I don’t think it was the cats they were thinking of, but of the nutjobs that kept them locked up in cages in the house. lol
Anyone who had over 70 cats locked up like that cannot possibly be mentally stable.
Yea but a SWAT team is over the top. Sounds kike nutlobs were on both sides.
I’ve probably read hundreds of these stories over the course of my adult life, and I’ve never before heard of anything like a “SWAT team” being part of the equation. These hoarders are generally just irrational softies who can’t bring themselves to turn away a single stray, or put to sleep a single old sick cat, and can’t afford to get any of them fixed because all the money’s being spent on cat food. I can see a show of being needed for some of the raids of commercial puppy mills (totally different motives on the part of the people who run those), but not for an elderly couple keeping dozens of pet cats inside their home.
As for the “locked up” part, animal shelters routinely have cats and dogs “locked up” and stacked 3 high. It’s entirely possible that this couple was keeping the cats caged to prevent them from reproducing, and was bringing them out a few at a time so they could get some exercise and play (just as shelters do). Not saying this couple was running the household in a reasonable way, but with the article not saying anything about finding emaciated and dead cats at the home (which is normally what happens when they’re all running loose and multiplying totally out of control), I’ll give the couple the benefit of the doubt that they were trying the best they knew how and could afford, to run their home like an animal shelter.