We often hear of tales telling about how a homeowner decides to move out of a house because of a rat infestation, or a termite colony becoming a problem, or even bees being the root of a number of issues and concerns.
What we don’t often hear about is this: A “cat infestation” driving a home owner out of her own home.
Reports from KRQE-TV tell the story of a woman (who remains unnamed) from Los Lunas, New Mexico abandoning her home when 34 cats became too much, overtaking most of the house’s space.
Working on a tip credited to hail from the house’s neighbor, officers of the Valencia Animal Care and Control were quick to act, discovering horrible living conditions for the 34 cats, in an environment surrounded by filth and feces.
Erik Tanner, Director of Animal Control, had expected to encounter something to the tune of what was discovered, based on the horrible scents which could be whiffed from outside the house.
Tanner revealed that the homeowner would occasionally drop by the house, feed the cats, then leave, a situation that came to be after she moved out of the house. The setup is believed to have been ongoing for an estimated two years, and since the cats were left indoors and on their own, their social skills were very limited, and they were constantly on guard.
Though their living conditions were bad, the cats showed no signs of injury, granted that they’ve been staying indoors. Still, they remained to be wary of people, even skittish, considering how they’ve lived for an extended period of time. Because the woman surrendered the cats to officials, no animal cruelty charges were filed against her.
At times, animal lovers tend to overdo things, opting to keep pets against realistic odds, as opposed to bringing them to shelters.
This story stands to be too extreme a case, with a moral that speaks volume over how a responsible pet lover should act – with the safety of a pet or pets in question being the utmost priority.
