Officials can’t retrieve cats in derelict home

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This article was published 13/08/2010 (5852 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City and animal welfare officials are struggling to figure out what to do with a derelict West End home so obscured by squalor it’s unsafe for anyone to retrieve an unknown number of cats that may be inside.

An elderly man was removed from his home at 366 Spence St. and taken to hospital two weeks ago after public health inspectors deemed the residence uninhabitable due to health and safety concerns.

City of Winnipeg spokeswoman Michelle Bailey said the home was immediately locked and boarded up to ensure no one could enter the residence, since there are serious concerns over its structural safety and air quality.

An unknown number of feral cats are going in and out of cracks in the basement, and officials said it’s unclear whether the homeowner kept any of the animals as pets. Bailey said city inspectors are working with animal welfare workers to try to give food and water to the cats until a structural engineer deems the building safe to enter.

Meanwhile, she said officials are trying to figure out what to do with the property with someone representing the elderly man. Bailey said she cannot confirm further details — including whether the man suffers from extreme hoarding issues — due to privacy concerns.

"I don’t know if it’s so much about hoarding, but the home is in such a bad state it’s not safe to live in," Bailey said.

Winnipeg Humane Society executive director Bill McDonald said the home is the "worst" case of squalor animal protection officers have ever seen. A humane society official was at the 80-year-old man’s home alongside police and public health inspectors the day he was removed, and McDonald said access to the residence was obscured by excessive items and deplorable living conditions.

"The public health inspector got in the front door and said that’s it, nobody else is going in," McDonald said. "It was the worst situation anyone had seen and our person was already in their hazmat gear ready to go in."

McDonald said animal protection officers are not allowed to enter the home and have been relying on leaving food in traps to try to retrieve the animals. Based on observations, he suspects there are seven grey and white cats that frequent the property and four of them have already been trapped by officials.

McDonald said two of them have been euthanized and the two others will also likely be euthanized since feral cats are "wild animals" and can’t be adopted out.

"This is the worst," he said. "It’s even worse when you open the front door. Out on the street you smell cat urine and feces."

Hoarding experts recently told the Free Press there could be as many as 14,000 Winnipeggers who struggle with compulsive hoarding, including 300 who have Diogenes syndrome — a condition characterized by extreme squalor, excessive hoarding and self-neglect.

Experts say there are few social agencies that have the training to recognize hoarding behaviour and there is often a lack of support services when cases are uncovered. Social workers expect the need will continue to rise as the population ages and more Winnipeggers seek help to rid their homes of excessive items and, sometimes, an unimaginable mess.

McDonald said the humane society typically sees three to four cases of animal hoarding a year and that officials are frustrated they can’t go inside the Spence Street home to do a "sweep" and determine exactly how many cats are inside.

"It’s surrounded by junk, there’s a broken-down car and junk everywhere," he said.

jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca