Cat shelter’s leaders accused of being an end-times cult

Sheryl Ruthven and a few dozen followers left Washington state in 2013 hoping to find harmony with nature – and their cats.

The group settled in Columbia, Tenn., where they opened a nonprofit cat shelter called Eva’s Eden, similar to what they had done in Blaine, Wash. They foster dozens of cats in their homes and host cat adoption events.

Now, some of Ruthven’s former followers accuse her of running an end-times cult.

Based on Ruthven’s writings and interviews with former followers by Nashville Scene, the group believes cats are divine creatures that will carry the 144,000 souls mentioned in the book of Revelation.

Her former followers tell Nashville Scene that Ruthven claims to be a reincarnated messiah figure who will create a new Eden after the apocalypse. Their Facebook page aims to expose what they call an abusive cult.

Eva’s Eden has denied the allegations, the website reported.

But reaching Eva’s Eden now is proving difficult.

Two days after Nashville Scene requested an interview with Ruthven and other leaders, Eva’s Eden’s website went down. The group’s accounts on Facebook and YouTube also disappeared.

Georgia Snow, Ruthven’s mother and the group’s treasurer, tells the Scene she is tired of the criticisms against her daughter.

“Maybe we are tired of the persecution,” says Snow. “Because it’s all a bunch of lies and not true.”

All Ruthven and her group want to do, Snow says, is rescue cats.

Read more about the controversy at Nashville Scene:

This story was originally published September 10, 2016 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Cat shelter’s leaders accused of being an end-times cult."