Over 30 pets rescued from animal hoarder

GERMANY -- Concerned neighbours alerted local services that "something was not right at the property" said Imke Pieper, press spokeswoman for county services in Osnabrück.

 

However, city workers did not know the scale of the problem until they got to the "trashed" home of the overzealous animal lover .

Twenty-three dogs, four cats and four rabbits were found at the house. One out of the 6 puppies died despite the care it was given after the rescue.

 

The owner had been asked to give up the animals voluntarily but she did not respond to the letter, "perhaps from being overwhelmed" by the tasks she had taken on, Pieper suggests. 

That left the services no choice but to turn up at her doorstep to rescue the animals from their state of neglect.  The woman did not put up a fight and accepted their removal.

Three officals from Landkreis Osnabrück and two workers of the the Federation against abuse of animals (BMT) were deployed to transport the animals to safety.

BMT spokesman Karsten Plücker told The Local he believes such cases are on the rise in Germany.

 "These people don't have their life under control. They are living in the same dirt as their animals. They are not purposefully harming their pets, they too are not well" Plücker said.

Pictures of the house on the BMT Facebook page reveal cluttered rooms with litter, damaged cages, falling wallpaper and broken furniture.

At the animal welfare centre animals had to be cleaned of mites and fleas and long claws had to be cut.

Plücker admitted that in these cases he worries for the people that are left  behind.

"When a house gets mites and fleas they go to the pets but when the animals are removed the fleas hop onto the people".

Some of the animals were housed in the animal farm in Osnabrück. The cats, rabbits and nine dogs were brought into to the shelter 'Wau-Mau Insel' in Kessel, which is operated by BMT.

 If the condition of the animals improve, they should be transferred to new owners. But until then they have to get used to normal life, simply going for a walk and getting used to the world outside the mayhem of their former household.

(The Local.de - Sep 4, 2014)