Yesterday I received an email from a lawyer that said, “Please be advised that I am Counsel for K&D Management, LLC representatives of which have referred to my attention your e-mail of Thursday, March 16, 2017 demanding that my client changed its rental policy regarding pets.”
Wrong. I never “demanded” anything! I simply and nicely asked if they would change their pet policy that requires cats to be declawed, so that it didn’t require this cat mutilation in it. (The full email that I sent K&D Properties is below)
Here is the rest of the story….
Yesterday, April 25, 2017, I got that Cease and Desist order in an email from the lawyer of a property management company in Ohio, K & D Properties.
One of my supporters had sent me a note in March 2017, telling me that an apartment complex in Ohio, http://www.668euclidave.com/index.aspx required a $300 deposit, a $20 a month cat rental fee, and also required that all the cats that lived in their apartments have to have their toes and claws amputated! (Declawed)
So I did what I usually do, and respectfully reached out to the company that owns this apartment complex in one email. (Full email listed below)
In my email, I told them about how declawing is inhumane and harmful to cat. I told them how successful I was in educating other big property management companies about declawing and when they learned about the horrific truth, these big companies took out the declaw requirement from their pet policies. I tried to inspire them to just take the humane route in dealing with their worries about cats damaging their properties.
I simply tried to inspire this big company to do the right thing and stop requiring this mutilating procedure.
I never received an email back so then I also tried to call the apartment complex management and also the corporate offices. I spoke with the people at the apartment complex twice who said they would give my info to the manager who would get back with me. They never did.
I spoke with people who answered the phones at their corporate office, who weren’t 100% sure who was in charge of their pet policy, but said to leave a voicemail on their phone and they would get back with me. They never got back with me to have a dialogue about this important issue or to even tell me they received my messages.
The last woman who I left a voicemail with who I was told was their person in charge of their pet policy must have taken the cowardly way out and just contacted their lawyer to handle this, who sent me the email saying, ” Please cease and desist calling my client. It is my understanding that you call every day. “
Wrong and a total lie! I wasn’t calling everyday. In fact, since March 20th, I tried to call once a week and then a couple times this week.
Their lawyer said in the email that I was, “harassing my client and such harassment is against the law.” He went on to tell me that if I persist in my, “telephone harassment”, then his client will “file complaints with local law enforcement, and the appropriate law enforcement agencies” where I live.
The phone messages that I left simply asked to call me back, said who I was, and that I wanted to talk about their declawing policy with the appropriate person who sets their pet policy. I never once left harassing phone messages or demanded anything.
Their lawyer also went on to say that they will, “also will file complaints with the FCC and seek to have you retrained from sending further e-mails.”
Wow. Okie dokie.
I sent a nice note back to their lawyer yesterday (April 25, 2017), since he said I could discuss the matter with him.
Here is what I wrote their lawyer, ”
Interesting that your people at K& D have lied to you about me calling them everyday. I have tried to call them once a week since March 16 after I received notes from supporters about this company’s policy about declawing.
I never “demanded” that they change their policy. I simply respectfully reached out to them and asked if they would call me back to discuss their declawing policy. I also sent them the email below on March 16.
You see Michael, often the people who set the pet policy with declawing don’t realize that declawing is inhumane, mutilating, and very harmful to a cat. They often don’t realize that a declawed cat often pees out of the litter box because their paws are in pain and that is harder to clean than a scratched rug.
Usually the rational, humane folks at big companies that I reach out to, are actually shocked at the truth about declawing and are happy to not require this cruelty, mutilation, and abuse to the cats.
Would you be interested in trying to educate the execs at K&D about the facts about declawing?
Also, you might be wise to ask them who is saying that I’m calling everyday since my phone records indicate something completely different. I’ve left messages so please feel free to review them.
I was a photojournalist at the Los Angeles Times for 25 years and won three team Pulitzers so I do my work on this cause with the same integrity and honesty that I did as a journalist.
I think lying about things is quite egregious especially when it comes to animal cruelty.
I look forward in hearing back from you.
https://citythekitty.org/
Lori Shepler”
He wrote me back today (April 26, 2017) and said that they appreciate my concerns and “certainly understand your position regarding our current policy.” He said his client, ( K & D Properties ) does not wish to have a dialogue with me on this matter. He also said, “To reiterate, my client has no plans to change its current policy.”
