In Charleston, West Virginia, the local community has come together in support of the Kanawha Charleston Humane Society (KCHA), which just rescued 105 felines from a cat hoarder.
Despite being at capacity, the KCHA took action to remove all 105 cats from a single-home cat hoarding situation.
The adoption coordinator from KCHA, Abigail Messer, told WOWK that cat hoarding is fairly common. “I think the majority of them are just people thinking what they’re doing is good, and it gets out of control for them,” Messer said.
This does seem to more often be the case than hoarding for more nefarious intentions. Even so, the practice is no less dangerous and deadly for cats or other pets, whether or not a person acts with good intentions.
105 Felines Seized By An At-Capacity Shelter
Regardless of how common cat hoarding might be, or the intentions of it, the situation it puts intervening shelters in is precarious, at best.
KCHA was already at capacity when it seized the 105 felines from the local home. Now, they must medically evaluate, treat, feed, and find homes for an exceptionally large number of cats — some of whom undoubtedly picked up behavioral issues from the hoarding situation.
In order to find what help and assistance they could, the KCHA took to their Facebook page to issue a rallying cry. They had no idea just how much support they would receive.
Community Karma Answers The Call
Once the post went up, donations began pouring in. According to staff, they haven’t stopped.
From the looks of it, the KCHA has generated quite a lot of goodwill and karma from their work in the community with the feline population. The community clearly recognized their efforts.
“This is a really good organization,” said Marinda Lanham, who donated liter and wet cat food. “I know they’re a no-kill shelter, and they’ve been full lately.”
Between supplies, monetary donations, and volunteers, they’ve been able to make quick work of caring for a large number of cats. They reported to WOWK that the cats will be ready for adoption as early as next week.
Madison Wilson, KCHA Adoption Counselor, said, “It’s just great to know the community is very helpful in helping us with this.”
Good Intentions? How To Actually Help Cats Instead Of Hoarding
(Picture Credit: Jordan Lye/Getty Images)
As mentioned, many hoarding situations start with good intentions. People see animals in need and want to help.
To those who have a big heart about bringing in strays, Messer advises that it really isn’t often necessary.
“If you see a cat that’s out in the street that looks fine that doesn’t have any weight loss, that’s not starving and doesn’t look in bad shape, most of the time it probably has a home, it’s just out running around for the day, or it’s just lost and cats actually do best if you leave them where they are to find their way back home,” advises Messer.
If you’d really like to help cats in need, consider relying on a shelter to foster or adopt, but only within reason. Do not risk taking in more cats than you can properly care for.
However, if you’d like to provide care for even more cats than can live in your home, then you should absolutely support your local animal shelter with donations. You can help cats like the over 100 who survived this terrible hoarding situation.
If you would like to donate to KCHA for their tremendous work here, you can do so here!
What would you do if you knew someone was hoarding over 100 cats? Will you support Kanawha Charleston Humane Society who took in these animals? Let us know in the comments below.