Hoarder Sisters In Georgia Face Cruelty And Exploitation Charges

Snellville, GA – Two Georgia hoarders, sisters Elisha and Leah Waller, both face charges for animal cruelty and the exploitation of a disabled adult.

Arrests were made Wednesday after authorities discovered 31 dying cats, a dog, and a disabled young man cramped inside a filthy hotel room the night before, according to the Huffington Post.

The women were ultimately exposed after several people staying at the Snellville hotel reported smelling an overpowering stench emanating from the room the Waller sisters shared.

Police identified the disabled man as Leah Waller’s 19-year-old son, who has cerebral palsy. He was found trapped in the filthy room, confined to his wheelchair amid massive amounts of animal feces, urine saturation, and garbage, reports WSBTV.

Cerebral palsy is an umbrella term denoting a group of non-progressive conditions that cause physical disability in human development.

The felines were found, many of them suffering with upper respiratory infections, open soars, and missing hair. Only two were deemed fit enough to survive. The rest, 29 in total, were euthanized.

According to local animal control, there was no other option than to humanely euthanize them due to their unhealthy condition.

This is the sisters’ second abuse-related arrest in less than two months.

Hoarding is a compulsive behavior to pathologically collect to excess, obsessively acquiring objects or even animals. However, hoarders are incapable or unwilling to discard the aforementioned acquisitions, regardless of the clutter, filth, danger or disease that can result, as doing so can cause significant distress or impairment.

Compulsive hoarding has been associated with health risks, impaired functioning, economic burden, and can result in adverse effects on friends and family members – creating frustration-fueled rifts between loved ones. Parents have had children taken away and couples have divorced over hoarding.

The troubling condition often stems from some type of psychologically engrained trauma. For one reason or another, a hoarder developed an unhealthy attachment, clinging to the otherwise innocuous, valueless item others would throw away.

The act of hoarding is dangerous as it puts the individual or others at risk from fire, falling, poor sanitation, and other health concerns.

Video & News Link: http://www.inquisitr.com/821617/hoarder-sisters-in-georgia-face-cruelty-and-exploitation-charges-video/#pZFB3BgdyEMC1WVJ.99

Ritual burial heifer to be exhumed

Animal rights activists, Kikuyu elders and the local administration yesterday protested a bizarre ritual where a heifer was buried alive allegedly to forestall a bad omen befalling a Murang’a family. The Maragua district officer Geoffrey Mutegi ordered the exhumation of the heifer which was buried alive next to the grave of 84-year old Mzee Elisha Mugucia Wang’era who died before he could receive the dowry of his elder sister which was supposed to have been paid to their father.

According to the family, Mzee Elisha had left instructions that if he died before his in-laws paid the dowry, they should bury a live heifer next to his grave when he died. Yesterday, the Kikuyu council of elders spokesman John Waiganjo dismissed claims by the family that the live burial of a heifer was part of the Kikuyu customs or that it would avert a curse on the family.

Waiganjo said that the proper manner would have been for Mzee Elisha’s inlaws to have given the animal which would then have been taken by the eldest male in the family

“In our traditions, animals are never buried alive,” he said. The order to exhume the heifer was not carried out as ordered Mutegi to allowformore consultation. Mutegi denied that the burial was sanctioned by the government even though the area assistant chief Joseph Kamande attended the burial.

Yesterday, the executive director of the Africa Network for Animal Welfare Josephat Ngonyo condemned the incident and demanded that those responsible be arrested and arraigned in court. “This is an utterly cruel and inhumane act that cannot be forgiven,” said Ngonyo appealing to the Murang’a police chief for assistance in identifying and arresting those involved.

Click here to read the full news:-http://www.the-star.co.ke/national/national/79483-ritual-burial-heifer-to-be-exhumed