Feces littered the floor and black mold covered the walls of a house that held 34 cats—many of them hungry, thirsty, and sick. Some animals were hunched over in tiny cages, covered with their own excrement. Even the beds of the humans who lived there had feces on them. Dogs and chickens were found outdoors without any food.

Sounds like something you might see on Confessions: Animal Hoarding, right? Surprisingly (or perhaps not so surprisingly) this hellhole—raided a few days before Christmas by Harrison County, Indiana, animal control—billed itself as a no-kill animal shelter called "Frisky Felines Foundation."

Multiple similar cases have made headlines in just the past few months. In September, the SPCA of Upstate New York seized 68 animals from Peaceable Kingdom Animal Rescue, a no-kill facility. The animals were emaciated, dehydrated, and suffering from mange, eye infections, dental problems, diarrhea, and other health issues that appeared to have gone untreated.

PETA's investigation of Angel's Gate, Inc., a self-proclaimed animal "hospice and rehabilitation center" in Delhi, New York, revealed that paralyzed animals dragged themselves until they developed bleeding sores, animals were denied veterinary care (one dog suffered with an infected, rotten, broken jaw), crowded conditions were so stressful that fights erupted daily, and animals were kept in urine-soaked diapers for days at a time, resulting in urine scald. Angel's Gate promised unsuspecting people that "special needs animals" would "live out their days in peace, dignity and love." Although its founder and operator, Susan Marino, now faces charges of cruelty to animals and criminal possession of a controlled substance, hundreds of animals remain in her hands—a situation that you can help change.

This elderly, weak Chihuahua—given to Marino by an animal
shelter—suffered terribly without veterinary treatment for about two
weeks before dying.

The line between hoarders and no-kill facilities has always been a blurry one. After all, many no-kill animal shelters' modus operandi is to avoid euthanasia at all costs, even if it means caging animals for the rest of their miserable lives. But thankfully, awareness is growing about the many ways in which the no-kill philosophy promoted by Nathan Winograd and others fails animals. Writer Phyllis M. Daugherty explained the situation brilliantly in her recent Opposing Views column:

We all would love to see an end of the need to euthanize behaviorally and physically sound discarded pets, but there are just not enough homes to adopt them. Humane euthanasia to relieve shelter overcrowding cannot be stopped just because it is uncomfortable or unpopular without subjecting thousands of innocent animals to suffering in packed kennels plagued with disease and injury or death from attacks and fighting.

We must not allow them to be "rescued" by those who are unprepared for or unable to provide for all their needs. We also cannot, in the name of "No Kill" and in our rush to feel good about having them "leave the shelter," release them into the hands of someone who can sadistically watch them suffer and/or starve to death, often with food available on the premises.

How You Can Keep Animals Safe From Hoarders

The abundance of homeless animals in nearly every community makes it easy for hoarders masquerading as rescue facilities and sanctuaries to acquire their victims. Spaying or neutering even one dog or cat can prevent thousands of additional animals from being born only to end up homeless, hoarded, or worse. It's also crucial to support open-door animal shelters, which accept every animal in need and never keep animals stored away like surplus merchandise.

Many of us have had a peek into the bizarre world of hoarding courtesy of reality television. Accumulating piles and piles of household junk is bad enough, but when hoarders collect living animals, the results are extreme neglect, suffering, and death.

According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), "It is likely that up to a quarter million animals—250,000 per year—are victims of hoarders. What's more, records kept by ALDF indicate that in the last four years, the number of reported hoarding cases has more than doubled. In terms of the number of animals affected and the degree and duration of their suffering, hoarding is the number one animal cruelty crisis facing companion animals in communities throughout the country."

Alarmingly, as a result of public pressure to avoid euthanasia at all costs, the hoarding mentality has infiltrated animal shelters. MSNBC.com reports that groups calling themselves "rescues" and "shelters" currently account for one-fourth of the estimated 6,000 new hoarding cases annually reported in the U.S. This is just one more way that trying to become "no-kill" before becoming "no-birth" hurts animals.

Cat suffering horribly at Sacred Vision Animal Sanctuary.

No-kill shelters sentence animals to a life in prison.

When animal shelters and rescue groups—such as South Carolina's terribly inaccurately named Sacred Vision Animal Sanctuary—aren't themselves hoarding animals, they sometimes farm out animals to anyone who will take them, including hoarders, in order to reduce the number of animals they euthanize. Here are just two examples:

• In December 2010, the New Jersey SPCA and police raided the home of so-called animal rescuer Dawn Scheld and seized nearly 60 dogs who were hoarded in reportedly "filthy" conditions on her property. According to news reports, "When agents arrived, most of the animals were living in their own waste, a number of them in outside pens with insufficient shelter, little evidence of food, and frozen water. Most were suffering from some kind of illness, and many were in serious condition …." Scheld had acquired many of the dogs from animal shelters that hand over animals to anyone claiming to be a "rescue" in order to reduce their euthanasia statistics. 
• In September 2010, authorities raided an apartment rented by a foster caregiver for several Austin-area animal shelters and seized 78 cats. One-third of the cats were found dead in an unplugged refrigerator. The ironically named organization Austin Pets Alive! stated, "We have been informed by TLAC [Town Lake Animal Control] authorities that 5 of the 75 [sic] seized cats were originally saved by us from TLAC's euthanasia list." The hoarder had also adopted cats directly from TLAC. 

Flooding left these dogs with nowhere to go.

No animal should ever have to live in conditions like this.

Please help keep animals out of hoarders' hands by volunteering to help your local animal shelter screen potential placement partners, rescue groups, and adopters. Contact PETA for free placement partner applications and agreements. Please also spay and neuter all your animal companions—it's the only real way to prevent animals from being born only to end up homeless or hoarded.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

US Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region/CC by 2.0

Two fish-farm managers have been charged with cruelty to animals after thousands of fish were found dead at a Scottish salmon farm. Authorities and the Scottish SPCA are investigating what appears to be a case of chemical poisoning. Unfortunately, cruelty is common on fish farms, and in the U.S., there are no regulations to ensure the humane treatment of fish.

To increase their bottom line, fish farmers cram as many fish as possible into extremely small enclosures. Injuries, parasitic infestations, and diseases are common. To keep the fish from dying in these horrible conditions, farmers lace their food with powerful chemicals and antibiotics, which people who eat the fish ingest in turn.

In fish-slaughter plants, fish are completely conscious while their gills are cut, and they are left to bleed to death, convulsing in pain. Large fish, such as salmon, are sometimes bashed on the head with a bat, and many are injured but still alive and suffering when they are cut open.

Fish are playful, social animals, much like kittens. Find out more about the hidden lives of sea kittens and how you can help keep them in the oceans and off people's plates.

Written by Michelle Sherrow