Posted on 05/23/2005 3:38:11 PM PDT by Clemenza
A woman who founded a "no-kill" animal shelter was charged with health code and animal welfare violations after 200 dead cats were discovered rotting in garbage bags in her backyard.
Marlene Kess, who has built a reputation in Manhattan as a caretaker of homeless and dying cats, had 48 cats inside her house, including 38 in one room, authorities said.
Out back, 200 vermin-infested cat corpses were stuffed into garbage bags and apparently were going to be buried in a large hole that had recently been dug, said Sgt. Joseph Bierman of the state's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The cats were discovered after neighbors complained about the stench.
"Oh my God, it was awful," said Michael Fowler of the Associated Humane Societies. "The smell was horrible."
Kess, 56, is the founder and executive director of Kitty-Kind, which runs one of New York City's few no-kill shelters.
She said the cats died of natural causes. State SPCA spokesman Matt Stanton told The Star-Ledger of Newark an investigation into the death of the cats is "ongoing."
A longtime resident of Greenwich Village, Kess moved to East Orange in July.
"I take very good care of them," Kess told reporters Friday. "People who know me know there's no cruelty involved."
Kess was cited for health code violations, including keeping an unlawful number of animals, harboring dead animals and causing an environmental hazard with the corpses. The SPCA, which enforces the state's animal cruelty laws, charged Kess with 38 counts of failing to properly shelter cats.
Authorities are allowing Kess to keep the 48 cats in her home because she promised to separate the sick animals from the healthy ones, Bierman said.
ROFL!
There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for all those dead cats. The Lady was running a maggot farm as a supplier to the German eatery we read about yesterday.
This answers a question asked by one poster: "Where do they get the maggots?"
"What do you think's in the burgers?"
Ga-a-a-g!! I thought the white stuff in burgers was fat.
Enough said, cats are varmints, (excepting of course viking cats}.
DITTO!
My neighbor is an old widow lady and keeps stray cats.
I finally had enough and am now "thinning" the population.
Most of these people have no one who looked out for them. Many of them are very lonely. If your family keeps in touch and you have friends who will look out for you, you'll be okay. I think more of us are collectors than we care to admit. Perhaps it's a sense of security or continuity. Heck, I could be in that boat if I haven't had to move so much. And I'm older than this lady.
"Your relatives' loneliness may be something contributing to this. Seems to me that most hoarders are alone."
A chicken or the egg question if I ever heard one. Most likely they were eccentric to begin with, which drove people away and reinforced their isolation patterns.
Your correct that some of it is loneliness. But it can be a symptom of senile dementia, OCD, and even Alzheimer's. I worked with elderly people and many were hoarders of just about everything. The most unusual was the lady who refused to let the Sheriff remove a dead horse from her parlor. She was pretty handy with a shotgun! But seriously, it can start out with something as simple as accumulating newspapers that they're going to read some day. Some how it gets out of hand.
There was once a kitty named Fluffin
who begain to decay and body started puffin
What a terrible pity
because that poor lil kitty
woulda gone nice with some muffins.
:O
A lot of those who lived during the Depression keep huge quantities of certain things. My late mother used to buy up a lot of non-perishable items, particularly paper products like paper towels, tissues, toilet paper. I used to joke that we could have our own market in the basement of my mother's house. I think a lot of those who went through that era became traumatized at not having enough of certain things that they began to keep too much of everything. But that said, my mother never got to the extreme hoarding stage...to the point where you couldn't move in her house because of so much stuff or the house became uninhabitable.
It doesn't take much to cross the line from pack rat to extreme hoarder.
When I read this, it reminded me that we hear of cases like this from time to time in our city. Many times, instead of pets, the hoarder cannot part with pizza boxes or empty Chinese take-out containers. Pretty tough. Like "As Good As It Gets," what a unique movie THAT was!
Oh, I loved that movie, but then again I love Jack Nicholson. I can see him anything. :)
I used to like Jack a lot more, before he started bad-mouthing my beloved Spurs at the Laker games! But, hey, I'm not always a lady at live games, either, so I guess I can understand certain moments of passion!
Oh yes, Jack loves his Lakers. :)
I wonder how many manifestations of OCD there are? And, what causes it? I thought the person I know got that way during all the rationing during WWII. That, and the strict German heritage. When I was in Germany in late November, I learned that they are a conservation-driven people and consider Americans to be very wasteful people. : (
LOL! Good one!
I don't know. Many mental illnesses take on different and varying forms.
I mentioned somewhere in the thread that my mother stored a lot of stuff, and she too was a child of the Great Depression. Seems to me that just about everyone I know who lived at that time tends to stockpile things. The Depression so traumatized many of them that they feel they have to keep a lot of things around, "just in case."
My father used to keep a lot of tools and other "guy things", but I think it had more to do with the fact that he often let things get cluttered. He would buy, say, a hammer...then the hammer would be buried under some stuff so that he couldn't find it, so he'd go out and buy another hammer. After he died, my brother undertook the task of cleaning out Dad's workshop, and he found so many duplicates of things. Most of the basic tools I have in my own home -- hammers, pliers, wrenches, screwdrivers, etc. -- came from Dad's duplicative collection.
My brother and I both have times when we live in clutter. Is it an inherited trait or something learned? I tend to think it's the latter. However, none of us -- my parents, brother or I -- never got to the point where our homes became unliveable. I think that's where the line would be crossed, and professional intervention might be necessary.
My mom has lots of duplicates, too. The one that got me was a generator, and several professional garment steamers. I know someone who will buy new clothes from a catalog to avoid doing laundry!
But in my case I think it's because I'm an only child and was taught never to waste anything. Of, I do some things that are wasteful, but I try to avoid that.
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