Sunday, March 20, 2011

Ind. pets suffer from hoarders, poor conditions

Although a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy and some type of psychopharmacological intervention is typically recommended to people who collect animals in staggering numbers, treatment is often difficult with a low rate of success.

Thus, a recidivism rate among animal hoarders that is nearly 100 percent.

In "the worst case I'd ever seen," Lucas recalls going to a South Bend house five years ago, where a man was found hoarding "70 to 80 cats."

After removing most of the cats, Animal Control worked with the man to reduce the number to the legal limit of three, then left him to tend to his pets.
They followed up a year later to see how the man was doing.

"We found about 45 cats," Lucas says.

Although the Humane Society urges jail time for repeat animal-hoarding offenders, the usual consequence involves a fine and/or mandatory counseling.

Not that any legal or personal consequences mattered to Vicki Moon, who was recently jailed and charged with 17 counts of animal cruelty after authorities removed 17 dogs, 15 dead dogs and three dead cats from her home in an unincorporated area of
Lake County near Schneider.

Detective Michelle Weaver, who executed a search warrant on Moon's home, told the Times of Northwest Indiana that neighbors said Moon had been living out of her car for years because the animals destroyed her house. .."
More

No comments: