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The title of this video, as per YouTube, is “Crazy Russian Lady Owns 130 Cats.” That really says it all. Watch her part the feline sea as she feeds them like one would seagulls at the beach.
Jaw-dropping, no? And you heard her right: at the end of the clip, she cries “give me more cats!” It’s a peculiar psychological phenomenon called “animal hording,” and can involve everything from chinchillas to mongooses, but most typically victimized are cats and dogs. According to the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium (yes, really), crazy cat ladies and their obsessive ilk collectively hoard some 250,000 animals at any given time in the United States. Not only do the attendant smells and noises bug neighbors, but the inability for most hoarders to properly care for all their animals is a serious animal welfare issue. (A quick peek at this blog on animal hoarding reveals any number of news stories on pet hoarders being arrested for animal cruelty when dead and dying animals are found in their homes, uncared for — also those houses are frequently condemned.)
Portrait of a cat lady, after the jump.
This is an English-language news report on the Siberian cat lady, who apparently cares for her furry brood as well as can be expected:
So what can explain this kind of hoarding behavior? The psychiatry of hoarding is in its infancy, though it’s classified as a type of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. We do have access to a few interesting studies, however, that give a portrait of your average hoarder:
• Most of those studied collected dogs, or cats; men more often collected dogs, and women more often collected cats.
• Nearly two-thirds of their sample were women, and 70% were single, divorced or widowed.
• Social isolation was common but appeared to result from the hoarding behavior rather than causing it.
• Most reported their collecting started in childhood.
• Many had no telephone, public utilities or plumbing, and many hoarded inanimate objects as well.
• 46% were more than 60 years old.
• Dead or sick animals were discovered in 80% of reported cases, yet in nearly 60% of cases the hoarder would not acknowledge the problem.
• In 69% of cases, animal feces and urine accumulated in living areas, and over one-quarter of the hoarders’ beds were soiled with feces or urine.
Yecch! Very grim, but fascinating nevertheless. Given that there are as many as 2,000 new hoarding cases reported every year in the U.S. alone — and surely we’re no exception to the norm — chances are, our readers know some of them, have met some of them, have lived next to some of them, even have grandparents who fit the bill. We want to hear about it!
Comments (22)
Comment
There was a lady from my hometown who was single, approximatly 55-60, and had over 20 cats and three dogs. Not super-extreme numbers as the examples above, but enough to ruin living conditions.
I remember this because she became ill at one point, and a few people from church (my mother included) asked if she needed any assistance (i.e. rides to the doctor, someone to drop off supper, pick up medicine for her), and she responds, “Yes. I need a hand feeding my cats.” Of course no good lutheran norwegian woman can retract an offer, so my mom and a few others wound up taking turns going out and helping her.
It was apparently very ritualistic. Each cat had a kennel, and when she did something to signify that it was supper they would all go into them. They were then fed one at a time in some strange specific order ( I don’t recall what it was, but it HAD to be followed).
Another thing to note is that, although she was rather poor, she did hold a doctorate degree in mathmatics.
posted by EV on 8-28-2007 at 11:07 am
i found a tiny sick-looking little kitten outside an apartment i used to live in. i adopted the pathetic little thing and nursed him back to health. i found out about a year later there was a cat hoarder in the next building with over 60 cats and three dogs in a very small two bedroom apartment. some of the cats were dead and a lot of the kittens were sick and malnourished just like my kitty was when i found him. my husband and i have always wondered if our kitty escaped from that crazy lady. there were cats in the walls and so much ammonia in the air from the cat pee that rescuers had to wear biohazard suits and knock holes in the walls big enough to get the cats out.
posted by lindsay m on 8-28-2007 at 11:17 am
I knew a guy who had so many cats, he was obliged to move to a new home every six months. No landlord would put up with it. The last time I visited, I lasted about 30 seconds inside before I had to go out to the porch for air. He eventually bought a separate trailer for the cats.
posted by Miss Cellania on 8-28-2007 at 11:23 am
But I never saw the guy’s cats act like the ones in the video. They must be either very hungry, or they know there won’t be enough food when it comes.
posted by Miss Cellania on 8-28-2007 at 11:24 am
I spent a couple of months volunteering at the local SPCA shelter. Never saw any hoarders myself, but ALL of the animals from local hoarding cases were left with us. One case left us with about 50 rabbits we had to take care of and find homes for. And those were just the healthy ones! Unfortunately, that’s when I discovered that I’m allergic to rabbits. Since I’m also allergic to cats, I figured that maybe it was time to find somewhere else to volunteer.
posted by Iris on 8-28-2007 at 1:17 pm
There was a lady in Baltimore, near where I live that was arrested for animal cruelty. She had over 70 cats, a couple of dogs, and over 40 carcasses.
