Cats in Squalor (photos)

Sometimes the word ‘hoarding’ doesn’t apply to cats but things and when hoarding is combined with laziness, fecklessness and untidiness over a long time you get this:

cats in squalor

Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

In this house in Adelaide, Australia, there were three cats. You can see a ginger-and-white moggie in this photo on top of a gargantuan pile of rubbish in what appears to be the back yard (garden):

Cats living in squalor

The cats were in poor physical condition when they were seized by the RSPCA. The owner pleaded guilty to the charge of failing to provide appropriate and adequate living conditions for his cats. I think we can agree that there was not much chance of him doing anything other than pleading guilty!

Cats living in squalor

It is interesting to speculate why he did not hoard cats rather than things. He appears to have a classic profile for a cat hoarder. But then the two go together. Hoarding is a mental condition which can be expressed in more ways than one. A hoarder will hoard anything including cats.

To be honest I don’t really see this case as ‘hoarding’ in the true sense. It is more an extreme example of untidiness and lack of cleanliness gone mad – gone to the absolute extreme where it has to stop. This is a houseful of rubbish. You don’t hoard rubbish. You fail to put it in the trash (rubbish) bin.

Cats living in squalor

The house was going to be auctioned off by a debtor because the owner owed $180,000. The owner found the money and paid the debt. You’d have thought he would have employed a cleaner!

The neighbours are p*ss*d off that they are going to stay! What a shame. The house is a hazard to other cats and people for health reasons.

Apparently, in parts of Australia there are serial hoarders and the problem has become serious.


Source: Daily Mail and RSPCA.

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5 thoughts on “Cats in Squalor (photos)”

  1. This falls into the category of “rubbish hoarding” where the individual won’t throw rubbish away, but hangs onto it. A friend’s aunt had this – triggered by being burgled (actually that’s a common trigger) – as did someone I met via another online forum (no matter how we tried, we couldn’t persuade her to even take on rubbish bag to be disposed of (she had depressive illness). Rubbish hoarding is a few steps beyond slovenly living and linked to mental illness.

    My current cats came from a somewhat similar situation, but caused by the owner being elderly and not able to care for himself properly either.

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  2. I don’t really see this a case of hoarding, as I don’t see like items accumulated.
    I see this as laziness and slovenly living.
    It could, also, be a situation of drunked neglect.
    In any case, it’s not a healthy environment for any cat.

    Reply
    • Absolutely Dee. It is slovenly living not true hoarding. The journalists have got it wrong again. There are a lot of people like this. I can understand and feel sympathy except it hurts the cats. I don’t mind them messing up their lives as long as it does not mess up anyone else’s lives.

      Reply
    • There are a surprising number of people who accept living like this. Shame they force their cats to do the same thing.

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