I’m sorry to bring you another story which might be upsetting to cat lovers or indeed anybody who cares. They come along in threes. Yes, the authorities discovered 114 cats kept in a garage. This appears to be an ordinary garage where you keep your car. Above it there is some sort of apartment – a ‘loft’ – where a man lived. He collected cats and stuffed them into the garage below.
Why, we don’t know, but it seems bizarre and completely irrational. It is also very cruel. It is yet another variant on how people with borderline personality disorders develop a fetish about collecting cats. Where did he find the cats? Were some domesticated and owned? Were they stolen?
For some reason domestic and feral cats are very collectable in the eyes of some people with, as stated, mental health problems. No normal person would do this; 114 cats kept in a garage of all places. I expect there are no windows in the garage.
Cat Hoarding Exposed – It Starts With A Strange Odor
The whole thing kicked off with the police being informed about a strange odor coming out of a building in this residential area off Byerry Road, Hatboro, Pennsylvania, USA. They turned up with a search warrant.
There is inevitably a strange odor coming out of these buildings were cats are hoarded. It is one of the characteristics of a cat hoarder’s home. The conditions as usual were deplorable.
Rescued By Police And SPCA
They spoke to the man who lives in the loft space above the garage and removed the 114 cats. They had the assistance of the Montgomery County SPCA. The police then returned to the building with a heat sensor to check if they had missed any of the cats. All the cats are being evaluated and being treated in the usual way. No doubt some will be re-homed and some of them may be too ill to be saved but we don’t know at this stage.
Just another variant on the cat hoarder story. It is about as bad as it gets though. The source for me of this story is ABC6.
Why these comments are marked with a ‘thumbs down’ is beyond comprehension. Could it be that the reader is also a hoarder? This is definitely a mental health issue that needs to be addressed. Sometimes a good samaritan tries so hard to rescue that it eventually gets out of control. That is a different scenario to being a hoarder though. A good sam will willingly ask for help. A hoarder will not. It’s like an uncontrollable compulsion that punishment will not resolve. Intensive therapy is needed and a ban on owning any type of animals should also be part of the conditions IMHO. Thoughts?
Completely agree with you. We need to distinguish between (1) poor management and letting things get out of control and (2) people with mental health issues and (3) criminally-minded individuals who abuse cats callously for some misconceived personal benefit (self-esteem).
These cat hoarding incidents are completely heartbreaking. Obviously no rational person would ever confine even a much smaller number of animals into a tight windowless location with oxygen and temperature instability, not to mention food, water, medical, and hygiene requirements.😱😰
I’d like to see some research done on this with the intention of finding treatments. They are often punished and criminalized. Not sure this right.
I agree. It is such a grey area for sure. There was an American television series called “Hoarders” several years ago addressing this issue in general. But the affliction of hoarding living souls is much different than collecting useless rubbish or other inanimate objects.😱😰
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoarders
Yes, it is a tricky area. Perhaps a combination of treatment and punishment is the answer. But they are mentally ill to a certain extent.