Man is fired for feeding feral cats on his own time....

[CC]

and he even found homes for the tamer ones... http://blogs.catster.com/kitty-news-network/2012/02/03/man-fired-for-feeding-feral-cats/ No more Dr.Pepper Snapple Group products for me.

[Mac1949]

1. Everyone please click on the petition link in the article and sign. n/t

[99Forever]

2. Read and signed.

[Paper Roses]

3. Done

[Irishonly]

4. Read and signed n/t

[haele]

5. It's really "Man fired for health insurance costs, other issues; feral cats used as an excuse"

The list of disabilities in his family and his recent chronic health issues was enough that if that company department used a cheap cost per employee insurance plan instead of a blanket company plan, it would be enough to create a significant rise in rates to that department- a rise that would obviously eat into the margin and there may have been other issues that they wanted to fire him for would not have been looked at kindly at the EEO and Labor Relations board.
So instead of risking a EEO lawsuit and fines, they warned him about "feeding and caring for" the feral colony around the plant on "company time and/or company property". (This apparently included working with the local SPCA on a TNR project - in which the group of volunteers had to clean the trash in the facility he worked at to safely set the traps...probably giving the plant the equivalent of a good $5K worth of clean-up work) Even if he fed them along the fenceline before he came to work or on the weekends, they figured it would be close enough to the warning to let him go.
My bet is on the increasing medical costs, as they were mentioned in the article. He might also have been mouthy or, say, had a religious incompatibility with his manager, or had been employed long enough for vesting and they wanted to hire someone new and cheaper in his position, but that's just speculation based on many years working for a paycheck and observing the various reasons management fires and hires off schedule.

Haele

[hobbit709]

6. you got it. It's a prime example of the corporate mentality at work.