In That Hellish 14-Pyeong House, 74 Cats Were Tangled Together

74 Cats Rescued from House Filled with Trash, Bleach, and Insecticides
Animal Rescue Group: "The Situation Was So Severe That It Would Have Been Better if the Cats Had Died"
Animal Hoarding Occurs Repeatedly Without Ownership, but No Punishments Are Given

Animal rescue organization 'Ddaddeuthan Gongjon' and Seongnam City rescued 70 cats living together in a 14-pyeong space. Photo by Ddaddeuthan Gongjon

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] "The house entangled with dozens of cats was like hell."

Residents of an apartment in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, filed complaints with the city hall, saying that just passing by the house emitted a foul odor. Inside the house, 74 cats living among piles of garbage were found. Among them were crawling kittens. The cats were left in poor conditions with bleach and insecticides scattered around, but the cat owner faced no punishment.

On August 14, amid the heatwave, the animal rescue organization "Warm Coexistence" (Ddagong) dispatched a team to the apartment in Seongnam to rescue the cats. Seongnam City requested Ddagong to capture the cats after receiving continuous complaints from local residents saying, "The house with many cats smells terribly. They probably need to be neutered."

Ddagong is an organization that conducts TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) activities, capturing stray cats to control their population by neutering and then releasing them. They planned to capture and neuter about 20 cats inside the house as requested by Seongnam City.

However, the situation inside the house was more serious than expected. As soon as the door was opened, there were more than 20 cats just by visual estimate. Inside the room, about 20 cats were on top of a wardrobe, and about 10 cats were on the veranda, totaling 74 cats crowded into a 14-pyeong (approximately 46 square meters) house.

The condition of the house where 70 cats lived.
Photo by Ddaddeuthan Gongjon

Jung Yuna, an official from Seongnam City who joined Ddagong in the cat rescue, explained the situation at the time: "We received a complaint suspecting animal hoarding (someone obsessed with collecting animals but neglectful in caring for them) and went to the site, but it was difficult even to enter."

She said, "It was clearly not an appropriate environment to keep 70 cats. The kitchen had piled-up dishes and a lot of garbage, causing a very strong smell." She added, "It was not possible to rescue all the cats in one day, so the work was carried out over two days."

Ddagong started rescuing the cats in the worst condition first. Officer Jung said, "Most of the cats were generally healthy," but added, "Of course, there were severely affected cats with skin lesions. It seemed the owner provided food, but the problem was that there were too many cats and feces everywhere, making the environment unclean." Referring to the cat owner's behavior of not surrendering the severely ill cats, Officer Jung said, "It did not seem like a proper condition to keep 70 cats."

The appearance of cats rescued by the animal rescue organization Warm Coexistence. Photo by Warm Coexistence

Ddagong described the house where the cats were left as hell. They said, "The rooms were a mess with feces and urine, and since it was the peak of the heatwave, the situation was so severe that it would have been better to put the cats down." They added, "Bleach and insecticides were scattered on the floor, and some of the cats taken to the hospital after rescue died from toxic substance poisoning and pneumonia." They expressed their sorrow, saying, "Even our 70-pyeong (approximately 231 square meters) facility housing 150 cats looks cramped, but that house had 74 cats in such a small space."

Cases of animal hoarders who collect animals like objects rather than nurturing life continue to be reported, but it has been confirmed that no one has been punished for collecting animals. Since 2018, amendments to the Animal Protection Act and enforcement rules have established legal grounds to punish animal hoarders. In July this year, the Ministry of Justice announced a draft amendment to the Civil Act including the statement "animals are not objects," raising expectations for increased awareness of animal rights protection for companion animals. However, in reality, animal hoarders who abuse animals are not being punished.

Officer Jung said, "We received a waiver of ownership for the cats," but added, "The cat owner in this case was not separately punished. Since there was no direct abuse of the cats, legal punishment is difficult. We plan to continue follow-up inspections to prevent the owner from keeping cats." It is a reality that it is difficult to punish simply for hoarding many cats and neglecting them unless there is a serious situation such as cat deaths.

Meanwhile, Ddagong said, "We have visited many other animal hoarder houses, but we have never seen anyone punished for neglecting animals," and expressed frustration, saying, "There are laws, but no punishments, which is frustrating." They added, "We are currently protecting the cats, but since we are an organization, we need a lot of help."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.