"I suppose in some cases the person has no family contact, no contact with friends and no contact with neighbors -- but that in itself is a tragedy."

indeed.

& I always wonder about it when *all* the animals "have to be destroyed".

I do too.

Ditto. I believe the 'all had to be destroyed' thing is due to the county not having space and resources to treat and care for many of the animals. Some, surely, could be effectively treated otherwise.

It's just so sad.

From what I've seen on TV, the health of the animals in a hoarding situation is usually not very good. I know I couldn't properly care for 50 animals - yikes! Cats are germy little creatures, just bring one sick one into the pack and sure enough the whole tribe gets infected. Granted, many probably could be treated and saved. However, the shelters are already overrun with homeless so I would suspect some might not go to any extreme measures to save them just to cage them.

The hoarders seem to be making the news more frequently now. I'm sure that its been an on-going situation for years and years. Perhaps with the added publicity, more people will be inclined to report offenders. It's a sad situation for both the animals and the hoarders themselves. From what I have seen, the hoarders actually seem to love each and every one of the animals. Their hearts are in the right place, they just need some extensive professional help for the 'obsession' aspect of it.

I didn't read the article so am wondering about the management's comments are about this. Was the woman there for any length of time?

I know I will not be making reservations at a Motel 6 any time soon.

This happens all too often when the authorities called in. The easiest thing to do is euthanize, rather than do what it takes to find them homes.

Every case is different, some with psychological problems, some just lonely. Some don't think ahead when they skip spaying/neutering resulting in lots of puppies or kittens, while others collect any strays they find.

An elderly lady I know feared she would be turned in by apartment neighbors and that animal control officers would take and destroy her 15 cats (a result of not getting the first two fixed). A friend and I helped her, and now she has her legal limit of three. We had all neutered and her extra twelve into foster care -- most now have homes.

Bless you, petaloid.

My mother used to 'collect' the cats running on her block in town. They weren't truly feral, they had owners who fed them (sometimes) but let them roam freely and live or die. Of course none of them were neutered or spayed. Most of them never lived past a year or so. Daddy built what we called the casa del gato. A little wooden box he slipped into a window well against the warmth of the basement window, so these poor animals would have someplace sheltered to spend the night. Once the cat starting hanging around regularly, she took them to a vet at her own expense and had them fixed. If it got to that point they ended up at her house. LOL. Not a one of the folks up or down the street ever bothered to go looking for their cats. The outside cat population dwindled for a decade to next to nothing.

I have noticed since she died, there are cats everwhere again. It's just not right.

'Casa del Gato'...I love it!

What a nice guy your Dad was to do that for the cats and for your big hearted Mom.

I do the same thing....I've re-homed, spayed/neutered many of the strays in my neighborhood - even kittens. I had one three month old kitten who showed up with a clawed out eye. Doing this has cut down on the stray population tremendously.

I'm lucky because my vet will work with me on the cost and the rehoming of the strays.

Well, in the Motel 6 case, they said the dogs were aggressive - they made no mention of why all the cats had to be put down.