UK Cat Hoarder Faces Lifetime Ban on Keeping Pets

Angela Guthrie, 53, is a “standard cat hoarder”. There are thousands of them on the planet. She kept 69 cats in a mid-terrace house in Scotland. There were two cat litter trays and predictably cat faeces throughout the house; frankly just typical cat hoarder stuff. Interestingly, on her Facebook page, she complained about the lack of animal welfare in China. Somewhat hypocritical.

Cat hoarder might be banned from keeping pets for life

Well, she was found out and prosecuted under Scottish law and convicted for “failing to take such steps as were reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that the needs of her cats were met to the extent required by good practice”.

As for sentencing, the prosecution will demand that she is banned from keeping pets for life. The judge (called a “sheriff” in Scotland) will make his decision after reports are submitted by social workers. I think a psychiatrist should write a report too. The case returns to court on the 8th October.

The sheriff may well hand down a life ban. Now wouldn’t that be good. I believe that all those convicted domestic, companion animal abuse should be banned for life from keeping companion animals and the sentence should be mandatory. It should be fixed in the legislation. Too many cat abuser get off with light sentences if they are caught which is unlikely.

The source of the story is the Express Newspaper “Woman with 69 cats faces lifetime ban on keeping pets”

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Hoarding is really a mental illness. I doubt in her mind she was abusing them. I think the lifetime ban is good though because like a drug addict she cannot help herself, she’ll do it again. If she couldn’t feel the smell, there must be something wrong with her brains – no normal person will be able to live with feces all over the floor. So I don’t see the contradiction with her complaining about the pets in China – she probably saw herself as a “rescuer”.

I can really see how it can happen. A single lonely person starts out with one cat or kitten or maybe two. Then she sees another one and thinks – what’s one more. Then more. Whenever she sees a cute kitten or cat she cannot resist bringing it to her home.

I have two cats. But last time I was at a cat show, there were cats and kittens brought by shelters for adoption. There was one shelter kitten that had the coloring exactly as I’ve wanted and another one that just had unusual markings, and a beautiful adult female, and one so sweet elder cat that needed home. I was standing there torn between bringing in one more kitten – what’s 3 cats anyway – and thinking about extra work, extra vet bills, another litter box. So I stopped myself, joked about “if I take another cat, I’ll become a crazy cat lady”, and gave the shelter some money instead. But I could’ve brought another one, after all a lot of people have 3 cats. Many people have 4 cats or more.

But then, there are always more cute kittens and cats with beautiful markings (and what is beautiful is a matter of taste) or those which have sweet personality, or just cats in need. So two lead to 3, 3 lead to 5. Most people can stop at some point, but some people just get addicted. Like with alcohol, most people can stop after a couple of glasses, others become alcoholics.

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UK Cat Hoarder Faces Lifetime Ban on Keeping Pets — 5 Comments

kitty on September 18, 2015 at 4:08 pm said:
Hoarding is really a mental illness. I doubt in her mind she was abusing them. I think the lifetime ban is good though because like a drug addict she cannot help herself, she’ll do it again. If she couldn’t feel the smell, there must be something wrong with her brains – no normal person will be able to live with feces all over the floor. So I don’t see the contradiction with her complaining about the pets in China – she probably saw herself as a “rescuer”.
I can really see how it can happen. A single lonely person starts out with one cat or kitten or maybe two. Then she sees another one and thinks – what’s one more. Then more. Whenever she sees a cute kitten or cat she cannot resist bringing it to her home.
I have two cats. But last time I was at a cat show, there were cats and kittens brought by shelters for adoption. There was one shelter kitten that had the coloring exactly as I’ve wanted and another one that just had unusual markings, and a beautiful adult female, and one so sweet elder cat that needed home. I was standing there torn between bringing in one more kitten – what’s 3 cats anyway – and thinking about extra work, extra vet bills, another litter box. So I stopped myself, joked about “if I take another cat, I’ll become a crazy cat lady”, and gave the shelter some money instead. But I could’ve brought another one, after all a lot of people have 3 cats. Many people have 4 cats or more.
But then, there are always more cute kittens and cats with beautiful markings (and what is beautiful is a matter of taste) or those which have sweet personality, or just cats in need. So two lead to 3, 3 lead to 5. Most people can stop at some point, but some people just get addicted. Like with alcohol, most people can stop after a couple of glasses, others become alcoholics.
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Michele S. on September 16, 2015 at 6:37 pm said:
A lifetime ban on keeping animals would be great, so long as it’s strictly enforced and the offender doesn’t get round that ruling by finding themselves a partner with existing pets.
I’d really like to see the introduction of a register for all convicted animal abusers. I’m not suggesting that register should be directly accessible by the public, but it could work in a similar way as ‘Clare’s Law’ does to help protect potential victims of domestic abuse, by allowing them to apply to the police for disclosure on the history of a partner or other person. Suspicions regarding a partner or other individual’s behaviour towards animals could be reported to the police and an animal cruelty disclosure requested. The police would then carry out background checks and give a risk assessment to the concerned person. Appropriate safety measures can then be put in place where necessary.
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- Michael Broad on September 17, 2015 at 5:38 am said:
  Yes, Michele. Anyone decent person would have to agree with a register. Why there isn’t one baffles me. Just another example of animals being second class citizens despite being family members.
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  - Michele S. on September 17, 2015 at 6:00 pm said:
    Clare’s Law only came into effect in March 2014 and was long overdue when you consider how many people have been abused or murdered by a partner/spouse over the years.
    Sadly animal welfare laws are much slower to change, but I hope that one day in the not too distant future there will be a similar protection in place for animals.
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Michelle on September 16, 2015 at 9:19 am said:
Hope she gets a life ban -cats would no doubt be better off as strays going from house to house until someone better finds them – Michelle
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