Animal Hoarding

I watched a couple of episodes of Animal Hoarding this weekend.  While I can’t believe people allow their homes to be destroyed by animals, I can understand how difficult it would be to part with beloved pets.  For an animal lover, pets are more than just animals:  they’re our confidants, our best friends, our sanctuary from a difficult and sometimes frightening world.  It seems like many of these hoarders love animals so much, they can’t say no to an animal in need.  No matter the cost to the person’s quality of life or relationships.   While their intentions are good, the results are often tragic for the animals as well.  By the time the hoarder agrees to get help, many of the animals have been killed due to competition in the pack or disease.  Those that remain are often in poor health, feral and poor candidates for adoption.

Last week a woman and her son were arrested when police in Granite Falls found 31 dead cats and dogs in their home. The pair have been charged with animal cruelty.  According to Police Chief Dennis Taylor, the scene was one of the worst he's ever seen.  "Does the word 'indescribable' mean anything to you?" he said. "These were deplorable conditions — feces 3 inches deep over every surface of the house, and six months of garbage everywhere."

The 65 year old woman and her 39 year old son lost their home to foreclosure in October and abandoned the pets, allowing them to starve to death.   "The animals were dead, laying down on a shelf or laying under furniture or in a box," he said. "Some were just skeletons."  Three cats survived the ordeal and received medical care. 

We took in a litter of stray pups and did our best to find them good homes.  There is no way we could have kept all of the puppies, but that didn't make it any easier to part with each one.  Especially since we all had our favorites.  We fed them, bathed them, cuddled with them and then sent them on their way with a colorful collar and paw print pet tag.  We did end up keeping two of the dogs, and it’s been a mixed blessing since.  Now we only have three dogs (at one point we had four) and they have managed to do some damage, mostly chewing wood trim and lately the carpet on our stairs.  Even when they’re not being destructive, it takes a lot of energy to keep up with scooping poop, sweeping and vacuuming hair balls and wiping down drool covered walls.  I couldn’t begin to keep up if the mess was 10X what it is now.