PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Member of Public on Cat Rescue and FIP Treatment
5:17:07
·
111 sec
A member of the public shares her personal experience with rescuing a cat and the high costs associated with treating Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP). She highlights the recent legalization of FIP medication and the financial burden of treatment.
- The speaker rescued a cat with a broken paw from Brooklyn streets five years ago.
- The cat was later diagnosed with FIP, resulting in over $18,000 in hospitalization costs.
- FIP medication was recently legalized after years of advocacy by cat lovers worldwide.
- The speaker emphasizes the need for awareness about FIP as a treatable but expensive disease.
UNKNOWN
5:17:07
I am here just as an individual cat lady with no children who who rescued a cat from By Do We.
5:17:19
5 years ago that was found on the streets of Brooklyn with a broken paw.
5:17:25
The only reason he wasn't dead was because he it was full of maggots, keeping him alive, or really keeping infection away.
5:17:35
So last summer, he was diagnosed with FIP after a week of being hospitalized between Vedge and Williamsburg And Animal Medical Center in the Upper West Side.
5:17:48
And the cost of that hospitalization alone was over $18,000.
5:17:56
Until honestly, like, 6, 8 weeks ago, the medication for treating FIP was illegal to prescribe to cats.
5:18:06
And that's because it is also used to treat the immunocompromised for COVID.
5:18:11
This has since changed, thank god, after years of cat cat lover unification across the world to organize, to make sure that people have access to that treatment.
5:18:26
But the treatment also costs 1000 of dollars.
5:18:31
So if I wasn't credit worthy enough to be able to take out a loan, my cat would be dead.
5:18:37
And he's been through way too much to die from that.
5:18:42
So I just wanna make sure that it the council is aware that this is a treatable disease that is becoming more common because there are the population is so high and the disease that it mutates from is very infectious.
5:18:57
So