One-fourth of new animal hoarding cases involve rescuers, ASPCA expert says

Linda Bruno called her Pennsylvania cat rescue the land of milk and tuna. It thrived for years as people sent pets they couldn't care for from hundreds of miles away -- unaware that it was a death camp for cats.

Investigators who raided the place two years ago found killing rooms, mass graves so thick they couldn't take a step without walking on cat bones and a stunning statistic: Bruno had taken in more than 7,000 cats in the previous 14 months, but only found homes for 23.

In doing so, she had become a statistic herself, one of an increasing number of self-proclaimed rescuers who have become animal hoarders running legal and often nonprofit charities.

Rescues and shelters now make up a quarter of the estimated 6,000 new hoarding cases reported in the U.S. each year, said Dr. Randall Lockwood, ASPCA's senior vice president of forensic sciences and anticruelty projects.

"When I first started looking into this 20 years ago, fewer than 5% would have fit that description," Lockwood said.

Hoarding itself is not a crime in most states, but cruelty is and both can start around the same time -- when one more animal becomes one too many. Rescuers take in rejected, abandoned, abused or stray pets. Some come from municipal shelters as they are about to be euthanized.

It remains a mystery how someone goes from trying to rescue animals to stockpiling them in inhumane conditions without food, water or basic care. No single trigger has been found, but dementia, addiction, attachment disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and other psychological problems are often blamed.

"The root of it is really nothing to do with animals. It's to do with people's heads and how they work," said Gregory Castle, co-founder and chief executive of Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah.

The focus on hoarding of all kind has intensified in recent years because of widely publicized cases and television shows about it. The Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium at Tufts University is urging the American Psychiatric Assn. to include animal hoarding in its next update to its diagnostic bible.

Some hoarders develop a "messiah complex," seeing themselves as saviors even as animals die. One hoarder told Lockwood: "I wouldn't give one of my dogs to Jesus Christ if he came in the door."

Bruno was seen as a cat saint of sorts, and she surrounded herself with volunteers who enabled her and rallied around her when the 29-acre Tiger Ranch Cat Sanctuary in Tarentum, Pa., was shut down. Some 700 people signed a petition seeking dismissal of the case.

Cats were found in nearly every filthy, stinky building on the 29-acre property. Many were too sick, starved or weak to get to the little food or water available.

The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals recovered 391 live cats and 106 dead ones. Thousands were believed to be dead and buried.

Bruno, 47, was sentenced to two years of house arrest and 27 years probation. She was ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution and $21 a day in electronic monitoring fees.

Several agencies received reports of hoarding at Bruno's ranch, but it took months to document. Typically, the accused offer myriad excuses. They claim that they are victims of religious and political persecution or contend that people are lying or planting evidence.

It's hard to believe the excuses after seeing inches-thick feces, urine-stained walls, cages stacked high with starving animals, dead and rotting carcasses, trash, fleas, maggots and diseases, said John Welsh, spokesman for the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.

A whistle-blower tipped off Welsh's department in 2007 that a nurse, Sylvia Gyimesi, was euthanizing sick animals with a homemade cocktail of vodka and sleeping pills at the Best Buddies Rescue she ran out of her Aguanga home.

In a pair of mobile homes on Gyimesi's property, investigators found close to 150 Chihuahuas, dachshunds and poodle mixes, along with some large-breed dogs. Welsh said the stench and squalor were so bad that he had to leave almost immediately. They found graves in the backyard and a paw coming up from the sand near a barbecue.

Gyimesi said a disgruntled helper had snitched on her after being scolded for not working. She denied being a hoarder and said she never euthanized any animals.

"I think hoarders use rescues as an excuse, a facade, a front, and they don't recognize it themselves. Their animals are not getting care and they don't want to let any animal get adopted," she told the Associated Press. "I know I had too many dogs and it wasn't the cleanest, but I'm not a frigging murderer."

She turned all but 10 of her animals over to the county and pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of animal cruelty in exchange for five similar counts being dismissed. She had to perform community service and has vowed to never run a rescue again. She has since passed all inspections at her home.

The recidivism rate among hoarders is close to 100%, so Gyimesi is an exception, Welsh said.

Gyimesi said it took her 18 months to rebuild her life after spending a day in jail and cashing out a retirement fund to pay $14,000 in fines and fees.

Fallout from massive hoarding cases has a much broader impact. In summer 2007, nearly 800 cats were seized at For the Love of Cats and Kittens (FLOCK) in Pahrump, Nev.

Vets and volunteers from Best Friends Animal Society cared for the animals, turning the compound into a temporary triage for the starving, disease-ridden cats that struggled to breathe in the 115-degree desert heat.

Casinos held adoption events, finding homes for 72 cats. But of the 570 cats at the Best Friends 3,900-acre sanctuary today, more than a quarter are from the Nevada rescue, still waiting to be adopted more than three years later.

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-- Sue Manning, Associated Press

Photo: Riverside County animal services officers with some of the dogs seized from Best Buddies Rescue in Aguanga, Calif., in June 2007. Credit: Riverside County Animal Services / Associated Press

Comments

[Chastity Walker]

What about the pit bulls that r miss treated and killed and raised to fight? These dogs can be good and people fear them because of how they r betraied. Thats all I realy have to say.

[WhiteCatMom]

Thank you so much for mentioning the For the Love of Cats and Kittens (FLOCK) cases in Pahrump, NV. [Previously, the LA Times/LA Unleashed has refused to cover this story, although the paper has a bureau in Las Vegas and were sent much information and photos]

The total number of cats hoarded by FLOCK and Sherri Allen, the woman running their property was closer to 1000. Over 500 volunteers traveled at their own expense from across the US and Canada to volunteer in harsh conditions-118 heat in summer, freezing in winter. Conditions were horrible: http://www.flickr.com/photos/troysnow/sets/72157600949608282/ Some stayed for months, the rescue site operated for about 7 months, then the remaining cats were moved to Best Friends and the site shut down. Others continue to long distances travel regularly to Best Friends in Utah to help with the Pahrump "Great Kitty Rescue' cats to this day.

Ms. Allen received a sweetheart plea bargain and the larger FLOCK case was dismissed entirely on a technicality in February 2010 after the case languished for two years. These cases were so badly handled the Nye County system they failed completely to prosecute the cases. The Pahrump DA made news recently in the Wall Street Journal as the worst run DA's office in the US: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704103904575336661401293070.html .

Yet... FLOCK still operates in the Las Vegas area and has never suffered any consequences for the enormous suffering their "institutional hoarding" caused. They have never paid a single dollar of restitution for the well over $1 million spent rescuing the animals they abused.

Rumor now circulates FLOCK has set up a new, even more isolated site out in the Nevada desert and is hoarding more cats. Hoarder will hoard again...

[Brandy]

Before we start going after the "rescuer's" for hoarding, why don't we look at the over crowded and disgusting conditions in many of our city ran animal shelters? Many of the "rescuers" are targeted because they are out of city/county code. Just because someone has several animals does not make them a hoarder. Many of legitimate "foster-based" non-profit organizations have their "foster homes" out of code with the amount of animals they foster. Most cities only allow 3 dogs and 3 cats. Beware, or you might just become a hoarder because you have one or two too many animals.

The rescuers who have their legitimate rescue group and non-profit status, should have all of their animals listed on Petfinder.com, Adopt-a-pet.com and other adoption based rescue sites. If the animals are listed, and the animals are healthy, then don't cast the "hoarder" status onto these people. They are providing a very valuable service to their communities as well as the animals they help find new homes for.