'It's like living in a storage facility'

Joanne Moorhead

Jasmine Harman loves her mother – but for quite a while, she didn't go to visit her. "It wasn't that I didn't want to see her," she says. "It was that I literally couldn't get into her house. There was so much stuff in the hall that the front door wouldn't open properly and then, if you did manage to squeeze yourself in through the tiny gap, the whole place was piled high with junk. You could barely stand upright and most of the rooms were completely inaccessible."

Vasoulla, Jasmine's mother, is a hoarder of pathological proportions. Her five-bedroomed house in north London is crammed with belongings and furniture; clothes, toys, books, pictures, family memorabilia, bric-a-brac of all kinds cover every surface; some of the rooms are stacked floor to ceiling, like an unkempt corner of a warehouse. "It's like living in a storage facility," says Jasmine, 36. "And that's no life at all."

Vasoulla, 57, was always a hoarder. Jasmine remembers all too clearly the heart-stopping fear when she was growing up that her friends would find out how messy her house was. "I remember a boyfriend taking me home and asking if he could come in and use the loo, and me thinking, oh my God, of course he can't use the loo ... he won't even be able to get into the loo.".."  More

A complex path to condemning homes

By Ian B. Murphy

Cities and towns have to enforce state building and health codes for homes, trying to keep citizens safe, sometimes from themselves.

But safety concerns often aren’t clear cut, and public employees must measure keeping residents safe with allowing them to live their lives, no matter how cluttered or odd their living situations might look from outside.

“This is one of those super-sensitive things, because you’re dealing with people’s property, and property rights,” said Natick Community Development Director Patrick Reffett. “There is a very fine line between that consideration, and recognizing that a property is no longer safe or sanitary, or stable. So much of it comes down to the judgment call of the health department director, the building commissioner and the fire chief.”

But the concerns are real. In March, an 85-year-old man died in his Wayland home after an extension cord sparked a fire in a stack of old newspapers. Town officials knew the home was cluttered and in disrepair, but the owner, Joseph Kozlowski, refused to let inspectors into his home on Gage Road. That clutter ultimately played a role in his death, Wayland officials said.

For local health departments, the tips about dangerous homes usually come from police or fire departments, said Sudbury Health Director Bob Leupold. He said the referral can come after emergency personnel visit the property on a call, or because someone calls in a tip.

“Usually a concerned neighbor notifies the police or fire department, and they refer it to us,” Leupold said. “But every case is different.”

Framingham’s Health Director Ethan Mascoop said just because there is a tip doesn’t mean a health department employee can walk onto a property and inspect a house..."  More

Framingham investigates report of hoarding house

Eight refrigerators were among the junk officials found today stuffed into a Winter Street home. 

Police entered the hoarder’s house after the resident, an elderly man, crashed his car into a mail truck on Winthrop Street just after noon. Officers accompanied him to his home at 124 Winter St. and went inside.

They came out squirming, wearing blue sanitary gloves and squirting anti-bacterial gel.

“There’s a lot of stuff in there,” said Michael Tusino, assistant director of inspectional services in the Building Department who was called to inspect the house. 

From the outside, the brown, one-story single-family home with white trim didn’t look unkempt, but Tusino said it is loaded with belongings like clothes and papers..."  More

Animal shelter seeks assistance after saving 100 rabbits from animal hoarder

A massive effort to save 100 rabbits from a hoarding/breeder situation in Port Lavaca has successfully resulted in the rabbits being removed and transported to Citizens for Animal Protection shelter.

Spay Houston in Houston was made aware of the situation several days ago and immediately went into action by contacting Bunny Buddies.


Petco Foundation is graciously providing financial and product support to help cover the expenses for the veterinary services which will be provided at Spay Houston . Citizens for Animal Protection agreed to take the rabbits in and act as the main staging location.


The rabbits will be housed and cared for at CAP until arrangements can be made for foster or permanent placement.


