Seeking Family of Cat Hoarders...

LA To Consider Database On Animal Hoarders
 December 14, 2007

Harford woman who faced 118 counts is found not criminally liable

Dunnigan accepted a psychiatrist's report stating that Bell was not criminally responsible for her actions because she suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder that manifested itself in her hoarding of animals....

In this
new 12-page report, “Animal Hoarders: Behavior, Consequences, and Appropriate Official Response,”
PETA gives the public and officials at all levels the fullest understanding of this behavior yet, with the hope of helping to craft and promote the necessary interventions.

Experts: Hoarding animals a psychological disorder

Sometimes, their possessions have sentimental value to them. Or they may believe that animals are their surrogate children, and no one else would or could take care of them.

"They generally deny the reality. They see themselves as rescuers and saviors of these animals," Daniels said....

To read the article, go here.

There are so many news stories and reports of Animal Hoarding, we would like to now refer you to sites dedicated to listing only those.  We will continue to post items of particular interest on occassion.

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Please visit our Animal Hoarding  links here.

Animal Hoarding News Stories 
(dedicated site for animal hoarding news)
Animal Hoarding News Stories
(news page from the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium/Tufts)

"In this particular case, they also collected junk in addition to animals," said Todd Stosuy, animal control manager for the Santa Cruz County Animal Services Authority. ...

Animal hoarding debate grows

Courts: Long Beach cruelty case forces new look at some would-be rescuers, shelters.

Grants will help league rescue more homeless cats

The first program, called Multi-Animal Homes in Need of Assistance,
is designed to help in situations like the one the Rescue League faced in the fall of 2006
in Milford, where a man was found living in a rented storage area with more than 100 cats and kittens.

ASPCA Launches 'ASPCA(R) Mission: Orange(TM)' in Austin, Texas
Thursday February 8, 12:01 pm ET

Collaborative Campaign Aims to Create A Country of Humane Communities,
One Community at a Time

Reducing Intake. This includes anti-cruelty training for police and public
    workers, supporting the work of an animal hoarding task force, cross
    reporting with child protective services for at-risk animals and children,
    helping to establish dog parks, and promoting the use of microchips so
    lost pets can be reunited with their families;

http://www.slate.com/id/2123006/

Excuses & Accounts
From the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium

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Another inevitable part of any hoarding case is the plethora of excuses likely to be offered. Sociologists have studied how excuses work to maintain a positive self-image in the face of bad behavior. Understanding how, when, and why excuses are used will help you anticipate what you are likely to hear when involved in any sort of intervention.

• The role of excuses
• Hoarder's accounts

The H.A.R.C. home page.

Posted November 7, 2006

TR City Council considers residence limit on dogs, cats

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By Nkauj Vang
Herald Times Reporter

Nkauj Vang: 920-686-2968 or nvang@htrnews.com

TWO RIVERS — The city may limit the number of cats and dogs allowed per household to discourage "pet hoarding," according to City Manager Greg Buckley.

Unlike Manitowoc, Two Rivers does not limit the number of pets per household, Buckley said Monday night. And that explains why a Manitowoc resident with more than 30 cats wants to move to Two Rivers.

A Two Rivers community service officer already is working with a Two Rivers resident who has 23 cats, Buckley added.

Numerous cats or dogs often create noise or health concerns, said Police Chief Joseph Collins.

Buckley, as a homeowner with three cats and one dog, said he "would like to stay fairly 'liberal' in what (the city) allows, but tough enough to make animal hoarding clearly illegal."

Buckley suggested a maximum of four adult cats or three adult dogs, or no more than five in combination. Limiting cats might require the city to enforce licensing, which it does not do now. The city does enforce dog licensing.

In Manitowoc, cats and dogs must be licensed. People are allowed to have three dogs or three cats age 6 months or older at any one time. People also can have four dogs or four cats by obtaining a permit from the Manitowoc police chief, said Manitowoc City Clerk Jennifer Hudon. A litter of dogs or cats cannot be kept for longer than four months.

For those who violate this ordinance, fines range from $5 to $100 for each offense.

The limit on cats and dogs was discussed by the City Council, but no action was taken Monday. Further discussion is planned later this month.

In other council items:

 

Two Rivers will receive the $500,000 Community Development Block Grant it requested to fund housing rehabilitation activities and to assist homebuyers with financing.

 

The Two Rivers Police Department recently received a $50,000 grant from the West Foundation Inc. for equipment and technology upgrades.

