A New York animal shelter founder and at least 100 cats were killed in a fire on Monday.
Christopher Arsenault, 65, died trying to rescue the felines from his Long Island home, which functioned as the nonprofit Happy Cat Sanctuary, according to the Associated Press.
“He came out and tried to put the fire out, and he went back in and he kept taking cats out until he went back in and he didn’t come out,” a choked-up Lisa Jaeger said in a Facebook video post. Jaeger is the founder of the nonprofit Jaeger’s Run Animal Rescue in Port Jefferson, New York.
At least 150 cats survived, some of which were treated for burns and smoke inhalation at nearby animal hospitals, according to the AP.
Others were euthanized.
“We are securing the area right now to try to save as many cats as we can,” Jaeger said on Monday. “We lost the best man on the face of the planet and we’re just going to need everyone’s support now to continue his dream,” she added, according to USA Today.
Suffolk County police are still investigating the cause of the fire.
The fire department responded to the blaze, which occurred in the hamlet of Medford, New York, around 7:15 a.m. on Monday.
Once the fire was extinguished, Arsenault was found dead near the back of the house.
Was this arson?
“The whole place is burned down and there’s cats right there on the debris,” Roy Gross, head of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said in response to the incident.
“This is going to be an ongoing situation to get all of these cats cared for and placed in a proper facility,” Gross said. “Just a major undertaking after a tragic situation.”
Happy Cat Sanctuary in Medford, NY burned down this morning. The owner, Chris, a lovely, compassionate man by all accounts (I did not know him personally), had been harassed relentlessly on Facebook, so they’re going to have to investigate for arson. He has died in the fire,… pic.twitter.com/fh7yUndzpD
— NellENel (@NellENel) March 31, 2025
Arsenault opened the cat shelter in 2006 after losing his son in a motorcycle accident, according to the Happy Cat Sanctuary website.
“After this devastating loss, Chris accidentally came across a cat colony of 30 sick kittens. He removed the kittens from the colony and nursed them back to health. It was at that point that Chris knew saving cats was his calling, and he opened Happy Cat Sanctuary,” the website read.
Recently, Arsenault was in the process of relocating the shelter to a farm in upstate New York, where he planned to move, according to the AP.
As for the surviving cats, the Strong Island Animal Rescue League is caring for them now, according to Jaeger, who has since started a GoFundMe page.
“We have over 200 cats that are still being secured and will need vetting, vaccinating, and rescues to step up and help us secure them. Please donate anything you can. We are absolutely devastated and distraught over the loss of Chris and the sanctuary,” the page read.
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