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Domestic dispute report leads to untold number of rescued animals

By David MacDougall

If you have any extra chicken feed, the Charleston Animal Society could use a bag or two.

About 30 chickens were among the dozens of pets and farm animals seized Tuesday from a rural house in Huger by the Charleston County Sheriff's Office.

The animals were taken to the society's shelter on Remount Road, where staff members who already had put in full days stayed on to help take in the rescued animals.

Shelter spokeswoman Kay Hyman said about 15 dogs, one cat, a billy goat, a pig, geese, a horse and all those chickens had been brought in by 10 p.m. The total number of animals was unclear because authorities were still trying to round them all up.

Sheriff's Maj. John Clark said the animals were seized from a house on Halfway Creek Road in a portion of Huger that is in Charleston County. He said the seizure was a result of an investigation that began last week when deputies were called to the property for a domestic dispute. He said the man from whom the animals were seized is 80 years old and unable to care for the animals.

No charges had been filed in the case as of Tuesday, Clark said..." More

Underweight, malnourished, dead animals taken from home

CHARLESTON COUNTY, SC (WCSC) -

Dozens of animals are getting treatment Wednesday morning after being rescued from a Charleston County home in the 6400 block of Halfway Creek Road.

According to the Charleston County Sheriff's Office, authorities began an investigation on the property on Tuesday after being called out on a previous case. When deputies arrived, they saw nine to 10 dogs chained to trees that did not have water and insufficient shelter.

A sheriff's office report states that when deputies walked around the 8 to 10 acre property, they discovered many animals in poor health, no water, no shelter and only moldy bread to eat.

Authorities say they also discovered an underweight horse whose hooves were severely overgrown that it affected its ability to walk. An incident report says that the horse's pen did not have any natural grass and there were no signs of hay or feed.

According to investigators, a dead 5 pound snapping turtle was found in a cage that officials believe was starved or dehydrated to death..." More

National Geographic series features Flagler pig sanctuary

Lory Yazurlo is surrounded by some of her pigs at the Pig Tales Sanctuary in Flagler County.

By JULIE MURPHY

Lory Yazurlo has always had a kinship with animals, especially pigs.

But her passion to care for them at Pig Tales Sanctuary in western Flagler County -- and the uninvited wild hogs that eventually rooted onto her property -- may have led to their ultimate demise.

Nov. 15 was an especially bad day for the physically disabled Yazurlo and the pigs under her care. That's the day workers for the U.S. Department of Agriculture corralled all of the 389 pigs at Pig Tales, herded them onto semi-tractor trailers, and gassed them as they were being transported to Starke for disposal.

Despite claims by Yazurlo and her family that she isn't an animal hoarder, Lory Yazurlo will be prominently featured in a National Geographic special about human obsessions called "Taboo: Hoarders." A segment featuring Lory Yazurlo and the private animal sanctuary she operated for 15 years ..." More

Lory Yazurlo comes to tears at the thought of losing her sanctuary and the pigs that have been so much a part of her life the past fourteen years in Flagler County.

Photos: Beyond Productions/Simon Heath

Kids of hoarding parents want to break free of clutter, emotional chaos

By Sara Israelsen-Hartley

There's nothing unusual about a mother or father who collects stamps, baseball cards or porcelain dolls. But when hobbyists become hoarders, their children often end up with life-long emotional effects.

A recent New York Times article points out that even though the compulsive collecting, shopping and storing is much more well known now because of reality shows like, TLC's"Hoarding: Buried Alive," and A&E's "Hoarders," "scant attention has been paid to how hoarding affects families of the afflicted, especially their children. Most are left to their own devices to make sense of growing up in homes where friends and relatives are unable to visit, with parents who seem to value inanimate objects more than the animate ones navigating the goat paths through the clutter," writes Steven Kurutz of the Times..." More

Animal Hoarders Fact Sheet

By the New York State Humane Assoc. Inc.


What is an animal hoarder?

• A person who amasses more animals than he/she can properly care for. Such individuals generally fail to recognize - or refuse to acknowledge - when the animals in their custody become victims of gross neglect.

What characteristics do animal hoarders generally share?

