Fwd: [rat-30] Fwd: FW: A letter to update the hoarder situation fro Raleigh Adams
Raquel Cintron
From: raleigh adams [mailto:zatip...@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2013 5:22 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: A letter to update the hoarder situation fro Raleigh Adams
Dearest friends of the innocent ratties that are finding themselves in dire circumstances
First and foremost please allow me to say I am sorry for my lack of communicating lately, the long hours and the nature of what we are doing has not allowed me much opportunity, I hope you can all be understanding of that.
I want to give you all an update of the "hoarder" situation in N. CA
Part 1..First of all, let me explain how this came about and what is currently being done to alleviate the suffering.
A long time friend of the ratties (Debra Mendelsohn) aka Bay Area Rats is the head of ACAN AnimalCare&AdoptionNetwork. Debra asked Linda if we could rehome two little rats that had been adopted out but returned in a short while with the caveat that one was bitey, naturally since we were down to 9 children who are now in their senior years Linda agreed. When we met Debra to do the transfer she mentioned that she knew a person who had too many rats and maybe we could also take a few of those as well if we had the room. Debra made contact with this hoarder and we were told to meet her at her house. When we arrived we saw a mid 30's woman who appeared to not have bathed in months. The smells emanating from her clothing reminded me of some homeless people I have encountered, she was carrying a smelly dirty aquarium with chicken wire on top and the kids were in this. I was very unhappy to see this, and immediately we put them in to a clean nice carrier with fresh water and veggies. I was told that no one ever gets inside her house, so I wanted in, I won't go into details, but I used all my Cop psychology and wound up in the house. as she opened the front door the fumes hit me like a wall of stench, it was ammonia of the highest level I have ever encountered, my eyes watered and burned and my throat stung, but I had to see inside at any cost....as linda followed me the horror of it all unfolded before us in the semi darkness.....75 or more cramped, filthy, smelly prisons of wire and glass and plastic with the poor hapless victims trapped inside. My heart sank, my blood boiled and I vowed to stop this pitiful wretched person.
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Part 2
I asked Debra if we could become active representatives of ACAN, and attack this problem from the perspective of animal cruelty and abuse. Debra brought me and Linda on board and we vowed to extricate as many of the ratties as possible before attempting legal or Govt intervention. In the ensuing weeks we pulled out Mama's with kits and many does and bucks. During this process I feel in love with my now precious "Tiverton", who was not expected to live due to malnutrition and a deformity which left him unable to use his front legs. We nursed Tiver day and night, prayed for him, held him, sang to him, kissed him and he decided it was worth the fight. He is in his own "apartment" due to his frail condition, and he is so very happy, wanting to be held and loved. We also discovered that the two original rescues from Debra were actually the most sweet and gentle rats we have ever encountered, they constantly want love and to be held and ride on daddy's shoulders, one is also a rodentist and a tail wiggler, they are the picture of perfection.
During this period of time spent inside the hoarder's house we of course discovered many worse conditions that were not readily apparent at the beginning. We knew if we were to accomplish anything we needed funds, we had spent some of our own money which is typical in this sort of thing but we needed more to buy new cages, food, bedding and water bottles. This is not in any way to enable her to keep this many rats, only to provide minimal decent housing for the rats until they can be removed, as many cages are overcrowded and others are housed in the utmost of unacceptable conditions. This also includes the ongoing issue of getting males and females separated, as we realize that is still a problem. One Angel of a person sent us a large enough donation that we could actually buy 6 cages 25 water bottles and food for them. We discovered that the hoarder was also without food, and alluded to eating rat food. We know it is not our role as rescuers to be social workers but I could not let this go on, so we are providing some basic foods for her at our own expense. We went through 50 lbs of “meow mix” and 75 lbs of Mizuri and Teklad in one evening, which hopefully would have been enough to supply the cages for a few days. Neither of us knew exactly how much food 500 starving rats can eat, but our vet has indicated that the average rat could survive on 2 lab blocks a day. Six average blocks weighs an ounce, so if there is no waste, then in optimal conditions 1 ounce would last one rat for three days. Considering the cost of the lesser expensive Mazuri brand, and supplementing with inexpensive dog or cat food with the lowest protein count we can find, we determined that one rat could be fed for one month for about one dollar. Doesn't sound bad until that is multiplied by 400 to 500 rats!!. The watering situation was completely inadequate for many of the cages, having one regular size bottle for anywhere from 15 to 30 rats, they would go through this in jst a few hours, and the hoarder is not responsible enough to keep up on changing bottles that often. Plus many of the bottles were jury rigged to be difficult in removing and replacing, and many bottles just were plain not connected to the cages in a manner that made it easy for the rats to reach. We have replaced and added many bottles to the cages, larger capacity so there is a better change they will have water in case she still doesn't change the bottles that often. We unfortunately can't be there every day to monitor her, so we are trying to get bottles set up on the cages that are easy enough to change with the hope she will be more encouraged to do it more often (plus a bit of a lecture from Linda on the extreme importance of water and food!!) In addition we have cleaned the most dire of cages, hoping to get through them all eventually. Although she doesn't work, and claims she does nothing but clean all the time, in reality she basically does nothing. Part of this is because she has nothing to clean the cages with, for the most part it appears that she uses grocery bags for the bottom of cages or a bit of newspaper that she may come across. Obviously she doesn't have enough to change the cages so they get filthy.
