Sinbad Loses a Leg in a Foiled Plot to Use Him and His Littermate, Sailor, as Alligator Bait in Florida

Sinbad and Sailor

"They would have been dead in another few hours, I'm sure, because they were weak. They were dehydrated."
-- Inga Hanley of Adopt A Cat Foundation

An unidentified married couple saved a pair of four-week-old kittens named Sinbad and Sailor from a fate worse than death on July 18th when they accidentally stumbled upon them trussed up with fishing line and dangling from a vessel at a boatyard in Lake Worth Beach, Florida. 

"They would have been dead in another few hours, I'm sure, because they were weak," Inga Hanley of Adopt A Cat Foundation in Lake Park told WPBF-TV of Palm Beach Gardens on July 19th. (See "Kittens Bound Together Looking for a New Home.") "They were dehydrated."

The fishing tackle was wound so tightly in fact that the front paws of black and white Sinbad and solid-black Sailor were left disjointed and swollen three times beyond normal. It is estimated that they were bound up in this inhumane manner for least forty-eight hours.

Although the staff at Paws-2 Help in West Palm Beach made a valiant effort to save Sinbad's left front leg, they came up short and were forced to amputate it on July 26th. In doing so they were forced to shave off a good portion of his fur and it is going to take considerable time for it to grow back.

They have been attempting to save Sailor's mangled paw through the use of massage therapy but that does not appear to be working. Consequently, a decision on whether or not to amputate it was scheduled to have been made on August 4th but as of this afternoon no additional information had been posted on Paws-2 Help's web site.

Sinbad and Sailor Were Forced to Endure Excruciating Pain for Days

Otherwise, Sinbad and Sailor are being treated with antibiotics and vitamins as well as being bottle-fed. They are expected to remain in the hospital for another four to five weeks and after that it is hoped that a good home can be found that will take both of them. After all that they have been through together it would be a shame to separate them.

Even more shockingly, it is theorized that a fisherman was intending to use them as bait. "They (fisherman) use them for gator bait, too. There are a lot of things people do with little kittens," Hanley told WTSP-TV of Tampa on July 21st. (See "Kittens Used as Bait.") "That's why they always tell you don't advertise free kittens in the paper because a lot of horrible things happen to them."

The only other possible culprits are juvenile miscreants. "Kids do stuff like this," Hanley told WPBF-TV in the article cited supra.

Although both the police and Animal Control have promised to look into the matter, it is a sure bet bet that neither agency has lifted so much as a lousy finger in order to bring the abusers to justice. This is substantiated by the fact that no arrests have been made in the case.

Even Hanley seems to be inured to such abuse. "It shocks me every time because you think people couldn't do such a thing, but it doesn't surprise me," she told WTSP-TV.

The Kittens' Grotesquely Swollen Front Paws  

The logical starting point in any halfway serious investigation would be to interview the owner of the boat on which the kittens were found. Nevertheless, there is absolutely nothing in the record to suggest that the authorities have done even that much.

In the unlikely event that the assailants should be apprehended, instead of letting them off with minuscule fines and harsh words the authorities should perhaps turn them over to Hanley. "I'm one of these people -- an eye for an eye -- and I would love to wrap some cord around them and hang them up for a while (to let them) see how it feels," she told WPBF-TV.

In addition to using kittens as fish and gator bait, the Australians use them in order to bait crab pots. That was the cruel fate that awaited a nine-week-old white kitten named Tinkerbelle from the Scarness section of Hervey Bay in Queensland before she was rescued on June 29th.

The niece of a woman identified by the media only as Elizabeth rescued Tinkerbelle after hearing a crabber threaten to use her as bait. By that time, however, Tinkerbelle's tail already had been chopped off and her rectum was left swollen and bleeding.

"I can't believe someone would do that. How cruel can people be? I can't imagine what the little thing went through," Elizabeth told the Fraser Coast Chronicle of Hervey Bay on July 1st. (See "Kitten Saved from Crab Pot Death.") "It's awful. I'm just mortified."

Since her fellow citizens shoot, poison, and eradicate cats en masse from islands such as Macquarie, she really should not be surprised at this latest outrage. (See Cat Defender posts of April 23, 2008, August 11, 2005, and September 21, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Australian RSPCA Sells Out by Readily Agreeing to Gun Down Charles Sturt's Defenseless Rock Cats," "Barbaric Australians Come Up with an Ingenious New Poison in Order to Exterminate Cats," and "Aussies' Mass Extermination of Cats Opens the Door for Mice and Rabbits to Wreak Havoc on Macquarie.")

They even eat them and traffic in their fur. (See Cat Defender posts of September 7, 2007 and July 14, 2008 entitled, respectively, "Australians Renounce Civilization and Revert to Savages with the Introduction of a Grotesque Plan to Get Rid of Cats by Eating Them" and "Australian Park Ranger and a Seamstress Team Up to Go into Business as Cat-Killers and Fur Traffickers.")

Tinkerbelle and Elizabeth

The Australians are, arguably, the worst cat abusers and killers on the planet with their buddies in New Zealand and South Africa not far behind them. It would have been far preferable if Queen Victoria had done the world a favor and simply allowed the entire lot of them to have rotted in High Gate.

As for Tinkerbelle, Elizabeth has thankfully agreed to give her a permanent home so hopefully all of the bad times are now behind her. "You don't mistreat them; you look after them," Elizabeth told the Fraser Coast Chronicle in the article cited supra.

From all appearances, it looks like this is the start of a love affair that is going to endure. "She's such a sweet thing," Elizabeth added. "She's very affectionate."

This case has been reported to the RSPCA but, as with Sinbad and Sailor, no arrests are expected and it is even doubtful that the matter will be investigated. On those rare occasions when arrests are made, most Australian cat abusers are let off by the courts with either minuscule fines or jail sentences of less than ninety days.

Since it is the official policy of the Australian government to either poison or shoot on sight practically all cats, it can be taken to the bank that the authorities are never going to take animal cruelty seriously. Consequently, Australia is the most dangerous place on earth for a cat to live.

Fishermen, crabbers, and alligator hunter may be laughing all the way to the bank for the time being as they appropriate defenseless kittens for their evil designs but their days of living high on the hog are numbered. Thanks to overfishing, pollution, and hunting, they have just about run out of fish, crabs, alligators, and other animals to exploit for both fun and profit.

Once all the greedy, violent, and evil people of this world have killed off the animals there is not going to be any meat left for them to eat except what is left on their wicked old bones. Bon appetit!

Photos: WJXX-TV of Jacksonville (Sinbad and Sailor), WTSP-TV (Sinbad and Sailor and their mangled paws), and Alistair Brightman of the Fraser Coast Chronicle (Tinkerbelle and Elizabeth).