WHERE ARE THE CATS? Demand Answers About the 3 Cats Removed From Adobe Acres Elementary
The Issue
Three community cats were trapped and removed from Adobe Acres Elementary School. APS says they were taken by a pest-control contractor to an “open farm in Isleta.”
The people who cared for these cats still don’t know exactly where they are or whether they’re safe.
We want answers.
These weren’t random, unmanaged cats that suddenly showed up at the school. They were part of a colony that had been cared for for years. An APS employee worked with Street Cat Hub to get the cats spayed or neutered, vaccinated and ear-tipped through Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR).
People at the school knew them. Students even helped refill their water bowls.
Then three of them were trapped and taken away.
APS says the cats were brought to a farm in Isleta for rodent control. But saying they were taken to “a farm” isn’t enough.
Where is the farm? Who is caring for them? And are all three cats still alive?
Those are not unreasonable questions.
There is also a serious concern about how the cats were released. Street Cat Hub has said it received information indicating the cats were not properly acclimated to the new location.
That matters.
Cats are territorial. You cannot safely treat relocation like moving an object from one property to another. A cat released into completely unfamiliar territory may try to find its way home, disappear, get hit by a car, encounter predators, or struggle to find food, water and shelter.
When relocation is necessary, acclimation gives cats time to recognize the new location as their home and establish where their food, water and shelter will be.
If these cats were simply taken somewhere unfamiliar and released, we need to know.
And if they really are safe and being cared for at this farm, that should be easy to verify.
Let Street Cat Hub, Bernalillo County Animal Care Services, or another qualified animal-welfare organization see the cats and confirm that all three are alive and safe.
We are asking APS and Trinity Pest Control to:
Account for all three cats and provide proof that they are alive and safe.
Disclose their location to an appropriate animal-welfare organization or authority so an independent welfare check can be performed.
Identify who accepted responsibility for caring for the cats at the new location.
Explain whether the cats were acclimated before release and what food, water and shelter were provided.
Release the APS work order, relevant contract and scope of work, invoices and communications concerning the cats’ removal and relocation.
Explain who authorized the removal, who selected the destination and who decided how the cats would be released.
Cooperate with any investigation by Bernalillo County or other appropriate authorities.
Adopt a humane district-wide policy so managed community cats at APS schools are handled with the involvement of people who actually have experience with community cats and TNR.
There are legal questions that need to be answered, too.
Nobody should declare that a crime occurred before we know all the facts. But the facts that are still missing are exactly what would determine whether animal-protection laws were violated.
New Mexico’s animal-cruelty law, NMSA 1978 § 30-18-1, addresses abandoning or failing to provide necessary sustenance to an animal under a person’s custody or control.
Bernalillo County Code § 6-45 prohibits animal abandonment, and § 6-58 contains animal-cruelty and welfare protections, including provisions concerning necessary sustenance and endangering an animal’s well-being.
That doesn’t automatically mean these laws were broken.
It does mean authorities have legitimate questions to investigate.
Once these cats were trapped, put into cages and transported away from the territory they knew, somebody had control of them. What happened next matters.
Were they handed over to an actual caretaker?
Did that person agree to take responsibility for them?
Were food, water and shelter waiting for them?
Were they given time to acclimate?
Were they simply released?
Did anyone go back and make sure they were still there?
Where are they now?
APS is a public school district. The public should also be able to find out what APS authorized its contractor to do.
If a pest-control contractor was hired to deal with the cats, we want to know what the work order actually said. Was the contractor authorized to trap them? Transport them? Choose where they went? Release them?
And why wasn’t Street Cat Hub contacted before three already ear-tipped cats were removed?
These cats had already been through the humane process that communities across the country use to control community-cat populations. Someone had taken the time to trap them, get them fixed and vaccinated, and return them to the place they knew.
They had people looking out for them.
That’s why this is so upsetting.
We shouldn’t have to wonder whether three cats that were known and cared for at a public school survived after being taken away by a pest-control contractor.
We’re not asking APS to prove something impossible.
We’re asking for something incredibly simple:
If the cats are safe, show us.
Let someone independent verify that they’re there.
If they’re alive and being cared for, wonderful. That’s what everyone wants to hear.
If they’re missing, we need to know immediately so people can look for them.
And if something went wrong, the community deserves the truth.
Most importantly, APS needs a better policy going forward. Ear-tipped community cats should not be treated like ordinary pests. When cats need to be removed from school property, APS should work with organizations that understand TNR and humane relocation so this doesn’t happen again.
Three cats were taken from Adobe Acres.
Someone knows where they were taken.
Tell us where they are.
Please sign this petition and help us demand that all three Adobe Acres cats are accounted for, that their safety is independently verified, and that APS puts humane policies in place so no other community cats simply disappear.
