MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP, Mich — The woman accused of dumping four kittens onto a sewer grate at a Muskegon Township car wash back in August has been charged.
The Muskegon County Prosecutor says Donna Jean Puisis, 75, is charged with one felony count of abandoning/cruelty to four to 10 animals after leaving the cats at the Grand Bay Car Wash.
The co-owner of the car wash, Will Kuczmera, filed a police report after he caught the incident on his surveillance video. He says in addition to leaving the kittens, the mother of the cat was also dumped at the car wash and ran off.
Since the incident, all six kittens have died. Their mother, who volunteers named "Mama Suds," is doing fine.
A warrant has been issued for Puisis' arrest but according to online records she is not in custody.
During an interview with 13 ON YOUR SIDE back in September, Kuczema said he watched the woman remove a cooler from the back of the car and remove each kitten one by one and put them onto the grate.
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Kuczema said he walked up to bay two after the woman pulled away less than a minute later and saw the days-old kittens left on top of the grate.
"It just really struck me like how these animals are so small and helpless," Kuczmera says. "It's kind of disgusting. Like, why wouldn't this person just drop them off at one of the animal shelters?"
He put the kittens in a box and called 911 to figure out what to do, when a good Samaritan stepped in.
"A customer who I'd seen recently had just came over and told me that he saw there was a box over at the car wash that had four kittens in it. I told him to immediately bring them to me," Kimberly Erickson says.
She works across the street at Ray's Mini Mart. She got the box of kittens and called Heaven Can Wait Animal Haven.
"They were newborn, their eyes weren't open. They just they looked a little rough, but they looked like they were brand new kittens," Erickson says. "They look a little tired and hungry."
They were taken in by one of the rescue's volunteers, got all cleaned up and syringe-fed. The next day, two more were found behind the car wash.
"One of them wasn't really moving. The other one was crying," volunteer Rachel Buit said. "So thankfully, she was crying and I could hear her and find them."
Volunteers set up a live trap behind the car wash with food, water and treats inside to hopefully catch the mother. After a day, they were able to capture her and reunite her with her kittens.
"It's really cool to see like, you know, one person can do a bad thing, but there's way more people doing good," Buit says.
Jenn Smith, a volunteer foster who works with Heaven Can Wait and took in the cats spoke to 13 ON YOUR SIDE in the aftermath of the decision to prosecute.
"Not only was what she did tragic and destructive, but it was completely unnecessary, especially with organizations like Heaven Can Wait out there," Smith said. "We're here for those purposes. We step in at a moment's notice. So it was really just a complete senseless act."
To learn more about how you can help the organization in its efforts, visit their website.
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