Hoarding Case...

Two have been charged in animal cruelty. As I read the article, disgust, anger, and sadness filled my vains. Only people that are mentally unstable could possible think that what they are doing is right. According to the article, "The Harpins...didn’t know why their animals were dying. They were very angry (that animal control) were taking the animals away from them, and they didn’t offer any information. They simply said ‘We’re taking care of them, but they’re dying, there’s nothing we can do.’"

"Ferrets, rabbits, cats, three lizards, a tarantula, a boa constrictor, a chinchilla and a starving dog were among the animals in the home on Route 5 in Passumpsic. Also found was a decomposing animal of unknown type in a pot on a stove, and more than a dozen partially frozen dead animals in a refrigerator freezer.

I hate it when I hear about cases like this. According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), animal hoarding is one of the greatest causes of animal suffering in the United States, resulting in more injuries, suffering, and deaths to animals than intentional acts of cruelty perpetrated by animal abusers. What is animal hoarding? The definition that follows is from Tufts.edu:

The following criteria are used to define animal hoarding:

• More than the typical number of companion animals
  
• Inability to provide even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter, and veterinary care, with this neglect often resulting in starvation, illness, and death
• Denial of the inability to provide this minimum care and the impact of that failure on the animals, the household, and human occupants of the dwelling

Many people truly believe that what they are doing is better than what anyone else could do. Even if their animals are dying. I have had people tell me that they they could not possibly take the animals into the humane society because they knew that they would kill them. One lady told me this as I walked through more than a couple of inches of cat feces, spiderwebs, and fleas jumping on and off me. The lady that lived in this house was in her 80's, had no family and the department of the government that deals with the elderly told me that WE were not doing enough for her.

How can we as a society neglet people like this? How can government officials sit in their offices knowing that this poor women was denied travel on the local bus to get her groceries because other people on the bus were getting flea bites? The official that I was dealing with told me that she wasn't that bad off. Her oven we cakes in black something and the top of the stove was covered in cat feces. She had more than 20 cats living inside and out. When I met with her one day she was crying. When I asked her why, she told me that her favorite two cats had died and she had to throw them in the dumpster behind her house. This is OK?!

This is why I hate it when I hear about cases like this one. Read the rest of the article here. The image above is not from the case in the article. It's from Best Friends Network.