I am so, so facinated and disturbed by these animal hoarding stories, like a JLP post come horribly to life…
Police Seize 22 Dogs Found Crammed Inside Station Wagon With Their Owner
POTTSBORO, Texas – North Texas authorities seized 22 dogs found crammed inside a station wagon with their owner. The owner locked the car doors and refused to come out when a constable tried to serve her a warrant for the seizure of the dogs early Monday.
The dogs were in the car along with a pot of water, blankets and waste.
“The car was soaked with urine and covered in feces. The ammonia level in the vehicle was 23 parts per million even after the doors had been opened for several minutes. As a frame of reference, humans start experiencing health issues at 12 parts per million,” said Courtney Stevens, SPCA of Texas rescue and investigations supervisor.
The owner does not face charges, Grayson County constable Michael Putman said. She was not coherent and the SPCA said it has contacted Adult Protective Services about the woman.
I love the planning here – an incoherent woman has loaded her car down with 22 dogs, a pot of water, some blankets (and, from the looks of the photo, some old underwear). Sounds like a recipe for a road trip! She could finance her trip in dogs, trading them in kind for goods and services along the way. Three dogs gets you a night’s stay at a Ft. Lauderdale motel; a dog and a half gets you a Grand Slam breakfast at Denny’s and so on. Unfortunately all that extra dog weight would probably kill your gas mileage…
Also, does this woman’s “incoherent” state reflect her prolonged exposure to toxic ammonia levels, or perhaps the cognitive abilities that led her to lock herself and 22 dogs into a car to begin with? I suppose it’s a chicken-or-the-egg debate, hoarder-style.
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UPDATE: Glory, hallelujah! Two hoarder stories in one day – and this one has a local angle!
118 Cats Removed From Filthy St. Anthony Trailer Packed With Dolls
It took three hours for about 15 masked workers and police officers to remove 118 cats from a couple’s reeking home in mobile home park in St. Anthony on Tuesday.
Another dozen or so cats couldn’t be captured because they were hiding in mounds of dolls and debris in the trailer and will have to be live-trapped, said Keith Streff, senior investigator of the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley.
The woman fits the classic profile of an obsessive-compulsive animal hoarder, “which is sad for both animals and owners,” Streff said. In 2002, Humane Society workers removed 72 cats from the same couple’s residence when they lived in Coon Rapids, he said.
The couple, identified by police as Stanley and Cheryl Salidas, who are in their 50s, appeared physically OK but had feces on their shoes and pants cuffs, Streff said. Cheryl Salidas will be given a mental health evaluation, he added.
Last summer, neighbors held a garage sale next to the couple’s trailer and the stench of cat urine was so overwhelming that a neighbor had to leave. “It was burning my daughter’s eyes,” she said.
The couple slept on a rollaway mattress on the kitchen floor amid the feline colony, Streff said. They also collected hundreds of dolls, some of which were found in the refrigerator, he said, adding that their bedroom and bathroom were so packed with dolls that workers couldn’t open the doors.
He said someone apparently shoveled up feces and urine but some floor boards appeared to be rotting from exposure to the caustic waste.
“In the kitchen I was surrounded by dozens of cats, in cupboards, on the counters, the refrigerator,” Streff said. “The water pipes were frozen and the toilet was not accessible.”
Streff said this wasn’t his first trip to St. Anthony. In 1999, he removed more than 400 rabbits, almost 100 of them dead, from a St. Anthony woman’s home. Five years later, he took about 160 rabbits from the same home.
He said his record for animal removal came in 1994 when about 1,000 rats were taken from a New Hope woman’s home after neighbors saw them crawling on curtains. Her collection had started as an attempt to keep several pet-store rats from becoming snake food.
Dear Lord, it’s like Christmas morning around here!
This is why I hoard cupie dolls. Noone threatens to take them away and no urine related ammonia.
There is nothing like reading about a good animal hoarding story in the morning that starts the day off right.
wait, so the lady with the dogs isn’t going to be charged? what part of “let me load myself and my 22 dogs in a station wagon and lock the doors” isn’t against the law? what a country!
I think the article stated she was in coherent?
Not sure she could of been not too their before stuffing herself in a car with the dogs…..thinking about it she was not too their at all ,in the first place to do such a thing and that is why they are not charging her because their is a mental issue with a woman who wants and see’s it to be normal to place herself in such gross living conditions
Peter – here’s another one: http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2009Feb10/0,4670,ODDApartmentInfestation,00.html
BUFFALO, N.Y. — More than 100 chickens, rabbits, rodents, iguanas and tarantulas have been removed from a two-bedroom Buffalo apartment by authorities who needed three vans to cart off the menagerie.
Do you have a google news filter emailing you all articles about animal hoarding? How do you find this stuff?
Literally, both were on the front page of the Strib website over the last 18 hours.
I’m just blessed, that’s all.
If a pimp kept 118 of his “workers” in an apartment, would he be accused of whore-ding? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!
The Common Man is talking about these stories on the radio today and is saying he would prefer to collect cats. I am with him. I would rather have cats than dogs if I was an animal hoarder.
I’d go rabbits. They’re less needy and dangerous when feral.
What are you talking about? Rabbits are one of the most deadly and vicious of all household pets.
Well, we’re all descendants of Noah, the original animal hoarder. People thought he was crazy, too…
are you saying that this one guy streff has, over several occassions, personally removed 200 cats, 560 rabbits, 1,000 rats, and hundreds of dolls from disease infested homes, all in the twin cities area? does this guy take internships? i gotta get me some of that. that, or i’ll just keep writing rob zombie with ideas
Streffy is one crazy ole coot, I tell ya. If he would just keep taking care of the hoarder’s it would be one thing, but he has friends in the enforcement field that are good ole fashioned hoarders, starving critters and he doesn’t do nothing about them. Most of the folks he goes after, are like a little old lady with a 20 yr old dog and he decides that she isn’t capable of taking care of them anymore or can’t afford them (his words) and takes them away from the lady, then the old lady being alone dies alone without her dog. Streff is a deplorable excuse of a human being, all his articles are fixed, he goes after people like a mad dog, never offering assistance, just threatens and tries to scare them and most folks are a little on the “off” side. Half the animals he takes don’t get adopted out, they end up at the U of MN for animal testing. That’s why most of the other humane societies in MN, IA, SD, ND and Wisconsin can’t stand him. They do good and he undoes the good that they do.
Thank you
This Streff guy sounds proud of himself. I’ll bet he goes looking for this kind of stuff. What a guy!