This Valentine’s Day, six cats have worked tirelessly to avenge members of the Rhode Island community and beyond in a way singular to them – their litterbox.
The Rhode Island Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals ran their second “Love Stinks” fundraiser this year, where donors can send in the names of nemeses to be written down and left in the cats’ litterbox.
Established in 2024, the fundraiser was the idea of Animal Care Center Manager Olivia Warburton and Humane Educator Heather Pagliarini, according to Stephanie Van Patten, vice president of development and communications. After seeing shelters outside of Rhode Island participate, RISPCA created their own and named it “Love Stinks.”
“We put names on hearts and we put the hearts in the litterboxes and then we just let the cats do their thing,” Van Patten said. “We take pictures before and after. If we’re lucky, we will be able to video while it’s happening.”
Not every submission is an ex, according to Van Patten. Other submissions this year included homework, the diet industry and “just men.”
Another common submission is several different types of cancer, according to Van Patten.
An RISPCA TikTok video featuring a kitty in the litterbox filled hearts captioned, “This one’s for you, Alex,” went viral, accruing over 416,000 views and almost 30,000 likes.
“Alex was not a nice person,” Van Patten said. “The woman did it for her friend who was in the military, so she asked if we could put it on socials so that the girl could see it.”
The video, using Sabrina Carpenter’s hit “Manchild,” reached the intended audience.
“I was the one who submitted this request,” TikTok user @mandynmarkle commented. “Just know that Alex L. is the BIGGEST manchild who shops at The Children’s Place for his jeans that are two sizes too small.”
This year’s “Love Stinks” raised over $4,700 after doubling the past donation price to $10 to combat nationwide inflation, according to Van Patten.
“We upped the donation price just because everything in the world is just increasing,” Van Patten said. “So we thought if we raised it a little bit, it would bring in more dollars for our animals.”
Donations have come in from 28 states and countries as far as Australia, Portugal and South Africa, according to Van Patten. The fundraiser is no stranger to global recognition.
At $5 a donation in 2024, the shelter raised $10,000, receiving donations from all 50 states, according to Van Patten. Donations came from Australia, India and Great Britain.
After the success of the 2024 iteration, RISPCA decided to try something similar in February 2025 with their dogs, according to Van Patten. Named “Tearin’ Up My Heart,” names were written into stuffed hearts that the shelter dogs could rip apart.
“That one didn’t get as much reach as we had hoped,” Van Patten said. “We thought, you know, all the dog lovers out there would want to participate.”
Despite not reaching the previous year’s success, “Tearin’ Up My Heart” raised $2,500 for the shelter, according to Van Patten.
This year, the original “Love Stinks” returned in an effort to capture the public’s fascination with cats, according to Van Patten.
“It’s very exciting to see how widespread this has gotten,” Van Patten said.
Even with varying success, RISPCA’s Valentine’s Day fundraiser is consistently their largest online-only earner, costing the shelter nothing to produce, according to Van Patten.
“It’s just fun, it’s humorous,” Van Patten said. “It’s light, it’s letting people get something off their chest. I call it cathartic.”
Shortly after “Love Stinks” ended, RISPCA took in 97 cats from a hoarding situation in Woonsocket, according to their website. Every cage in their shelter is full and several cats need vet care.
Monetary donations and supply donations are both accepted online and at their physical location at 155 Plan Way, Warwick, Rhode Island.
