It seems the Kitty Kind people don't like to hear the truth...and feel like they can insult me...and then spread some serious lies...
But justice was given today anyway!
Marlene Kess was convicted today! She said to her crowd back in June that she was in court only because of MY letter of testimony (right, Fran Kamer), leading to a campaign of harrassment against me (remember, Amy and Andy?)...so how come, even though I didn't testify, she was convicted today?
Her sentence is 21 days in jail, a 14,000 fine, and 1000 hours community service...in addition, her cats are being removed and placed on the news for adoption.
It sounds like she really WAS guilty after all...this "wonderful", "innocent" "rescuer"...
And about the "facts"...Lisa Lorenzo seems not to have the facts right...she could never have seen me "countless times" asking Marlene to help me as she used to work at Dr. Dongs clinic, where I never brought my rescued animals. The cats Marlene got from me went to Dr. Cotter, and paid for by United Action For Animals, and that was back in 97-98...In about 9 years, Marlene took only 20 cats from me, and gave me a lot of difficulty almost every time to get her help...thats the facts (what are you talking about, Lisa?) By the way, you said I was 'uncool'...here I am not cool...here is my exact letter of testimony, showing the dark side of Marlene, "cat lover", sent to Sgt Joe Biermann. Enjoy!
Dear Sgt. Biermann,
I talked with you 2 weeks ago and last week about Marlene Kess situation. You asked me to fax my informations and I do apologize it took some time to do it. But it’s long and very unpleasant.
I know Marlene for about 10 years. Although she took some cats from me who stayed at Petco and were adopted from there, she never helped me so much with my strays and now I am very happy about that. I have tried to stay away from the group through the years, but as I have got my food at Petco in the past it was difficult to avoid any contact.
I have my cats adopted in the east village through Robert Shapiro who stay very small but sometimes he has no room. So October 2003 I brought 2 female cats to Marlene. One, Ginette, an orange tabby rescued from the street and CJ, who was left in an apartment by the owner when they moved to Florida. I left those cats at Petco on the Saturday and I was sure they would stay there and would get adopted- often the cats I have rescued were adopted pretty fast. I was wrong that time, and when I asked about them they were not adopted and Marlene did take them in her apartment. I told her I would take back those cats the next weekend if again they didn’t find a home. Only Ginette was there the next weekend. I went to pick her up and I had a real hard time recognizing her. She was sick, pale, and very depressed, and had lost a lot of weight. I could not believe she change so much from the cat I had held in my place for 5 days. Then the week after I got back CJ. I had to go get her uptown on 181st where Marlene lived at that time as she forgot to bring her to Petco as agreed. Poor CJ spent more than 2 weeks up there and she was very sick and extremely depressed- so depressed that I felt something was really wrong in that place and I felt horrible for all the cats who were stuck in this apartment. CJ was so completely different from the cat I had given her that I believed Marlene had made a mistake and given me a different cat! I had some thoughts she might have tortured those cats. The only time I have seen animals that depressed were in pictures of abused animals.
I believe Marlene is a collector (hoarder). I also believe she lies when she says she takes sick cats from people. She might take some sick cats sometimes. She also might take leukemia cats. But most of them are probably not sick- and get sick once they get in her place. Exactly as it happened to my 2 cats.
I also know she takes cats that are not sick and not leukemia positive. Marlene definitely has no problem to collect leukemia cats. I have been at Petco several times looking at the cats and hearing members of Kitty Kind saying they had a woman who was taking care of leukemia cats. Several years ago they told me they had a woman in the country taking care of FLV positive cats. Today I realize this woman was Marlene, and never the leukemia cats would have some peaceful time in the country before they died. They made me believe that about one cat I had- a long haired female- and I thought she would be well taken care of, so I let them take her. Now I realize it was a lie. One more lie from this group. My cat probably died there in her place.
Also, I was at Petco last year and there was a great Tuxido male in a cage- I fell in love with him and said to Marlene that this was a great cat. She answered me that she wanted to keep him- I hope so much he got adopted that weekend and never went to her place.