• An apparent need to have many animals - and, usually, many inanimate objects as well: an addition to clutter.
• Intelligence and communication skills, combined with a shrewd ability to attract sympathy for themselves, no mater how abused their animals may be.
• A stubborn refusal to part with any of their animals, be it through adoption of relatively healthy ones or euthanasia of sick ones (Sometimes, they even keep the dead animals!).
• A clandestine lifestyle - There is often a stark contrast between the hoarder’s public persona and his/her private life.
• A tendency to deny reality - They insist that all animals ar healthy; that those confined for long periods in small cages or kennels are comfortable; that overcrowding does not subject animals to severe stress and related diseases; etc.
• Recidivism - Unless expert psychiatric help is obtained, hoarders almost invariably return to old ways, even if convicted of cruelty to animals.

What motivates anyone to accumulate and “warehouse” large numbers of animals?

• No comprehensive psychological study has been made of the hoarder syndrome, and most people tend to think of hoarders as motivated by “love of animals that got out of control.” This is one - but not the sole - possible factor. There are undoubtedly several types of influences (or combinations thereof), such as the following, and they are not the same for every hoarder.
• A “love of animals’ combined with a failure to care for them responsibly - Example: the elderly woman who feeds all the neighborhood strays, but has none of them spayed/neutered or given other necessary veterinary care. This type of person is usually genuinely fond of animals, but quickly becomes overwhelmed when they multiply.
• A perception that reverence for life is synonymous with preservation of life, regardless of its quality - Some people find the thought of death so abhorrent that they deem an inhumane life far preferable to a humane death. They often go to great lengths to “rescue” doges or cats from traditional shelters, sometimes boasting of having thus removed them from “death row,” the brink of euthanasia.
• A “hero/martyr complex” - Hoarders often receive very favorable publicity about the personal sacrifices they make on behalf of animals. They become enamored of their own public image, and won’t risk tarnishing it by openly disposing of animals that have become burdensome.
• A need to control - Most hoarders create situations which assure them absolute power over every aspect of the existence of animals in their custody. They keep their victims crowed together behind locked doors and gates, denying them human companionship, veterinary care, exercise, bedding, fresh air, and adequate food and water.

What can you do to help prevent hoarder tragedies?

• Promote legislation which provides for licensing, inspection, and strict regulation of both private and public animal shelters.
• Support - morally and financially - organizations, legislation, and programs that focus on spaying/neutering of companion animals.
• Support the humane organization in your community which is responsible for enforcing anti-cruelty-to-animals statues.
• Work to educate others about the suffering caused by hoarders, individuals who may be aptly characterized as “addicted to animals.” The public, many journalist, and even some representatives of humane organizations tend to sympathize with hoarders because they perceive them to be providing a service: keeping animals alive that would otherwise be euthanized or abandoned. Most people do not understood that keeping animals alive in the environment hoarders provide, invariably lead to intolerable suffering. Compassion for hoarders is not misplaced if one recognizes that most of them are in desperate need of psychological help. What hoarders do not need is the type of sympathy and support which result in enabling them to continue harboring and acquiring ever more animals. It is important for those who are familiar with the “hoarder syndrome” to inform others about the consequences of this problem.
• Do not deceive yourself into believing that animals for whom responsible homes cannot be found are better off warehoused than euthanized. Paradoxically, the animals “saved” by hoarders are usually condemned to infernal living conditions and lingering, painful deaths.

Piling on: The struggle to halt hoarding

By THERESA WINSLOW

White plastic busts of composers. A half-finished oil painting of a dog wagging its tongue. A red-feathered party mask. Animal figurines. Assorted pieces of pottery. An appliqueed flapper jacket too small to wear. Boxes of random tools. Piles of papers, personal and impersonal.

These items, some of which were "rescued" from the trash heap, surround Elizabeth - and until recently, were suffocating the Annapolis woman.

Elizabeth is a hoarder and so ashamed at the state of her apartment that she hadn't had anyone to visit for years. A turning point came this winter when she went to a support group run by a professional organizer.

Many hoarders don't believe anything is wrong. And those who do struggle to make changes. Elizabeth admitted that when she used to go to Goodwill, she'd give stuff away and then go back inside and get more..." More