Mason City housing inspectors removed 123 cats from the home of a couple in southwest Mason City.

City officials described it as a situation in which the couple tried to be good caregivers. “But they became overwhelmed by circumstances that got out of control in a hurry,” said Pat Otto, the city’s neighborhood development specialist.

“If you have two un-neutered cats in a house, by the end of a year, you’ll have a huge number,” she said.  That, essentially, is what happened in this case.

Otto declined to identify the people involved or say where they live.  She said neighbors complained last year of a smell coming from the house. Whenever inspectors came by, there was nobody home. The inspectors did notice a large number of cats in the house, she said, but had no idea there were that many. There were no further complaints last winter.

“Sometimes in the winter, it’s not as big a deal. You don’t notice odors that you do in the spring and summer,” said Otto.

“We got a call this year that the smell was bad and that the people were home. When we went to investigate, we noticed the smell right way. It was a powerful ammonia-like smell. When the owners answered the door, we found 123 cats in a house that is about 800 square feet,” she said.

   (Photo courtesy of Sarah Aronsen/The Globe Gazette - Tracy Hamand (left) and Andrea Oppedal of the Humane Society of North Iowa tend to six cats after 123 cats were found living in a Mason City home)

Otto said the woman seemed relieved that city workers were there. The cats were crated and taken to Pioneer Animal Hospital for treatment by veterinarian Jeff Cornick.

City officials said it was their understanding many of the cats had to be euthanized.   A spokeswoman for Pioneer Hospital said Cornick had no comment about the case.

Andrea Oppedal, assistant manager of Humane Society of North Iowa, said her organization received eight of the cats, one of which is pregnant.  “The ones we got were fairly clean, a little shy, a little thin and, of course, they had an odor to them,” she said.  “Kittens can start having kittens in six months so it wouldn’t take long to be overwhelmed,” she said.

Michele Appelgate of the Cerro Gordo Department of Public Health said her department had no involvement in the case. “It is a city issue,” she said.

Otto said this is not the first instance of animal hoarding in Mason City.  “We had one situation in which a woman didn’t realize how bad the conditions were until we took a photo of the interior of her house and showed it to her,” said Otto.

She said there are three types of hoarders:

* Overwhelmed care-givers. They make an attempt to provide proper care and it overpowers them.

* Rescue care-givers. They have a strong sense of mission to save as many animals as they can.

* Exploiter hoarders. They collect as many animals as they can with no empathy for the animals or people around them.

“The couple with the 123 cats were definitely overwhelmed care-givers,” said Otto.  “They started out trying to be good providers and it got away from them. Then they were afraid the long arm of the law was going to thump them pretty hard.”

So far, no charges have been filed but the case is still under investigation, she said.  “This has been stressful for everyone involved, including the veterinarian.”

Reference:

The Globe Gazette