Committed and Dedicated Cat Hoarding!

This lady went the extra mile in her cat hoarding.  She rented 2 apartments and in the apartments were 70 cats but not her!  She lived somewhere else.  She rented apartments for her cats. Unfortunately she failed to cope as usual and the cats were in a poor state as is almost invariably the case with cat hoarders.

The online newspaper where the story comes from says the woman turned her apartments into giant sized litter boxes! That gives a very clear idea what the apartments looked like. The cats and the very young kittens lived amongst their faeces and urine - many were covered in fleas etc.

She actually lived in the apartments at one time but moved out two months ago realising that it had all gone wrong and then very rationally she sought help from the local authorities. That single step indicates that cat hoarders are not always (if ever) crazy cat ladies.

There are some ladies who simply want to help but get in over their head. Nearly always they are unable to look at what they're doing objectively and even believe that what they're doing is good for the cats when quite clearly it is not. It starts off well and ends up a disaster when the number of cats become such that they lose control completely.

This lady simply provided food and water and nothing else which is clearly completely inadequate but at least she realised it. The address where the cats lived within 2 apartments is: four-plexes at 8208 Everton Ave, KANSAS CITY, MO.

Article on cat hoarding. There many others on the site.

Cat Hoarder The Truth?

There is another cat hoarding story going around the internet (May 26th 2012) and what is useful in this case is that we have the alleged cat hoarder on video having her say in the matter and defending herself. To hear her and listen to what she says helps us understand where the truth lies and gives us a bit of an insight into cat hoarding. In the United States cat hoarding stories are probably second only to feral cat population stories.

This case concerns an 81 year old Frenchwoman, Lucienne Touboul, living in Arizona - an immediate culture clash. She has a strong French accent and she speaks poor English. I also sense that she may be suffering from slight dementia problems, which would be normal at 81 years of age. You can see immediately that there will be a communication problem with Arizona police who I would expect to be not that patient or sympathetic and I am afraid to say they may be prejudiced. I am not saying they are being racist but there will be an enormous clash of culture. This culture clash has certainly made things worse for Lucienne Touboul. In fact it may be at the heart of the problem. It is probably more that just about culture. They could well be a stereotyping problem too.

This is the link to the video:

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/18621451/cat-hoarder-shares-her-side-of-the-story?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=7327913

There is no doubt that Touboul wishes to help unwanted cats. And there is no doubt that there are lots of cats that need to be wanted. She has good intentions but is unable to execute her desires to care for unwanted cats because of her age which affects her physical and mental capacity. She kept 64 cats. I believe this is the second time she has had a run in with the authorities. The last time she had 104 and they were put down. So she has a history.

On the last occasion, in 2010, she kept ten cats in a freezer. She admits to keeping dead cats in the freezer in preparation for burial. It appears that the police have interpreted this in some way as a desire by Lucienne Touboul to eat her dead cats. She denies this and a friend of hers has said that it is a misinterpretation of "catfish soup" that she eats. When you listen to Lucienne Touboul you can see the problems. I believe her and feel that the police have done her a disservice. She does have the crazy cat woman look about her. You know what I mean. If you are foreign, speak with a strange accent, are old, say slightly unconventional things and unintelligible things and keep lots of cats, you are going to look like a crazy cat woman and a cat hoarder to the police.

Keeping a lot of cats cannot automatically be cat hoarding can it? Lynea Lattanzio who keeps hundreds of cats is not a cat hoarder. There has to an element of animal cruelty about it too. And if Lucienne Touboul is unable to cope and execute her decent intentions there will be negligence in keeping a large number of cats and that will lead to poor conditions and cat caretaking leaving cats exposed to poor health. I don't know whether that qualifies as cat cruelty in a criminal sense.

The humane society showed kittens with conjunctivitis as an indication of animal cruelty. I think this is incorrect. URIs are commonplace in kittens and this woman simply failed to cope.  The Humane Society seem to have indicated that they may have to euthanise all the cats. That seems like an overreaction. It is more the action of people who want to get rid of surplus cats and this is a convenient moment to do it. I don't like it. It looks wrong to me.

She is not a criminal. She needs some help and so do the cats. The heavy handed police who lack sensitivity and understanding have mismanaged the situation.

Cat Rescue becoming Cat Hoarding

The no kill cat rescue concept is said to be turning some private and independent cat rescue operations into cat hoarders. That is an idea that had crossed my mind and it has been referred to in a news story; the source of this short post. Caboodle Ranch could perhaps be cited as a classic example.

Apparently cases of cat hoarding are on the increase in respect of cat rescue centers (25% of cat hoarding cases concern rescue operations). I can see the problem. In fact you could say it is almost bound to happen where the person is not practical and/or inexperienced.

This is because the supply of cats needing homes has for many years been higher than the demand for these cats. This inbalance between supply and demand may be getting worse. If that is the case someone has to care for the cats if they are not to be euthanised and that burden often falls upon the concerned cat lover who wants to do something.

They start off with good intentions and then it gets out of hand until what they are doing is bad for the cat not good because they are unable to care for large numbers of cats sufficiently well. Cats become ill and die etc.

This is allegedly what is happening at Caboodle Ranch and now at Haven Acres Cat Sanctuary, a private, no kill animal shelter owned and operated by Steve and Pennie Lefkowitz. They present on their website a true haven of tranquility and harmony for their rescued cats but in truth it was more a slice hell for many cats.

For the person who wants to get rid of their cat they presented a perfect solution. We know that most cat shelters end up euthanising (actually it is killing) unwanted cats because of limited facilities and oversupply. The image presented by the Lefkowitzs no doubt encouraged people to go to the Haven Acres Cat Sanctuary. Of course it was too good to be true.

We are told that they had a license to keep a maximum of 144 cats but when Animal Services got involved and entered the premises with a search warrant they discovered 697 cats! Clearly it had got out of hand.

This case highlights the divide between people such as PETA who believe that killing cats humanely is better for the cats who are living miserable lives, and the people who support TNR and protecting life.

I disagree with PETA profoundly. If we just kill unwanted cats we keep in balance the imbalance. By killing cats we support the oversupply problem. Plus it is immoral and people kill cats not for the sake of the cat but for their personal reasons. Much more work needs to be done on proactively tackling the root cause of the problem. See also feral cat problem.