Report sheds light on complaints against animal rescue

KOCHVILLE TWP., Mich. (WNEM) - A new report is shedding light on some of the complaints against a local animal shelter.

The shelter director is speaking out after the Saginaw County Sheriff’s Office seized animals from the facility last week.

Monday, March 13 marks a week since news broke that the Saginaw County Sheriff’s Office conducted a search warrant on Amazing Grace Animal Rescue in Kochville Township. Several sickly cats were taken into custody and transported to Saginaw County Animal Control.

However, Amazing Grace said the photos that have been going around online are not cats that were currently at their facility and are not the cats that were taken. They also say the cats that were taken were under treatment and no dogs were taken. The report from the inspection was released Friday, March 10. In it were reports of unsafe structures and sickly cats.

“They thought perhaps the floor in the dog kennel room needed some more sealant because any surface that would be absorbent, like a concrete floor, you put a sealant on. However, we had a treatment done to our floor a couple years ago that seals it forever. So, we don’t have to put sealant on it again. So that was an item they had on there, but we sent them the info about what we had done to it, so we don’t have to do that,” said Shawna Guiett, the director of Amazing Grace Animal Shelter. “They were concerned about some upper respiratory in the building for the cats. And that’s like a cold that a cat will have, very common and easily transmissible between cats. So, we are very conscious of that. Any rescue or shelter knows they battle that all the time, like kids with colds.”

Guiett said she is thankful for all the support within the community during this time. The shelter is closed for adoption for the week while crews continue to clean, and they plan to reopen Monday, March 20.

The investigation is still ongoing.

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