THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 22, 1994 TAG: 9408220037
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN E. QUINONES MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 118 lines
Acts of love can sometimes turn into acts of cruelty.
No one knows that better than Lt. Philip A. McKeon, administrator of the Norfolk Animal Control Center.
Seven times this summer McKeon and his crew of seven animal-control officers have raided the homes of pet lovers who have opened their hearts and doors to homeless animals.
Unfortunately, these animal lovers - sometimes called animal collectors - have opened their doors too many times.
``There are times when officers have pulled up in front of a house, and the odor from inside the house can be so bad they can smell it while they're still inside the car,'' McKeon said.
State and city codes limit households to a total of four dogs and cats.
Last week, McKeon and his crew, got a call saying there were 40 cats and eight dogs living in a house in the 3200 block of Perrone Ave.
It was an exaggeration, but not by very much. When animal-control officers raided the two-story home, they found 20 cats and two dogs. They also found three hybrid wolves - a dog-wolf mix with a predominant wolf strain, McKeon said.
Most of the animals needed baths, but they seemed to be well-fed and in relatively good condition.
Nothing like the animals in a trailer home raided the previous day.
There, animal-control officers found eight dogs and seven cats in varying stages of malnutrition and disease. One cat had lost an eye. Maggots were living in the empty socket.
The decomposing bodies of two more cats, long dead, were found under piles of debris in the trailer.
McKeon said people don't seem to realize that animal laws were passed not to harass citizens, but to protect animals.
The more animals a person owns, he pointed out, the less likely the owner is able to properly care for them.
``Most of them really aren't bad people at all,'' McKeon said. ``They're good people who just get overwhelmed.''
When McKeon and his crew enter a home, usually their emotions are churning.
``It's a myth that dogcatchers hate animals,'' said McKeon, a 21-year-veteran of the police force. ``In fact the opposite is true. I'd say that most of my officers, in fact 100 percent, are animal owners themselves, and to see animals living in some of these inhumane conditions is painful.''
Why would people who say they love animals take in so many that their pets live amid disease and squalor?
``A lot of the time the owners are older folks who don't have any family members around, and they see the animals as family. So the more animals they have the more family they feel they have,'' McKeon said.
Three resources are needed to adequately care for animals, said McKeon: time, money and space. Too often animal collectors lack the resources and sacrifice the quality of their pets' lives.
Acts of love can sometimes turn into acts of cruelty.
Spaying and neutering are often overlooked, and greatly contribute to the problem, according to Connie Wallert, president of Tidewater Humane Inc.
``I think they start out trying to do the right thing. They take in just three cats to begin with, but because they don't have the animals spayed or neutered, before they know it those three turn into 15,'' Wallert said. ``And if they don't have the resources to take care of three, they certainly can't take care of 15.''
The problem is not unique to Hampton Roads.
Authorities in Montana are trying to find homes for more than 400 dogs owned by an elderly couple in Yellowstone County. The dogs, mostly Pomeranians and Pekingeses, lived on a 2.5-acre farm.
In Starke, Fla., a 60-year-old woman cried as authorities removed the more than 150 cats she had kept in her 600-square-foot house.
``It's like some kind of compulsive disorder. They reach a point where they gather or collect more animals than they can take care of, and before they know it they've become part of the problem rather than part of the solution,'' said Dave Pauli, the northwest Rockies regional director for the Humane Society of the United States.
Animal collecting, like smoking and overeating, seems to be a hard habit to break. It's not unusual for animal collectors to violate state and city ordinances repeatedly, according to a spokeswoman at the Humane Society of the United States.
One of the most well-known of Norfolk's animal collectors was Rochelle Ferro, who lives in the 900 block of Colonial Ave.
In 1992, authorities removed 112 rabbits, 88 cats and 12 dogs from her three-story home.
Ferro was in the news again this year when authorities seized about 30 cats and five dogs from the same home.
A Norfolk judge on Friday found Ferro guilty on 26 counts of failure to license and vaccinate her animals, and fined her $1,300. In addition, she must pay a $10,200 boarding fee to the city.
Although neighbors of animal collectors often complain about the smell, most people find animal collectors a sympathetic lot. They are often portrayed as victims when their pets are taken away.
Animal collectors often reason that if they don't take in homeless animals, the pets will be taken to a shelter and eliminated.
But Wallert does not agree with this reasoning. ``I'd certainly rather go down by a needle in the caring hands of a shelter worker than to succumb to disease and neglect.''
Meanwhile, McKeon and his crew continue to rescue animals from some of the people who believe they rescue animals from the streets.
Acts of love can sometime turn into acts of cruelty. ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo by PAUL AIKEN
Lt. Philip A. McKeon, administrator of the Norfolk Animal Control
Center, restrains Lucas, one of three hybrid wolf-dogs seized last
week from a Norfolk home. Animal-control officers also found 20 cats
and two other dogs.
Staff file photo
Some of the 88 cats seized in 1992 from the Ferros. Also removed
were 12 dogs.
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK ANIMAL CONTROL CENTER
by CNB