We have discussions (arguments) about this topic fairly often at my office. I am reluctant to report unless I know with certainty that laws are being broken. In my area (mostly rural) you can have 5,000 cats and be in compliance with the law as long as they are not for sale (you become a commercial kennel then).
I have had clients admit to having 50 or more cats. No law broken unless you can show cruelty/abuse/negligence. By bringing an animal to me, they are pursuing medical care, which is the antithesis of negligence. They may act like raving lunatics, but I am not a mental health expert, and “being crazy” is not illegal in and of itself.
vetbridge, that’s pretty depressing (not that you do nothing, but that the system seems to have tied your hands).
I would report someone I suspected of hoarding to the SPCA. I would also try to get them to get help for their hoarding problem. I believe hoarding is a mental illness, but I also believe there is treatment for it (with varying degrees of success, I’m sure). I’m fairly sure that allowing someone to go on hoarding as though it’s normal isn’t helping them any (or the innocent animals that are being hurt by their mental illness).
It’s interesting that everybody keeps saying “she” and “lady”, even after I’ve called him a “he” several times. Is the crazy cat lady stereotype that well established, or are there really almost no male animal hoarders? (The ones I see on the news are generally female.)
I understand the reasons that animal shelters and et cetera really push it, and if the choice is one between letting the dogs create tons of puppies that will just contribute to the massive problem of strays and generally mistreated animals, I’m fine with neutering.
But I’ve owned dogs all my life, I don’t let my dogs run loose so there’s no real chance of them getting pregnant or getting another dog pregnant. Every dog I’ve ever owned has died, I’ve never given a dog away or sent a dog to a shelter or dropped a dog off on the road.
With that being said, I see no reason to essentially mutilate a dog when there’s no risk of them contributing to the animal overpopulation problem. I totally understand why some shelters insist that you spay/neuter before they let you take possession of the animal, shelters and rescue agencies deal with abandoned animals and it would be totally counterproductive to their state goals to allow people to pick up animals from them that could easily start contributing to the animal overpopulation problem even further.
I just don’t believe in needless mutilation of an animal. I’ve owned several schnauzers and two boxers in my lifetime (as well as a few other breeds), most people crop the schnauzer/boxer ears, I don’t do that. I just don’t see any reason to chop off half a dog’s ear for cosmetic purposes. I don’t like the docking of tails either, although both of the boxers I owned had docked tails because every breeder I ever looked at docked the tails of them at an extremely young age.
I’m not really militant on this, but if you’re a responsible pet owner and have been for years I see no reason to spay/neuter your animal. Removing from an animal its sexual organs does have a significant effect on them and I don’t think should be done universally (it’s fine, as I’ve said, to do so with shelter animals and any pet owner who, for whatever reason lets their dogs or cats roam around unattended should do it as well.)
My story about an animal hoarder was that a neighbour of ours in Australia had a lot of cats which were eventually taken away by the city council or the RSPCA. However, they overlooked one kitten, which was probably about 2 weeks old, and which another neighbour found under the house. We adopted this kitten, and initially had to feed it using a human baby’s bottle. The kitten grew up to be a bit crazy, and more prone to sickness than the average cat, but very affectionate to us, its adoptive parents. (And it’s now dead, having died earlier than iusual for a cat that’s survived to adulthood).
Let me just point out that early spaying reduces the chance of mammary cancer to near zero. Also, I frequently see older female dogs/cats with pyometra.
People who present their older female dog with pyometra are faced with two options.
[ol]
[li]Surgery, which is expensive and high risk[/li][li]Euthanasia[/li][li]Taking the animal home to die[/li][/ol]
One example. I just saw a beagle with pyometra. Had she been spayed last month it would have cost $85. With her current problem, the cost would be $425. The owner elected to euthanise his 8 year old dog.
That’s probably okay for you, Martin (your intact male dogs can still try to go impregnate other people’s intact females), but I wouldn’t espouse that for the general population. Heck, I’m a very responsible pet owner, and my cat still sneaks out way too often (she’s a regular Houdini at bolting for the door). She sticks around home and doesn’t go too far (and I can usually catch her and bring her back in), but if she was intact and in heat, she’d be gone until she was pregnant. I agree with you completely on other surgical alterations of pets, though. I don’t support tail or ear chopping, or breeding animals too far from the ideal for their species.