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01-31-2015, 11:04 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-31-2015, 11:07 PM by Tobi.)
Thank goodness these poor dogs have been helped, finally.
What I can't understand is that woman has a history of animal neglect, and yet she was allowed to go on with so many dogs.
I think it might be because the criteria for animal care isn't tough enough. And a certain 'line' has to be overstepped before authorities will intervene.
And considering the circumstance, how dare the woman try to appeal, on the grounds that the capture was 'illegally done'? How dare she try to make use of legal loopholes, when the welfare of so many dogs was the main issue?
Sometimes there are cases of animal hoarders who, in their own minds are trying to run a 'rescue' but get out of their depth. But if they really cared, the health and safety of their charges must come first.
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I know. It is very strange. I saw a video some time ago about the ASPCA who rescued a large number of animals (cats and dogs) from a hoarder. Many of these animals were in dreadful condition. The woman was crying as they were being taken away, saying how much she loved them. She wasn't crying because she was in trouble -but crying because she said she loved the animals and didn't want them to be taken away!
And others will make all sorts of excuses why the animals are in bad condition...no food...no water....no vet care etc. And seem to think they have a case for getting them back!
I think in those cases there is no appealing to reason as the people must be mentally disturbed in one way or another.
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Maybe it is like regular hoarding, people who keep everything and bring more home. There homes are hazardous they have so much junk, but they can't seem to see it the way it is.
Maybe they see the animals as well fed and well cared for. They do not see the desperate condition the animals are in.
They are ill, but we still have to take the animals away for their own safety. They have had to remove property from a hoarders home because they had become a fire hazard for the neighbours.
I wonder if there is treatment to help the person get better? I suppose it would be kinder to intervene earlier on before things are such a mess. I certainly would be kinder for the animals.
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Catherine
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Yes it could be that if she saw pictures of the animals she might get a different perspective about what had happened to them while in her 'care'.
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The provincial system does have its drawbacks. The rules vary from province to province and of course it is hard to enforce bans from one province to the other.
I wonder if she would believe the animals were like that in her care. She saw them every day and did not react to their condition.
I think we need some serious study of the whole hoarder issue and some treatment needs to be found. If we knew the early signs maybe we could intervene sooner.
I think animal hoarding and property hoarding are the same illness, but I could be wrong. It seems to me that it is the same inability to let things go. I think it can be triggered by loss. I am sure there are similarities in all the hoarder cases we hear about. There do seem to be more of them these days. I wonder why?
Catherine
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I'm not sure why, but I suspect that mental illness is generally more widespread these days. The cases of animal hoarding would seem to be triggered by some sort of mental illness, based on the need for ever more and more creatures to care for and "love", to fill some sort of void in their personal lives. This sort of mental illness probably is more prevalent because of the artificiality of modern life, increasingly more urbanised, where we have become divorced from the countryside and nature.
The trouble is, the hoarder is so obsessed with having lots of animals, in his/her eyes "giving and receiving love", that s/he doesn't stop to think about the practicalities of feeding, hygiene, exercise, etc. The end result, sadly, is that animals suffer on a big scale.
Such people need therapy urgently. But any animal suffering of any kind is unacceptable. So ultimately, the only way to protect them is to ban the hoarders from having any pets. That is the first priority.
