MUSKEGON, Mich. — A popular TikTok influencer from West Michigan is battling with The Noah Project, an animal shelter in Muskegon, over a $900 cat adoption.
The social media creator, Chloe Mitchell, already had several million followers before she embarked on her journey of getting a cat at the beginning of March.
"I'm a dog person or a cat person, because I'm a dog person, and I'm going to go adopt a cat," Mitchell says in her first video of the series. "I'm going to a no-kill shelter and a humane society ... I just hope I find a nice one."
She found her perfect companion at Muskegon's Noah Project.
"I think I just found my cat," she says in a follow-up video at The Noah Project's building on Airline Highway, holding the cat previously called Heart. Based on a placard near the cat's cage, Heart is listed as the breed African Savannah.
"She is so talkative ... she is so chill," she says. She returns the next day to fill out and application form, which Mitchell claims came with a surprise.
"I filled out the adoption papers, and upon filling them out with her name on it, they were like, 'Oh, have we told you about her?' ... And it turns out she was $900.”
She paid the fee and left with her new kitty. “I fell in love with her prior to knowing her price,” Mitchell told FOX 17.
After the adoption, Mitchell posts a video saying, “I found the one cat in West Michigan for $900."
Soon, she says she began receiving comments from people saying the cat is likely not a purebred African Savannah, a rare and often expensive breed.
Mitchell says that during the adoption process she was told the only reason the cat was so expensive was because of the breed — a fact the shelter disputes.
The Noah Project says there are multiple reasons a cat adoption fee can be higher than normal.
This cat was part of two litters that came in from an older woman who had purchased cats from a breeder with the intention of breeding them herself and creating some retirement income.
Apparently, the woman became overwhelmed with the number of cats and decided to surrender them to The Noah Project.
"Half of them were sick; we lost a few; one had legs amputated; a couple had anemia. So the medical costs were very high," said Mashele Garrett-Arndt, director of The Noah Project.
She says they also had to ween the cats off of an all-meat diet and get them comfortable with people.
Mitchell says none of that information was relayed to her during the adoption.
“It was strictly about her being an African Savannah, not about her prior medical records,” Mitchell told FOX 17.
Garrett-Arndt says they quickly found out about the videos being posted — the shelter is now steadily receiving aggressive voicemail messages and online reviews.
"I'll blow this number up, and I'll blow your location out as well. Hope you have a wonderful day,” said one voicemail that was played for FOX 17.
Mitchell said that was never part of her intent in making the videos about her cat, now named Puka.
“I never asked for the Internet to go call them or leave Google reviews in my defense whatsoever. ... I'm not asking to be defended; I'm just asking to be heard,” Mitchell said.
Garrett-Arndt says the online controversy has made it difficult for the organization to function.
“The only ones who are really suffering are the animals. It's affecting adoptions here; it will affect adoptions in all of the shelters in West Michigan because of the way this is going across TikTok,” she said Monday.
They have offered to refund Mitchell the $900 if she gives back the cat — something Mitchell says she has no intention of doing.
“It has just been consuming our lives the last several weeks,” said Jane McGregor, president of The Noah Project.
They would like to sit down with Mitchell to explain all of the context that goes into their adoption fees and to hear her concerns.
Mitchell told FOX 17 that she wants documentation from the shelter saying her cat is in fact an African Savannah, but the shelter said Monday that does not exist.
Garrett-Arndt says, “She was told that we had no paperwork on the cats, nothing. ... We have a surrender form, which they fill out when they surrender the cats.”
Mitchell says she is planning to run her own DNA test on the cat.
