Cat Hoarder’s Neighbors Help Clean Her Home

cat hoarder helped by neighbors1The neighbors of a Fort Myers Shores cat hoarder will be spending the weekend helping clean the woman’s home, NBC2 reported March 20.

Lee County resident Sandra Berkshire got in way over her head trying to care for 72 cats inside her 4th Street home. An anonymous tip led Lee County Animal Care Services to the home on March 18, where more than six dozen cats were living in cages in their own waste. It took more than seven hours for animal control to get all of the cats out of the house. Most of them had fleas, among other issues. Now Sandra’s neighbor’s want to help her out, especially since a few of them gave Sandra cats they could no longer care for themselves.

Here’s a news video where Sandra explains what happened. She had been taking in cats no one else wanted and adopting them out. During the past five years things got out of control. Sandra says she’s been begging for help to find homes for the cats, and is sorry the county had to step in.


Note: is the video below fails to show, please refresh the page, which should fix it.


NBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral

Since the cats were removed from the home, the home has been deemed uninhabitable. The neighbors plan to change that on Saturday. They say Sandra has always been there for them as they faced family problems, and now they want to help her to put her home straight.

Anyone wanting to help clean March 22 is asked to email danienull12@gmail.com. None of the neighbors were aware that many cats were living in one house. Sandra is staying with friends until her home is cleaned. She was given two weeks to get her property cleaned up, or faces a $250 per day fine.

Neighbor Danielle Null said in an interview with NBC2 News

“Now that we’ve got the cat situation taken care of. It’s time to help her take care of herself and get back into her house.”

Danielle also says that had she known about this situation before the authorities got involved she would have done everything in her power to find these cats good homes instead of having them live the way that they were.

The cats are staying at the Lee County Domestic Animal Services, where a Nine Lives Adoption promotion is being planned. The cats from the hoarding case can be adopted for only $9. For questions, please see the Animal Services website, where phone numbers and hours of operation are listed. http://www.leelostpets.com/Pages/default.aspx

There’s no word on whether Sandra is facing any charges at this time. Sandra says she’s embarrassed about the shape of her home, but is thankful she has such wonderful neighbors who are willing to help her get back to a normal life.

This isn’t the first case of animal hoarding this month in Lee County. Several cases have been exposed recently, with more people turning in their neighbors since news media has brought a lot of attention to the Fort Myers area. It’s believed there are more than 100 hoarding cases out there that haven’t been dealt with.

Elisa

Source: nbc-2.com

24 thoughts on “Cat Hoarder’s Neighbors Help Clean Her Home”

  1. Speaking as someone who has gotten in over their head previously in rescue, as well as over committed, I can honestly say that you have to b extremely careful. Cat hoarders don’t necessarily say “if i don’t help them who will?” that’s more an animal rescuer’s behavior who goes beyond their limit. For hoarders, it’s more about themselves and i think somehow the animal represents unconditional love for them.

    Hoarding is also a form of OCD and they don’t just necessarily hoard animals but things too. There are many people in the world that could be described as having OCD or being hoarders, they just display their collections nicer of whatever it is they are passionate about. The test for me, is how well overall, any person with pets is able to care for themselves and the pets.

    I have just recently been made aware of a young couple who have at least 14 or more cats in their home that are not vaccinated, spayed, and are breeding and inbreeding as well. The wife of the young couple, claims that her mother “left the place to them with all these cats”, and yet the couple has done nothing about the cats, the breeding, are actually neglecting them because they are obviously unhealthy, and just randomly posts kittens for free on various online listing sources. They are letting the problem continue!! To me these people are a serious case of hoarders out of simply not caring!!

    There are so many ways that one can fall into the hoarding category, and don’t get me wrong, 67 cats is unreal!!-but i must say that i tend to agree with the person who commented that it was a reflection of our society in general. oh and another thing, when there are that many animals in a house, regardless whether it’s all cats, a mix of dogs and cats, etc, and the house is unclean the ammonia levels usually reach such high numbers that with long term exposure, it can cause the occupants brain damage.

    Whether or not the ammonia levels cause the animals brain damage is not certain, but it can’t, overall, be good for them if we know how it can impact us since we and our companion animals really aren’t all that different. Whether it is one cat, one dog, 14 cats, 25 dogs, or 67 animals in total, we have a serious national epidemic, one that is impacting us all, and that’s the sad state of affairs we have as a nation in whole, to properly, compassionately, responsibly and respectful combat the homeless pet population-it could easily be stated that it is truly a world wide epidemic really.

    If it’s not hoarding, it’s torture, if it’s not torture, then it’s neglect. if it’s not canned hunting, then it’s animal testing. As a whole, we need to not only demand, but take action to make it stop. Say NO to people who aren’t educated and prepared for the responsibility of a pet. Say NO to people who have a record of animal abuse, dog fighting, etc. Say NO to the backyard breeders and puppy mill owners that they can no longer have pets, and literally get in peoples faces to educate educate educate. This is the only way we are truly going to bring about massive change within our societies as to how animals are viewed: that pet ownership isn’t a right but a priviledge, and that animals are “things” but species who are tremendously intelligent and deserve our love and respect at the very least.

  2. Bless those neighbors.

    I have some understanding as to how that situation happened and feel so sorry for her.

    As Elisa said, people will dump cats/kittens on you or come with their sob stories if they know what a cat lover you are and know you would have a hard time refusing.

    It’s all about staying in reality and knowing your limitations. It breaks my heart every time to tell someone that I can’t take their cat or the litter of kittens that they found. But, I have to. There have been times when I even had to ask them not to show me the cat or litter, because that is a double heartbreak. On rare occasions, I’ve even had to get mean about it.

    No one person can adequately care for 72 cats inside a home. Unless, they are rich or have a staff, it’s impossible to manage physically and financially.
    It seems that, when a cat lover steps over that edge just a little, they stop seeing that cats in cages, flea infestation, and unsanitary conditions are hurtful to the lives they want to save.

    I agree with Marc too. The way our society is regarding animal welfare encourages these sort of situations.

  3. I think that part of the problem for a cat hoarder is that the may have difficulty in managing their own lives. There are a number of factors and forces at work in respect of cat hoarding. It isn’t just about a mentally ill person. They can simply be a person who has difficulty coping and who is tender towards vulnerable cats.

  4. This lady sounds as if she is a cat hoarder because there is no need to go to a shelter and look for more cats when she had 67 already. Alternatively, when people dump cat on a person’s doorstep and that lady cannot turn the cats away, cat hoarding is forced upon a person.

  5. This is the point that Marc refers to namely that cat hoarding is really part of a problem with society and the cat hoarder should not be vilified. I feel fairly confident that you could say that a person who hoards cats is not a bad person. They are not criminal people. You could argue that they are victims of society. This is the point I think that Mark refers to.

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