Humane society helps hoarded cats recuperate

By Melissa Weinman Nine cats featured on an upcoming episode of "Confessions: Animal Hoarding" are recuperating at the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia as they prepare to find new homes. Humane Society President Rick Aiken was part of the team assembled by the Animal Planet television show that conducted an intervention for a White County woman whose home was overflowing with cats. The network defines animal hoarding as a compulsive need to possess and control animals. The show aims to talk animal hoarders into making lifestyle changes for the benefit of themselves and their pets. "It's up to the owner to relinquish them. It's their choice. The family and the friends come together to say these are the changes we'd like to see you make, and we help in facilitating whatever they feel is fit to have done," said Tim Lawrence, the field producer for the show. Aiken said in the White County woman voluntarily released the cats..." More