We may never know how more than a dozen pigeons, crows, seagulls, and other wild birds ended up crammed into filthy cages in a hoarder's home, but when PETA heard about the birds—who were spotted piled on the sidewalk after the hoarder was evicted—our Cruelty Investigations Department took action.

After PETA contacted animal control and alerted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to potential violations of the state cruelty statute and federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, all the birds—some of whom appeared to be sick and suffering from heat exhaustion—were seized, and officers launched an investigation.

Not only is it illegal to possess most wild birds without a permit issued by the USFWS, these animals were also victims of hoarding, a mental illness in which the hoarder compulsively acquires more animals than he or she can properly care for. Animals are often "warehoused" in filthy cages and carriers and denied clean water, adequate food, and veterinary care. Accumulated waste and filth often lead to infections and the spread of parasites and contagious diseases.

If you ever suspect someone may be an animal hoarder, immediately contact law-enforcement officials—following up if necessary to make sure that action is taken. PETA's report on hoarding contains more information about how to protect animals.

The situation was dire for more than 30 dogs and puppies languishing at the home of a hoarder in rural Georgia. Confined to cramped cages, chained, or simply running loose on the unfenced property, the dogs were filthy and crawling with fleas, and some were losing their hair because of untreated mange. Their owner couldn't even afford to feed them, so most of the dogs had no food. The water they had was dirty, and they were heartbreakingly emaciated. Because of limited resources, none of the dogs had been spayed or neutered either, so they were breeding uncontrollably, and the situation was only going to get worse.

After being alerted to the dogs' plight, PETA contacted PETA member and activist extraordinaire Anna J. Ware, who works closely with the Atlanta Humane Society (AHS). The AHS team leapt into action and departed the very next day, drove for six hours, and rescued every dog on the property.

Now, the happy pups are getting much-needed food, veterinary care, and socialization. And while they wait for the homes and families they deserve, they're being smothered with TLC.

 
Written by Michelle Sherrow

We recently told you about 240 cats who were seized from Sacred Vision Animal Sanctuary (SVAS) in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as a result of our undercover investigation at the hoarding facility. Many of the cats were too ill to survive, and many more are receiving veterinary care at the county's temporary shelter. PETA was able to bring three of the surviving cats to our Norfolk, Virginia, office, and after much TLC, they are on the mend.

Nudge, before, at SVAS.

Nudge, now, at PETA.

Nudge's name comes from her love of being petted, which she makes known by nudging the nearest available hand. She spent most or all of her approximately 10 years in a cage and is now experiencing her second kittenhood, playing with toys and exploring. Nudge is finally discovering her hobbies, including cuddling up on laps to take naps or watch TV and giving foot massages by kneading the blankets covering wiggling toes.

Olaf, before, at SVAS.

Olaf, now, at PETA.

Olaf is a charming Southern senior gentleman who has overcome much adversity. He was confined to a cage for many years and now can't get enough attention, which he returns with nuzzles. At the time of his rescue, he was covered in scabs from an untreated flea allergy. His tail appears to have been broken in two places, and part of it is missing, along with his left eye. Olaf is now on the mend and is calm and curious. He loves fellow rescue Okay and snuggles with her often.

Okay, before, at SVAS.

Okay, now, at PETA.

After a lot of care, Okay looks like she'll be better than OK once she finds her forever family. The 3- to 4-year-old tabby is recovering from severe conjunctivitis and an upper respiratory infection. Her view was limited to the walls outside her cage in a stifling warehouse, and she now cherishes windows and scenery. She purrs almost constantly while she's getting attention and soaks up all the love she can. She's also discovering what it's like to run and play, and she is getting good at hiding in blankets and chasing toys.

All three cats are sweet and affectionate, despite their ordeal. If you live near the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area and would like to be considered as a forever family for Nudge, Olaf, or Okay, please e-mail us for an adoption application—please put in the subject line, "Interested in Adopting SVAS Cats."

Written by Michelle Sherrow

Animal hoarding was a dirty secret until hoarders began to appear on our TV screens and showed us how they are compelled to collect so many dogs, cats, or parrots that the animals end up living in cages that are only inches bigger than the animals' own bodies—for their entire lives.

