By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
A WOMAN in an emotional battle with Geelong Animal Welfare Society over her missing cat is further traumatised after an unrelated bashing this week.
The fight with GAWS had already left Corio’s Lyndal Gill and her family deeply upset and “publicly humiliated” amid accusations of lying, she told the Independent.
Then on Wednesday morning three men of African appearance bashed Ms Gill after she asked them to move their parked car so a school bus could collect her disabled son, she said.
The men drove off after the attack, leaving her battered and bruised on the ground outside her home.
Corio Police said it was following a number of leads to identify the men, while Geelong’s council confirmed it had launched an investigation into the GAWS dispute.
Ms Gill said GAWS had sold her cat, a rare pure-bred ragdoll named Sirus, even though she produced photographic evidence of her ownership.
“This has been extremely upsetting in a multitude of ways, to be accused and treated like a criminal, and has left me unwell and stressed.
“We’ve been the target of insinuations, aggression, rudeness, false accusations and public humiliation.
“We’ve suffered extreme duress and the loss of our much-loved family cat due to mismanagement of this whole situation.
“The injustice of this behaviour and decision has deeply affected my family.”
Ms Gill said the family bought the cat through website Gumtree in early 2011 when Sirus was aged nine months.
He went missing in December and the family searched extensively to find him, she said.
Earlier this month Ms Gill saw Sirus on a GAWS Facebook post offering him for adoption. She then went to GAWS’ Pt Henry Rd facility to claim her cat.
Ms Gill said she visually identified Sirus and he responded to her calling him but GAWS staff claimed they had information he had been stolen and refused to release the cat.
While in a heated debate with GAWS staff over Sirus’s ownership, Ms Gill said a council ranger accused her of having a dog removed from her property due to animal welfare concerns. Ms Gill said she never owned a dog.
“It was clearly mistaken identity but the ranger was so rude and aggressive. We were humiliated in front of the other people in the reception area at GAWS.
“We were told to leave without our cat, as there was nothing further to discuss.
“I later received a voicemail message from GAWS saying the cat had been sold to another adoption applicant.”
Ms Gill wished she had microchipped Sirus so she could have avoided the saga.
“But that doesn’t mean we can be treated like this. We’ll continue to follow this up because if GAWS is deceptively obtaining animals and selling them it has to be stopped.”
Councillor Kylie Fisher said the situation was serious and now the subject of a council investigation.
“To on-sell a cat in an ownership dispute is really wrong. I’d be distraught if it happened to me because pets are part of the family,” Cr Fisher said.
“Lyndal has not been given the opportunity to prove ownership. As a third person, I want to believe Lyndal and I want to believe GAWS is doing the right thing.
“I know there’s been human error involved in the past with the identification of cats. If nothing else, this services to illustrate why all cats need to be microchipped so this can’t happen.”
Cr Fisher said the investigation aimed to “get to the bottom of what’s happened” because a reunion of Ms Gill and her cat was still possible.
GAWS operations manager Lara Hookham said Ms Gill was unable to provide any one of seven ways of identifying her cat.
“Without proof of ownership we can’t just give a cat to anyone,” Ms Hookham said.
“This is under investigation and we’re working with council to resolve the dispute.”
Ms Hookham said Sirus had been “rehomed” but the new owner was aware his ownership was still in dispute.
“There’s nothing out of the ordinary and we’re just following processes. I can understand the emotion attached to this but we just have to work through it.”
Ms Hookham said the dispute was a “perfect example” of why responsible cat owners needed to update animal records or risk “heart-breaking circumstances”.
GAWS was constantly trying to manage disputes over animal ownership and was working on introducing an intermediary process, she said.
