'I regret leaving my cat there': Eastern Ontario cat rescue under investigation, allegations of abuse, neglect

A cat rescue southwest of Ottawa is under investigation after allegations of abuse, neglect and falsified medical records have surfaced.

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Taylor Toll adopted her cat Jiggy from Eastern Ontario Cats (EOC) in the community of Elgin, Ont. through PetSmart in Barrhaven back in February.

"It said that she had been spayed and had all her vaccines up-to-date and had been treated for worms," said Toll.

She quickly became part of the family, but Toll says about a month later, she realized something wasn’t right.

"I took her to the vet because I noticed she had worms and then the beginning of April, she started showing signs she was in heat and we took her to our vet again and they confirmed she was incorrectly spayed or not spayed at all," said Toll.

Toll says she was quoted thousands of dollars from her vet for exploratory surgery, so instead she reached out to the rescue.

After months of trying to contact the founder, Johanna Cake, Toll was eventually told to drop Jiggy off at her house in Elgin at the end of July, expecting the cat to be seen by a vet within a week.

"We did look in the windows and it was not a good place. It was full of cats in cages on top of each other. I didn’t want to leave her there, but I thought I would be getting her back on Friday," said Toll.

But Friday came and went. Toll says she reached back out to the founder, but her appointment date kept getting pushed back.

About two weeks ago, six cats were removed from the founder’s home after allegations surfaced that the property was vacated, and cats were left inside.

Some of the cats in the home were found in tiny cages without food or water, surrounded by urine and feces. One of the cats has since died.

"We’ve dealt with hoarding situations. This is the CEO owner of a charitable cat rescue, a charitable organization, and the conditions are unacceptable," said Juliana Lepoutre, founder of Biscuits and Purrs Cat Rescue.

Lepoutre, along with Shelley Funk, used to help run EOC as volunteers before cutting ties in February. The pair have been working to uncover the allegations after fosters and adopters started reaching out.

"We’ve been investigating this for a long time because we were very concerned about these cats and the care they were receiving. We were getting calls nonstop, which is highly unusual in a rescue," said Funk.

In a statement, Ontario's Ministry of the Solicitor General said, “The ministry can confirm that there is an active Animal Welfare Services investigation into this matter and therefore cannot provide additional information.”

The pair say other allegations have also surfaced including falsified medical records, some linked to places like PetSmart and Pet Valu.

"[There are] cats who were supposedly vaccinated and weren’t. The batch number was repeated multiple times. A vaccine comes with a sticker. It’s very easy to say if it was legit or not, she wasn’t using stickers," said Lepoutre.

“[There are] statements that cats were supposed to be microchipped, and they weren’t. Adopters would bring their kittens or cats to their vet for a health check and then discover that this cat isn’t actually spayed or isn’t actually microchipped."

Pet Valu said in August one of its stores in Ottawa received a sick kitten from the rescue that passed away after it was returned to the rescue.

It says the rescue did not provide the store with accurate information regarding the kitten’s passing.

“Recently, we became aware of several more concerning incidents involving the same rescue. All our stores that supported the rescue in the past have terminated their relationships with it,” said Tanbir Grover, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer at Pet Valu, in a statement.

PetSmart also confirmed to CTV News it has suspended the organization. 

Funk says she first started questioning the vaccine records when one of the fosters with EOC took a cat to a vet and it passed away.

"The disease that it passed from made absolutely no sense, if it had been vaccinated" she said. "I was still in communication with the director at that point of EOC and I asked her, 'Was this cat vaccinated?' she said it was double vaccinated."

"Then we actually saw the vet records of the vaccine to realize that the cat was never vaccinated."

As for Toll, she never saw Jiggy again. She says she was forced to surrender her after an appointment was never scheduled by the rescue’s founder.

CTV News reached out to Eastern Ontario Cats for comment but have not heard back.

"I loved her. She was a very sweet girl and I’m mad, I’m angry about it," said Toll.

"I regret leaving my cat there and I regret adopting a cat from them and giving them my money and just anything to do with them."