General public health considerations for responding to animal hoarding cases.

Title Annotation:	ADVANCEMENT OF THE PRACTICE
Author:	Castrodale, Louisa; Bellay, Yvonne M.; Brown, Catherine M.; Cantor, Fredric L.; Gibbins, John D.;
Date:	Feb 27, 2010
Words:	3681
Publication:	Journal of Environmental Health
ISSN:	0022-0892

Introduction

Animal hoarding is an under-recognized problem that exists in most communities and adversely impacts the health, welfare, and safety of humans, animals, and the environment. Animal hoarding is defined by four characteristics (Patronek, Loar, & Nathanson, 2006):

* failure or inability to provide animals minimal standards of sanitation, space, nutrition, and veterinary care;

* inability to recognize the effects of this failure on the welfare of the animals, human members of the household, and the environment;

* obsessive attempts to accumulate or maintain a collection of animals in the face of deteriorating conditions; and

* denial or minimization of the problems and living conditions for people and animals. Most hoarding cases involve private individuals who claim ownership of numerous animals in a single rented or owned facility. In some cases, established shelters, rescue no-kill groups, or puppy mills may create a physical setting that mimics a hoarding situation.

The management of recognized animal hoarding situations should be well planned, interdisciplinary, and handled by trained personnel. People may encounter risks while on a premises evaluating or responding to issues caused by animal hoarding itself or the animal hoarding may be an incidental finding during a visit for another purpose. Anyone aware of serious animal hoarding situations should report them to local animal control or public safety authorities for appropriate coordination, investigation, and follow-up. Remediation is extremely difficult and rarely successful in the long term. The multifaceted nature of these situations, refractory behaviors of individuals involved, unclear criteria about animal cruelty, and privacy and personal property rights can be major obstacles to permanent solutions. A complete discussion of remediation is beyond the scope of this article...."

Preparing for a Response
Health and Safety Considerations
Disease Exposure
Air Quality
Injuries
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Read the entire report/thesis here

Elizabeth Brown - Joliet, Illinois

Jan 23, 2010: Woman imprisoned in animal-abuse case

A 65-year-old woman has been sent to prison for 18 months for probation violations after pleading guilty to abusing more than a dozen dogs and cats.

Will County Judge Richard Schoenstedt originally sentenced Elizabeth Brown to probation, but sent he to prison Jan. 6.

Brown, whose address is sometimes listed in court records as Joliet Township, Paxton and Ashkum, was arrested Jan. 25, 2008, by Will County police and charged with felony cruelty to animals.

Just days before her arrest and on one of the coldest days of that year, humane society investigators and Will County police seized 18 starving dogs – pets owned by Brown – from two locations. Most were in an unheated barn in Manhattan Township, and the rest were being kept in the yard of an empty house owned by Brown on Loganberry Lane in Joliet Township.

When the authorities arrived that day, the animals were starving, thirsty and dirty. One dog had lost part of an ear to frostbite, and another had a baseball-sized tumor and glaucoma. Authorities later removed 10 cats from inside the same unoccupied Joliet Township home. At the time, the house was not heated.

Brown has a history of hoarding animals and has been charged and convicted of similar crimes in other Illinois counties...." More

Oct 21, 2009: Pet hoarder back in jail for violating orders

By STEWART WARREN

JOLIET -- A woman who pleaded guilty last month to abusing animals is back in the Will County Jail.

Elizabeth Brown, 64, of Paxton, disobeyed the orders of Judge Richard Schoenstedt.

And when Will County Assistant State's Attorney Nicole Moore learned that Brown still owned pets and was late for an appointment with her probation officer, she asked the court to do something about it.

18 dogs, 10 cats

Brown was arrested Jan. 25, 2008, by Will County police and charged with cruelty to animals, a felony.

A few days before her arrest and on one of the coldest days of the year, humane society investigators and Will County police seized 18 starving dogs -- animals that belonged to Brown -- from two locations. Most were in an unheated barn in Manhattan Township, and the others were in the yard of an empty house Brown owned on Loganberry Lane in Joliet Township.

The animals were starving, thirsty and dirty. One dog lost part of an ear to frostbite. Another had a baseball-sized tumor and glaucoma.

Authorities later removed 10 cats from inside the same unheated Joliet Township home.

Brown has a history of hoarding animals and has been charged and convicted of similar crimes in other Illinois counties.

Probation deal

On Sept. 25, Brown pleaded guilty, and the judge gave her probation.

Brown received that sentence because the dogs and cats were adopted by owners who now loved them, the judge said.

But Schoenstedt warned the woman that she couldn't have any pets of any kind. He also told her to report to her probation officer Sept. 28, warning Brown that if she didn't, he would send her back to jail and reconsider his decision.

