GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — More details are emerging about efforts to save the hundreds of animals allegedly abandoned by a West Michigan native on an island in Honduras.
Janessa Baar told FOX 17 in 2019 when she told us about growing up in Cutlerville and then Byron Center. After being diagnosed with a back problem, she said she eventually became dependent on painkillers.
Overcoming her addiction, she and her husband would go on to follow what Baar called her life’s purpose: opening an animal rescue on the island of Roatán in Honduras.
In mid-2023, Baar allegedly abandoned the rescue, leaving approximately 400 animals on the island without basic essentials.
"She walked away, never to return," Michele Schaut, founder of Michele’s Rescue, told FOX 17 this week.
Michele's Rescue is helping to facilitate the fostering and eventual adoption of 31 animals from the island.
Those interested in becoming a foster family, or to apply for an adoption, you can visit their website HERE.
They have also put together a list of items that will go to the animals— you can buy items off the list HERE.
While most of the animals they are assisting are dogs, a woman by the name of Angie Carlisle is helping with the cats.
"The cats were better off in the jungle running free than in the enclosure that they were being kept," Carlisle told FOX 17 Friday.
"The cats were in a state that I had never dreamt somebody would keep animals in, and at that moment, I knew that I had to do something to try to help these cats."
She met Baar in person some time before she would allegedly flee the island.
After seeing the condition she was keeping cats in at the rescue, she was inspired to start an organization of her own, Flight Angels of Roatan.
The group has been working tirelessly to medically evaluate all of the cats at Roatan Rescue, and find them homes.
At one point she brought in a vet brigade to assist.
“We came to find out that Janessa had not vaccinated these cats, even though we were told donations were going towards vaccines," Carlisle explained.
"The cats had FIV (Feline immunodeficiency virus) and leukemia.”
Sadly, they were left with no choice but to euthanize 110 out of the 200 cats left behind.
“If these cats had been vaccinated, this would not have been a problem," she said.
On Friday she was in the process of sending off the final cat to it's permanent home. 'Thelma' will be in Phoenix, Arizona, by the end of the day.
The clean up effort taking an international effort.
Now, those who have stepped in to help are asking for accountability.
“It would be nice to have some sort of justice though," Theresa Ockaskis with Michele’s Rescue said.
"It just makes you so angry.”
