Pact forces removal of cats from no-kill shelter

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Cats are leaving a no-kill shelter in Cape Girardeau County as part of an agreement signed earlier this month.

More than 40 cats were taken from the Safe Harbor facilities near Jackson on Saturday to be sent to licensed shelter and rescue facilities, as a consent judgment approved Friday by Circuit Judge Michael Gardner stipulates.

A spokesperson from the the office of Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said in an email to the Southeast Missourian Thursday the agreement was negotiated to protect the well-being of animals in the custody of the shelter's former director, Alice Wybert, and the shelter.

The agreement also negates a trial in the matter.

Koster's office, in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Agriculture, filed a case against Wybert and the shelter in October, alleging violations of the Animal Care Facilities Act in 2013 and 2014, including failures to take sick animals to a veterinarian for diagnosis and treatment; maintain health records for the animals; follow cat housing requirements; maintain clean housing facilities; and properly identification of the animals.

Mediation in the case followed a March request by Koster to have the shelter's animals removed, citing a "substantial ongoing risk to their health and welfare," according to a news release. The release said 31 of the facility's cats died since Oct. 31. In November, shelter board members said violations had been corrected. In January, the shelter had more than 200 animals on the premises.

The judgment, according to court documents, will relieve the shelter and Wybert of liability for the violations, but allows the state to pursue further action if stipulations go unmet.

For her part, the agreement requires Wybert to withdraw from all activities associated with Safe Harbor aside from soliciting donations of food and other animal-support items and delivering donations to the facilities. The judgment prohibits Wybert from owning, operating, volunteering, being employed by, assisting or managing any entity that requires a state license under the Animal Care Facilities Act.

Wybert owns the property that holds Safe Harbor and plans to retain it, she said Tuesday.

The shelter must remove all cats from the facility by a 60-day deadline that falls near the end of July. The cats must be transferred to licensed shelter or rescue facilities, according to the agreement. The shelter is not allowed to adopt out cats to the public. The shelter also must send recently prepared health certificates with the cats and provide records to the agriculture department.

Safe Harbor, run by a not-for-profit board, must sanitize facilities, apply for a new animal-care license and meet certain requirements during the application process. Before a 90-day inspection period ends, the shelter is required to develop an agriculture department-approved protocol for conditioning new animals to its facilities that will reduce stress and identify and treat illnesses, and must limit the exposure of healthy cats to disease brought by new arrivals.

The shelter also must create a process for accurate recordkeeping for life and medical status and treatment of cats, work cooperatively with the department to identify and resolve potential rule violations and set a standard for evaluation of the shelter. The number of cats allowed at the shelter's facilities also is limited.

The shelter can adopt out dogs, but cannot accept dogs until after a new license is issued.

The shelter, if unable to comply after the 90-day period, must shut down, will have its probationary license revoked, and the agriculture department will take custody of the animals.