posted by bobthewalrus on 8-28-2007 at 2:07 pm
Here in Northern California, I have heard of a couple of different hoarding incidents. In 2002 a resident was cited for 150 Guinea pigs in Hollister. Then 2004, 80 goats, pigs and chickens were rescued from a South San Francisco resident that practiced Santeria. Lastly, in 2006 a man from Petaluma was cited for an out of control rat colony. …The details of the stories still give me the creeps.
posted by FRO Majors on 8-28-2007 at 2:15 pm
Up here in Ottawa, Canada, we had a case where a woman practically had a whole zoo in her house. When the Animal Control folk went to investigate, they had to bring in a zoologist to identify some of the odder animals. She had everything from reptiles to mammals, from almost every continent - over 170 animals!!!
posted by Cheese in my soup on 8-28-2007 at 3:04 pm
Our family has 7 cats and 1 dog and I feel like that is plenty…we found two country kitties and had the female spayed because she was already pregnant and we didn’t need even more kitties out here…the male is getting neutered next…I cannot imagine having more than what we do…
Watching Oprah’s show on animal hoarding, the experts say the animals don’t live to their full potential either…imagine having 25 ppl living in a 2bdrm apt…you’d go insane…and the cats do as well…
I understand compassion, but extreme of anything is never a good idea…unless it’s chocolate, of course…
posted by donner on 8-28-2007 at 6:33 pm
I was a member of the campus animal welfare group in college. We worked with our local SPCA. Usually, we assisted with adoption days and walking dogs for foster owners. (It was a small town and they couldn’t afford kennels.)
The strangest request for help that we recieved was to help clean a house. The lady who had lived there passed away and left her house to the SPCA. They had helped her take care of her multitude of cats. Even with their help, the house was disgusting. The front room reaked of cats and we found hair balls so old they had soaked into the wood floors.
She also had a garage out back that was full of wood. She had collected every little piece she came across and stored it back there. They had a group of court ordered community service guys come take care of that.
posted by Tru on 8-28-2007 at 9:14 pm
Here in Aiken Cty, SC we’ve had a guy on the news a few times recently - has 50 dogs and 150 goats on a few acres on the edge of town. Claims the dogs are for “protection”. Has a tendency to walk some of his dogs on the dirt road in front of his place wearing nothing but his underwear and a .45 Long Colt. Has been known to point aforesaid Colt at passers-by and his neighbors, one of whom took umbrage at this display and shot one of the dogs, then the owner. Dog died. Owner lived, although with a multitude of rather interesting scars to his face where he took a load of birdshot at fairly close range.
Local Sheriff is “investigating”. No charges filed so far, but I haven’t seen today’s local news…
posted by Doc on 8-29-2007 at 7:53 am
My youngest cat was taken from the home of a cat hoarder when she was a kitten. When she first came to live with us, she’d eat so fast any time we fed her that she’s almost choke. Fortunately, she calmed down once she realized that she was only sharing with two other cats now.
posted by Average Jane on 8-29-2007 at 12:58 pm
Poor animals. People like that should be locked up and monitored to ensure they ever, ever own an animal again.
posted by Nerdfury on 8-30-2007 at 7:19 am
i’m allergic to cats like mad. and this story just gives me the heebie-jeebies.
i knew a woman (a friend’s mother) who hoarded birds. every room of her house had at least one or two cages in it. BUT the coup de grace was the guest bedroom…it did not have a bed (thank god) but it had over 50 birds in it. just flying about. no cage. that is the type of thing that can make you pee your pants. sadly, i heard a few years ago, that this woman committed suicide.
i think anyone with this ‘disorder’ to that degree should be committed.
unless, you’re hoarding dollar bills. then that’s just smart banking.
posted by amywithlemon on 8-30-2007 at 8:30 am
for the record…i didn’t watch either of the videos.
the story alone has me gagging.
posted by amywithlemon on 8-30-2007 at 8:33 am
I work at a pet store and it easy to tell when a hoarder walks in to door. Most i see are older, skinny, and usually come in every few days buying about a hundred dollars in cat food or they come in every few weeks spending hundreds of dollars. For them we break out the hand truck to load up all of the food. Oh yea, did I mention their food to litter ratio is pretty strange. Which is obvious by their smell of cat pee. Unusually enough we have no known dog hoarders. One lady insisted that she was only feeding the cats in the alley but when she was no longer a regular customer the manager noticed her on the news being arrested for animal cruelty and she had 60 something cats in the house.
posted by Leslie B on 8-30-2007 at 9:07 am
i am one of those over-educated, unemployed recent grad-school graduates your parents warned you about…i was forced to move into my mother’s house in order to fulfill my Master’s Project. when i arrived, i found my mother, her younger sister, and and ever-increasing number of cats living around the house.
