Hoarding approximately 160 rabbits
Saint Anthony, MN (US)

Incident Date: Monday, Aug 9, 2004
County: Hennepin

Disposition: Not Charged

Person of Interest: Cathy Tarnowski

Responding to a complaint from a neighbor, authorities removed about 160 domestic rabbits - some dead and some alive - from a home and condemned the brick rambler as uninhabitable.

"I just wanted them to be able to live their life out, and I made a mess again. It just got out of hand. I'm not a bad person," Cathy Tarnowski said Monday, fighting back tears as firefighters piled the kennels of rabbits on her front yard.

Just five years ago, Tarnowski was found to have sheltered hundreds of living and frozen rabbits.

In August 1999, police summoned firefighters, humane society and Hennepin County Community Health workers to Tarnowski's home. It took more than seven hours to remove more than 400 rabbits, nearly a fourth of them dead. Smaller numbers had been found in her home each of the previous two years, authorities said.

Tim Shields, administrator and general counsel of the Minnesota Federated Humane Societies, said he believes that, in general, hoarding is more an issue of mental health than animal cruelty.

"It tugs at your heartstrings because you just know it's a sickness or some kind of mental illness they just can't control," he said.

Researchers at Tufts University in Massachusetts who have studied animal hoarding found most hoarders are women, and most live alone; they often feel isolated and sometimes wrestle with depression.

In such a world, experts say, pets help satisfy a deep-seated need for some speck of control, and they become like family members to the hoarders.

"They almost always have a name for every single one of them," Shields said. "And they generally keep the dead ones on site."

Tarnowski, 54, a grocery store cashier, lives alone on a quiet street in the house her family moved into back in the 1960s. Neighbors said she is friendly and personable.

"She's a very nice lady," said Brad Held, who has lived nearby for three years. "I just think she has a bleeding heart for animals and doesn't know when to say when's enough."

Tarnowski said she made sure the rabbits were well fed and cared for. She said she recently spent $800 to have a vet care for one with gastrointestinal stasis, and that she kept medical records for each one.

She wanted to have the dead ones cremated, she said, but that would have cost her $120 per rabbit. Most died of old age, she said.

"They all seemed well-adjusted and not frightened," she said.

Tarnowski relinquished her custodial rights to the rabbits, which will allow vets to determine which may be healthy enough for adoption and which must be destroyed.

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