I remember the first hoarding case I ever went on. The woman would never open the door, and her blinds were kept drawn. Standing on her porch, you could catch a whiff of animal waste, but just a whiff. Since she was unwilling to work with local humane officers, there was only one thing left to do: get a warrant to remove the animals from inside her house.

That day is etched in my mind. When the door finally opened, the smell was so overpowering that seasoned police officers―including one who had just returned from Vietnam―called for masks. Fleas leapt up to bite us all over as we threaded our way through the piles of saved newspapers. There were dead cats among the live ones and, down in the basement, a maggot-covered floor, a broken hot-water pipe spewing steam, and feral cats living in the dark in the rafters.

Not every hoarder has reached that stage, but that was not the last house of animal-hoarding horrors that I saw or helped to bust.

Willow is one of nine puppies who were born to a dog living alongside numerous other animals in the dilapidated home of an indigent hoarder we talked to a few months ago. Our cruelty caseworkers coordinated with local officials to provide this woman with enough food to last her until a kind volunteer could arrange to take the animals out of there―to a decent, reputable animal shelter.

But then it was discovered that the pups were suffering from symptoms consistent with parvovirus. Crowded, squalid conditions—the conditions one typically finds in hoarders' homes—are incubators for communicable diseases. Parvo is a common yet preventable illness that causes uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea, loss of appetite, and eventual death in most cases. Willow was the only puppy to make it out of the house alive, along with nearly a dozen cats.

Willow's story does have a happy ending. The volunteer who drove her to the animal shelter was so smitten with Willow that she adopted her. As you can see from this picture, Willow is enjoying a great life in her new home!

Is that local "sanctuary" that you heard about run by a hoarder? What about that "no-kill" shelter on the outskirts of town? Hopefully not! There are lots of good facilities, for sure. But please be vigilant, because if no one investigates, animals can suffer greatly. Hoarding is a recognized symptom of a particular type of mental illness, which, if left unchecked, leads to animal suffering—and often a slow, miserable death for the animals involved. Hoarders "collect" animals even when they can't care for the ones they already have. They ignore or deny the increasingly substandard (and eventually appalling) living conditions that invariably arise and commonly refuse to seek veterinary care for sick or injured animals. They also often refuse to euthanize animals or take them to open-admission animal shelters—which is why so-called "no-kill sanctuaries" often wind up being a "front" for hoarders.

For animals who are suffering at the hands of hoarders, there is a fate worse than death—a fate that Willow escaped. I know that on my first hoarding case, we were able to rescue dozens of kittens from that horrid home, and I wept to think of how long they had lived like that and for the dozens more who had just crawled under the furniture and perished. To learn more about hoarding and what you can do if you know of a hoarder in your area, please read our factsheet.

Posted by Ingrid E. Newkirk

Because it's the only way he can get out of the mud! Fortunately, this South Carolina dog and two dozen others are now high and dry—literally—thanks to the intervention of a concerned citizen, a plucky animal control officer, and PETA.

The dog's owner—the word "guardian" wouldn't fit the bill here!—kept 15 dogs in mud-filled pens and another 15 on top of each other inside his mobile home (seen in the background of this photo). We think he fits the description of a hoarder—a person who compulsively collects animals in the same way that someone might collect newspapers or stuffed toys. Most hoarders claim to be "saving" animals from euthanasia at animal shelters—some even call themselves "rescue groups" or "no-kill shelters" and have catchy, appealing names for their hellholes. All hoarders have a compulsion to collect (and usually neglect) animals and a total inability to recognize the horrific misery and often slow death that they are imposing on the animals.

This man claimed to be trying to create a new "designer" breed, but there's no indication that he ever planned to sell any of the dogs, and he didn't have a breeding license. Nor did he provide the dogs with anything close to adequate protection from the elements, as you can see in the photos below.

Catch this: South Carolina authorities claim that the only law this man was breaking was in failing to provide the dogs with clean water, which is a misdemeanor. South Carolina's cruelty laws are so vague that the broken pallets, rags, tarps, and pieces of plywood that were the dogs' only "shelter" were deemed to not be in violation.

After a delicate round of negotiations, PETA's Cruelty Investigations Division was able to coordinate a meeting between the man and an animal control officer (who had previously been barred from the property by the man—under threat of being shot). At the meeting, the man agreed to relinquish most of the dogs.

If you’re moved by this story please take a moment to help with other cruelty cases by participating in PETA’s Action Alerts.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

A couple in Tucson was caught by Arizona authorities this week with close to 800 dogs (mostly Chihuahuas) and 80 parrots in filthy conditions inside their trailer. CBS News quoted workers on the case as suggesting that the owners were “breeders with good intentions,” which is rather like calling someone a well-meaning child abuser. According to the news reports, more than a dozen dogs were found stuffed inside a single crate in some cases. Some dogs had reportedly been found missing paws from fighting with cage mates.

The story has received national media attention (including an interview with PETA VP Lisa Lange on Nancy Grace last night), and we’re hoping that, as horrible as it is, it helps to dispel myths about breeders being people who care about animals. It seems pretty clear that these folks were running a puppy mill for profit, and PETA is calling on authorities to take this case extremely seriously, including vigorously prosecuting the couple and, should they be convicted, pursuing a provision in their sentencing to ensure that they never be allowed to have even one animal again.