Recidivism high among animal hoarders
Police say this is the second time they have discovered dozens of animals living in squalor with the woman. In March 2000, she was convicted of animal cruelty when police found 127 animals in her trailer home in Pontoon Beach. Police also discovered nine dead animals being stored in her refrigerator, court records show.
The case played a role in pushing Illinois to legally define animal hoarding as a crime and to mandate psychiatric counseling for those convicted.“You know they’re going to do it again. It has a very, very high recidivism rate,” said Ledy Van Kavage, an attorney with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. “You want them to get help so they don’t start picking up animals on the way back from the courthouse.”
In the most recent case, Swansea police made the discovery after visiting the woman’s home to serve a traffic warrant on May 26. Police arrested the woman for the warrant, but charges have not yet been filed for animal cruelty.
Van Kavage said there had been no defined cases of animal hoarders in the state yet, but the 2000 arrest in Pontoon Beach had been an important part in lobbying Illinois state lawmakers to define animal hoarding.
“When I was lobbying for that law at the capital, I took them photos from the case, and they were appalled and they understood that there was some kind of mental illness involved,” she said.
Illinois law defines a “companion animal hoarder” as someone who keeps a large number of house pets in an overcrowded environment and cannot recognize the poor conditions, which have a negative impact on the owner and the animals’ health and well-being.
In the 2000 case and the alleged incident last month, the woman had been found living with animals that were covered in feces, urine and were often malnourished.
Yet the definition of an animal hoarder was an elusive one.
Randy Lochwood, the ASPCA senior vice president for anti-cruelty initiatives, said that psychiatric medicine had only published a handful of writings on the subject.
Animal hoarding is similar to other types of hoarding, and often animal hoarders will hold on to lots of inanimate objects as well. Animal hoarders will keep large amounts of animals, be unable to keep up with their care and unable to realize they are living in dangerously filthy conditions and that these conditions are do more harm than good to the animals in their care.
“We in the past had not taken the animal hoarders that seriously because they’re not violent individuals,” Lochwood said. “We get much more terrified of the teenage boy who takes the head off a cat, because he is a risk of violent crimes against people.
“The hoarding cases involve 50 or more animals that often involve a slow, painful death.”
Animal hoarders also typically fall into a pattern that may not be expected of someone living in squalor: They are often well-paid professionals, the majority of whom are women and very intelligent, he said.
Their animal-filled homes are dangerous to them, their animals and even children or disabled seniors, who could be living with them.
“We’ve had a few cases of animal hoarders who have succumbed to infections from cat bites or dog bites,” Lochwood said. “That combination of urine and feces includes exposure to ammonia or toxins. It’s not like going out on an underfed dog call; it is a (hazardous material) situation and often does require people to go in to these environments with full hazmat gear because these are toxic environments.”
When officers and animal control officials allegedly found animals in the woman’s van, the scene was reminiscent of the March 2000 incident, albeit on a smaller scale.
“The cats looked pitiful but they were actually pretty friendly,” said Susan Skinner, board president of the Belleville Area Humane Society, on May 27. “They were living in their own feces and pee. They’re doing OK physically. They’re missing hair probably from laying in it. Some of them were stuffed in kennels, others were lying around.”
Recidivism for animal hoarding is often as high as 85 percent, even with treatment and psychiatric care, however, Lochwood said.
For hoarders in general, and animal hoarders in particular, treatment is advisable to prevent it, but the focus should be on relapse prevention, which requires monitoring.
Lochwood said that while incarceration does little good to prevent recidivism among animal hoarders, convictions can include mandatory monitoring and restrictions that can help significantly.
In the most recent local case, the animals found in the woman’s van were taken to the St. Clair County Animal Control office May 28.
