The Deplorable Conditions Caused by Animal Hoarding

Charlene Little


I have seen that people will hoard almost anything. It can range from certain possessions, to anything they can get their hands on, to animals. In the case of animals, it can be extremely heart breaking. 


These animals lack vet care, life sustaining necessities such as food and water and socialization. This is no way for an animal to live. They should be loved and treasured, just as any other being should be.

I was triggered to write this because of the recent events in Florida. Twenty-one dogs were removed from a hoarders home. They lived in outdoorkennels with very little to keep them warm. Each one had a small, filthy blanket, no food and no water. After very careful deliberation and negotiation by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), the owner surrendered the animals, who was lucky all made it through.

This is not the first case of animal hoarding. This situation is made light of by a program on animal planet called "Confessions: Animal Hoarding."" However, even though this show is meant for entertainment purposes, anyone with common sense can see that these animals are suffering. People who hoard have a mental illness or childhood trauma that has caused them to begin collecting things..." More

Pet owner must pay $3,000 to shelter

By JIM TUTTLE A Chambersburg woman was ordered Monday to pay more than $3,000 restitution to Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter and prohibited from owning animals for six months. Betty George, 31, was sentenced after pleading guilty to two summary counts of cruelty to animals. Humane Police Officer Floyd "Buck" Hessler of CVAS said he had been prepared for a summary trial Monday on seven counts of cruelty, but George and her attorney asked for a plea agreement. Hessler said he was first called in October to investigate a complaint about unsanitary living conditions at George's two-story home, 533 E. Washington St. He said a dog and five cats were living in the home, and the indoor smell of animal waste was noticeable from outside. "I went and talked to her and she said she would clean it up," Hessler said. When he returned in December, the mess was still there. He checked on the house for a third time in February. "Nobody was home and I could still smell urine and feces coming from the house, so I got a search warrant," he said. "It was just throughout the house, everywhere, in all the rooms." When he executed the warrant Feb. 18, Hessler seized a chihuaha-terrier dog and three cats. Two more cats went into the rafters of the home's attic and he was unable to get them. As part of the sentence, Magisterial District Judge Glenn Manns ordered George to surrender the two cats to the shelter within 72 hours. She is barred from owning any pets for 180 days. She was fined a total of $500, plus court costs..."  More

Elizabeth Owen, Sacred Vision Animal Sanctuary - South Carolina

Woman gets public service in cat case

An Horry County woman has pleaded no contest to charges of improper care and treatment of animals more than a year after authorities removed more than 200 animals from her nonprofit animal sanctuary.


Elizabeth Owen was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days of public service.


Owen was charged in 2010 with after Horry County police went to Owen’s Sacred Vision Animal Sanctuary to follow up on a complaint from animal rights activists. Months later, authorities seized more than 200 animals.


More than 100 cats were suffering from a variety of health ailments and had to be euthanized. Others were treated and put up for adoption..."  More


Oct 2010:  Police watch Myrtle Beach area animal shelter after abuse accusation


By Janelle Frost

Police are conducting weekly checks at a local animal rescue mission as its founder prepares to go to court next month on a charge of improper care and treatment of animals.

Elizabeth Owen, founder of the nonprofit Sacred Vision Animal Sanctuary on Forestbrook Road, was given a ticket in September after officers went to the rescue mission to follow up on complaints from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals regarding the care of animals there, according to an Horry County police report.

The officers, who visited the animal sanctuary on Sept. 1, said they found a strong ammonia odor emanating from the kennel area and doorway, litter pans full of feces, an emaciated cat, several cats with eye problems, very poor lighting, a cat with hair loss and a broken air conditioner. Fans were circulating the air around the room..." More

Hoarding cases leave behind piles of sad stories

Barb Ickes

The elderly woman slept in her Chevy Blazer on the street in front of her house for three nights. A bright orange piece of paper that’s taped to the front door at 1004 24th Ave., Rock Island, explains why Lois Hudson has been banned from her own home: It is “unfit for human occupancy,” according to city code.

When a neighbor began to suspect the 83-year-old no longer was letting her two dogs outside to go to the bathroom, he turned her in.

“We knew she was a hoarder for three or four years,” said neighbor Dan Begyn. “Everybody up and down the block wanted to know why police didn’t do something earlier. They left it to us.”

But there was little police could do. Hoarding is not, in and of itself, against the law.

“Every community has people who have this problem,” said Tom Ayers, Rock Island’s chief building official. “It (hoarding) is in degrees. When we’re talking extreme cases, we see those a few times a year.”

Ayers is not permitted to disclose specific circumstances about the Hudson case because an administrative hearing is pending, but he said his staff frequently responds to hoarding complaints. In extreme cases, such as the one involving Hudson, his office gets a search warrant from a judge, condemns the home, and his workers try their best to find another place for the hoarder to live.