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We have re housed most of the most pitiful and dire need ratties into new cages with fresh bedding (which they never have had) and igloos to hide in (there is nothing in the cages except rats). We spent our entire weekends in there into the early morning hours, but we knew we had to relieve this suffering. Problem is we still must rehouse many more cages of rats, some nothing more than plastic bins with wire on top or old aquariums, or rusted old cages that are barely holding together. As mentioned, some cages have at least 35 rats in them, cages that typically would be suitable for maybe 2 rats, and that would be very basic living at that. She has 5 or 6 large bar (1”) spacing cages that she can't put most of her rats in as they are able to escape, I realize this can be an issue with smaller rats, but I was amazed to see a rat that I thought was fairly full grown adult size squeeze through these bars before my very eyes! So our only choice is to use smaller bar size cages, and those typically don't come in larger sizes, if they do they can be expensive. We are still thinking of ideas to creatively house them, possibly making some rather temporary home made cages. Several of the injured and sick were removed and one of our volunteers adopted them, so with so good vet care they are recovering and will live out their lives in happiness and breathable air.
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This case is very convoluted as are most hoarder cases, the woman obviously has mental health issues (and is on disability, presumably for that), she has developed an “immunity” to the high ammonia content, probably by burning out her sense of smell from it, and pretty much has the attitude of a 10 year old girl that thinks it would be OK to keep a pony in her room and feed it peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
It is anguishing to know that these rats must continue to live in these conditions because we can only dedicate so much time to the project, we are dedicating our whole weekends to it, and an occasional week day evening, but it is approximately an hour and 45 minute round trip so we are limited in what we can do during the week. We would love to have the facilities to take all the rats out but then I guess we'd be the hoarders then!!! We don't have a facility they can be housed in, nor do we have the people resources (volunteers) to help with such an endeavor.
So just to wrap this up let me say that without the generosity of each of you who has a heart for the least and the lost ratties we could not do the work we are doing now. This is indeed in my 20+ year career as a Deputy Sheriff this the most sickening, deplorable event which I have ever seen. Just to clarify, I am not acting in the role of Law Enforcement -- in this case, I am a professional animal care worker under the umbrella of ACAN.
Each little face that looks into my eyes and begs for mercy is my reminder of why we have dedicated our lives and resources and talents to save the least and the lost, the rejects of society are our “mission” in life.
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Finally to wrap this up I will give you the latest update
I am now working with City Animal Control, they have been in the house and are aware of the problem, the hoarder has received a notice of “abatement” which means the property inside and out has to be up to code which includes litter etc as well as the amount of animals she can have in a residence. She will have a window of time to comply with this legal notice. I will be working to get code enforcement, and others involved to mitigate the problem. In the area of mental health or social issues with her I am working with Adult Protective Svcs, the man is a mental health clinician who is bringing in a social worker and mental health. Trouble is, no one including mental health can FORCE a person to live normally, it will be on ongoing issue. Animal Control is allowing me to remove all the rats to get her down to 50 (neutered/spayed) in proper housing etc. I have offered to be the official person to monitor the situation and insure that she stays with the agreed amount of rats and cats, this may be an issue for a Judge to hear at which time I will present our case for monitoring the rats as part of a court order. Those are the parameters we have to work within, and the outcome of all this is still not clear yet, but I will say that so far both agencies have promised to commit to this until it is resolved.
We are going back to the house Saturday to remove more rats and do the usual clean up and re-caging as we can. We have been so busy “doing” that we haven't had time to tally up all the rats saved so far, but including the new born babies, we estimate that we have saved close to 150 or more so far. Unfortunately the new born babies don't really count in the ongoing adult population that is still there, so a lot of what we have saved has been those that fortunately will never have to endure those living conditions. Again, if it were not for you being a donor we would have been stopped from going forward with our rescue (this is a TRUE rescue), we cannot thank you enough and the little ones who are in better conditions and those awaiting hopefully relocation are eternally grateful.
I can say without hesitation that the window of opportunity is quickly closing to pull and rehome the rats which are able to be socialized, then it may be taken over by a County agency and be brought to a fast conclusion. Know we will do all we can in this time period.
May our great God and Creator of these little rats rain down blessings upon each of you for you kindness and generosity. And know that each life we saved was because you were the help we need.
Raleigh Adams
AnimalCare&AdoptionNetwork
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Water bottles are needed especially or please help any way you can. Thank you!!!
