After Happy Cat fire on Long Island, volunteers scramble to find care, shelter for more than 200 cats
One day after the founder of a Suffolk County cat sanctuary and as many as 100 cats in his care died in a raging Medford house fire, volunteers were busily trying to arrange for shelter and medical assistance for upward of 200 feline survivors.
Calling it “a horrible tragedy,” Suffolk SPCA Chief Roy Gross said Tuesday the agency was coordinating efforts, telling Newsday: “We had a meeting last night with some of the rescue groups and right now we’re just trying to line up shelters and animal hospitals where surviving cats can be evaluated, tested, treated and transported to safe locations.”
Gross said the SPCA’s mobile animal surgical hospital will be mobilized so staffers to help with evaluations and emergency care. The unit was first used to help care for search-and-rescue dogs at Ground Zero in the months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
“We want to make sure the survivors are taken care of, get treatment, go to good homes,” he said. “We want to make sure resources go where they should.”
The fire Monday destroyed the home on Dourland Road in Medford that housed the Happy Cat Sanctuary and what officials said might be more than 300 previously rescued cats — some, housed inside the home; others, housed in cages and shelters elsewhere on the property.
Suffolk County police said sanctuary founder Christopher Arsenault died in the blaze. Happy Cat Sanctuary board member Lisa Jaeger said Monday that Arsenault died after reentering the home in an attempt to save cats trapped in the fire. Police said Arsenault’s body was recovered from a back room in the home. Arsenault, 65, founded Happy Cat in 2007 — a year after his son, Eric, then 24, died in a motorcycle accident.
“This was obviously a major tragedy,” Gross said. “This guy really cared about what he was doing … He took in cats in every type of situation — abandoned, feral, ill, mistreated; all sorts of horrible situations — and he really took good care of these animals.”
On scene in Medford Tuesday, Jaeger said rescuers found 58 cats dead near the front of the destroyed home and that she believes another 50 or more cats that were caged and feral also perished in the blaze.
She said officials believe there are at least 150 cats still secured on the property while another 50 or more escaped into nearby wooded areas. She and other volunteers were working to secure the backyard so those animals could be rounded up and assisted as soon as possible.
Jaeger said Happy Cat was working with volunteers from several rescue groups, including Strong Island Animal Rescue, Paws of War and her own Jaeger’s Run Animal Rescue, and said their plan was to move cats that had been recovered or trapped for rescue to a warehouse in Holbrook, where they could be evaluated, cataloged, treated and vaccinated.
Gross told Newsday that would likely be done in coordination with the SPCA’s mobile surgical unit.
Meanwhile, at least a dozen cats sat meowing in a window frame in the charred remains of the home Tuesday — that as the Town of Brookhaven allowed rescue groups on-site access to search and round up surviving cats from the property.
“After we get all the cats out of here, then we’re going to start setting traps in the neighborhood to try and pull the rest of them out,” Jaeger said.
In the immediate aftermath of the fire Monday, one group, North Fork Country Kids Rescue, took in six cats saved from the sanctuary site, according to Virginia Scudder, who runs the Aquebogue-based organization. Those cats were being sheltered Tuesday at the Mattituck-Laurel Veterinary Hospital, she said. Cats rescued from Happy Cat need to be revetted and reassessed — then tested for diseases like feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and leukemia before officials can determine where they might be placed, Scudder said.
Scudder said more than 50 applicants have come forward seeking to adopt the displaced cats. She hopes more will follow.
Suffolk police arson investigators and Brookhaven Fire Marshals continued their investigation into the cause of the fire but have not detailed any preliminary findings.
While Brookhaven spokesman Drew Scott said the town had “numerous” prior violations against the property, he said Arsenault had worked with the town to come into compliance.
Happy Cat and Arsenault were in the midst of a move to a brand new facility on a 30-acre farm in Canajoharie, in upstate Montgomery County.
“That only adds to a tragic situation,” Gross said, “that this man devoted his life to the care of these animals, every penny he had going to the care of these cats … He did a great job, the best he could do — and these animals, he elevated them above himself. He gave his life for them.”
