This is a very unusual animal abuse case and it has people scratching their heads as to how Dennis Carlson is going to defend himself in a criminal court after he refused a plea deal and pleaded not-guilty after nearly 400 cats were found at his property, 194 of which were dead.

Dennis Carlson. Photo: Des Moines Register.

The circumstances point to a classic case of cat hoarding gone badly wrong due to extended neglect of the animals but he doesn’t agree and there will be a trial beginning November 20.

I hope the trial is reported online because for me it will be interesting to see how he manages to avoid a guilty verdict. However, we can’t pre-judge and I won’t.

It is the first time I have encountered one of these cases where the hoarder decided to defend his/her behavior at trial.

When rescuers went into his home they had to wear the usual hazmat suits and respirators as the place was hazardous to human and animal health with faces, urine, carcasses and garbage strewn around the place.

How is Carlson going to wriggle out of it? Or perhaps he simply wants his day in court and to make the prosecutor work for a conviction. He just might be a stubborn so-and-so who knows that he is committed a crime and hurt these cats. Or he might have a perfect justification for what was found.

SOME CAT HOARDING CASES:

How do you stop ‘things getting out of control’ at cat hoarding situations?

Hoarders often say it, 'things got out of control'. They are also the words of a man, Ryan Ross, who ...
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Can you tell from their face that they are cat abusers?

We see mugshots of alleged cat abusers all the time. Or they are cat hoarders who neglect cats to the ...
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A framework for eradicating cat hoarding in the United States of America

USA: You'll never get rid of cat hoarding under the current state of affairs. I realise that no one is ...
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Dozens of dead cats found in NY home. Why didn’t they let the cats go free?

This is a point made by a colleague of mine, Jan on Facebook, in reference to the story coming out ...
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As a cat lover are you tired of seeing photos like this one?

I am reluctant to go into details into why we see this picture on the msn.com website but as usual ...
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Let’s get real. If there were no unwanted cats, there would be no cat hoarders

Let's be real and stop reacting. Cat hoarders depend upon a surplus of domestic and stray cats for their existence ...
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Dozens of living cats pressed up against windows seeking fresh air, 200 dead in fridges

Dozens of living cats were pressed up against the windows trying to find clean air while hundreds were dead in ...
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