Helping the pet hoarders

Collections can get out of control. You buy a few ceramic frogs and years later you have a house full of them. It might create clutter but it’s not life threatening.

When collecting escalates to hoarding, things take a bad turn. When the hoarding involves animals, it becomes deadly for them.

Last month, 32 cats were taken from a one-bedroom garden apartment in Parsippany. The woman who lived there was facing eviction if she did not have the cats removed. The cats were reproducing and suffering from ailments that were still minor at the time.

The resident contacted Parsippany animal control and two officers responded, but they did not do any more than give her a list of no-kill shelters and a list of groups that could provide low-cost spaying/neutering and medical help. Not one cat was taken to the Parsippany Animal Shelter because the ACO claims that the woman wanted them to be at a no-kill shelter. However, the ACO also claims that the shelter does not have a set time for each animal to be there before being adopted. So why didn’t the Parsippany facility help this Parsippany resident?..." More