72 Animals Removed From Home, Including A Cat Nursing Chihuahua Puppies

Fifty-four dogs and eighteen cats were removed from a trailer home in Maricopa County, Arizona, on Thursday, including the carcass of a dead cat in an unknown state of decomposition. Police stated that many of the animals required veterinary care, and the trailer was filled with animal feces, and the person inside was living amongst the filth, an elderly man who has been charged with animal hoarding before.

John Koepke, 71, convicted of a 2011 animal-hoarding case that prohibited him from owning or possessing animals until May of this year, according to the sheriff’s office, was living in the trailer about 35 miles from Phoenix. Details of the previous convictions or what tipped police off to a current problem are unknown at this time.

When Police arrived to survey the living situation, Koepke said, “You can’t take them; they are my children.” However, he offered no resistance to the animals being taken to a shelter where they awaited evaluation by a veterinarian. Besides the dead cat, many other animals appeared to have various illnesses, police said. They were not surprised by the accompanying filth of 72 animals living in a mobile home, but were very surprised when they found a mother cat in a box, lovingly nursing three Chihuahua puppies. It is not known the status of the puppies’ mother.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said that the find was surprising, and he praised the cat for her actions of “adopting” three hungry little pups and nursing them. The puppies were newborn and had likely been drug to the box by the mother cat.

“At least the cat was saving some animals. I can’t say the same for the guy.”

Koepke will face 72 counts of failing to provide adequate shelter, Arpaio said.

Animal-hoarding is serious problem often happening in the U.S. and across the globe. While some of these behaviors can be related to obsessive-compulsive behaviors, animal-hoarders usually start out with good intentions, but do not recognize their limits for how many animals they can adequately house, feed, and provide medical care for. Many times the animals are not neutered, which leads to more animals, and the situation soon spirals out of control. While people with normal coping mechanisms would likely take an excess of animals to a shelter, hoarders become very anxious at the thought of losing their animals, even if they are able to admit they can’t take proper care of them.

In cases such as this, it’s likely that animals that are cleared by a veterinarian will be available for adoption, and the ill animals will either be treated or euthanized, depending on what their individual problems may be.

[Image by Joe Arpaio Facebook]