Cat hoarders who are repeat offenders should be banned from keeping cats for life.
One family of cat hoarders living in Schaghticoke, Rensselaer County, New York State, USA have undergone an intervention by the authorities on no less than four occasions with the total number of cats involved reaching almost 400.
The latest intervention by the police, firefighters and the local humane society, involved no less than 150 cats. Fifty of those cats were hiding in the walls of the home.
It took two days to remove 98 cats. It is projected the it will take a further two days to remove the fifty cats inside the walls.
Most of the cats were very ill with the usual health issues: fleas, ear mites, URIs etc..
Thus far 12 cats have been euthanized because they were too ill.
The key element about this cat hoarding story is that these people are repeat offenders.
Nothing that the authorities do stops them. Do the authorities try to stop then offending again? The police say all five of the family could be charged. It seems that they won’t be and if they are it will be a mild punishment and no restrictions imposed as to future conduct.
Is it not possible for courts in America to impose restrictions on animal ownership as part of a criminal sentence for animal cruelty? They should be banned for life from keeping cats.
It must be a failure of animal welfare and the legal system to allow a family to become committed cat hoarders on a grand scale four times involving about 400 cats.
The family’s property has been condemned, we are told, which, to me, means that it will be destroyed.
Let’s think too about the neighbours if there are any. The smell emanating from the house could be detected out in the street.
Again, I believe that a lot of cat hoarding is tied into the fear of relinquishing cats to kill shelters. If the UK didn’t have Cats Protection, what would people do if they knew that the RSPCA would kill? Would they take them there anyway? Would they pursue private shelters that say they are busting at the seams and can’t accept?
A true cat lover would have no alternative but to keep.
Perhaps, that is the way it begins for some…
Excellent point Dee. It must certainly be a factor. I suppose I have to define cat hoarding. If a person looks after 30 cats really well in clean conditions etc. then that is not cat hoarding for me. Cat hoarding is collecting cats while being unable to care for them and not recognising that fact. On that definition cat hoarding is not really closely linked to whether a shelter is genuinely no-kill or not.
Michael I’m in total agreement as any animal loving ‘normal’ (whatever that is) thinking person would be! Yet as in the UK with the RSPCA when bans for life are dished out who polices them? How are they policed? What about when people move on? You may not see it as much where you live but believe me with privately rented properties on the rise and so many transients who travel so light they can move in and then be gone before you even notice I would think that to police the ban would be impossible!
Sadly, I agree with you. Enforcement is the big weakness in crimes against animals. In Britain lots of crime is ignored by the police. There is a breakdown in policing in the UK. With the NY hoarder it seems she was not even barred from keeping animals on previous convictions. This shows a lack of concern for animal welfare to me.
A grave lack of concern sometimes the law is an ass and the animals are the ones that suffer 🙁