MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Police are investigating after a surveillance video catches the moment a woman dumped four kittens onto a sewer grate at a Muskegon Township car wash.
The six kittens have all died. The kitten's mother, who rescue volunteers named "Mama Suds," is doing fine.
Muskegon Township Police Chief Tim Thielbar told 13 ON YOUR SIDE they've wrapped up their investigation and will send it on to the prosecutor's office who will consider charges.
Grand Bay Car Wash co-owner Will Kuczmera says he's filed a police report. His security camera caught it all on tape just after 12 p.m. on Monday afternoon.
13 ON YOUR SIDE has blurred the woman's identity in the surveillance video, as she has not been charged with a crime.
"What I can see in the security camera video, she removes a cooler from the back of her car is the old style Igloo cooler. And it looks like she, one by one, tosses them onto the grate," Kuczema says.
He walked up to bay two after the woman pulled away less than a minute later, and he could hear what was left behind. The days-old kittens were 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 dropped 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 mom. 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.
They are asking for any donations to help, like kitten formula, toys and bedding, to help them take care of their animals.
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