 

The J.E. Hamilton Community House has raised about $309,094 to date for its renovation. It needs to raise $500,000 by Dec. 31 to receive the $500,000 West Foundation matching grant.

There are so many news stories and reports of Animal Hoarding in the news, we would like to now refer you to a site dedicated to listing only those reports.  We will continue to post Animal Hoarding news stories of particular interest in the community on occassion.

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Please visit our Animal Hoarding section in the menu bar for links to Animal Hoarding news and other important information regarding this form of Compulsive Hoarding.
Animal Hoarding News Stories (dedicated site for animal hoarding news)
Animal Hoarding News Stories (news page from the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium/Tufts)

Tuesday, October 31, 2006
From the 10News.com website:

Cats, Dogs Found In Carriers Stacked Atop Each Other

Link

Quote:

"Deputies arrested an Oak Park woman on suspicion of animal abuse Monday after finding dozens of dogs and cats inside portable pet carriers stacked atop each other in her heavily barricaded home."

Blog about Animal Hoarding with lots of information:

Excerpt:

"We all need to do what we can to educate prosecutors, judges and news reporters that hoarding is like alcoholism: an incurable addiction that means they must never have another drink – or in this case, another animal – because they can't stop with just one, and they fail to see the devastating damage caused by their addiction," Campbell said. "Communities need laws and judges willing to tell hoarders that they are prohibited from ever owning another animal. It's the surest way to prevent future animal cruelty."

Animal Hoarding: 

A blog that collects lots of recent news on Animal Hoarding

Recent Hoarding Cases Crowding Local Animal Control Center
Watch the video:

Source, NBC 25
Reported by: Adam Hudson
10/24/2006 06:58pm
FREDERICK, MD - The Animal Control Center is running out of room because of a rash of recent hoarding cases.

Shelter workers told NBC25 that they currently house 241 animals, which is their maximum capacity, and local animal rescue organizations are also full. Shelter officials said when they take on hoarding cases, like the more than 40 cats they took from a Thurmont home earlier this month, it can take some time to get animal numbers back under control.

"When you get more animals than you can house and you get more animals than you can rescue, that's when euthanasia figures go up. It's not ideal in our setting, and our surroundings and it hurts," said Harold Domer, Frederick County  Animal Control.

Domer said he has seen more animal hoarding cases since he took over as director four years ago, mostly because more people are reporting suspected hoarders.

200-plus living, dead rabbits found in home

Posted: 7:59 AM, Oct. 17, 2006 Last Updated: 8:02 AM, Oct. 17, 2006 By Drew Mikkelson, KGW.com Police said they found 125 rabbits living in a Hillsboro woman’s home on Monday, and nearly 90 dead rabbits in her garage. Hillsboro Police said they found the dead rabbits in freezers and refrigerators.   RAW VIDEO: Workers catch rabbits in Hillsboro   Watch the KGW report

Hoarding 125 Cats-Liverpool, NY
Hoarder was in animal welfare field

Pet-Abuse.com
10/5/06-Animal cruelty investigators spent Oct 5 hauling scores of cats out of a Liverpool home.

As many as 125 cats were being removed from a home at 503 Third St., said Liverpool police Chief Don Morris and Betsie Puffer, an animal cruelty investigator with the Central New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The Liverpool woman who owns the home, Lisa Alderman, was issued an appearance ticket charging improper confinement of the cats, Puffer said. The charge is considered a misdemeanor, Puffer added.

Alderman was also charged after a Sept. 1 search of Purr-fect World in Cortland, a not-for-profit organization that cared for unwanted cats.

SPCA officials in Cortland found 275 live cats on the premises - along with 21 dead ones in a refrigerator.

Woman faces court in seizure of cats 54-year-old accused of neglect after 275 felines removed from home By Raymond Drumsta Gannett News Service 9/29/06

CORTLAND -- Legal proceedings against a Cortland woman accused of animal neglect are continuing, while the hundreds of cats she allegedly failed to properly care for are getting better.

Eugenia Cute, 54, was arraigned Wednesday in Cortland City Court on 49 counts of neglect of impounded animals, an unclassified misdemeanor, court officials said.  On Sept. 1, police and firefighters worked with the Cortland County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to act on a search warrant and seize 275 ill and emaciated cats in Cute's home and in another building on her property.