Imagine what it must be like for these animals—stuck in a see-through box, sitting in their own filth, unable to take a step, never comfortable, constantly being yelled at to be quiet, or ignored because their captors are so accustomed to hearing them crying, whining, and working away at the cage bars?

Now, though, the cat's out of the bag, and perhaps more cats will soon be out of hoarders' hands.

But, like a virus, the hoarding impulse has morphed into something even more insidious. Hoarders are trying to take over our animal shelters.

One hundred years ago, New Yorkers stopped stray dogs from being drowned in the Hudson. Forty years ago, humane societies stopped municipalities from killing unwanted dogs and cats by using hot, unfiltered truck exhaust fumes, causing the animals to choke to death.

Today, while some primitive pounds remain, great strides in humane sheltering standards have been made. There are places where behaviorists work to reduce abandoned animals' separation anxiety, groomers cut away matted hair to make animals comfortable and adoptable, and walkers are employed to ensure that no cage paralysis sets in. There are municipal animal shelters that cope with tens of thousands of animals a year yet still provide a comfortable, caring environment.

But "institutional hoarders" now threaten to turn back the clock on these hard-won reforms by bullying authorities into adopting magical-sounding "no-kill" policies that do animals no favors. Inside such hoarding facilities (many of which eventually end up in the news after raids by law enforcement agencies), dogs and cats—sick or healthy, old or young—are reduced to withdrawn and pathetic wrecks because of the crowding and neglect that they endure.

In well-run animal shelters, managers know that you can't store animals as if they were oranges. Tough decisions must be made about who remains on the adoption floor and who goes to sleep forever. As long as people fail to spay and neuter their animal companions, continue to acquire and dispose of animals casually, and buy from breeders and pet shops instead of adopting, there will be far more dogs and cats than there are good homes for them all. Millions more.

Many hoarding facilities leave the dirty work to others, refusing to accept sick, aged, or "unadoptable" animals. In order to avoid euthanasia, they reduce operational hours to prevent drop-offs and adopt animals into bad homes. Severe crowding means that diseases flourish, causing misery and, ironically, often leading to mass euthanasia of all the animals, even those who entered the facility in good health.

In New Jersey recently, a no-kill group that had been in charge of a particular animal shelter left the shelter to another group's management. Their successors had this to say about what they found when they took over:

Giving an animal a quiet, painless, and peaceful death is a sad indictment of our throwaway society, but a life in a cramped, filthy cage is not a "rescue."

Last month in Virginia, PETA ran an ad pleading for homes for 28 cats. Three people responded. In the same area, PETA has spayed or neutered more than 63,000 dogs and cats. Birth prevention never completely staunches the flow of unwanted animals, but "fixing" one dog or cat saves countless more animals from homelessness and misery.

Municipalities need to stand firm. Time and money must go into mandatory spaying and neutering as well as guardianship education—not into warehousing animals. The no-kill movement is harmful to humane sheltering.

Written by Ingrid E. Newkirk

I remember the first hoarding case I ever went on. The woman would never open the door, and her blinds were kept drawn. Standing on her porch, you could catch a whiff of animal waste, but just a whiff. Since she was unwilling to work with local humane officers, there was only one thing left to do: get a warrant to remove the animals from inside her house.

That day is etched in my mind. When the door finally opened, the smell was so overpowering that seasoned police officers―including one who had just returned from Vietnam―called for masks. Fleas leapt up to bite us all over as we threaded our way through the piles of saved newspapers. There were dead cats among the live ones and, down in the basement, a maggot-covered floor, a broken hot-water pipe spewing steam, and feral cats living in the dark in the rafters.

Not every hoarder has reached that stage, but that was not the last house of animal-hoarding horrors that I saw or helped to bust.

Willow is one of nine puppies who were born to a dog living alongside numerous other animals in the dilapidated home of an indigent hoarder we talked to a few months ago. Our cruelty caseworkers coordinated with local officials to provide this woman with enough food to last her until a kind volunteer could arrange to take the animals out of there―to a decent, reputable animal shelter.