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The Issue
Three community cats were trapped and removed from Adobe Acres Elementary School. APS says they were taken by a pest-control contractor to an “open farm in Isleta.”
The people who cared for these cats still don’t know exactly where they are or whether they’re safe.
We want answers.
These weren’t random, unmanaged cats that suddenly showed up at the school. They were part of a colony that had been cared for for years. An APS employee worked with Street Cat Hub to get the cats spayed or neutered, vaccinated and ear-tipped through Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR).
People at the school knew them. Students even helped refill their water bowls.
Then three of them were trapped and taken away.
APS says the cats were brought to a farm in Isleta for rodent control. But saying they were taken to “a farm” isn’t enough.
Where is the farm? Who is caring for them? And are all three cats still alive?
Those are not unreasonable questions.
There is also a serious concern about how the cats were released. Street Cat Hub has said it received information indicating the cats were not properly acclimated to the new location.
That matters.
Cats are territorial. You cannot safely treat relocation like moving an object from one property to another. A cat released into completely unfamiliar territory may try to find its way home, disappear, get hit by a car, encounter predators, or struggle to find food, water and shelter.
When relocation is necessary, acclimation gives cats time to recognize the new location as their home and establish where their food, water and shelter will be.
If these cats were simply taken somewhere unfamiliar and released, we need to know.
And if they really are safe and being cared for at this farm, that should be easy to verify.
Let Street Cat Hub, Bernalillo County Animal Care Services, or another qualified animal-welfare organization see the cats and confirm that all three are alive and safe.
We are asking APS and Trinity Pest Control to:
Account for all three cats and provide proof that they are alive and safe.
Disclose their location to an appropriate animal-welfare organization or authority so an independent welfare check can be performed.
Identify who accepted responsibility for caring for the cats at the new location.
Explain whether the cats were acclimated before release and what food, water and shelter were provided.
Release the APS work order, relevant contract and scope of work, invoices and communications concerning the cats’ removal and relocation.
Explain who authorized the removal, who selected the destination and who decided how the cats would be released.
Cooperate with any investigation by Bernalillo County or other appropriate authorities.
Adopt a humane district-wide policy so managed community cats at APS schools are handled with the involvement of people who actually have experience with community cats and TNR.
There are legal questions that need to be answered, too.
Nobody should declare that a crime occurred before we know all the facts. But the facts that are still missing are exactly what would determine whether animal-protection laws were violated.
New Mexico’s animal-cruelty law, NMSA 1978 § 30-18-1, addresses abandoning or failing to provide necessary sustenance to an animal under a person’s custody or control.
Bernalillo County Code § 6-45 prohibits animal abandonment, and § 6-58 contains animal-cruelty and welfare protections, including provisions concerning necessary sustenance and endangering an animal’s well-being.
That doesn’t automatically mean these laws were broken.
It does mean authorities have legitimate questions to investigate.
Once these cats were trapped, put into cages and transported away from the territory they knew, somebody had control of them. What happened next matters.
Were they handed over to an actual caretaker?
Did that person agree to take responsibility for them?
Were food, water and shelter waiting for them?
Were they given time to acclimate?
Were they simply released?
Did anyone go back and make sure they were still there?
Where are they now?
APS is a public school district. The public should also be able to find out what APS authorized its contractor to do.
If a pest-control contractor was hired to deal with the cats, we want to know what the work order actually said. Was the contractor authorized to trap them? Transport them? Choose where they went? Release them?
And why wasn’t Street Cat Hub contacted before three already ear-tipped cats were removed?
These cats had already been through the humane process that communities across the country use to control community-cat populations. Someone had taken the time to trap them, get them fixed and vaccinated, and return them to the place they knew.
They had people looking out for them.
That’s why this is so upsetting.
We shouldn’t have to wonder whether three cats that were known and cared for at a public school survived after being taken away by a pest-control contractor.
We’re not asking APS to prove something impossible.
We’re asking for something incredibly simple:
If the cats are safe, show us.
Let someone independent verify that they’re there.
If they’re alive and being cared for, wonderful. That’s what everyone wants to hear.
If they’re missing, we need to know immediately so people can look for them.
And if something went wrong, the community deserves the truth.
Most importantly, APS needs a better policy going forward. Ear-tipped community cats should not be treated like ordinary pests. When cats need to be removed from school property, APS should work with organizations that understand TNR and humane relocation so this doesn’t happen again.
Three cats were taken from Adobe Acres.
Someone knows where they were taken.
Tell us where they are.
Please sign this petition and help us demand that all three Adobe Acres cats are accounted for, that their safety is independently verified, and that APS puts humane policies in place so no other community cats simply disappear.
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on September 8, 2026