One day after the founder of a Suffolk County cat sanctuary and as many as 100 cats in his care died in a raging Medford house fire, volunteers were busily trying to arrange for shelter and medical assistance for upward of 200 feline survivors.
Calling it “a horrible tragedy,” Suffolk SPCA Chief Roy Gross said Tuesday the agency was coordinating efforts, telling Newsday: “We had a meeting last night with some of the rescue groups and right now we’re just trying to line up shelters and animal hospitals where surviving cats can be evaluated, tested, treated and transported to safe locations.”
Gross said the SPCA’s mobile animal surgical hospital will be mobilized so staffers to help with evaluations and emergency care. The unit was first used to help care for search-and-rescue dogs at Ground Zero in the months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
“We want to make sure the survivors are taken care of, get treatment, go to good homes,” he said. “We want to make sure resources go where they should.”
The fire Monday destroyed the home on Dourland Road in Medford that housed the Happy Cat Sanctuary and what officials said might be more than 300 previously rescued cats — some, housed inside the home; others, housed in cages and shelters elsewhere on the property.
Suffolk County police said sanctuary founder Christopher Arsenault died in the blaze. Happy Cat Sanctuary board member Lisa Jaeger said Monday that Arsenault died after reentering the home in an attempt to save cats trapped in the fire. Police said Arsenault’s body was recovered from a back room in the home. Arsenault, 65, founded Happy Cat in 2007 — a year after his son, Eric, then 24, died in a motorcycle accident.
“This was obviously a major tragedy,” Gross said. “This guy really cared about what he was doing … He took in cats in every type of situation — abandoned, feral, ill, mistreated; all sorts of horrible situations — and he really took good care of these animals.”
On scene in Medford Tuesday, Jaeger said rescuers found 58 cats dead near the front of the destroyed home and that she believes another 50 or more cats that were caged and feral also perished in the blaze.
She said officials believe there are at least 150 cats still secured on the property while another 50 or more escaped into nearby wooded areas. She and other volunteers were working to secure the backyard so those animals could be rounded up and assisted as soon as possible.
Jaeger said Happy Cat was working with volunteers from several rescue groups, including Strong Island Animal Rescue, Paws of War and her own Jaeger’s Run Animal Rescue, and said their plan was to move cats that had been recovered or trapped for rescue to a warehouse in Holbrook, where they could be evaluated, cataloged, treated and vaccinated.
Gross told Newsday that would likely be done in coordination with the SPCA’s mobile surgical unit.
Meanwhile, at least a dozen cats sat meowing in a window frame in the charred remains of the home Tuesday — that as the Town of Brookhaven allowed rescue groups on-site access to search and round up surviving cats from the property.
“After we get all the cats out of here, then we’re going to start setting traps in the neighborhood to try and pull the rest of them out,” Jaeger said.
In the immediate aftermath of the fire Monday, one group, North Fork Country Kids Rescue, took in six cats saved from the sanctuary site, according to Virginia Scudder, who runs the Aquebogue-based organization. Those cats were being sheltered Tuesday at the Mattituck-Laurel Veterinary Hospital, she said. Cats rescued from Happy Cat need to be revetted and reassessed — then tested for diseases like feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and leukemia before officials can determine where they might be placed, Scudder said.
Scudder said more than 50 applicants have come forward seeking to adopt the displaced cats. She hopes more will follow.
Suffolk police arson investigators and Brookhaven Fire Marshals continued their investigation into the cause of the fire but have not detailed any preliminary findings.
While Brookhaven spokesman Drew Scott said the town had “numerous” prior violations against the property, he said Arsenault had worked with the town to come into compliance.
Happy Cat and Arsenault were in the midst of a move to a brand new facility on a 30-acre farm in Canajoharie, in upstate Montgomery County.
“That only adds to a tragic situation,” Gross said, “that this man devoted his life to the care of these animals, every penny he had going to the care of these cats … He did a great job, the best he could do — and these animals, he elevated them above himself. He gave his life for them.”
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