February 1, 2012
OPEN Forum Message
Watch MSNBC's Your Business
If you missed this week's show or want to catch up on past episodes, you can find the videos on OPEN Forum.
View videos
Some people release stress by having a drink, exercising or diving into some chocolate. Larry Ottoviani's choice: Feeding the feral cats that congregated by the 7Up Bottling Company, his workplace.
"I love cats and don't like to see them go hungry," Ottoviani told the Sacramento Press. "When I'm feeding cats I can forget everything else for a while."
Ottoviani–who'd worked at the beverage company for seven years–was under a lot of stress. He's the father of a dependent adult child with severe physical disabilities, and his wife has a debilitating illness that's required hospitalization. Ottoviani himself had his right kidney removed because of a tumor.
His supervisor had warned him several times not to feed the cats–that it was in violation of U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations. But on Jan. 4, 2012, Ottoviani received an official termination letter, stating that he violated his "last chance agreement not to feed the cats on company time and/or company property." (He does not deny feeding the cats, though he said it was not company time or property.)
Company spokesman Jason Genthner told the Sacramento Press: "The FDA states that we must ensure that the grounds around the food plant under the control of the operator shall be kept in a condition that will protect against the contamination of food. Over the years we have seen an increased presence of feral cats on our property.”
Ottoviani has pointed out that were it not for him, there actually would be even more cats on and near the property. When two local animal advocates discovered him feeding the cats in 2008, they began working with him on a trap/neuter/return effort. Volunteers from the Sacramento Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals cleaned up shards of broken glass in an unused area next to the company before embarking on a trapping program, according to Nicole Hutchinson, one of the women who helped organize it.
Between August 2008 and December 2009, 71 cats were trapped and brought to the Sacramento SPCA, spayed or neutered, and vaccinated. Ottoviani took home some of the cats and found homes for them. He kept the ones he couldn't place elsewhere.
Ottoviani isn't the first person to be fired for cat care. In 2003, John Beck was fired from a Cornell University-owned farm–the Animal Science Teaching and Research Center in Hartford, NY–for feeding feral cats at the barn.
He sued the University for $20 million in damages, claiming that the university "ordered me to commit a crime," as he told the Cortland Standard.
Beck claims that under section 353 of the state's agriculture law–titled "Overdriving, Torturing and Injuring Animals; Failure to Provide Proper Food and Sustenance"–he and the university were obligated to feed the cats.
The law reads in part, “Any person who … deprives any animal of necessary sustenance, food or drink, or neglects or refuses to furnish it such sustenance or drink … is guilty of a misdemeanor.” (Beck's supervisor said in a sworn affidavit that the university did not own the cats, hence no obligation.)
The case was dismissed from the state Supreme Court. Beck then appealed, but the state Supreme Court's decision was upheld.
Ottoviani has not filed a lawsuit, but he believes he did the right thing.
He told the Sacramento Press: "I acted according to my conscience."
Image credit: Thinkstock
Check your balance, review recent transactions and pay your bill on the go.
Morgan Sheridan 3 months ago
I would not have fired him. The fact is that by getting the feral cats to trust him, he was also able to get them spayed and neutered which cut down on breeding and *** which had the beneficial effect of making the area around the plant more *** free. Now, the feral cat population will increase and I suppose a crueler hunt, to kill the feral cats will occur instead. What a losing proposition to put in place of a winner's solution.