This is a Community Service for the General
Public. More important than with anyone else get foster forms and information for any cat fostered or adopted.
People who have spotted Marlene Kess (convicted
of animal abuse in NJ) and now living off kittens in Park Slope want you to know. She is now operating out of
a van in Park Slope under Kensington Kitties. Already there have been complaints of kittens panting under 90 degree
weather while adoptions continued. The person who responded received many contentious responses from Marlene Kess' friends
who have also harassed me in Brooklyn. For more on that incident in Park Slope see Brooklynian.com under "animal abuse/neglect
Kensington Kitties".
According to shocked volunteers, when Marlene
Kess was busted while at KittyKind she also had cats crated in her garage, which the NJAC seem to have overlooked.
Because of an error the Judge could not
do more than fine her and give her community service to perform - but even that was too much for Marlene Kess to do in atonement.
Atonement for what? She denies doing anything wrong.
See: http://ahscares.org/showarchive.asp?=129
Marlene Kess (ex-Director of KittyKind) was convicted of animal abuse and fled NJ (where she would not be able to live off
income from "rescued" cats) into Brooklyn.
She wormed her way into a free rent situation with a KittyKind volunteer and seems to be injecting her poison into the girl's
rescue group in Brooklyn.
Marlene Kess claimed that many of the pictures
taken of her "shelter" in NJ were set up.
When her first trial didn't work out the
way she wanted it to go, she changed lawyers claiming they didn't know what they were doing. Everyone was wrong except for
her - the Judge didn't see eye to eye with her either.
Find the Court transcript (all 11 pages)
in Google.
Key in "State v. Kess*NJ".
Read for yourself how her lawyer split
hairs to reduce her fees but could not erase the verdict.
She is a criminal and like a criminal has
no conscience, she just picks up and continues business as usual. She never lost a drop of sleep over the cats that died in
her home AND garage and were decaying in her back yard in garbage bags! Read some of the preposterous denials she made to
the investigators and later to the Judge.
Don't let time fade away the atrocity of
her actions in 2005. How many times does she need to repeat her acts of cruelty to animals before she finally goes to jail?
How many other rescue groups does she need to damage with her cold hearted actions? Does she think she's above the law? I
guess so, as long as she has an enabler she will continue to think that whatever she does is ok.
As long as she has an enabler she will continue to think that whatever she
does is ok. An enabler such as someone who helps pay her court fees, (attempting to skirt a conflict of interest
label by saying, "it was a personal loan from my personal money") Lawyers can
be so arrogant. Conflict of interest remains “Conflict of Interest” even if you put a different label on it (aiding
and abetting is more like it"). The courts would agree with me, unfortunately this too was a verbal admission and as we're
learning can be denied. Someone who helps her get a lawyer, and people who tell
her what she wants to hear or who do not tell her that what she has done and wants to continue to do is wrong and not helping
the animals but using them for her ego and livelihood.
KittyKind itself doesn't have better ethics.
Their next director, Hilary Harris and Kess' best friend, claimed not to know about the many cats being fostered in a crowded,
one bedroom apartment by a WTC survivor. Ms. Harris claimed with a straight face that they were not KittyKind cats and
with the support of the Mayor's Alliance managed to wiggle out of the responsibility of providing food and veterinary care
for the cats in that home that KittyKind managed to turn into a shelter. Her email to me to provide food and vet care for
a cat if I would keep him was rescinded in a letter to the vet by KittyKind's Treasurer (now also replaced). These
will be scanned and posted at some later date.
The next Director, Cathy Cristle, also
claimed that there were no KittyKind cats being fostered by this woman. A few more changes down the line in Board of Directors
members and KittyKind continues to operate out of the same location; Marlene Kess continues to hide behind another rescue
group in Brooklyn along with her friend Hilary, and I continue to receive emails from people who have been wronged by KittyKind
and/or Marlene Kess.
Update: In August of 2009 Kensington
Kitties provoked the residents of Park Slope by having cats and Kittens for adoption in 90 degree weather. The animals
were seen panting in the heat. For the full thread go to brooklynian.com and search for Kensington Kittens: abuse/neglect.
After this it seems that Kensington Kitties may have moved to Bushwick now - if they're still in park slope let me know.
