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Loading...7Up Employee Fired For Feeding Cats
Larry Ottoviani has lost his job after seven years with the 7Up Bottling Company, in Sacramento, California, for feeding hungry cats, something that helped him cope with all the stress in his life.
“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.”
What are Ottoviani’s problems? 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 also recently had his right kidney removed because of a tumor.
Fortunately, job-related medical insurance covered most of the costs. Now that he’s lost his job, Ottoviani doesn’t know what he’s going to do. He does have covereage from COBRA, a health benefit provision that provides temporary continuation of health coverage at group rates, but as you may know from personal experience, the monthly premiums are expensive. Ottoviani isn’t sure he can make the payments.
How Do You Fire Someone For Feeding Cats?
His supervisor had warned him several times not to feed the cats, since 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.)
From the Sacramento Press:
According to company spokesperson Jason Genthner, “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 believes that if it weren’t for him, at least in part, there would be far more cats on and around company premises.
Ottoviani Has Been Working With Sacramento SPCA To Help Cats
That’s because 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.
Take Action Now!
Larry Ottoviani was doing the company a favor, and should have been thanked, not kicked out. If you believe that Ottoviani was unjustly fired for taking care of stray cats, please click here to sign our petition asking 7Up to reinstate him. And thank you!
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Read more: 7 Up bottling company, animal welfare, feral cats, larry ottoviani, sacramento spca, unjust firing
Photo Credit: he@rt
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Educate 7up and give that nice man his job back!
Do the owners and managers at 7up not understand that without those cats that Larry Ottoviani was helping, their company premises would have been overrun by rat, mice and other vermin. The company should be very grateful to him not be sacking him.
You are either part of the problem or part of the solution; easy to see that 7Up is the former and Larry is the latter. 7Ups off our family grocery list until I hear they have reinstated Larry! What 7Up have done is soooooooo wrong on so many levels.
I can't believe he was fired. The cats were not harming anything and were probably ehlping to keep rodents out of the warehouse.
stupid and sad.
Firing him??? are you serious? Where is your heart? Especially with the issues going on in his life? Would he really want to go back to those people? I don't drink 7up and definitely will not from now on.
This man should be reinstated. How about the 7up Co start a TNR program in its community. Overpopulation cannot be continually ignored.
Short of killing the cats, exactly what does 7up suggest should be done about the problem? Or do they think that if ignored the problem will go away? Someone send them literature on TNR. You'd think they'd have heard of the humane, advantages of Trap, Neuter, Return of stray animals. The cat in the photo has obviously been neutered 'cos his ear has been snipped to show that this cat will not breed and exacerbate the situation. 7up must be too busy making money to know what's going on in the world.
hope and the cats thrive
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