Through the years I have realized that Marlene was not a very healthy person, definitely with a control issue. I had to realize that she did not care about the cats as she seems to. Seven years ago there was a situation with a collector(hoarder) named Mary Case. I gave her some cats under the advice of Natasha, wife and secretary of Dr Cotter, DVM, on east 65th St. Of course I believe Natasha at that time when she told me that Mary Case was the only person in New York that was doing a good job. After a few months everyone discovered Mary Case was a hoarder- I was horrified thinking of the cats being in agony in that place- my cats were adopted, but I thought of the other ones-
So I went to express that to Marlene. And she answer me “so what, Claire, you told me your cats were adopted, so you have nothing to worry about.” So I pointed out what about all the other cats who were still in Mary’s place? She said “you know Claire, sometimes it gets so overwhelming it’s hard to do the right thing.” I couldn’t believe she made excuses for Mary Case and didn’t seem to have any concern at all for all those cats. She had no feeling for them. Not at all.
The last time I trusted Marlene with any adoption was last year in May 2004. I took a cat to Petco on Saturday where she spent the weekend. I was there waiting for a cage to open up for my cat Angela and I could not believe what I saw. Marlene was giving cats to another known hoarder, Pat Haldaman. I knew about her and that many people were trying to stop her. It took me a few days to assimilate what I saw, and on the following Thursday I called a person who had been after Pat for years. She mentioned that Pat is a saint to Marlene and that Marlene had been giving Pat cats for 4 years. Since I learned that I have never brought another cat to be placed by Kitty Kind.
I have also seen how much this group Kitty Kind is not right. I have seen Marlene refusing to give cats to people to whom I would give cats with my eyes closed, and I have seen Marlene give animals to people to whom I would never give an animal even with the best references. I have seen Marlene being very rude with the nicest people, and nice to very unpleasant people.
Three weeks ago I had one experience with Marlene showing me that she does not care about saving animals. She called me 5 or 6 weeks ago to ask me for the phone number of our organization’s lawyer who helped us with our 501(c)3. She needed the phone number for Tammy, a rescuer still operating under Being Kind who wanted to declare her own charity to get the Mayor’s Alliance handouts for placing animals. I knew about Tammy. She is a bottle feeder (an expert at caring for kittens). 2 or 3 weeks after I learned that my neighbor who I was trying to help with their cats brought them to the CACC. It was a Saturday- right away I called everyone I knew who could tell me who to talk to to get those cats away from the CACC before they get destroyed. Marlene was the only one who answered the phone- She was supposed to call me back after we talked to give me the name of the person to talk to to get back the cats. I never heard from Marlene. She did not help me in that situation- Only one phone call to make- she could have helped me to save the two cats who were destroyed that Monday. The three other cat were placed.
I began to understand that she cared more about controlling than about animals. The next day (Tuesday) I went to say to this neighbor that two of their cats were destroyed. They had still a mother and 5 three week old kittens that needed bottle feeding since the mother was at the vet. My first instinct was to find a bottle feeder who could take care of those kittens so that I would have an excuse to take them awsy from that house as I knew they might want to keep all of them and make another mess in a few months with those cats breeding again. I called Marlene as I knew she knew bottle feeders. But when I asked her, she said she didn’t know any one who bottle feed kittens. At that time I knew she really did not care about saving animals. Whatever she was doing was for her own psychological motivations, not for cats.
I was shocked and very angry and I said to myself that I would never talk to Marlene again. Less than two weeks after I saw her story on TV.
I forgot to mention that a few years ago she told me that she throw the bodies of dead cats in the garbage- I can’t understand how anyone can do that- it shows such a disrespect for the animals. From that day on I knew Marlene was not right, but I also believed on the hand she was doing a good job…now I can see I was really wrong about that. This woman is a monster. Knowing she can throw bodies away in the trash, I believe that besides the ones she had in her backyard decomposing, she might have thrown some more in the trash through the the last months…how many?
Marlene had cats dying for many years, but now I realize she might have had hundreds of them dying. I hope she is punished, but I also know that many others should be punished for animal cruelty. The City of New York itself should be charged with animal cruelty as it really does nothing to take care of its overpopulation of cats and dogs. It definitely does nothing where I live in the ghetto…the latinos let their animals breed like crazy- I am dealing with them everyday of my life, which forces me to go in a zen state to survive all the stories I hear about their animals.
Let’s hope, let’s pray for Marlene’s story to be a real wake up call for everyone, and let’s hope everyone will change their attitudes toward animal welfare and start to make a real and lasting change. Let’s hope it’s a start!
Sgt. Biermann, please feel free to call me if you need any more information or details-
I believe Marlene has killed those cats- they were not all sick when she took them in her home- A few years ago I saw Marlene waiting for the bus on her way home on 14th St. She had two cats and they were not sick. I just remember that now…
I hope I have been helpful-
Thankyou so much for your work- I will try to do my part- and let’s hope it all changes very soon for those animals!
Best regards,
Claire Favretto
