NM Veterinarian on “Hoarders” Program
Provides Perspective on Cats’ Health
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Hoarding household in San Miguel County. |
The New Mexico cat hoarding case in Doña Ana County is the first instance of television’s A&E “Hoarders” series presenting an animal case, which aired on Monday, Sept. 7.
Animal Protection of New Mexico (APNM) appreciates the opportunity the segment provided to illustrate an animal hoarding case, especially since it featured a New Mexico case, the likes of which APNM has assisted in clearing up numerous times. APNM’s coordinator for the Attorney General’s Animal Cruelty Task Force, Heather Ferguson, was among the team members sent in to evaluate conditions and find a resolution at the Doña Ana County cat hoarding location featured in the “Hoarders” program last week.
A&E’s description of the New Mexico hoarding scenario:
Shirley has always been the kind of person who could never turn away a stray cat. But eventually she lost track of just how many cats she had. When her situation caught the attention of the local authorities, they discovered that every room of her home is cluttered and cat feces and urine soak the carpets and furniture. Now Shirley must cooperate and allow authorities to remove over 75 living and dead cats from her home or face criminal prosecution for animal cruelty.
As an example of what a hoarding raid team goes through when confronted with one of these scenarios, this program provides a depth of detail that no newspaper story or TV news clip can possibly provide. This is as close as all but very few people will ever get to an animal hoarding case.
When the professional cleanup crew arrived at the New Mexico house, and they were about to enter the garage to begin work, they were warned about the severity of the stench—if they had to throw up, they were to do it outside.
The program did show dessicated cat carcasses, and long-dead week-old kittens who never had a chance. The program did not delve into the reasons for them dying.
The forensic veterinarian at the scene, Dr. Patricia Feeser, was asked by APNM to provide a summary of the illnesses, injuries and deaths suffered by the numerous cats in this hoarding situation:
Recently the A&E network televised a “Hoarding” episode that involved animal hoarding in Doña Ana County, New Mexico. The show did a good job in portraying the conflict the hoarder was experiencing but did not go very far into the plight of the animals. The animals in this case were suffering from severe disease. Most of the animals had oral ulcers, corneal ulcers, collapsed or missing eyes or a combination of these conditions. The oral ulcers were so severe that most of these cats were emaciated because it was just too painful to eat. If you have ever had a scratch on your cornea you know how painful even a small lesion can be. These cats had corneal ulcers that in many cases covered the entire cornea so they were in severe unrelenting pain.
Unfortunately, given the viral nature of these diseases, these cats posed a health risk to any cat they would come in contact with. Because of the risk to other cats as well as the unrelenting discomfort these animals were suffering from, the responsible decision was made to euthanize the animals. Doña Ana County Animal Control is to be commended in that they requested that a veterinarian be on site to evaluate the animals so that the decision concerning the disposition of the animals was based on their actual medical condition. The need for this decision was unfortunate, but it was the appropriate one. This was the classic case in which the needs of the animals and the needs of the hoarder must be balanced with attention given to both.
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Fall is a Great Time to Visit Wolf Country —
Help Save Mexican Gray Wolves
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To help save wolves, take a camera with you when visiting wolf country. Help advocates keep track of them.
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It’s the perfect time of year to venture into wolf country in the beautiful Gila and Apache national forests. While experiencing the wild lands where Mexican wolves live, you may get to see or hear them—and at the same time, you can help gather important information that may save wild lobos.
Especially in New Mexico, Mexican wolf packs are at risk as livestock owners often fail to clean up dead cattle in the wolves’ home ranges, cattle that are part of herds grazing on our public lands.
Two packs of wolves were threatened with removals this summer after being implicated in three or more depredations in areas where livestock had died from other causes. Fortunately, so far, the Fish and Wildlife Service has decided to leave these valuable wolves in the wild.
But these and other Mexican wolves remain at risk.
Right now, breeding pairs are teaching their young how to hunt elk and deer in the wilds of the Southwest—but livestock carcasses lure wolves into preying on cattle—a deed for which wolves can be trapped or shot.
Livestock in the Southwest die for a wide range of reasons, including disease, starvation, poisonous weeds, lightning, falls, birthing complications, and predators such as mountain lions and bears.
Livestock owners are not currently required to remove their dead animals from our public lands.
Wolves are drawn to scavenge on dead cattle and horses, which has repeatedly led them to begin preying on livestock. Scavenging on carcasses they did not kill lures wolves to areas with vulnerable livestock, which puts them at risk of being trapped or shot by the government.
You can help the wolves by documenting carcasses in wolf country to show the Fish and Wildlife Service that wolves are being led to depredate by the presence of dead livestock.
If you take a camping trip this fall, plan to take it in wolf country. Bring a camera and/or video camera to document livestock carcasses and wolf sign. And if you are lucky enough to hear or see one of the most imperiled mammals in North America—the critically endangered Mexican gray wolf—please tell us about it.
Call or e-mail Mexicanwolves.org for information about which areas have wolves and where to camp and hike.
Phone: 928-774-6542
E-mail:
info@mexicanwolves.org