“I apologized to her for having to do this,” Begyn said of reporting his neighbor. “It’s very sad.”..."  More

Millard Family - New York

Apr 10, 2012:  Gruesome find in cat hoarding case

Bryan Fitzgerald

Forty-two Ziploc bags, each filled with the rotting remains of a different kitten.

That’s what State Police said Arthur Millard dumped behind his father’s home on River Road. The bags were stuffed into a five-gallon buckets along with the carcasses of two adult cats wrapped in towels.

The cats were found Thursday on railroad property behind 90 River Road, and troopers brought the remains to the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society hoping to sort out what happened to the doomed felines. But the animals were so badly decomposed it may not be possible to tell when they died.

“It’s literally just skin and bones,” said Brad Shear, the shelter’s executive director. “The entire situation is extremely disturbing. We’ve never really run into a hoarding case like this.”

Millard, 53, has been connected to two cat-hoarding cases since July. What makes the cases unusual is that they involve multiple people and locations.

On March 31, Millard, his son, Earl Millard, and his sister-in-law, Mary Ryan, were all charged with animal neglect after 136 cats were found in their trailer at D&R Trailer Park in Halfmoon. Two of the cats were dead, 19 were euthanized.

Last summer, Arthur Millard, Ryan, and her sister, Bertha Ryan, were accused of animal cruelty for allegedly hoarding another 130 cats at a home in Schaghticoke. That case was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, meaning the charges would be dropped if the defendants stayed out of trouble..."  More

Apr 10, 2012:  NY man charged as hoarder also dumped cats

State police say a man already facing charges of hoarding more than 130 cats also dumped the carcasses of several dead cats.

Arthur Millard of Halfmoon, near Albany, told troopers he dumped a number of carcasses of cats that died from natural causes. Police say they found 42 zipper-locked bags containing the remains of two adult cats and numerous kittens.

Millard, his son Earl and sister-in-law, Mary Ryan, already face charges of animal neglect after a kitten's death led investigators to 134 cats kept in a mobile home in Halfmoon. Nineteen of the animals had to be euthanized and two were found dead..."  More

Apr 4, 2012:  Repeat offenders


by Brad Shear

Earlier this week 3 people were charged with animal cruelty for having 134 cats in unsanitary conditions in a trailer in Halfmoon.  The names of the arrested were immediately familiar to me – you see I have written about them before.  First two sisters, Bertha Ryan and Regina Millard, were arrested in Vermont with almost 80 cats in their cars.  They had the cats in their cars because they were fleeing an investigation into the care of their cats in Rensselaer County.  A few days after their arrest in Vermont our cruelty investigators accompanied State Police to their Schaghticoke home where another 53 cats were seized and brought to the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society.

So 133 cats were seized from deplorable conditions in one home last year and another 134 seized from the same people in their Halfmoon home.  In both cases they claimed to have picked up the cats from the streets of Troy.  It is unclear where the cats actually came from, but since few were spayed or neutered it is clear that many were born at their homes.  Allowing cats to breed in large numbers in your home seems to be a strange way to go about rescuing them.

My guess is that the cats in Halfmoon were already being collected when Ryan and Millard were arrested in Vermont and Schaghticoke so they were likely in violation of their probation as soon as they plead guilty.  Their sentences were suspended for 18 months with one of the requirements being that they could not possess animals.  I think they violated that order about 134 times.

In total almost 270 cats suffered at the hands of the Ryan/Millard family.  My hope is that the probation department and courts will bring their cases back for review and see that the initial suspended sentences were woefully insufficient to prevent future offenses.  Hopefully this time we can get it right and prevent more animals from suffering..."  Link

Mar 27, 2012:  Police seize 135 cats from Halfmoon trailer, charges pending against homeowner


By MICHAEL CIGNOLI


The Saratoga County Animal Shelter received an unprecedented 135 cats on Monday, the result of a “hoarding situation” at a Saratoga County trailer park, the shelter supervisor said Tuesday.

Supervisor Dan Butler said state police took the animals from a woman at the D & R Village Trailer Park near the Halfmoon-Clifton Park border and sent them to the Saratoga County Animal Shelter, where they’ll be available for adoption after authorities decide whether to charge the owner.

State Police said a woman, whose name was not released, had been picking up stray cats off the streets of Troy and within the trailer park “in an attempt to rescue them.” Police began a month-long investigation into the property after an animal hospital reported the owner brought in a kitten that suffered from “severe medical issues.” That cat died within an hour of its arrival, police said.

Butler said Halfmoon Animal Control called on Monday morning to inform the shelter a woman was suspected of hoarding between 60 and 65 cats and kittens at her trailer home, Butler said, but authorities found more than double that amount of animals living in “filthy, horrible conditions” upon executing a search warrant. Police found two dead cats at the home, which has since been deemed uninhabitable..."  More

Ken and Terri Smith - Kentucky

Apr 2012: Animal hoarder sentenced after accepting plea deal

By Joey Brown

 A judge sentenced a woman facing more than 200 counts of animal cruelty in Henry County on Monday.