But then it was discovered that the pups were suffering from symptoms consistent with parvovirus. Crowded, squalid conditions—the conditions one typically finds in hoarders' homes—are incubators for communicable diseases. Parvo is a common yet preventable illness that causes uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea, loss of appetite, and eventual death in most cases. Willow was the only puppy to make it out of the house alive, along with nearly a dozen cats.

Willow's story does have a happy ending. The volunteer who drove her to the animal shelter was so smitten with Willow that she adopted her. As you can see from this picture, Willow is enjoying a great life in her new home!

Is that local "sanctuary" that you heard about run by a hoarder? What about that "no-kill" shelter on the outskirts of town? Hopefully not! There are lots of good facilities, for sure. But please be vigilant, because if no one investigates, animals can suffer greatly. Hoarding is a recognized symptom of a particular type of mental illness, which, if left unchecked, leads to animal suffering—and often a slow, miserable death for the animals involved. Hoarders "collect" animals even when they can't care for the ones they already have. They ignore or deny the increasingly substandard (and eventually appalling) living conditions that invariably arise and commonly refuse to seek veterinary care for sick or injured animals. They also often refuse to euthanize animals or take them to open-admission animal shelters—which is why so-called "no-kill sanctuaries" often wind up being a "front" for hoarders.

For animals who are suffering at the hands of hoarders, there is a fate worse than death—a fate that Willow escaped. I know that on my first hoarding case, we were able to rescue dozens of kittens from that horrid home, and I wept to think of how long they had lived like that and for the dozens more who had just crawled under the furniture and perished. To learn more about hoarding and what you can do if you know of a hoarder in your area, please read our factsheet.

Written by Ingrid E. Newkirk

Because it's the only way he can get out of the mud! Fortunately, this South Carolina dog and two dozen others are now high and dry—literally—thanks to the intervention of a concerned citizen, a plucky animal control officer, and PETA.

The dog's owner—the word "guardian" wouldn't fit the bill here!—kept 15 dogs in mud-filled pens and another 15 on top of each other inside his mobile home (seen in the background of this photo). We think he fits the description of a hoarder—a person who compulsively collects animals in the same way that someone might collect newspapers or stuffed toys. Most hoarders claim to be "saving" animals from euthanasia at animal shelters—some even call themselves "rescue groups" or "no-kill shelters" and have catchy, appealing names for their hellholes. All hoarders have a compulsion to collect (and usually neglect) animals and a total inability to recognize the horrific misery and often slow death that they are imposing on the animals.

This man claimed to be trying to create a new "designer" breed, but there's no indication that he ever planned to sell any of the dogs, and he didn't have a breeding license. Nor did he provide the dogs with anything close to adequate protection from the elements, as you can see in the photos below.

Catch this: South Carolina authorities claim that the only law this man was breaking was in failing to provide the dogs with clean water, which is a misdemeanor. South Carolina's cruelty laws are so vague that the broken pallets, rags, tarps, and pieces of plywood that were the dogs' only "shelter" were deemed to not be in violation.

After a delicate round of negotiations, PETA's Cruelty Investigations Division was able to coordinate a meeting between the man and an animal control officer (who had previously been barred from the property by the man—under threat of being shot). At the meeting, the man agreed to relinquish most of the dogs.

If you’re moved by this story please take a moment to help with other cruelty cases by participating in PETA’s Action Alerts.

Written by Alisa Mullins

A couple in Tucson was caught by Arizona authorities this week with close to 800 dogs (mostly Chihuahuas) and 80 parrots in filthy conditions inside their trailer. CBS News quoted workers on the case as suggesting that the owners were “breeders with good intentions,” which is rather like calling someone a well-meaning child abuser. According to the news reports, more than a dozen dogs were found stuffed inside a single crate in some cases. Some dogs had reportedly been found missing paws from fighting with cage mates.

The story has received national media attention (including an interview with PETA VP Lisa Lange on Nancy Grace last night), and we’re hoping that, as horrible as it is, it helps to dispel myths about breeders being people who care about animals. It seems pretty clear that these folks were running a puppy mill for profit, and PETA is calling on authorities to take this case extremely seriously, including vigorously prosecuting the couple and, should they be convicted, pursuing a provision in their sentencing to ensure that they never be allowed to have even one animal again.