I can't believe what I saw!!!

I was watching Animal Planet last night and saw an eposode of ANIMAL COPS about the Detroit Humane Society. They pulled over 200 cats out of one home and put them all to sleep. The owner started with one pregnant cat. The cat grabber they used seemed so cruel. Those poor kitties lived in filth with no fresh air,or even a clean place to lay down. The person who owned them was determined to be mentally unfit and nothing was done about the horror those cats were forced to endure!
When I lived in San Jose there was a program for people to spay/neuter their cat for free ($5.00 if the cat was over 6 months)You only had to have proof you lived there. Why don't other cities have a program like this? So many people need a program like this!!
I have to go and take a time out I'm so angry! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

What shocks me is that they put the animals to sleep. There's a thread in the S.O.S. Forum about an animal horder. And in trying to find homes for the outside kitties around us (they're feral, but they're pretty social now) I've been working with a LOT of no-kill shelters around us. One of them is well into the process of placing over 139 cats that were taken from an animal horder. Apparently this disease is more common than one would expect. It's terribly sad for all involved.

This is horrible! I can't understand why they had them put down.

Maybe making people buy a license to keep a pet would stop it to a degree, I dunno.

There is NO need to destroy healthy animals. This kind of thing makes my blood boil. There are many people who will take rescue animals and it is plain laziness on the part of the authorities that leads to this kind of murder. How can the people that do this kind of thing live with themselves?

When we had the Foot and Mouth episode recently they were showing cows being stunned and killed and I was physically sick as a result. They were just killing these animals in a field in front of the rest of the herd. The b@$t@*d$ that were doing it actually seemed to be ejoying it - chasing these poor frightened animals around the field.

Thing is - the disease is a little unpleasant but certainly nothing to get so hysterical about as to slaughter hundreds of thousands of cattle.

I hate senseless destruction of life.

BuNN - I think it's required in almost every locale in the States. Animal horders are very ill people and I doubt the law has anything to do with it. The sad thing is that neighbors don't know each other, don't watch out for each other, and people can live next door to each other for years and not ever meet. Neighbors often don't even do anything about "that funny smell" around....

Yola, I agree. I got physically sick when I read about the animal horder in the S.O.S. Forum. It's just terrible.

I think there have been a number of cases like that where they find literally 50-100 or more cats in one tiny place It's so sad. I live in San Francisco and just in the past year I've seen a few episodes where they arrested people in the Bay Area for the same thing. I don't think they usually put down all the cats though.

There are a few places here in the city that will spay/neuter for free or extremely cheap. I think it's a really great program, and wish more cities had something like it.

First off as I saw this program, all those cats were sick and inbred. There were a total of 267 cats living in filth beyond belief. The walls were so corroded with cat urine and feces, the crumbled. Every single cat in that house had been condemened to live there and never see the light of day! Can you imagine? In the repeats look at the windows, they are boarded up. The catching of these cats wrenched my heart because every single one of them were violent beyond belief. Two-hundred and sixty seven ferals in one sitting- none of them ever knowing an act of kindness. There were dead cats everywhere, which added to the stress level of the cats who were alive. The best thing they could of done, is what they did. They allowed these tortured animals to be put down humanely and quickly and sent them on their way to a much better place.

The worst part about the whole thing to me was the owner. He should of been gassed for what he made those poor cats live through. He probably only got a fine and a slap on the hand. He is the one at fault, not the cats and certainly not the animal cops.

I'm glad I didn't catch this episode, it would have been disturbing. I've seen some pretty bad things on that show and in real life.

What was their reason for putting them to sleep?

There are a lot of animal horders, or animal collectors out there unfortunatly, in ever state! And while most if not all of them are 'mentally unfit' they should still pay the same consiquences a sane person would have.
In my mind, making 200 cats live like that, is like making 200 human babies live like that. And you know that person would possibly get the death sentance, insane or not.

Angel-

The cats were put to sleep because they were to far gone, to feral. Not ever being outside- feral cats belong outside, have you ever heard of a feral colony forced to live indoors? To never see the sun, smell fresh air, barely fed- the house was destroyed in filth. There were flies everywhere and the ammonia stench was so bad the rescuers had been forced to wear protective clothing. The cats were put to sleep because one sick individual forced them to live in a way that was foreign to them. Cooped up in a small house and basement with no escape. The stress level of these cats were through the roof.

She forced ferals to live with her?

I'm surprised they didn't all mass together and kill HER!
Poor poor babies... I suppose it would be all but virutally impossible to reavaluate an animal after something like that.
I've taken in ferals before and helped them, and I know that it can take a long time, if ever.

If the animals are that aggresive, you really have no other choice.

I rescue ferals too- it is all I do. I specialize in the hard to handle ones. It is hard enough to work with one or two over a period of time, but could you imagine having to find 247 foster homes for these poor creatures with the people on the other end knowing what they were getting?

The man put them in the house, but he lived in the garage after they drove him out. None of those cats had ever even tasted one ounce of freedom.

Egads.