Terri Smith took a plea deal and pleaded guilty to one count. Judge Diana Wheeler sentenced Smith to all recommended terms but one. Smith cannot have any of the animals back. She had requested two horses and two dogs. 

[SLIDESHOW: Animal raid in Henry County]

Smith was emotional in court and cried at one point. Her brother testified that Smith was a vet tech. Friends said she had animals for as long as they could remember. 

"She loves her animals," said Tanya Mason who has been Smith's friend for nine years. "She takes good care. She just got overwhelmed with too many."

The Judy family is fostering two of the more than 200 animals seized from Smith's property. "I love her just like I do one of my kids," said foster Steve Judy of his dog Moto. His sons chose the name because they race motocross. 

"It took bath after bath after bath to get the odor out of her hair," said Judy. "She has been laying in urine."

Judy's wife Jodie testified at the sentencing that it would devastate her family to lose the dog. Smith wanted to get back two horses and two dogs. Her attorney said they remind Smith of her mother. One of those dogs was Moto. 

"We knew going into this that was a possibility, but who would have thought that it would have come to this?" said Jodie Judy. "And of 200 animals, (it was) Moto, our baby." 

After the hearing, Smith spoke to the Judys and said her mother gave her Moto. Jodie agreed to let Smith see Moto in the future..."  More 

Apr 2012:  Family fights to prevent foster dog from being returned to hoarder

A Kentucky woman charged with more than 200 counts of animal cruelty says she wants her dog back, and the family currently fostering it says that would be an absolute travesty.

n December, Terri Smith was charged with animal cruelty for housing animals in deplorable conditions. Her pets were seized and distributed among area shelters and foster homes. Smith eventually plead guilty to one of the charges and is due to appear in court again next week for sentencing. She’s also planning to ask the court to return some of her animals to her, and Jodie and Steve Judy say they will do everything in their power to fight that request.

Their determination comes as no surprise. The Judy family took in one of the dogs confiscated from Smith, and after spending months caring for and bonding with ‘Moto’, they are convinced the dog would be devastated if forced to return to life in a cage.

“She can not go back to that lifestyle,” Steve Judy said, tears streaming down his cheeks.

On Friday, Steve says the Henry County Animal Shelter called to tell him that Smith wanted Moto back. When he called his wife to break the news she was flabbergasted.

“He said, she picked Moto. She wants my dog, and I stopped in the middle of the store and started bawling,” says Jodie Judy.

Given the conditions she was rescued from, the Judys say that sending Moto back is not an option. The family plans to attend Smith’s hearing, and if she asks for the dog to be returned to her, they fully intend to stand their ground and speak to the judge.

“She is family. She’s more than just a pet. She is,” says Steve Judy..."  More

Dec 14, 2012 - Suspect Comes Forward In Animal Hoarding Case

By Ann Bowdan

HENRY COUNTY, Ky. -- Henry County Animal Control officials said one of the suspects in the neglect of more than 200 animals has come forward as the rescued animals begin a new life.

Animal control officials said three people lived on the property at 28 Allyson Lane in Campbellsburg: a woman and a married couple.

While the husband and wife are still at large, the other woman came forward.

Officials identified the suspect who came forward as Karen Nellums, who will be charged with a still-to-be-determined number of animal cruelty charges.

The couple was identified as Ken and Terri Smith.

The Smiths are wanted on 218 counts of animal cruelty...."  More & video

Uvalde shelter animals seized after alleged neglect, crowding

by Joe Conger

SAN ANTONIO -- More than 150 dogs and a handful of cats are now evidence in a civil case against the Friends of Uvalde Animal Shelter.

Uvalde County deputies raided the shelter Tuesday night, amid allegations of health concerns and filth at the property. Wednesday they were joined by volunteers from the local Humane Society and law enforcement cadets from a nearby academy, cleaning out kennels and gathering up the animals.

“In general we found overcrowded conditions, animals that needed some treatment, some malnourished animals,” said Uvalde County Attorney John Dodson.

Dodson said a judge agreed to a seizure warrant after several individuals came forward with stories of neglected animals in overcrowded cages.

A concerned volunteer tells KENS-TV complaints against the shelter date back to 2007.

Dodson said recent changes to Texas law made it easier for them to get and serve the warrant.

Officials said most of the animals appeared to be doing well, but deputies discovered a dead dog in a trash pile on the premises.

Besides the intense smell, there was evidence of insects and parasites. Volunteers could be seen spraying themselves down with repellants, as they help round up the dogs.

Dodson said, “I visibly noticed ticks and noticed what appeared to be mange to me. So, I’m sure that’s being treated.”

Out front, a small triage unit was set up, where veterinarians inventoried and examined the animals.

And behind a privacy fence, deputies found makeshift tents that housed even more dogs.

So many, the county attorney has agreed to wash everything down and keep the animals here until the owner’s court date next week..."  More & video


Slideshow:  Animals seized from Uvalde Humane Society