301 Cats -- 184 of Them Dead -- Found in Md. Home

Frederick County animal control officers are evaluating whether to press criminal charges against a Mount Airy woman after finding 184 dead cats and a dead dog, along with 117 living cats and three living dogs, in her house, officials said yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...122001127.html

They are only evalutaing????

Originally Posted by sharky

They are only evalutaing????

Click to expand...

Yes. Sad thing is...there was an even worse case and the woman was fined $500 and deemed unfit to own pets.

Katie

Shakes head.. This is unbelievable!

A good thing to do is for everyone to keep an eye out for bills being passed re: animal cruelty laws, fines, etc. There are more than you think, and the more letter-writing we all do in North America to our governments, the more we can help the law save animals.

This is so sad...

Makes me sick and makes me want to cry!

New York City has added a social worker who specializes in animal hoarding to their Department of Health staff. Every community needs this. Hoarding is a symptom of mental illness and animal control can't be the ones to deal with the human issues involved. But without this kind of intervention it is almost impossible to prevent repeat offenses among animal hoarders.

Sadder still, is i would wager most if not all of the surviving cats will have to be put down due to their health.

I believe a Hoarder starts out as someone like us, loves and cares for cats. But then they take one step further (due to emotional or mental issues) before you know it there are too many animals for 1 person to take care of.

Our last Vet Tech at the SPCA quietly over years brought home cats that would have been put down due to population. When they confronted him at his house he had 97 cats. Unusually, Most were healthy, and poor guy he really did try but it finally was to big for him to handle He was so commited to his actions that he never knew what he was doing to the cats or himself.

Oh my gosh this is soo depressing... ...That is NOT right something should be done about it. They should take things like this much more seriously, a $500 fine does not cut it! Nor does it help to solve anything...awwwwwwwwww the pooor KITTIES though!!!! I really don't understand how people can do something like that.

Originally Posted by sweetiecat3

Oh my gosh this is soo depressing...

...That is NOT right

something should be done about it. They should take things like this much more seriously, a $500 fine does not cut it! Nor does it help to solve anything...awwwwwwwwww the pooor KITTIES though!!!!

I really don't understand how people can do something like that.

Click to expand...

i believe that the $500 fine went to a hoarder who was 83 years old and living alone.

This is just sad.

I have mixed feelings about how to handle hoarders. I think in most cases it is a mental illness issue - from what I've read, it is believed to be a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder - so I'm not sure it's appropriate to criminalize the behavior. Hoarders generally are in denial that they have too many cats and they tend to be in denial about the awful living conditions they are forcing on these kitties. So I hesitate to group them in the same category as those who abuse out of wanton cruelty.

Sadly, the recidivism rate for hoarding is pretty much 100 percent. Most of these people just cannot be stopped.

Originally Posted by CommonOddity042

i believe that the $500 fine went to a hoarder who was 83 years old and living alone.

Click to expand...

Oh, well that's a bit of a different story, but still so sad... I feel so bad for all those cats!

These people need help; mental help! We've had similar cases in Albuquerque in the past, one of them a couple of weeks ago. At least the numbers weren't in the 100's, but still! These people are not only a threat to the animal's lives but they are a threat to their own lives too. In the last case here, the woman was found dead with two feet of papers and feces on the floor. Heartbreaking. Just plain heartbreaking, no matter where it happens.

So sad, but I think they should be jailed. I don't think sickness is an excuse.