Lemme guess, the guy thought he was helping? That's normally their excuse. I actually speak with a lot of people who honestly think they are helping all these animals. And I hear about how they have so many, the animals pee in their stove, there isn't enough room for them etc. But they won't give them up, they are convinced they are really helping. And of course they say "but I adopt them out too" course only about one animal per year actually gets adopted out because secretly they just want to keep them all, and think everyone else would be a worser care taker than them

A lot of 'so called' respected rescuers out there do this very same thing. And I personally can't believe the people (specially the adopters) who fall for it.
Dealing with ferals is hard, you definetly have to have the space and time for it. Can be so different from a stray or a give up.
Bless you for helping them!

It made me mad too. Poor cats..... and the way that handler threw them in the cardboard boxes was cruel I was flipping through the channels and noticed all the cats! Was there someone actually living in all that filth WITH the cats? I felt so sorry for the kitties.

Yes I saw this episode and it will make you cry.
The cardboard boxes were fine, though. They were real cat-carries with airholes and such. You can't get 267 quality cat-carries that quickly.
The way the put the kitties into the boxes looks even crueler, but is the most harmless way. It explained in the program that they were in no way hurting the cats, or causing them pain by holding them with that pole that way.
The poor poor kitties were very violently feral, and there's no way to catch them any other way.
To be more graphic (so please don't read if you are just sensitive about this):
The house was fairly small, maybe 3-6 rooms with a basement. In the basement, 3 sewer pipes were reputerd, covering the floor in maybe 3 inches of excrement. And there must have been 100 cats in that small basement, with no windows. The hordler spent $1,400 dollars a month feeding them, but I hardly believe that would be nearly enough. Upstairs, the rest of the entire house, walls, furniture, floors, were covered in excrement.

Totally revolting. Absolutely hopeless. The man was commited to a mental institute. He started with one cat, and therefore they were All inbred.
I really watch this show too much, but I watch for the happy endings. This was one episode that I wish I never saw. All I hope is that it'll discourage any type of cat-hording.

-Sarah of Borg

Perhaps putting them all down is for the best. I would have thought the other way had I not read Sarah of Borg's and Hissy's replies. It's sad, but you have to be realistic with 267 inbred and mad cats. Hopefully, that guy will never get out of that institution.

There was a lady that used to live above me in this apartment building I used to live in. She kept wild pidgeon's! She lured them with piles of bird seed on either end of our block. They flew in and out of her bedroom window freely, they mated and ate in her apartment and left. We could hear her sometimes talking to them early in the morning "Hello, George, Mary, Arthur. My, what big genitalia you have!" I'M SERIOUS! We called the manager of the apartment and complained and she seems genuinly surprised that she was there, she called the local mental institute and they came and got her and condemned her room until they cleaned it. There was stacks of newspaper over everything a foot high! She just covered up the bird poop with newspaper, over and over again. You couldn't see a stove or fridge or anything! All Newspaper. Her antique furniture was covered in bird poop and there were nests and eggs hidden within the newspaper on the floor. In her cupboards there were eggs that she stole from the birds and kept for herself. She's not allowed back there but everytime we drive by there on our way home from work in the mornings, we still see the piles of bird seed.

I have to sadly agree that no shelter could cope with an influx of 250 cats at once. I did read a story here in England about a small shelter that got stuck with (I think) over a cat hoarder's 'treasure' of 100 cats. This colony had years ago begun with one pedigree Chinchilla queen and a local tomcat. Apparently as they had interbred for years and years some of them were really odd looking. However, the shelter got the press involved and so the cats were all happily rehomed almost instantly; even some unrelated longhairs that the shelter managed to pass off as members of this family. If the camaramen at Animal Planet had fed this into the National news, I bet loads of people would have come forward to take any rehomeable cats... The cats might have just gone into a holding quarantine for a week or so. I'm always astonished at the power of the press (EG Samoa!)and also how people won't go down the road to adopt at their local shelter, but will fall over each other to take an animal that's publicised! Thankfully, I didn't see the story, (we get Animal Planet in the UK too); it would have ruined my day!

Missed that show but, we had a case, like that, a few years ago. The cats were all so sick and, because of inbreeding, a bunch of them were deformed. They had to be euthanised, too.

About 30 years ago, an elderly cousin, of Jackie Onassis was found to be living, in the same situation: dozens of cats and 4-6 ft. mounds of feces, in a crumbling old mansion.

I also saw the episode. I understand that people are not to happy with the way the rescuers were handling the cats. Please understand this and think about it. Those cats were covered in urine and feces not only cat but human (because of the broken sewage pipes). If they tried to get them by hand there is a good possibility someone could have got scratched. I don't think you have to imagine what kinds of bactria and viruses are in fecal matter. Hepatitus for example. It's not curable folks. Trapping would have taken way to long. They needed to get those animals out of that situation. Yes, I'm upset at the fact that they were euthanised. I felt that they should have at least picked the healtiest and most tame to try to rehabilitate. These rescuers were shaken up after all was said and done. The man responcible should face jail and treatment. I cried for these poor animals. Thank God there are people like the animal cops out there. At least someone has the authority to do some thing about animal cruelty and abuse. Don't think these people weren't affected by what they saw. They do care.