We’re all quite familiar with the cliché of the crazy cat lady, but on last night’s episode of Hoarders, we got to know a crazy dog lady. Actually, Stacey—who hoards animals as well as objects—has a home that’s overrun with dogs and cats, although there are many, many more dogs. After seeing and, more importantly, hearing her living conditions, being a crazy dog lady might be even crazier than being a crazy cat lady, just because the sheer volume of all those barking dogs could drive anyone to insanity. Stacey’s 14-year-old daughter was unable to live with her because of the conditions. Animal Control was inevitably called in, and she was given an ultimatum to either give up the dogs and cats willingly, or they would all be forcibly removed.
Aside from the literal shitshow that is her house — the place is completely covered in feces — the problem with Stacey’s animal hoarding is that it bordered on animal cruelty. She had one incident in which she accidentally killed between six and eight cats from some roach poison she’d spread around the house. Additionally, Stacey locks the animals up in her house with the windows closed during the day, with no air conditioning, during 100 degree heat. When the vet came during cleanup day to inspect the animals being removed, it was discovered that several dogs had staph infections from being kept in cages, some puppies were near starvation, a few dogs had heartworm, and due to Stacey’s lack of preventative care, at least one cat had an eye infection. One cat corpse was found. In the end, Animal Control said she was allowed to keep five cats and five dogs, despite the fact that Stacey said she couldn’t afford to care for sick animals. She ended up keeping nine of her pets, and giving away 27 dogs and 13 cats to a no-kill shelter.