BROWARD, FLORIDA – One of Broward’s most notable animal lovers says a total of seven of his cats were snatched off his property. He is now offering a $20,000 reward for their return.
Steve Rosen is a retired dentist and businessman who hails from Davie. He made national news back in 2002, when 500 black-tailed jackrabbits were living in the woods near Miami International Airport when it was constructing a new runway. The airport was going to have the rabbits killed, but Rosen intervened, paying for each and every one of those rabbits to go to sanctuaries.
But now he is facing a newer more personal problem: a possible cat abductor.
“Imagine your child disappeared and you can’t find them,” says Rosen.
He claims that a cat was first stolen off a commercial property of his in Davie back in March 2015 and that in the following months, the suspects would come back and grab more cats, one by one, through February 2016.
Rosen, now 64, has endured sleepless nights and spent a small fortune in the search for his beloved pets. After the first incident last year, he has installed security cameras worth nearly $10,000 on his property.
“We had a couple of suspect cars we tried to track down,” he says. “But the cameras didn’t pick up the tags. I hired private investigators, and they found nothing. I have no idea who took them. Maybe cat hoarders. I don’t know.”
Also, last year, he posted a reward for $2,500 and then increased it to $3,500. He filed a police report, but had no luck. He sent 200 local veterinarians photos of the missing cats, but nothing came from that effort either. The cats are friendly and microchipped and all wear collars with radio tracking devices, though those work only up to a specific range, he says.
Last weekend, he placed a full-page ad in the Sun-Sentinel announcing the huge $20,000 reward. He says he has received calls from people who offered to help find the cats but he still has no solid leads.
“I’m counting on greed to find my cats,” he says. “That’s why I’ve put up the reward. Someone knows where they are, and someone knows who took them.”
Rosen currently cares for roughly 30 rescued cats, a parrot, and a rooster. In 2002, he began taking in cats who would wander onto his property, which, of course, attracted more cats.
“The cats found me; I didn’t find them,” he says.
In his commercial warehouse space, he has built an indoor facility for the rescues to dwell.
Rosen, a former dentist, also owned a skin-care company, Tend Skin, which reportedly rung up $2.5 million to $5 million in sales each year. In 2002, when he saved the 500 rabbits, he appeared on CNN, NBC, and Fox and was also featured in New Times.
“Of all my rescue friends, I don’t know anyone this has happened to,” Rosen says.
If you have any information at all about these missing cats, contact Steve Rosen at 954-309-4845.