This is very sad that some property management companies like K&D Properties in Ohio, don’t want to acknowledge that they are requiring a very mutilating, inhumane, and unnecessary procedure on cats.
I wish that I could write a CEASE and DESIST letter to these kind of property management companies to STOP requiring this cat cruelty and harm to the cats that live in their apartments but I can’t.
I wish that I could write a CEASE and DESIST letter to all the declawing veterinarians to STOP mutilating and harming cats by declawing them. But I can’t.
We MUST keep educating the public about the horrific truth about declawing so that they find humane apartments to rent, who don’t require their cats to have their toe bones and claws amputated.
I won’t be reaching out to this company again, I tried to inspire them to be decent human beings who care about the welfare of cats but it didn’t work.
I ask you to please just rent an apartment from humane properties that don’t require cats to be declawed!
I sure hope that soon there will be a law in Ohio like there is in California and Rhode Island that says property management companies can’t require cat declawing for their renters.
Here is the letter that I emailed this company on March 16, 2017, that their lawyer said I was, “demanding that my client changed its rental policy regarding pets.”
To Whom it May Concern,
I’m the mom of City the Kitty, one of the most famous cats in the world, and I have received word from some of his followers about your requirement in your pet policy to have cats declawed. City’s number one cause is to end declawing in North America and educate people as to how cruel, horrific, and inhumane it is.
I am not sure if you are aware that declawing, which is amputating the first toe bone along with the claw in a cat’s paw, causes a lifetime of pain and suffering and takes away a part of their body that is so important to them being a cat. It is banned in over 28 countries because it is so barbaric and cruel and veterinarians all over the world look at vets here in shame because they are violating their oath they took to help protect and heal animals. Declawing is the most painful and barbaric surgery in veterinary medicine. Performing surgery to fix a behavioral issue went out with lobotomies.
The American Veterinary Medicine Association condemned declawing in exotic cats in 2013 because of what they say is the pain and suffering factor. They haven’t done the same for domestic cats because of the revenue that declawing generates for their veterinarians but the pain and suffering from declawing is the same for all cats, domestic or exotic. (some exotic cats are as small as 6 lbs by the way)
Will you please change your policy so that it doesn’t have this requirement in it? Why not just raise the security deposit if you are afraid of a cat doing damage to your apartments instead of requiring this animal cruelty.
Most of these cats coming into your apartments already know how to use scratchers and have their nails trimmed so it is just very unnecessary and quite inhumane to require it in the first place. It is actually illegal in California and Rhode Island for property management companies and landlords to require declawing in cats for renters. Soon more states will join in.
Also, I’m not sure if you are aware but cats that are declawed often stop using their litter boxes and urinate on carpets because it is too painful on their paws to use it. That terrible smell is harder to get out of an apartment than replacing a rug. They also have biting problems because they have lost their first line of defense. A cat bite is 100 times more dangerous than a scratch. Also the cats usually have bone fragments left in their toe bones from the declaw which causes a lot of pain and suffering too.
Please see that this is an amazing opportunity here to become truly “pet friendly” and a compassionate company and announce that you won’t require declawing. I will announce it to City’s 400,000 followers on his social media sites.
Last year many property management companies in the Midwest like, Flaherty and Collins with over 20,000 rental units and Steadfast Management Company with over 26,000 units, and IRET with thousands of apartments, announced that they are becoming truly pet friendly rental property companies and are taking the declaw requirement out of their pet policies. Will you please join them and do the same?
We would announce it to all of our followers and you will probably get more animal loving people renting your properties which means more business for you. Win win. Also you will be heroes to the world.
Thank you,
Lori and City the Kitty
http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/cats/tips/declawing.html
http://www.littlebigcat.com/declawing/declawing-cats-required-to-rent/
Resources for facts about declawing are found if you just google declawing or you can go to pawproject.org/faq
You can also go to City the Kitty’s facebook page and look in the “Stop Declawing” album to see why the world is working so hard to end this cruel thing.’
HERE IS MY STORY ABOUT THE HUMANE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANIES WHO TOOK OUT THE DECLAWING REQUIREMENT OUT OF THEIR PET POLICIES. WHEN THEY KNEW BETTER, THEY DID BETTER! [button href=”https://citythekitty.org/property-management-companies-who-care-about-their-tenants-and-cats/” newwindow=”yes”] HUMANE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANIES[/button]