Kelly, the blind kitten, has been targeted in Sweden by the very same authorities that in theory are supposed to protect her: the County Administrative Board, or Länsstyrelsen.
Kattjouren are the organisation trying to save Kelly’s life. They managed to contact Länsstyrelsen Kalmar to ask a few questions, and as I was going through the various answers, I noticed some serious blunders that need to be addressed immediately.
First of all, let me be very clear: Länsstyrelsen employees are not veterinarians. Just like it was before when the municipalities dealt with animal control, the people doing the inspections and evaluating the state of the animals are not vets but members of the general public who have applied for that specific job. No particular expertise required, except maybe for a tendency to anti-social, aggressive behaviour.
County Administrative Boards (Länsstyrelserna) do employ a länsveterinär, or county veterinarian, who merely deals with food control and keeps a check on veterinary activities.
In the case of Kelly and Länsstyrelsen Kalmar, the county vet did not even fully understand what Kelly’s situation was but went ahead and asked SCAW (Swedish University of Agricultural Science) for an advice which was also full of inaccuracies and confusion. (https://insamlingsstiftelsenkattjouren.se/kelly/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/SCAWs-Opinion-google-translated.pdf )
Whenever a bona fide expert with significant experience in a particular field is not called to evaluate a case, confusion inevitably ensues. Again, quite a common occurrence in Sweden to approach superficially and without having the complete picture situations calling instead for a scrupulous assessment.
Reading through the answers given by a Christina Kalberg – who is referred to as the communications manager at Länsstyrelsen Kalmar – I also detected a few more discrepancies, omissions and lies.
Kalberg begins by claiming that the County Administrative Board’s veterinarians themselves never answer questions about animals due to the risk of threats, and adds that Kelly risks living a life marked by mental suffering due to her blindness. She continues saying that: “It [Kelly] is suffering severely mentally. Both because the kitten has been separated from its mother too soon and that both eyes have been operated on at all so that it will never be able to move freely or develop a normal hunt or play behaviour.”
What veterinarians is she talking about here? The only (alleged) vets contacted by Länsstyrelsen were from SCAW. She also says that their vets (at the County Administrative Board) never answer questions due to the risk of threats. Let us assume for a moment they had qualified vets, it would be helpful and constructive if they communicated with the rest of us, mere mortals, in order to explain the reasons behind their decisions, which are often disastrous and completely unethical. Who pays their wages, after all? So much arrogance is insulting!
This is a typical behaviour of abusers, though; they ALWAYS reverse the situation so that they can play the victim card, and in this country is almost customary. If one objects to a decision made by an authority, here comes the (false) claim that there were threats involved. They consider anything a threat, by the way, even when one uses sarcasm (which they cannot understand) to convey the message. Any possible excuse is used as long as it helps to escape the responsibility of explaining their actions. Refusing to take one’s queries only shows deficiency and incompetence on behalf of these so-called authorities, and it probably is the most convenient yet spineless way of avoiding public shaming.
Quite boldly, Kalberg also makes a personal evaluation of Kelly’s state of mind, and indeed of future problems too (I guess her crystal ball must be potent) by claiming Kelly is suffering severely mentally (is she projecting here?). Goodness gracious: she could have spared us her uneducated opinion. Is she a cat behaviourist? No. Is she a veterinarian? No. Has she ever interacted with a blind animal in her life? Most likely, she has never even seen one.
She is also asked if her experts (what experts? Names and CVs, please!) have met Kelly, a question she refuses to answer. Am I reading this right? She refuses to tell the truth! Of course, there are no experts and they have never examined Kelly but poor Kalberg cannot be honest here or her job would be on the line. She continues that the decision is based on this background: what background exactly? I guess we will never know.
Perhaps the most absurd and laughable part of her statement is when she answers the following question: “Other veterinarians who have seen Kelly say that she has a normal behaviour and is otherwise healthy – why is that not enough?”
Her downright idiotic reply is: “Showing the cat in a small cage where it plays does not mean that it is otherwise well. Inside it is safe but outside it will never have a normal life”
I beg your pardon, but who shoved the kitten into a small cage to begin with? She was happily recovering in a friendly environment where she had plenty of space, love and attention when your people, in the most cruel and abusive way, snatched her away and placed her in a shelter. Kelly is such a great kitten, though, that even in her tiny cage she shows her playful nature and how happy she is to be alive.
Stating that outside she will never have a normal life is something that makes by blood boil. First of all, what idiot would let her cat living outside? If you become a cat parent, you must be prepared to keep him/her safely indoors, with everything the furry one will ever need to exercise and play always in a protected environment. This should be done for every cat, let alone when living and caring for one carrying a disability.
Please, educate yourself, Karlberg. You would not let your blind child roaming the streets alone, would you (unless you were an irresponsible parent)?
Also, cats might have outdoor activities under supervision, which should be present anyway as when we adopt either a dog or a cat (or both) we must be aware that we will be living forever with furry kids who are the equivalent of four-year-old human children.
In her defence, though, Karlberg was only repeating like a parrot what she had read in the report from SCAW by Elina Åsbjer, another unqualified individual who made the astonishing claim that “given that it is a young cat, its social behaviours risk not being able to develop normally, as this is something that the cat develops and learns from its mother and together with any littermates at a young age. This can also negatively affect the cat’s ability to connect/bond with a human and a new owner in a normal way.”
Elina Åsbjer – an administrator and epidemiologist at SCAW – is not aware that there are kitten rescues all over planet earth (but maybe on Elina’s planet they do not exist) and that disability never ever prevents both humans and animals to create lifelong bonds. Just because this woman is not capable of love and compassion and is unable to relate to others in a normal way, it does not mean that everyone else should be like her. She is the one who might need therapy to overcome her emotional problems and social inadequacy, but she is in no position to lecture anyone on this particular subject. (I can imagine how terrifying it would be for the likes of Elina Åsbjer to encounter and interact with a blind child.)
It is a shame it is a woman coming up with this rubbish, though it only takes a closer look at the way Swedish society is shaped in order to understand why such individuals exist. Giving birth to a child does not make you a mother if you are unable to nurture it.
If you are tired of reading about these mental cases obsessed with killing a healthy kitten, it would be refreshing to read what the veterinarian who is in charge of Kelly’s care had to say about the case. You will immediately understand that she has had hands-on experience in the field (something all the others loonies are lacking), and that she specialises in treating animals with disabilities, on top of having had a cat herself for 25 years who was blind.
(https://insamlingsstiftelsenkattjouren.se/kelly/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Veterinary-Certificate-by-the-veternarian-in-charge-of-Kellys-treatment.pdf)
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury: I rest my case.
#SAVEKELLY
