Since there are so many case of cat hoarders making the news these days, I’d like to address what happens to the cats, as well as the hoarder, once the authorities get involved.
A lot of people believe that just because a local Animal Control unit, or cat rescue becomes involved, that the person hoarding a large number of cats will automatically not be allowed to keep her cats or get new ones. This isn’t the case. Vicki, made the following comment on my article “Self-deception and deceiving others in cat hoarding” about Alexandra and Sharyn Wingate, who were arrested back in October on animal cruelty charges
“The idea people have that police or AC actually follow up is an illusion…at least in this area.They don’t follow up, they simply threaten to follow up. Did you know that animal control cannot “take” animals from someone? They have to be surrendered to animal control by the owner…unless there is a court order. The surrendering is done through intimidation and deception tactics. They imply that the animals were seized but they are surrendered.”
The sad truth is that yes, there are most likely still cats in her home, and unless a judge flat-out bans the Wingate women from taking in more cats, I’m afraid Alexandra and her mother will get into trouble again within the next year or so (see cat hoarding repeat offenders). There’s a difference in ordering psychiatric treatment for hoarding (which is a mental condition) and outright banning that person from keeping cats.
Only a court order can halfway tempt a hoarder to stop taking in more cats. A court order is a legal document or proclamation in which a court tells a person to perform a specific act or prohibits him from performing an act (called an “injunction”), sets a court date, or legally establishes something.
For example, a court order may require an individual to pay a specific amount of money to another party. It may also prohibit a person from doing something, such as walking across another party’s property. In the case of cat hoarding, a judge must make it illegal for a cat hoarder to obtain more cats, and be willing to enforce a penalty should that order not be heeded. A court order can also be issued as part of the sentencing at trial as a condition of the sentence.
A lot of cat hoarders who are raided are coerced (for lack of a better word) into turning their cats over to the local shelter or to a rescue. There’s no judge involvement since the hoarder willingly did what’s considered an “owner surrender.” This can be a good thing for the hoarder to do, as it removes responsibility of the cats from that person to someone who can help the cats removed from the home.
These cats can immediately be put up for adoption. They may also be killed immediately, should a shelter decide to do so. It can also be a bad thing, not only because of the immediate disposal provision tied into owner surrenders, but because it doesn’t usually result in mental health treatment. It also doesn’t prevent the hoarder from starting over. And as Vicki stated, Animal Control may threaten to do periodic checks on the home in the future, but police or Animal Control are often too busy to bother.
It also ties up the cats in the legal system anytime a court order is issued to seize the cats. Unless the hoarder is later willing to sign an owner surrender, these cats must remain in the custody of what’s usually the local shelter until the case goes to trial. There’s a dog case going on in South Carolina at this time, where the dogs seized back in February 2014 are still sitting at Anderson County P.A.W.S. waiting for their owner to go to trial.
A lot of people also don’t realize when a court order removes animals from a property, any who are unspayed/unneutered must remain that way. The Humane Society of Pulaski County in Arkansas was put in charge of caring for the 137 dogs taken from Sandra Nance of Texas, whose number grew to 180 (spay/neutered wasn’t allowed, as the dogs were still considered Nance’s property) since she was ordered by the court to turn them over and decided to fight for their return. Sandra Nance was originally convicted on five counts of animal cruelty, but her husband was found not guilty. The case took two years to make it through two trials, and ran up some major expense for the HSPC to care for.
The answer to the hoarding situation may well be the same as to shelter overcrowding. If all household cats were “fixed,” then shelters wouldn’t be overwhelmed. This would cut back on the need for those with a hoarding mentality to feel they’re the last chance a cat may have. Until the reproduction problems are corrected, the hoarding situation is only going to get worse.
Please feel free to add to or comment on any of this, especially how you feel about court order vs. owner surrender.
Source: Examiner article by Elisa
Sorry to disagree… the hoarding problem is a psychological problem that’s w/i a personality and not because of unwanted cats. I have been involved by catching and stopping a horse hoarder a couple of years ago. The hoarder was raided, horses taken away (sadly many, many killed 🙁 )and she was convicted… yet THREE days after the horses were taken away from her, she was caught (by a friend) trying to start hoarding Australian Shepherds. I immediately contacted ALL breeders and vets in the area to try and stop her. Today we don’t know. She prob is hoarding again. Previous to the horses she was hoarding parrots…. There’s ALWAYS something to hoard… It’s like an addiction. And OCD is definitely part of the disease.
Hoarders will litterally STEAL cats from neighbours if they get a chance. I know… I’ve been through it with a friend whose cat had been stolen and never appeared again. She could prove her cat (as many other neighbourhood cats with good homes) were with that hoarder, but the hoarder fled the country right before the raid, cats and all. 🙁
Elisa, if the officials wouldn’t put so much $$ and time into trapping but TNR instead, those resources could go into education about hoarding, and monitoring those that need it.
Your US system is a thorn in my eye. Around here, we don’t have pounds (“shelters”)! We haven’t killed any pets randomly for at least 20+ years. People are educated (most of them anyway) and it’s socially Not Done Not to s/n your cats. We have national TNR and then some… ALL of our cats (we simply do not have many stray dogs or owner surrenders) are adopted w/i 2 or 3 months, with some exceptions to that rule. The frustrating thing about KNOWING how things CAN work and seeing the US-system is, that YOU HAVE the basic structures there to save lives AND to save loads of $$ of taxpayers money. If the pounds in the US would join with the rescues, there would be no need to pts (if TNR is in place), and ALL of that $$ could be spend on education and problem sources like hoarders.
I could write a book about this. Unfortunately not many are willing to even imagine how things can be (and are in many countries in Europe).
Having that said, we still have the hoarding problem here too… and it needs proper dealing with! And yes, there are WAY more than most can imagine… A friend did some research and found that in her little street there were already 3 pet hoarders. You do your math! (and yeah, I know not all areas or streets are the same! It’s nothing scientific, but still shocking)
Thanks Jennie for sharing.
There are two different types of people raided for “hoarding”. Most are the true sick hoarders with their hundreds of sick cats in filthy conditions. Occasionally it is the true rescuer who has either gotten in a bit over their heads or gotten crosswise of someone with a grudge. I know a woman who fell into the latter category. A distinction should be made between the two. True hoarders should be banned from owning any animal, ever, and there should be follow up for some years. Mandatory sterilization of pets would make it harder for them to get pets to hoard, and easier for rescuers to keep up with a reduced number of the homeless pets there will always be.
The worst part about reporting on these cases is I’m powerless to help except by trying to find these cats a home through my writing. I do Pinterest boards and have a lot of followers, but it’s so hard knowing I can’t personally save any of them. I get dozens of emails a day asking for help until sometimes I feel my brain will explode and my mind just goes blank.
I did go on strike awhile back over a kitten in Greenville who was sick and about to be killed. I was about to give up even on writing when I couldn’t help save this one little life.