Is animal hoarding a crime?
March 24, 2015, 12:00 pm
One of the saddest sights in animal welfare is to see an animal hoarder.
My organization kept receiving complaints about the terrible smell coming from a flat in Vasant Kunj. I sent a girl to meet the owner. He was a middle-aged man who lived alone and he claimed that he rescued sick animals from the streets. We cautioned him to keep his flat clean and to take care of the dogs properly. A year later the complaints had intensified. The man had disappeared and, with the help of the police, we broke into his flat. There were over 30 dogs. The flat was covered in faeces and urine. The windows were closed but the fans were on in the middle of winter. There were litters of new born puppies. All the animals were starving and there was no water. One animal had chewed its paws off. There were two dead bodies in cupboards. It was the flat of a crazed human being. The neighbours told us that this man did not even sleep in the flat any more. He slept in his car. He had never taken the dogs out. He simply picked up animals at random and brought them to his flat to die.
