Animal Hoarding.. An Epidemic?  

Every town, it seems, has a "cat lady." She might be an older woman who may be lonely, a widow perhaps, who lives in a house full of cats.

Some people may think it’s kind and helpful to take care of the neighborhood’s abandoned animals, says Daniel Paden, a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, but the reality can be much more extreme.

Take the case of 88-year-old Louis Lukcso of Thomaston, who had 50 or more Chihuahuas on his property living among buckets of feces, dog skeletons and maggot-infested meat.

Or Dolores Leffingwell of Canaan, whose 48 animals were seized by the state last week. Her three cats, 22 dogs, ferret, two exotic opposum, five geese, three chickens, two goats, four green conures, African green parrot, Indian ring-necked parakeet, lovebird, two cockatiels and a hedgehog were living in a home littered with the carcasses of dead rabbits and other animals.

Animal rights groups such as Pet-Abuse.com and PETA are taking a closer look at animal hoarding cases and holding them to the same standards as pet owners who abandon, abuse and mutilate their pets. Their Web sites are tracking cases across the country, in which large numbers of animals are seized in hoarding cases.

"They may start out as having good intentions, but they are animal hoarders," Paden said. "And animal hoarding is about satisfying the owner’s needs, not about taking care of animals."

One cat is followed by a few more, which may begin breeding uncontrollably, and over time the pet owner takes in a stray dog or two, he explained. The types of animals range from the barnyard variety to the exotic.

"Before long the house is filled with filthy cages and pens as the owner cannot keep up with the needs of each animal," Paden said.

This was the case with Lukcso, whose attorney told a judge in Bantam Superior Court that Lukcso never intended to have so many Chihuahuas on his Thomaston property. Last year state animal enforcement authorities found the Pine Hill Road lot littered with canine skeletal remains, buckets of human and dog feces, and dogs eating out of pans dotting the junk-strewn lot filled with spoiled meat riddled with maggots and stagnant water.

"Certainly a humane death is better than an inhumane life with these pet owners," said Paden.

While Lukcso’s intentions may not seem intentionally cruel, the town and court system have taken turns sparring with him since 1988 to get rid of the dogs. Faced with 49 criminal charges of animal cruelty, he eventually signed over his ownership of the animals and paid a $2,000 veterinary bill for the seized dogs, in a plea bargain that stayed the prosecution.

But typical of most animal hoarders, it took only a few weeks for Lukcso to start a new collection of pups, despite a court order to own no more animals. The charges were reimposed, and Lukcso is scheduled to appear in court again next month to finally resolve the matter.

While Lukcso is elderly, and has been living in squalor for years, there are hoarders who are a more deceptive.

According to "The Problem of Animal Hoarding," an article written by Tufts University professor Gary J. Patronek, VMD, Ph.D. for the Hording of Animals Research Consortium, hoarding knows no age, gender or socioeconomic boundaries, but may instead be a psychiatric problem.

According to studies conducted by the consortium, an organization formed by college professors and veterinarians in 1997 to investigate the psychological aspects of hoarding, the condition is not indicative of any specific disorder.

"As hoarders tend to be very secretive, many can lead a double life with a successful professional career -- hoarding behavior has been discovered among doctors, nurses, public officials, college professors, and veterinarians, as well as among a broad spectrum of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals. There have even been hoarders among human health professionals and veterinarians and veterinary technicians who manage to live a double life, deceiving friends and co-workers about the true conditions at home," Patronek wrote.

In Canaan earlier this month, state animal enforcement officers seized 48 animals from Leffingwell. Dr. Bruce Sherman, director of the Department of Agriculture Bureau of Inspection and Regulation, reported some animals were found dead at the residence, including three rabbits, a dove and a hermit crab. The state is applying for ownership of the animals and may lodge animal cruelty charges against Leffingwell.

"It’s more common than people realize," said Kathryn Bailey, director of clinical services at Northwest Center for Family Services and Mental Illness in Lakeville. "While it may not be a disorder in its own right yet, people need to be aware of it. People who exhibit this behavior may have an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Some may also feel they have a special power to talk to animals."

Paden and his organization hopes communities will take a more aggressive stance against hoarders with faster responses to neighborhood complaints of overpopulation of animals, before animals are found sick or dead. The health risks must also be considered, he said, as neighbors who live near the homes overridden with animals could be exposed to rodents, noise and disease.

"Not only for the animal’s sake, but because animal hoarding is a burden on the animal rescue system, court system and the community as a whole," Paden said.

Lukcso’s hoarding of items and animals has been a burden on the taxpayers for years, with numerous visits from health and animal officials, a half dozen court cases, the expense of extinguishing a fire in a junk pile in 1991, veterinary costs, and the price of carting away 45 tons of clutter after a 1991 court order.

"It’s a high price to pay for these animals, and on the services provided for the community, becoming a larger problem in the end, than if we notice it for what it is at the start," Bailey said.

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