Excerpted from a Palm Beach Daily News story by Kristina Webb
The black-and-white cat shivered as it walked slowly along the Midtown Beach seawall.
Mary Adam de Villiers couldn’t believe it: Could this be Ace, the same cat she hoped to find in the middle of the night, with just a flashlight, a towel and a police officer’s rough estimates to guide her?
The same cat that Palm Beach Police said just two days earlier had been roughly gripped by his back, plunged repeatedly into the Atlantic Ocean and then thrown from the sidewalk over the seawall onto the beach — less than two weeks after being adopted?
She called his name, “Ace!” He turned around. The flashlight’s beam caught his eyes. Yes. It was him.
Adam de Villiers is one of dozens of people who expressed concern on social media about Ace and how he came to be in the hands of the 24-year-old West Palm Beach man who Palm Beach Police said terrorized him by dunking the cat into the ocean over and over again on Aug. 11.
On Facebook, Ace’s supporters have questioned how a man who was once involuntarily institutionalized could adopt a pet from one of the leading animal rescue organizations in Palm Beach County.
But supporters of open adoption policies say background checks and home visits only do so much to prevent abuse, arguing more restrictive policies may deter people looking to adopt pets, while relying on background checks that may not capture everything about a person.
Where to draw the line?
Animal advocates are split when it comes to how much screening should be done before allowing someone to adopt a pet.
While some argue for strict limitations that include criminal background checks, visits to a potential adopter’s home and calls to people who can vouch for character, others say that process slows a system already over-burdened by a massive influx of abandoned and surrendered pets since the pandemic.
Some of those animal advocates, including those who believe in stricter checks for people who want to adopt animals, said that a criminal background check would not have prevented the man from adopting Ace, because it would not have revealed anything about his mental health history, and his previous charges were misdemeanors.
The man who adopted Ace from Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League shared the news on his Facebook profile in an Aug. 4 post: “Got a cat, they call him Ace. From five six ace,” the man wrote, referencing a local nickname for Palm Beach County’s 561 area code.
One week after making that Facebook post, the man would be arrested, where witnesses told police that the man stopped every 60 feet or so to dunk Ace into the water, according to court documents. It was just before 7 p.m. Aug. 11 when police were called to the beach and an officer found the man gripping Ace by his back. The officer noted that he could see Ace was “under duress,” in pain and suffering.
When the officer told the man he would be arrested, the man gripped Ace by his back and neck, shouted, “Does anybody want a cat?” and tossed Ace about 10 feet over the seawall into the vegetation there.
Ace hit the ground and ran.
According to court records, the man had in 2021 been involuntarily institutionalized under the state law known as the Baker Act. But the man appealed the state’s use of the Baker Act, and in 2022, the Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed the circuit court’s order to grant a petition to involuntarily commit the man to inpatient treatment, saying that in the man’s case, the state failed to show that he met the criteria for involuntary placement.
Following his Aug. 11 arrest, the man was arrested two days later and charged with misdemeanor battery after West Palm Beach Police said he attacked and beat another patient at the NeuroBehavioral Hospital. As of Aug. 30, he is back at the Palm Beach County Jail and being held on $10,000 bail.
Why rescues say open adoption policies work
Peggy Adams has an open-adoption policy, also known as a conversational adoption, said Jane Tomsich, director of operations.
During that process, Peggy Adams’ adoption coordinators work with potential adopters one-on-one to discuss what they’re looking for, their lifestyle and what to expect from a new pet, she said.
“All of our adoptable pets are available to go home same-day with their new families, and we try to make it as friendly of an experience as possible for our adopters, so that they feel confident about their decision to adopt a pet from our organization,” Tomsich said.
People who have been convicted of animal cruelty cannot adopt pets from Peggy Adams, she said. Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control, which has a similarly structured adoption policy, shares information with Peggy Adams about people who have been convicted of animal cruelty, and those people are flagged in Peggy Adams’ system and prevented from adopting pets, Tomsich said.
“Open adoptions remove potential barriers to adopting a pet from an animal shelter,” Tomsich said. “Everyone has an equal opportunity to adopt a pet.”
More restrictive policies can leave pets waiting longer to find suitable candidates to adopt them, she said, noting that open adoptions are a best practice for U.S. animal shelters and supported by The Humane Society of the United States, Best Friends Animal Society and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
“We cannot promote pet adoption while simultaneously making potential adopters jump through hoops to prove they are ‘worthy’ of adopting a pet,” Tomsich said.
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