There's a point for a few people at which the love of animals takes a perverse twist, where caring becomes cruelty.
They bring in more animals than they can care for, telling themselves that any life is better than death. They refuse to find ++ new homes for any of their animals, believing no one else could love them as much. They resist humane groups' efforts to get them to improve living conditions for the animals. In the worst cases, they stop feeding the animals altogether, dooming them to slow, painful deaths.
Humane workers have names for such people. Publicly, they call them collectors. Privately, they call them a few other things, none printable. It's easy to understand the animosity:
* Last year, humane officers found 20 cats living in deplorable conditions on a property in Orangevale, a suburb of Sacramento, Calif. The animals were found in excrement-packed cages; some had been confined for 10 years. Their owner pleaded no contest to one charge of felony animal neglect. She was placed on probation and ordered to destroy her animal cages. The cats are awaiting their fate at the Sacramento Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
* In 1989, New York City's American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals removed more than 125 dogs and cats from a house in Brooklyn. The animals were unsocialized and in poor condition, said an ASPCA representative. The owner was charged with more than 100 counts of animal cruelty.
* In 1988, a coalition of humane groups raided a property in upstate New York. According to Animals' Agenda magazine, they found more than 500 dogs in unheated barns, living on bread, water, and the remains of dead dogs. Close to 200 were judged too ill to survive and were euthanized. The owner pleaded guilty to four counts of animal abuse.
These are not isolated incidents; in fact, such situations pop up so frequently that they were discussed at a well-attended seminar during a recent conference of humane professionals. The Washington-based Humane Society of the United States has documented 103 collector cases since 1989. Most say that's just the tip of the iceberg.
According to Samantha Mullen of the New York State Humane Association, there are a few traits animal collectors share -- among them "a stubborn refusal to part with any of their animals, be it through adoption of relatively healthy ones or euthanasia of sick ones."
