On the evening of Sunday, December 1st, the Humane Society of Ventura County was broken in to, and a kitten has gone missing, presumably stolen by the unidentified subject who is still at large.

The subject arrived at the Shelter on a possible white dirt bike. After surveying the property he attempted to enter the facility, breaking the door handle to our Cat Lobby. He was unsuccessful in getting into the Shelter that way, and next resorted to throwing rocks through a plate glass window. While the Shelter is staffed 24 hours, no one heard the commotion. The following morning when staff arrived, they immediately saw the damage and attended to the terrified kittens that were loose in the cat lobby and kitten room. Fortunately, no other kittens were missing or hurt. However, they are severely traumatized.

Since the break-in, we have had the full support of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, and detectives have taken the event very seriously. Unfortunately, we have not been able to identify the person responsible and are now turning to our community to help identify him and get the kitten back. The kitten who is missing is known as Hoss. He is a 6-month-old gray and white tabby, neutered male. Hoss is microchipped, and his ID number is 0007CAA48F. We encourage anyone who may have information on the identity of the burglar or the whereabouts of Hoss to contact Sgt. Brian Koppenjan at the Ojai Police Department at 805-646-1414.

The staff, volunteers, and animals would like to thank you all ahead of time for your support in this matter. The trauma and cost to the Shelter, staff, and animals have been substantial. As a result of this incident, we have already made serious upgrades to our security system to further protect the animals in our care. We want to ask anyone who stops by the Shelter to visit with our cats and kittens to take this recent event into consideration. Please be gentle with them and avoid making fast movements or any loud and unnecessary sounds. Thank you.