Monday, June 13, 2011

Animal hoarders targeted by Toronto

BY DON PEAT

TORONTO - Councillor Josh Matlow wants the city to tackle animal hoarding more aggressively.

The rookie councillor is asking city council next week to give marching orders to staff to hammer out a way to deal with residents hoarding animals in their home in a timely manner.

Matlow came face to face with the problem in his own ward earlier this year.

Officials seized around 100 cats from a Manor Rd. home when they were finally able to enter it back in April.

The home reeked of cat urine and was stained with feces. Dozens of cats were seized at first while dozens more were found in the next few days as officials continued to search the home.

“It was just horrific,” Matlow said.

Matlow said he was shocked to speak to neighbours after the cats were taken away to find out the home had been a problem for years and the city services they called for help couldn’t deal with it because they couldn’t gain entry to the house.

He wants city services to work out a way so they can work together to respond to hoarding faster..." More

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Given the OSPCA track record (they recently seized a healthy dog from the owner's yard, decided it was too old and killed it the same day they took it)- giving the OSPCA more power to seize (and probably euthanize) pets is the last thing Toronto needs to do.