Open not just your heart, but your eyes, ears and nose, to abused animals

The two revelations of large-scale animal neglect earlier this month in Rockville Centre were shocking.

And while it was hard to believe that human beings could, either willfully or because of infirmity, allow animals in their care to suffer the utmost cruelty and squalor, it was almost as impossible to understand why, in both cases, neighbors were unaware that dozens of dogs and cats were starving to death mere yards away.

One reason the revelations about what was going on in these houses were so shattering was that they took us all by surprise. How could things get so bad in two homes in the same village without anyone knowing? But it is precisely because this type of tragedy is so unexpected that no one detected it. As a society, we are trained to see certain kinds of abuse: of children, spouses, drugs and alcohol.

Perhaps the discoveries of these neglected animals — within three days and three miles of each other — is an indication that we should add animal abuse to the list.

According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, animal hoarders “keep abnormally large numbers of animals for whom they do not provide even the most basic care.”

Animal hoarding may seem like a passive crime, in stark contrast to beating or starving animals or compelling them to fight one another, but the ALDF says that hoarded animals suffer “one of the most egregious forms of animal cruelty,” adding that “in terms of the number of animals affected and the degree and duration of their suffering, hoarding is the number one animal cruelty crisis facing companion animals in communities throughout the country.”

And hoarding is not as rare as we might hope. It’s estimated that some quarter-million animals per year become the victims of hoarders — and, in a statistic that may point to a nationwide awakening to the issue, the ALDF says that reports of hoarding have more than doubled in just the past four years.

So what can you do to help prevent animal hoarding, or cruelty, from occurring in your neighborhood? First, know the facts: Some 72 percent of animal hoarders are women. The most commonly hoarded animals are cats, followed by dogs. The telltale signs of a hoarder? He or she keeps an unusually large number of animals while failing to provide even minimal shelter, nutrition, veterinary care or sanitation.

If you don’t see anything out of the ordinary, you may hear, or smell, it. In both cases in Rockville Centre, police officers heard and smelled the potential problem before they ever knocked on the front door. Be judicious, even overcautious, in forming suspicions of animal cruelty — and, obviously, respect your neighbors’ property boundaries — but if you can’t shake the idea that something untoward is going on, remember that you can use more than one of your senses to try to confirm it.

If you are convinced there’s cause for alarm, contact your local Police Department. And if a case of hoarding or any other kind of animal cruelty is uncovered in your community, alert the ALDF (www.aldf.org, 707-795-2533) so that it can offer assistance, track the case and add your information to the burgeoning nationwide dialogue on these issues.

This isn’t just a problem for our furry friends. It’s up to us to be aware of, and at least minimally communicative with, our neighbors. In one of the Rockville Centre cases, the suspected animal hoarder was mentally ill — so ill that both the police and the Nassau County district attorney have absolved her of blame for the mistreatment of her animals.

Not everyone is a cat or dog person, but even if saving animals isn’t your priority, being alert to the conditions of your neighbors is one of the building blocks of a strong community.