A week-old kitten at the New York City pound was cleared for adoption and ready to be picked up by her new owner — and then she was suddenly euthanized, The Post has learned.
Peanut Butter, an orange tabby, was brought to Brooklyn’s Animal Care Center just before noon Saturday and internal notes showed she was in good condition and free of any obvious maladies, said Guardian Angel Nancy Sliwa, who helped coordinate the adoption.
“She was observed to be ‘active, crawling and vocal.’ She weighed 4.4 oz., well within the normal range for a 1 week old kitten. Her lungs were clear, no eye or ear discharge was noted and her skin was free of parasites,” Sliwa wrote in a Facebook post. “For a stray kitten that is a fantastic condition to be in.”
The city-run pound, which receives millions in taxpayer dollars, has a policy against keeping neonatal kittens overnight because the babies require around-the-clock care and it doesn’t have the staff to keep up. Around 2 p.m., it sent out Peanut Butter’s story to rescue groups and urged an adoption so the kitten could make it out alive before the shelter closed at 6 p.m., Sliwa said.
A fellow Guardian Angel and expert cat rescuer agreed to care for the kitten at the anti-crime group’s Brooklyn headquarters, which currently houses two other rescue felines, and Sliwa got the green light for the adoption around 4:30 p.m.
She was told the kitty was “prepped and ready to go,” but when she was just 15 minutes away from the East New York shelter, she received a text message saying, “They just killed her.”
“It just stops you in your tracks, like, what just happened here?” Sliwa told The Post.
ACC staff sent an email to Sliwa, which has been reviewed by The Post, giving a vague explanation of what happened.
“With deepest regrets, I must report that Peanut Butter was just reexamined by our Vet and the decision has been made to euthanize,” the email read.
“They’ve struggled all day to get PB’s temperature up and she was not eating and declining. Thank you so very much for working on her.”
Sliwa said the decision “just doesn’t make any sense,” and the cat-mom-to-be who was ready to welcome Peanut Butter was “crushed” when she heard the news.
“What would’ve been worse, just giving the cat a chance or just putting it down? I was willing to give the cat a chance,” Sliwa railed.
“They had nothing to lose in that situation by just handing over the kitten, like, let me give a go at this because clearly you don’t have the staff to make this happen. I understand that, but what’s the problem with letting us do it?” she went on.
“They’re tasked with saving animals and in less than five hours, they killed this kitten. That should seem to go against the philosophy of what they’re getting money for in the first place.”
The ACC did not immediately return a request for comment.