there are 1 big dog, and 8 rescue cats inside (including my 2), and for some unknowable reason, my mother allowed her sister (gone now! i booted her drunk ass after she attacked me 2X in 5 minutes!!!) to collect un-fixed cats outside, and bring them into the house frequently. she thoughtlessly endangered the health of the inside cats by letting several of the outside cats roam the house freely–none of them had had shots for FIV, rabies, distemper, & etc. also, one of the inside cats (7 years old at the time) “escaped” and was lost and assumed dead for 3 months. my theory: she felt her territory was invaded, and there was not enough attention to go around. my mom found her (a total miracle) by accident, walking the dog in an unusual area. poor Blue was a bag of bones…feet swolen and fire-ant bitten…ears bald from fly bites…anemic from fleas.
i am convinced that had i not come along and put a stop to it, the inside cats would be dying, and there would be dozens of outside cats roaming in and out right now.
UPDATE: Blue is better–no permanent damage; the outside cats have all been “fixed,” or have mysteriously vanished. no more kittens in this area! CATCH and RELEASE WORKS! (www.alleycat.org for info)
posted by rachelle on 8-30-2007 at 2:20 pm
ok. i just lost a crap-load of text that i meticulously entered…
1. she is in danger of becoming a true hoarder.
2. she does not yet fit the pathology–the cats are well cared for, the males are neutered, and they are not starving. they appear to be conditioned to respond enthusiastically, just like my cats do when i come back from walking the dog. he gets meds in cheese, followed by a biscuit. the cats think they should have an après promenade snack as well.
this document has a suitable description of the pathologies of three sub-types on: www.tufts.edu/vet/cfa/hoarding/pubs/AngellReport.pdf.
posted by rachelle on 8-30-2007 at 2:52 pm
I actually met a woman who was about to go to prison for animal cruelty charges — I forget the exact number, but she had over a hundred, and some had died, and, well, anyway, she was headed up the river. We had lunch in San Francisco a few years back, she was a friend of a friend.
She explained that in her case, she started out taking in strays, and then the word got out that she was a cat-helper. So people started giving her their cast-off cats, or strays they found. At some point there was this moment when she realized she had way too many cats, but she also didn’t know what to do with them, aside from keep taking care of them. Somehow dealing with the cats became a full-time job, and lacking the income from a paying job, she found herself going into debt to support the cats.
The interesting wrinkle is that she worked with a local laboratory (may have been a university, I forget at this point) which was researching some particular cat disease. She kept the bodies of any cats that died in a freezer, then delivered them to this lab for research (and there were quite a few that died — presumably of natural causes — given the total number of cats we’re dealing with). Apparently this contributed to the charges against her — she was found with x number of live cats, and y number of frozen corpses.
Anyway, she seemed like a genuinely nice person who had let a situation get way out of hand, and hadn’t managed to call a halt to it. It reminded me a lot of your typical addict story — starting small, then getting carried away, then losing touch with reality and just servicing the habit.
posted by Higgins on 9-6-2007 at 5:24 pm
I am a cat lover, but i think 9 is enough for me! I think 130 cats is a bit obsesive!
posted by Randy on 9-29-2007 at 4:04 pm
My mother inlaw was just charged for having more than 70 cats and two dogs in washington in a $750,000.00 4,000 sf house.that I am going to start cleaning, If anyone knows how to get rid of the smell I would love too here it…james allkala@hotmail.com
posted by james on 12-12-2007 at 12:29 am
My mom, now in her sixties, has been raising cats for about 15 years. She lives in a 5 bedroom appartment and has around 40 to 50 cats. Myself and my sibblings obviously do not approve with it. Our mom doesn’t look after herself anymore, the flat is disgusting (eventhough she treats the cats well), and she consistently has financial problems. We have been helping her out for the past 3 years by paying her taxes and car, but enough is enough. She has to move out of her current flat and wants a 5 room flat as she wants to find good families for the cats. The problem is that we are paying more and more for her “addiction” and we don’t see it ending. We would like to bring the cats to an animal home and get her a smaller flat in her financial means, but she refuses, as she wants to find the best families for them and couldn’t live with the fact of not knowing where they go. Her health is not good, we are slowly having financial problems ourselves. We don’t know what to do anymore. We had a great education and upbringing and are very thankful to her (our dad passed away a few years ago), therefore it is difficult for us to take care of it without her agreement, we are also scared that she will harm herself if we take her cats away. We need to do something, as this is costing more and more money and she is neglecting her health for the cats.
Has anyone had a similar situation??
posted by Jennifer Gregors on 1-14-2008 at 1:35 pm