The search stemmed from neighbors' complaints that Cute was hoarding and mistreating animals. Cute was later arrested and charged with neglect of impounded animals and released on her own recognizance.  Of the cats originally seized, 243 are being cared for by the SPCA and SPCA volunteers, according to Yvette Moore, a Cortland County SPCA staff member who cares for the cats...

Experts say type of animal cruelty is more an illness than a crime

Animal Hoarding Is a Complex Problem

I Am Cat Lady, Hear Me Meow

A cat's best friend or worst enemy? How a feline fixation can go too far
BY KAREN SHUGART Published 09.27.06

Animal control officer Shannon Corkwell once spent an eight-hour shift emptying a South Charlotte home of cats. More than 30 starving and inbred feral cats clawed and leapt wildly to get away from officers in the squalid home on Providence Road. They were half-starved, wild-eyed inbreds "living in this house in filth, in their own sickness," Corkwell recalls. "You could see mountains of feces in the corners.

"They could not get out," she continues. "Everything was scratched up. You could see where the cats had tried to climb the windows to get out, but they were stuck. It was the saddest thing."

It took animal control officers, outfitted in haz-mat gear borrowed from the fire department, more than a day to rid the home of cat after feral cat. Some were dead; others were mere skeletons after subsisting for so long on the occasional meal the home's owner would toss inside. All would be euthanized at the Mecklenburg County animal shelter, a facility already overrun with healthy, adoptable cats that would never find homes...

 

(click "read more" to continue with story.  To see a letter COH sent to this reporter, click here)

Animal hoarder accepts plea deal-Woman pleads to 46 of 244 counts

Published on September 27, 2006
By Kate Leckie  News-Post Staff

FREDERICK -- The trial of a Mount Airy woman facing 244 animal cruelty charges came to a halt Tuesday afternoon when she entered an Alford plea to 46 counts of failure to provide proper care, food and water for 46 cats that had to be euthanized.

Patricia K. Nicholson, 51, entered the plea after returning to Frederick County District Court from lunch recess. An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt, but is an acknowledgment that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict.

Judge Oliver John Cejka Jr. set sentencing for Nov. 29. Each count is punishable by as much as 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.  In December, Nicholson was found living with hundreds of live and dead cats in her $500,000 two-story, brick house on Black Ankle Road that animal control Officers Michael Douglas and John Teal testified was covered with cat feces, carcasses and trash. ...

Crisis Intervention, Assessment, Counseling and Case Management
Animal hoarders seeking assistance to improve problematic personal and home conditions may make arrangements to receive assessment services, guidance and supportive counseling, identification and coordination of community resources relevant to their needs, and care management. Self-referrals may be made for the purpose of either preventing or responding to crisis situations that are associated with animal hoarding conditions, which may include the risk of losing one's pets, losing one's home, and confronting related financial and legal problems.

b) Counseling for family members or friends of an animal hoarder Information, guidance, and support services are available for family members or friends of an animal hoarder to learn methods of intervention, communication and coping strategies, and the utilization of appropriate resources within the community.

Long distance telephone consultation services provided (or available) for out-of-state clients or organizations. References are available upon request. For further information and costs of service, contact Ms. Nathanson directly. Email: jnncnslt@aol.com or Telephone: (617) 325-4828

Jane N. Nathanson, LCSW, LRC, CRC, Social Work and Rehabilitation Consultant, Specialist in Human-Animal Health and Welfare -Boston, MA
http://www.tufts.edu/vet/cfa/hoarding/consult.htm

'Animal helper' reaches plea deal on cruelty charges

By DAVE FORSTER, The Virginian-Pilot
© September 22, 2006

SUFFOLK - A woman once known as "the animal helper" in her neighborhood pleaded guilty Thursday to inflicting cruelty on the dogs and cats she tried to save.

Francine M. Cochran, 41, was trying to support 58 dogs and 38 cats in and around her rural house in southern Suffolk when police discovered the situation in May. Authorities said the animals were living in squalor with rats, and a majority of the animals were euthanized because of poor health and personality problems....

Pahrump woman expected in court to face animal cruelty charges
Sep 21, 2006 08:23 AM PDT
A pahrump woman facing more than 60 counts of animal cruelty is expected in court Thursday in Nye County. Tana Naas pleaded not guilty to the charges after authorities say they found nearly 70 dogs living in deplorable conditions in her home. ...(COHAdmin warning: story details are quite graphic)

"Authorities also found Naas' two grandchildren living in the same conditions as the animals they rescued. The children were placed in protective custody." ...