She's been nicknamed "Rat Girl" by the people who've followed her behavior over the years. The situation is no laughing matter, however, because her affection for rats could endanger her health and the health of the Bay Area public.
Video shot in April of 2011 of a room in a San Francisco hotel packed with piles of filthy clothes, a dirty mattress and dozens of rats burrowing in and out of the debris was obtained on Thursday.
Animal Care and Control officials say the then-resident, a 43 year-old woman known as "Erica J.," bred hundreds of rats in the room. By the end of May 2011, San Francisco's Public Health Department said it had exterminated a thousand rats in the room and neighboring areas.
"The rats have actually burrowed into other people's rooms," said Animal Care & Control Captain Denise Bongiovanni. "They can carry disease; they can carry parasites."
"I was immediately concerned for the well-being of Erica," Bongiovanni said. "I believe that there's a serious underlying mental health issue that needs to be addressed and it seems to be unresolved."
Bongiovanni said that in the last three years, Erica J.'s social worker, landlords and members of the public have reported her for breeding the rodents.
At one point, Bongiovanni said Erica J. lived under a Japantown pedestrian bridge and brought her rats with her.
"She had the rats living off of a cart and apparently some of them had escaped and were burrowing into an area near a pedestrian bridge," said Bongiovanni. "Our officer went out and tried to locate them and tried to collect them, but was unable to at the time."
The latest incident happened May 8. Bongiovanni said a passerby reported Erica J. was living with at least eight rats in a park. Video shows rats eating out of a plastic bowl filled with dog food.
"The officer that responded noted that they had been there for some time. They had actually sort of dug a maze and had areas to tunnel and burrow," said Bongiovanni. "We collected seven, unfortunately I believe one of them was really sick and died in transport. We impounded the rest."
Bongiovanni said the department has been able to adopt out some of Erica J.'s domesticated rats over the years. Sick and feral ones have either been euthanized or exterminated. Bongiovanni said the woman has surrendered some animals but suspects she hides others.
"She has come across as being very anxious and always concerned that she could keep a couple of rats," said Bongiovanni.
Animal Care & Control Department head Rebecca Katz told KTVU her department often has trouble tracking down Erica J. and said prosecuting her under the municipal code is unlikely to solve the problem. Bongiovanni said the woman needs treatment to prevent her behavior from harming herself, others and the rats.
"We understand that Erica has housing again in the city and I can only imagine that this situation is probably going to continue wherever she lives until she gets the help that she needs," said Bongiovanni.
[Alright. This seems to be an easy one. I don't know why a large city like SF doesn't seem to know their laws enough to do something about this nutbag.
1. Charge her with abandonment. Pet rats are considered specialty or exotic pets. Either way you can charge her with cruelty to animals for abandoning the animals -- doesn't matter if she claims she's 'releasing' them to freedom or whatever.
2. Charge her with cruelty to animals for cruelly confining the animals in these dumpy hotel rooms she's living in. Pets are required to be provided with food, water, needed vet care and clean, humane living conditions. Doesn't matter what she chooses to live in. She may choose to live like a pig but her pets don't.
3. When she has been charged, the judge has the power to force mental health counseling. She has hoarding issues, among other things, and the recidivism rate is 100% if nothing is done about it. The therapist/psychologist/psychiatrist will have to report back to judge whether she is making progress. If no progress, extend her probation.
4. If she violates her probation by refusing to see the mental health counselor or if they catch her with more rats, etc. they can pick her up for violating her probation and she will have to serve the rest of her sentence in a jail cell.
What about nuisance laws? Seems like they could get creative with this woman. She is a public nuisance and creates a health hazard for the general public. Treat her like she has a contagious, deadly disease and forcibly quarantine her. How about they put a law in place that you can only have X number of exotic pets? If they can limit dogs and cats, they can limit all other pets. They just need to create the law.]
(KTVU - May 29, 2014)
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