Extraordinary but sad picture of 47 cats inside a car

NEWS AND COMMENT-MINNESOTA: This is a story about a person who must have been made homeless. We should always be sympathetic towards homeless people even if they are homeless because of what they've done. And in the photograph, you can see there are 47 cats inside a car in which he was living. 

Or in which the cats were living because there was no space for a person to live with them. And if you look carefully you will see that they are all ginger tabby cats. There is no doubt in my mind that this person allowed his cats to breed to the point where the whole situation became completely unmanageable. He may have been evicted by his landlord. 

47 cats before rescue. Note: ginger tabbies all. Image in public domain.

Clearly, he must have been desperate to put 47 cats in a car to try and continue to care for them. And sadly, this photograph was taken on a day when the temperature outside was 32°C (90°F). The temperature inside the car would have been higher.

And this is why he apparently sought help because the cats were rescued. The local Humane Society spokesperson said: "Unfortunately, with the heat yesterday he recognised that it was above and beyond what he was capable of at this time. And he let us help them out."

We are told that he had previously given up 14 other cats that had been living in the car. Does that mean that there were 61 cats living in that car at one time!?

Fortunately, the cats were in reasonable health implying that they weren't in the car for very long. They will be sterilised and made available for adoption.

This is obviously a sad story both for the cats and the person to be in such a difficult predicament. The good point is that he sought help. If all cat orders sought help many more cats in hoarding situations would be saved from a premature death due to neglect; neglect through starvation or ill-health.

The man deserves credit for that. It is an admission to himself that he has failed. Not many hoarders have the courage to admit to themselves or the necessary enlightenment and awareness to realise that they are in trouble and need help. This is because many cat hoarders have borderline health problems.

Secondly, this man must really love cats. He wants to help cats. He failed because he allowed them to breed and in doing so, he achieved the opposite almost to what he desired because he has made their lives very difficult and jeopardised their health.

I would suggest that he requested help because he realised that he was harming his cats. This is indicative of a person who has his heart in the right place.