many rescues, so they can call me one lady all they want,” she said. “You can’t stop a community, and you can’t stop a surrounding community. It’s a firestorm going on right now. I just happened to post the pictures.”
She said they are planning a rally to push for better living conditions for the animals at the shelter. According to her, the first thing that needs to be done is to get an AC Unit inside the area where the cats and dogs are housed.
