Saturday, September 19, 2009

Looking for help in the aftermath of two cat hoarding cases

KALAMAZOO COUNTY, Mich. – Some local animal rescuers are getting many more cats than they bargained for now that they're having to deal, with not one, but two of the worst cat hoarding situations they've seen in some time.

A group of volunteers have found one Kalamazoo-area homeowner with 35 to 70 cats, and another with 25 to 35 cats.

Many of the cats are said to be sick, or malnourished, one has already had to be euthanized.

"This is a behavioral thing, some people have some mental illness involved where its not just that they like animals, some of them have mental illness and they don't realize what's happening, some of them are collectors and they get attached to them and they're not able to get them fixed," said Michell McNatt an independent animal rescuer.

Volunteers are working with one homeowner to remove the cats, and are hoping to convince the other to help trap the nearly 70 cats inside the home.

"It's very overwhelming," said animal rescuer Karen King. "Actually, within the last ten days we got requests to neuter about 130 animals and it's hard, sometimes I have to say no, but we do the best we can."..." More & video