Then Moore learned that Brown actually owned two cats at the time of her Sept. 25 sentencing hearing and didn't tell the judge.

And at the time of that hearing, Brown was the subject of a criminal investigation in Ford County, Moore wrote in documents that were filed in Will County court.

On Sept. 30, Brown was arrested in Ford County on charges of cruelty to animals and obstruction of justice, according to court documents.

"At least one of the offenses in these charges occurred after her sentencing date of Sept. 25," according to court documents..." More

Dogs cost county $60K; ex-owner will pay $1K

By Jason Yurgartis
A Callahan man accused of multiple counts of animal cruelty and using animals for fighting, both felonies, was ordered to pay $1,000 restitution to Nassau County Animal Services - which has incurred nearly $60,000 to house and care for the 28 dogs seized from his home last year.

Michael Brown, 45, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges Sept. 3. He will serve a year of probation, complete 150 hours of community service at a church, forfeit ownership of all dogs and will be barred from owning dogs for five years.

Brown pleaded no contest to five counts of a lesser offense of confinement of animals without sufficient food, water or exercise, and adjudication was withheld. He must pay $1,000 in restitution to Nassau County Animal Services and $750 to a charity for animals along with various court costs.A total of 28 dogs were taken from Brown's property after his arrest in December 2008. Some of them were puppies and, according to court records, were euthanized due to contracting the parvovirus. The 23 remaining dogs - one German shepherd and the rest pit bulls - have been held at the county animal shelter in Yulee since they were confiscated.

New Director of Nassau County Animal Services Deborah Biggs said Thursday the dogs have cost nearly $60,000 to house and care for at the shelter since Brown's arrest and might be rehabilitated."

We have not received notification from the court yet that these dogs have been released to us but I am working on that release," Biggs said. "Our intention is to contact some of the pit bull rescue groups in Florida and possibly south Georgia to see if they can work with these animals to adopt them out into new families."

Brown's lawyer, Reginald Luster of Luster and Davis PA in Jacksonville, said Wednesday he was happy with the outcome..." More

Expo housing seized animals

By Keith Lansdale

The dogs, cats, rats and rabbits seized from a suspected puppy mill last week at a residence on CR 566 have been given a temporary home at the Nacogdoches County Exposition Center.

The animals — 118 dogs, seven cats, seven rats and two rabbits — are being kept at the Expo Center, instead of the Nacogdoches Animal Shelter where they were initially housed, for a number of reasons, Thomas Kerss, Nacogdoches County sheriff, said..." More

August 17, 2009: Animal owner agrees to surrender pets for adoption

By Donna McCollum

WODEN, TX (KTRE) - Animal advocates, animal control officers and law enforcement were not wanting Lauree Brown to fight for the continued ownership of about 134 animals. To their pleasure she did not. After attorneys deliberated for close to an hour, Judge David Perkins, Nacogdoches County Justice of the Peace, Pct. 4, quickly awarded the animals to authorities..." More & video

August 13, 2009: Over 100 dogs seized from backwoods puppy mill

By TRENT JACOBS

Precinct 4 constable officials and officers with the City of Nacogdoches Animal Control unit seized 118 dogs Thursday night from a suspected puppy mill inside Kingtown along County Road 566.

The owner of the backwoods kennel, Lauree Brown, was arrested at the property located about 20 miles outside of Nacogdoches and faces a misdemeanor charge of cruelty to animals, authorities said. A subsequent seizure warrant was issued for all the animals on the property.

The breeds of the dogs included pit bulls, dachshunds, boxers, bull terriers, chihuahuas and schnauzers. Seven cats, seven rats and two rabbits were also seized. Most of the dogs were chained to the ground and had little food or clean water within reach. Several of the dogs were locked inside hot tin sheds and trailers with no water, and some of the smaller dogs were found inside chain link kennels with up to half a dozen other dogs.

Before she was taken to the county jail, Brown told Daily Sentinel reporters who were on the scene that she had the proper documentation for the dogs, and that those with mange were being treated. Animal control officers and Pct. 4 Constable Jason Bridges, who made the arrest, said Brown did not produce the proper documentation for the animals when they arrived.

"These dogs are my dad's, who's in the hospital dying of heart failure right now, and these dogs are the only thing that's kept me from doing the same, and they want to take them from me," Brown emotionally exclaimed from the back seat of a constable's squad car. "I have never been in trouble, and I have loved dogs since I was a baby. I just don't want somebody thinking that I am sitting here neglecting the animals and abusing them."

Brown defended the operation and claimed that she had taken in some of the dogs from friends who no longer wanted the animals, and that they would have been left for dead without her care..." More

Photo: Christy Wooten