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How can I remove all the cats from my Dad's home and then clean it up?
My father is turning 55 on Sunday and he lives alone in his house with 60+ cats. He thinks it's a cat rescue, but I'm pretty sure it's hoarding. He just bought the house a few years ago and it's a complete mess with cat feces, urine and vomit everywhere.
Every time he gets rid of a cat he takes in 5 more and I'm sick to death of him living like this.
My dad is NOT healthy. He has had cancer, lung problems, multiple spinal disc bulges, hernias, and severe arthritis. On top of this he spends all day working and then comes home to "take care" of 60-100 cats.
In reality they just run around further ruining his home.
He makes okay money at his job (40K/year), but it all goes to his cats so he lives in poverty. He doesn't even have a couch, he sits on a little old plastic lawn chair and watches TV.
Animal hoarding is a felony in my state so I don't want to report him to the authorities and have him wind up with criminal charges but I do want to get rid of them all and clean up his house.
I can't do it with him knowing about it because he genuinely thinks what he's doing is a good thing and I know he'd refuse. I would have to get him out of the house and then do it.
I don't know where to even begin though?! Who would help me with this? He's estranged from everybody including family and has no friends.
Help!
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Trying to help Dad as you have thought of is not going to help. It is futile, like removing all hidden alcohol from the home of an alcoholic without treating him for his alcohol dependancy. He will go out and buy more alcohol to bring home. In this case, there are psychological reasons why Dad is bringing home so many cats. Removing them all and cleaning up will only result in Dad bringing home new ones to replace all those taken away. So you can't fix the problem by removing cats.
Cleaning is not something the average person can do either. I once had an adult paper route and one lady had probably 30 cats from what I could tell. When I showed up at her door to collect money, she'd invite me in but the stench just out on the porch was overwhelming and created an instant headache in me. I am sure it would take specialists to check out the house to see if it can be cleaned at all to specifications to be habitable again and if not, it will be condemned which is probably one of the best things that could happen to him.
I know you love Dad and fear him getting in trouble with the law if reported but his case is different, it's not like he is running puppy mills or hoarding animals for a profit as a business. It is his comfort somehow. Somewhere along the line, Dad began to at least have behavioral issues spurred by a fault thought process. There is much of that kind of thing going on for people where it doesnt classify as a mental illness but needs a certain kind of treatment to address his particular issues. I am sure of this because most normal people do not choose to live this way, its only by terrible circumstances that some people end up having no choice over where and how they live until they ultan work their way up again. Thats not Dads case, he's choosing to live this way.
So the best thing is to call animal protection agencies and get them over to rescue the cats and also Adult welfare agency officials to go see him at the same time to see the condition in which he has been living. When any adult is in a spot of possibly being harmful to themselves, (like the living conditions he has created for himself) officials will step in and make sure he gets the help he needs. He will likely need to leave the house, be relocated and hopefully get the mental treatments that help him with whatever it is that caused him to go down this road in the first place.
Dad already has health issues that may shorten his life. Not addressing his cat hoarding issues and the strain that adds to his health will only make him even more unhealthy. If there was a way you could help him to possibly live a bit longer rather than die sooner, wouldn't you want to go for it. Plus, those poor animals need proper healthy homes. It is not healthy for them and many may already be too sick and weak to recover from having to live in that filth. I've seen a program of a man who had cats living in the walls and many dead cats and kittens in various hidden spaces of the house. The house ended up being torn down. Yes, he loses his home but it's not a bad thing as staying there will kill a lot of cats and likely kill him sooner too.
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The only legal way to help your father is to call the Health department and animal control for the county where he lives. To have that many animals in his home is probably illegal and they will come and rescue the animals.
If the house is as filthy as you say it is The Health Department will contact Adult Protective services to relocate your father for the house will probably be condemned until it is cleaned up and made habitable again.
This is not a project you can do for him as the house will be considered an Environmental Hazard zone. In order to clean it up special contractors licensed to work in that environment without contaminating other homes will need to be hired.
The house will then need to be inspected by the health department before a use an occupancy permit is reissued.
My advise is you do this right away as the environmental hazard is not helping your fathers health problems and is probably causing more problems for him
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Ill help you, ive helped friends of my family clean up a hoarders house before. They didnt have 60 plus cats, (they had about ten) but the situation was still pretty bad.
Ok so let me just say straight off the top that someone that TRUELY cares for animals who have been "abandoned" or injured, would KNOW already that the way your father is "caring" for those cats ISNT sanitary and hes actually endangering them more by allowing them to live in filth like that. So theres a mental part of this that you need to address.
Secondly, theres a good chance that alot of the health ailments he may have might be related to the filth. Cat feces and urine are very dangerous when not contained, cleaned up after, or maintained.
In short this really ISNT about the cats, its about your father having a mental illness and his supposed "caring for his cats" is a sign of just how bad it is.
A legit person who fosters cats, can only take in so many at a time before they have to start turning them away and calling an animal shelter where they'll at least be cared for properly, even if they DO get "put to sleep" later or something like that. The way those cats are living right now is alot worse then the potential risk of them being condemned to death by the shelter because their suffering by living in their own feces ALONE.
At least at a shelter theres a good chance they could be cleaned up, seen by a vet and then adopted out. Your dad is hoarding cats, not aiding in the process of rehabilitating them so that they can find a family that will love them forever. so hes doing more harm then good here. I want you to understand that before you try to talk to him any further.
Next, you cant legally just go in and clean out someone elses home and all this while your dad isnt there. What could happen is YOULL get sick because youve gone in and breathed in the contaminated air, and risked your own health to do it. Not only that but your dad could come back, realize what youve done, and then push YOU further away then you already are, and then continue to live in the filth with the cats until it kills him one day.
You need to call Adult protective services, and have them go and do a check on him. Once youve told them what youve told us, they will go and see what hes living in and order him by law to clean the shit up. They will also call animal control and have the animals taken from him and have the house condemned if need be because all that feces is a bio-hazard and they may even order him to a mental health check up and if he doesnt go they will come to him, and if he doesnt comply, he'll be homeless.
Hes not in the right state of mind. He needs more help then what you can give, im sorry to have to be the one to tell you that, but he needs prof. help, and you going in "against his will" or "behind his back" when hes not home is only going to make matters worse. He wont have to know that your the one that called, they wont tell him who it was and you dont have to admit it either.
if he calls you saying he upset that someone did this to him then just offer to help work with him on it and say that maybe a neighbor or someone else caught wind of it but that your here for him. (then just dont admit you did it) then once your in the house with him you can say "ok well now that im here, lets see what we can do to help clean this place up"
He may feel attacked and like no one is on his side but this is for his own good. does he own his house or rent?
He could be excused from any criminal charges if he complies with state law and gets the therapy he needs.
hit me up if you need more help, ive dealt with this before.
good luck! ; )
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