With everything in place, volunteers and staff from all three organizations travelled to Port Lavaca to load the rabbits into vans and transport them back to CAP..."  More

From Hoarded to Hope: Texas Hero Lays Out Welcome Mat for Rescued Poodles

by Laura Simpson

Written by Arienne de Vassal of Texas

I have volunteered with a local animal rescue shelter for about five years and fostered dogs for four. Although I foster different breeds, there is a soft spot in my heart for poodles. I grew up with one and have had one or more almost my entire adult life. I went into the shelter one day with my son, who also volunteers there. We were bringing in one of my fosters who was supposed to be adopted out that morning. Much to my surprise, when I walked into the Education Room of the shelter, the long table was lined with crates of poodles!

There was a woman in Mississippi who was turned in by her sister for hoarding poodles. They have different regulations and laws in that state, so the woman, who was rumored to have about 30 poodles living in an apartment, turned over nine. A plea for help went out and Citizens for Animal Protection stepped up to the plate and made the nine hour trek there and back to pick up these poor, matted and miserable dogs..."  More

Dogs XL of Baltimore, Md., takes in St. Bernards, Mastiffs, from Kentucky animal hoarding situation

by Kathy Blumenstock

Dogs housed in filthy, cramped conditions in Kentucky are getting a second chance for a new life, thanks to a local animal rescue group.


The dogs, of assorted breeds and sizes including large breeds such as St. Bernards and Mastiffs, were part of an animal hoarding/puppy mill situation in Henry County, Ky. where a couple had more than 200 animals ranging from guinea pigs to horses. The operation was described as a "rescue" but none of the animals had been spayed or neutered nor had they received necessary vet care. They were kept in filthy pens and crates, crammed into tiny spaces and forced to stand on top of one another and live in their own excrement. Some were found dead.


The animals that were able to be saved were seized by local Animal Control. They were not able to adopted out or spayed/ neutered while the animal cruelty case against the couple proceeded to court. Many were fostered by volunteers because the small local animal shelter was overwhelmed by such a large number of animals in need.


This week, with the end of the court case, the animals can now be adopted after spaying and neutering.


Starting this week, Dogs XL is bringing five St. Bernards and Mastiffs to Baltimore for behavior evaluation and medical care, and to begin the process of finding new homes. The dogs have been in the care of animal advocate Tammie Crawford for the past four months. She reports that despite their lives in squalid isolation, the dogs are eager for attention and affection, like people, and have sweet dispositions.


For information on adopting one of the rescued dogs, go to Dogs XL's website...."  More & slideshow

Rescue Hoarding: A Personal Narrative

By Jen Blood (written in 2010)


"...For a year and a half, I lived with an individual who was ultimately convicted of animal hoarding. It's an odd thing to try to describe to outsiders what our lives were like, as it's generally agreed that one would have to be nuts to live under such conditions. In order to try and put some of my experiences in perspective, I've decided to begin posting the story as it began and ultimately unfolded. I have no idea if this will be helpful to others or not, but it is my hope that individuals who either see the potential to become hoarders themselves, or who are concerned they may be working with a hoarder, may find information and support through my story. 

For the next few months, I will post periodically of my experiences with Clean Slate Animal Rescue, which I co-founded in the spring of 2006. The experiences I had in the year and a half subsequent to founding the rescue are difficult to describe: my partner and I saved lives, worked constantly, traveled many miles. I learned more in that eighteen months than in my entire life prior to that time. During the final months that I spent with the rescue, I watched our hard work unravel as my partner continued to take in animals that I knew we could not care for and would never place. We lived in isolation; the health of the animals began to decline; no money was coming in, while plenty of it was going out. I began plotting my escape in the spring of 2007, whispering my plans to my family during late-night phone calls when I could get time away from my partner. In November of 2007, I left Kentucky with my two dogs and what few belongings I could bring along without arousing suspicion, telling my partner that I would be gone for two weeks. I had an apartment and a new job waiting for me in Maine..."  More  Part 2: here


Read more regarding hoarding by Jen Blood: here (scroll through)