I don’t typically watch the Hoarders shows, but I did on this one on the claim that it was the worst ever.
The absolute WORST part was when she kept insisting that she be allowed to eat poop one last time, in a blaze of glory (her words). She even said something like, “What’s the big deal? I’ve been eating poop for 12 years already!”
I was just gasping and in shock.
Wait, she ATE poop?
Not only did she admit to it early on, half-way through the cleaning process she INSISTED she be allowed to do it again, one last time.
Her defense was, when you do a drug intervention for someone, you let them get high one more time. So she wanted to be able to eat fecal matter one more time.
The counselor and the main cleaning guy were just flabberghasted. They were saying, “Do you, do you realize what you’re saying? That you’re comparing eating poop to getting high? Why would you even do that?”
she got really defensive and said, “WHY DOES IT MATTER? I’ve been eating poop for 12 years!”
That sequence was when I realized her mental illness went well beyond anything I’d previously seen on this or its counterpart show (only one that was close was the sewage-stream couple, and yes, they were the ones who found the dead cat and lost it over that, on H:BA).
I’m going to repeat my opinion about that. I don’t think she really ate poop. I think she just said that to be provocative–to flame out in a blaze of glory on national TV. She knew there was no way they were going to let her eat poop. If she had wanted to eat it, there were been plenty of ways she could have done so without having made a big deal about it. So no, I don’t think she was serious. Seriously crazy, but not serious about that. And of course, the cameras were more than willing to play into it.
I thought they were all talking about eating food that was in the house (before the team threw it away), knowing that it likely had fecal bacteria on it.
And mold.
That was my interpretation, too.
Yeah, many/most of the ones I’ve seen have been cases where it’s gotten so bad that someone went “fuck, I don’t know what we can do about mom/dad/(hoarder) now that the health department came by/the landlord wants to evict/(resident) got hurt and the EMTs had to climb over all that crap trying to get in/I managed to see in the windows and can’t have my elderly parent/younger sibling living in that place - maybe this TV show can help before the house gets condemned or DCFS gets involved.”
They also have occasional “what ever happened to” shows where they follow up with 4 situations or so, and it’s usually a mixed bag. Sometimes it sticks, sometimes not.
I haven’t watched this one yet either, but the promo for it seemed to explicitly state that she wanted to eat spoiled/contaminated food while she still had the chance.
In a recent interview with Matt Paxton, he mentions that the state had no idea she existed. He also mentions that they couldn’t show a lot of what was in the house…so in reality it was worse than what they showed.
Matt also reveals it was the show’s producers/the network who wanted him to sleep in the house.
Oh man, he’s got spoilers for the season finale almost immediately after that, too - typing them here in case you can’t listen right now:
[spoiler]The season finale involves something to the effect of “fridge full of liquified cats” (250+ in separate ziplocs) and how he left the house only in his underwear because of the stench and/or spillage.
He also mentions one of the team discovered a dead human body in one episode, though I don’t know what season that was/will be in - one hoarder had wrapped up her husband (apparently natural death) in a shower curtain and stashed him in the house.[/spoiler]
Horrible-how this woman stayed alive is a good question…she must have had an excellent immune system. How anyone can live in such degrading squalor is beyond me-was she normal when her mother was alive?
ISTR mention that the, ahem, bodily waste accumulation began when her mother was alive, and that a not-insignificant number of the bottles were in fact the mother’s.
I’m generally tolerant of people with mental issues, but when it hurts others as in Tom Tildrum’s post #37 they’ve got to be stopped for everyone’s safety. When it comes to neglecting/abusing animals, I’m extremely intolerant. I’d shoot the person in ferret herder’s spoiler post. My God. 
:mad:
“Kids, we need to talk for a moment about Krusty Brand Chew Goo Gum Like Substance. We all knew it contained spider eggs, but the hantavirus? That came out of left field. So if you’re experiencing numbness and/or comas, send five dollars to antidote, PO box… “
There was an episode with an animal hoarder who was keeping all these injured farm animals and was an absolute bitch. I was extremely happy when they took them away. She had a pregnant goat with a broken leg, and ducks in cages with sores on their feet from the bottoms of the cages. When told they had to be in the nearby pond, she freaked out and screamed, “I ain’t puttin’ them in no pond!” I think she was brought up on charges of animal cruelty.
Then there was the guy who was collecting empty beer cans, because he thought they’d be worth something. It was amazing, because he had them all organized on shelves, by brand and variety, all stacked and neat, just like a store display. It was almost surreal.
But my personal favorite was the guy who was collecting tons and tons of books and magazines, while he used the burner on his stove to heat the house. :eek:
But how could they have not found her a danger to herself? She keeps her own crap and it’s everywhere in her house. If someone came out to investigate they surely couldn’t walk away. Could they? God that is so depressing. I have become disabled due to a mental illness and it scares me to think I could become a person who needs to be taken care of but I would refuse the help because I’m so ill. Uggh I don’t want to think about it.
As I’ve read through this thread, I was thinking that this is actually the second worst episode I have ever seen. It’s been a long while, but I was able to find this one. The woman was strapping herself to a hospital toilet chair each night in her hoard. She had no plumbing and used adult diapers. The beginning of the show talks about how she had fallen from her chair and gotten trapped. She was hospitalized with sores on her feet from a combination of insect bites and human waste eating away at her skin. She also was obviously unfit to live alone. I didn’t re-watch the whole thing, but IIRC, there is a part where the cleaners are in danger of falling through the bathroom floor because the pile of used diapers has eaten through it. During the entire episode she is very giggly and just completely out of touch with reality.
After catching this episode (rerun perhaps?) a couple years ago, I kind of lost my taste for the show. It really put me off my cheerios.
Shanna was shown placing a filthy paper bowl in a toaster oven; the cleaning expert (Matt?) could smell the burning over the stench of the house.
All the wood in the house is so soaked with urine and feces that it’s never going to catch fire.
Well…it was until it got torn down, I should say. I wonder if they had to do a full hazmat style teardown of the place. Guys in suits, like when they were removing the piss+shit bottles, only this time slowly removing parts of the walls to put into biohazard bags.
Honestly, the worst thing about this situation (well, maybe not, but it’s up there) wasn’t the excretia retained. She had taken to dumping her excretia outside when the pail got full.
I don’t have a real clear picture of what the neighborhood looked like, but I can’t imagine living anywhere near to this person.