All Hoarders Are Not Created Equal - A Unique SCAA Success Story

Mr. Wong’s 200 Cats

Many people have read recent news stories about animal hoarders in China, which have attracted attention to their cat collecting and have inspired donations from around the world to help fund their compulsion. SCAA is funding one hoarder in Shanghai who, since November 2006, has followed our very strict project terms and conditions. He has shown genuine compassion and responsibility towards his animals and has never solicited donations or sought publicity. These are the hallmarks of a project worthy of support and SCAA would like to share Mr. Wong's story and invite you to support this project in any way you can.

Mr. Wong, formerly a wealthy Shanghainese businessman, started "saving" cats in 1995. First, he took in a stray given to him by a friend, then a few more, and slowly ended up with his current 200 cats. As a consequence of amassing and caring for such an unwieldy number of cats in his home, he lost his business and had to sell his home and find a house big enough to hold all his cats - a house far enough away from complaining neighbors.

SCAA was contacted in October 2006 by a Shanghainese businesswoman who currently lives in Boston, but who has been funding Mr. Wong for many years. She asked SCAA to visit Mr. Wong and assess whether we could help him as she believed he was desperate to change his habits and to guarantee a better life for his cats. Mr. Wong reviewed SCAA's standard project terms and conditions and agreed to them. We warned him that if he broke any of the conditions (especially by taking in any more cats), we would immediately discontinue support. See SCAA Project Terms & Conditions.

Location and Facilities

At the time, Mr. Wong lived four hours away from Shanghai, so our first requirement was that he move somewhere closer to us so that we could monitor the project. He found a house large enough to provide the cats with a relatively comfortable and sufficiently enclosed living space in a residential district in northeast Shanghai. Windows in the house are kept shut and a large outside area is enclosed so the cats cannot escape. The house has enough rooms on two floors to both house the cats and provide rooms for isolation requirements (sick cats, cats with chronic diseases, injured cats, elderly cats, etc.). This proper set-up is not provided by most hoarders who keep ALL cats together.

The fact that the house has a large wire-netted enclosed outdoor area provides for better ventilation, and it allows the cats to go outside at any time for fresh air and to play. This is crucial for both the cats' health and mental well-being.

Controlling Over-Population

When SCAA first visited Mr. Wong, half of his cats were not spayed or neutered, so SCAA paid for 118 of them to be spayed/neutered. Several females gave birth before SCAA could intervene and the 17 kittens were removed from the house as soon as the kittens were weaned. We then had the mothers spayed. All 17 kittens were very ill, not unusual as kittens have very weak immune systems. Of the 17 kittens taken from Mr. Wong, four died soon after, six have been adopted and the remaining seven are in SCAA foster care and are healthy after long bouts of colds, viruses and ringworm. As all the cats at Mr. Wong's are now neutered, there will be no more births and the population is now stable. Also, because most of the cats have been together for ten or more years, it's a relatively peaceful cat colony, with a well established hierarchy. Although there are a few unfriendly cats at Mr. Wong's, a majority of the cats are loveable and seek attention as soon as you walk in.

In uncontrolled hoarding situations, few cats are spayed/neutered (many hoarders do not believe in neutering animals) and breeding is rampant with hundreds of kittens being born and dying a very slow and painful death from disease and starvation. Many hoarders cause their cats much stress by regularly adding new animals to the colony. Many non-neutered male cats fight to the death and diseases are spread through biting/saliva. Even if these cats can be treated medically, most are so terrorized that they will never be able to be socialized and adopted out. Ironically, many hoarders do not even consider the possibility of re-homing any of their cats as they harbor a paranoid distrust of anybody else's ability to properly care for the cats.

Providing More Comfortable Toilet Facilities

Along with neutering Mr. Wong's cats, we also immediately increased the number of litter trays from six to 20 and we continue to provide Mr. Wong with 150 bags of cat litter each month. The conditions are still not ideal, but litter is expensive, even at wholesale, so SCAA cannot afford to provide more without increased donations. With the addition of the litter trays the cats are now much more comfortable.

Most hoarders do not even use litter; they sometimes use dirt, or the cats will be allowed to defecate wherever they can find space. Many cats at hoarders are covered in urine and feces and die from disease due to lack of hygienic conditions. Mr. Wong has one entire room devoted only to the litter area which separates the kitty toilet from the cats' living space. Even with limited finances, Mr. Wong endeavored to provide the cats with proper toilet facilities.

A Successful Probationary Period and Future Project Plans

After SCAA's initial support with neutering, we refused to assist Mr. Wong any further for two months (other than providing cat litter and emergency healthcare assistance) as a probationary period to ensure that he would not add any new cats to his home. He kept his promise and did not add any new cats to the colony. Therefore, SCAA is now officially committed to assisting Mr. Wong with improving the health of his cats to the point where we can help him adopt them out, one by one, if they are healthy. Mr. Wong assesses the health condition of his cats every day and takes the sickest ones to a veterinarian. SCAA will now also use our veterinarian sponsor for his sickest animals, which cannot be easily treated by local veterinarians.

Before we can begin to bring volunteers to the project, or begin adopting out the cats, we will sample a group of five cats for various diseases that are contagious to other cats (such as FIV and FILV). We have asked Mr. Wong to choose his five most adoptable cats as the test patients, if they test negative twice, we can then begin to adopt them out. These cats will be tested, then isolated in a room for one month, then tested again. If the majority of these cats test negative, there is a good chance that Mr. Wong's cat population is relatively healthy and we will test each cat before adoption. This testing requires a lot of time and a lot of money.

If most of the cats (and we will do more than one sample group in the future) test positive, it's quite possible that most of the cats are diseased and we will not be able to assist with any adoptions. In this situation, we seek to improve the current environment for the cats, as much as possible, so that they can live out their lives in relative comfort, as healthy as possible and with amusement to fill their days.

Creating a More Stimulating Space

Our most recent sponsors, B&Q and Canada Wood, are providing wood and workmen to build cat walls, beds, and indoor/outdoor running and climbing areas to provide a more mentally-stimulating environment for the cats. We hope to start school projects and find sponsors who can make or donate cat toys, scratching posts, cabinets (to climb up and hide in!) and many more much needed items. Having a stimulating environment that also provides hiding spaces is very important to create more peace and stability where there are so many cats in one location.

What You Can Do to Help

SCAA would be grateful for financial donations for rent/electricity, equipment such as mosquito zappers, medical care and/or products such as food, cat litter, litter trays and toys.

We hope that this will be a model project highlighting what cooperation between SCAA and willing hoarders can do for the long-term protection and welfare of the cats in their care.

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!! VOLUNTEER, FOSTER, ADOPT, DONATE TO SCAA!!