Reporting a foster home

Hi all,

Last night I went to see a cat I was interested in adopting at their foster home. I was concerned by what I saw there and wanted to ask advice about reporting a foster situation.

He was being housed in an apartment unit and there were a total of 15 cats living in it. I was led in to a bedroom where 4-5 other cats including him were being kept. He was in a large crate (probably the size of one a German shepherd would use) and I learned he was being kept here and had been for 2 weeks because two of the cats were bullying him — so badly that the foster discovered he had been hiding in a cat tree hole and using it as a litter box.

He looked very depressed and was curled up in a little hidey-hole bed. He had a weepy eye and while accepting of affectionate pets was clearly deeply distressed and shut down emotionally. While we were talking, I discovered that the offending cats were still being housed in this same room, and they started jumping on the crate and sticking their arms through the bars to try and bat at him. Apparently she didn’t know they were still bullying him even in the crate and said she would move him that night.

A couple of things I want to ask: first, it’s not normal to keep a cat in a crate for extended periods, right? He’d been in there for two weeks. I assumed crating would only be for temporary scenarios. And second, she kept saying that if he just “stood up” for himself the bullying cats would cease their behavior. It doesn’t seem to me like that would make a difference in their behavior — I’m assuming he should be kept in a home where he’s a solo cat?

I am an aspiring first-time cat mama so I am not experienced or an expert in cat care, but none of this seemed at all okay to me. I feel that I should report this situation to the rescue. Should I just let them know about the conditions for this particular cat and express concern? On top of what was going on with just him, it doesn’t seem right that there are 15 cats in a single apartment, but I don’t know if that’s something they vetted and approved and if mentioning it would elicit a defensive or dismissive response.