Local group rescues critters from Nevada hoarder on upcoming Animal Planet show It was 115 degrees in the Nevada desert, and more than 100 animals were kept in a trailer and outdoor chicken-wire cages. They were confined with little room to move. Inside one of three trailers, arranged around a makeshift courtyard, you had to step over some of the 18 dogs to get to the 85 cats, half of them feral.
Lauren Scott likely will never forget the odor inside the trailer, where an unemployed single mother and her two young daughters lived with 40 cats. The wild cats could come and go through holes in the decaying floor.
“It was the smell of all those animals in one place,” said Ms. Scott, operational manager of Solvang-based Animal Rescue Team Inc. “You could smell it from the front gate. There were more fleas in that place than I’ve seen in stables.”
Sadly, the woman living at the Pahrump, Nev., home had taken on more than she could handle with time or money, said Julia Di Sieno, executive director of Animal Rescue Team.
Besides the 85 cats and 18 dogs, there were four horses, four doves, four pigs, three roosters, several rabbits, two ducks, one turkey, one hen, one pigeon, and everything but a partridge in a pear tree.
Oh, and don’t forget the llama.
Ms. Di Sieno, Ms. Scott, and volunteers Lisa Mathiasen and Bryan Muñana drove in an SUV — aka the Animal Rescue Team ambulance — to Pahrump July 25 to take 14 animals from the hoarder. They were two bunnies, the ringneck doves, the roosters, the ducks, the female turkey, a pigeon and a hen.
Animal Rescue Team’s removal of the animals was filmed during a “Confessions: Animal Hoarding” episode that will air early next year on Animal Planet. The cable network hasn’t released the exact date.
When a film production company working for Animal Planet heard about the home in Pahrump, a small town in the middle of nowhere, they contacted Ms. Di Sieno, 51. The Animal Planet series shows rescues of animals from hoarders — people whose obsession with animals lead them to take on too many — often living in deplorable conditions.
“She (the hoarder) was very passionate about the animals. She realized she had gotten in too deep,” Ms. Di Sieno said.
She kept thinking, “I can always take on one more,” until one more became more than a hundred, Ms. Di Sieno said. “She did have a lot of knowledge, but did not have the financial resources.”
The woman, who used to work at a shelter that killed strays, was worried that her animals would also end up being euthanized at the shelter.
It can be hard to say no to taking in an animal who needs a home, but quality of care matters more than quantity, Ms. Di Sieno told the News-Press last week over the assorted sounds of birds at Animal Rescue Team’s facility in Solvang.
CARES Coalition removed 24 of the cats. Ironwood Pig Sanctuary took the pigs.
The fate of the horses and dogs is unknown.
The animals at the Pahrump home seemed healthy, except for one rooster with a swollen leg and a cat who needed to be dewormed and was blind in one eye, Ms. Di Sieno said. “She was unable to afford to have it dewormed.”
“I felt sorry for the llama,” Ms. Di Sieno added. “It had not been sheared for years, and it was 115 degrees.”
Driving The Bus Productions Inc., the Vancouver, B.C., company producing “Confessions: Animal Hoarding,” heard about the Pahrump woman from her sister. Ms. Di Sieno said the woman didn’t resist the efforts, in most cases, to take her animals, but was in tears, and her children were upset about losing their furry friends.
“When it came to the cats, she did backpedal,” said Ms. Di Sieno.
Ultimately, CARES Coalition, which was there the same day as Animal Rescue Team, took 24 cats and asked Ms. Di Sieno if she could take some. Given the limited space in the SUV, she wasn’t able to do so. She also had hoped to take a California quail and a raven, but a call to California Fish & Game determined they couldn’t be brought across the border. Ms. Di Sieno referred the hoarder to a Lake Tahoe, Nev., organization to take them, but doesn’t know whether that happened.
It took two or three hours to load the animals after Animal Rescue Team arrived there at 10:30 a.m., Ms. Di Sieno said.
After driving them back in the Animal Rescue Team ambulance, Ms. Di Sieno found a home for three ringneck doves and the pigeon at a 10-acre Santa Maria ranch, while the turkey got a home in the Santa Ynez Valley. Another home in the Santa Ynez Valley took the hen and a rooster. The bunnies, another rooster, one dove and the ducks remain at Animal Rescue Team.
One rooster died.
The animals at Ms. Di Sieno’s facility have more space than they did in Pahrump, living in large metal cages that protect them from predators better than the small chicken-wire cages. Ms. Di Sieno gave a quick tour showing ART’s veterinary hospital, a small building, and large cages with space between them. She clapped her hands to encourage fawns from getting too close to a fence. “I don’t want them to like us,” she said, referring to preserving their wild instincts.
Before “Confessions: Animal Hoarding,” Animal Rescue Team had had a dog featured on a talent show on Animal Planet and had a photo of an unusual bond between two animals on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
When it comes to caring for animals, people must be realistic about their limitations, Ms. Di Sieno said.
“If you do get in too deep, help is available.”
email: dmason@newspress.com
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