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.

800 Dogs Seized...

On March 12, a huge story broke in Tucson, Az. Around 800 small dogs were seized from a triple-wide mobile home of Wanda and Bill Jones. As with many hoarding cases, the dogs were kept in filthy living conditions. Some dogs were pregnant and giving birth as they were being transported to the shelter.

Jenny Rose, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, said 96 dogs were removed from the house on Monday and about another 700 were taken out Wednesday. "This is twice the numbers that we've ever seen before, twice as big as our previous record-breaker," Rose said. "The home was definitely in very bad condition, urine and feces all over the home, in the kitchen and bedroom, with a very strong odor," she said. "Obviously, 800 dogs in a triple-wide mobile home, they were packed in there. That being said, they were in pretty good shape."

(via Pet-Abuse.com)

Along with the dogs, investigators also found 82 caged parrots. How do we let things get to this stage? Animal shelters and humane societies run on very little money as well as very little staff. There is a lot of bad in the world when it comes to animals and most shelters are trying to do it all themselves.

On the upside, there has been a huge turnout from the community to adopt these dogs.

In the days since local law enforcement and Humane Society of Southern Arizona officials rounded up 752 dogs from an Avra Valley breeder, scores of people have inundated the shelter seeking to adopt the animals. As of Monday, March 17, 460 dogs and cats taken from the property on the 12200 block of West Manville Road had found new homes, according to Humane Society spokeswoman Jenny Rose.

(via Pet-Abuse.com)

The couple started to raise these dogs and sell them to interested people. But as time progressed, they started to sell fewer and fewer until they became hoarders. So what is a hoarder, you ask?

An April 1, 2000, article in the Psychiatric Times refers to a study of animal hoarders, offering this definition: “… someone who accumulates a large number of animals; fails to provide minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation and veterinary care; and fails to act on the deteriorating condition of the animals …” An estimated 700 to 2,000 new cases of animal hoarding occur every year in the United States, according to the article.

(via Pet-Abuse.com)

Hoarders believe that they are the only people that can take care of the animals. They feel some unhealthy attachment to the animals and as a few become more and more, the owners become unable to properly care for them. The house fills with urine and feces as the owners fall deeper and deeper into the inability to care for the animals. There is a strong denial of the inability to provide this minimum care and this impacts the animals, the household, and human occupants of the dwelling.

Below is a picture of the "people of interest".