Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Dog Hoarder

Well yesterday I was headed to the dog hoarders house. 15 minutes before I was supposed to arrive she called and said that her kids were really upset that she was thinking of giving up any of their dogs. Now, mind you these are the kids she says are NEVER home....

She said choosing which dogs go and which dogs stay is like choosing one kid over another. She kept saying how her dogs are her kids. Ok, I really can't blame her there.. you should feel that way so I can't really argue with that BUT 11 dogs when you can't afford to feed them.

The puppy my rescue friend took from her on Friday, my friend said was pretty sick with worms. UGH! Poor thing.

The hoarder lady said she wants to keep all her dogs. I explained to her I don't mind helping her keep 3 or 4 but there is no way I can afford to get them all fixed.

She said if I want to help she needs a bale of straw for the outdoor kennel. OMG a bale of straw is $4.00 you can't afford that???? Yet you want to keep all 11 dogs. 2 of which are puppies and could have a great life.

I am such at a loss as to what to do. Her house is gross my friend said. She said it was dirty and cluttered and there were broken windows, garbage everywhere.... The hoarder mentioned to me that she has a 19 year old, 18 year old, a 16 year old and one more kid. Should I call Child Services if she won't let me take some of the dogs? I mean they are all living in the house, the males are peeing on everything.. I know b/c whenever I am on the phone with her she is yelling at a dog to stop marking.. she has female dogs going into heat living her house.. UGH how gross is that??

I could call the dog warden too b/c she has dogs that are licensed. Maybe call the APL b/c when the dogs are outside they have no shelter or water.

I don't want to get someone in trouble but I am at a loss as to what to do. These dogs are just going to keep having litter after litter after litter. She told me that the one female is in heat and her son was screaming in the background about how he wanted another litter of puppies. OMG WHY???

I do have her worried about cancer and ployemetra so she does know she needs to get them fixed but clearly she doesn't have the money to. She can't even afford a bale of straw for the kennel.

I dropped off information for her yesterday... information about why to spay/neuter and pictures of Sasha's cancer and the information about ployemetra.... I told her I would call her in a few days after she looked all that over.

If anyone has any suggestions or idea PLEASE I am all ears.

Oh and I forget to tell you, she was giving the puppies away at 6 weeks. I told her how that was illegal. She had NO CLUE!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Amy: I would definitely call the APL or whichever group it is in your area that has the legal authority. Also, YES, call child protective services. We had a situation at my work once where someone was in a house and saw basically the same thing with dogs and children and cps went in. It is not about getting anyone in trouble; it is about getting people help who can't find the guts to ask for it themselves.

selkiem said...

CALL... whether done through ignorance or not, the bottom line is there are a LOT of dogs (and from the sounds of it, children) in an untenable situation. There is no way she will ever get any of those animals spayed and she is obviously passing on her own ignorance to her children; thus starting yet ANOTHER generation of ignorant owners.

I would alert everyone you mention - those dogs deserve a chance to a decent life - and her children deserve a chance to learn responsible ownership.

After all these kids are BIG - none of them can be proactive and figure out how to keep things clean and keep their animals healthy?

Unknown said...

Call everyone, Amy - she obviously needs help as well as the kids and dogs. Hoarding is a mental illnes - trained social workers and most police know that ans will really try to help....