Animal Collection Syndrome: My Encounter with an Animal Collector

Animal collection is becoming a serious problem. One sees articles and news stories of animal collectors frequently, whether in print, on the TV news or over Internet news outlets.

It turns out that I knew an animal collector once. She and I were both on the same e-mail list, a mailing list devoted to the care and welfare of our feline friends. (Regular readers of my article know I have been doing some research into the phenomenon of animal collecting, prompted by the case of a woman in Texas, I believe, who had something like 257 animals on property. The property was feces- and urine-encrusted and otherwise in poor repair. Regular readers will also remember that I am owned by two cats; I will not reveal their names for privacy's sake.) This woman once lived in Florida, and was in the process of becoming Catholic when she was forced to move due to what she said were complaints from mean neighbors. She presented herself as a loving cat owner, and everyone else on the list thought of her that way too.

She moved from Florida to Georgia, where she could only find part-time work as a grocery clerk. Any emails she sent to the list were sent from a Yahoo email account (which is free of charge), using a public library computer (she could not afford to own one outright, or even to rent one). Things seemed to be going along fine for her otherwise over the next few months, even though she was unable to email the list as often as she might have liked.

Then, disaster struck. She had to take two of her cats to a local veterinarian because they needed his services. She paid for the veterinary services with what is colloquially called a rubber check. When informed by his bank of the fact that the check would not clear her bank, the veterinarian got suspicious and brought in authorities. They discovered the true number of cats under this woman's care, and confiscated them, labeling her forever as an animal collector.