What to do when Noah syndrome is detected
These cases are very delicate , the feeling of helping animals is mixed, but also towards people who suffer from this disorder. The cat is the most common animal in the accumulation of people with Noah’s syndrome , although there are many cases of dogs and to a lesser extent exotic or farm animals. They love them and really believe that they take care of them, they themselves live among garbage and lack of hygienic and sanitary conditions. They usually pick up abandoned animals from the street, but the problem is aggravated when they breed among themselves , the lack of control is so serious that they come to have dozens of animals without any type of sanitary or veterinary control , assuming a public health problem in their environment and serious neighborhood problems due to odors and nuisances.
They do not usually accept any type of help, nor do they allow access to housing , making it difficult to help animals . In such a situation, you can go directly to social services or inform a shelter , they can also take care of the animals if they are removed. In most cases, a judicial order is intervened for access to housing and removal of the same. Animal protection entities have dealt with cases of overcrowding of more than 140 dogs in charge of a single person. These are tough situations for animals that go hungry, thirsty and die sick without any veterinary treatment.
How is Noah syndrome treated?
Until relatively recently, Noah’s Syndrome was not diagnosed . These people also suffer from Diogenes Syndrome , which is the accumulation of garbage in the home, they were only treated for that problem. The ideal would be to detect the disorder early , however, when it is reported and action is taken , the number of animals is usually very high and there is not always a place to move them, many of them are sick and need very special care. Both at a veterinary and psychological level, they are usually not very sociable as they have not had contact with other human beings.
When a case is detected , the most important thing is to remove the animals . It is a problem for administrations that do not have the capacity to receive them. The collaboration of animal protection entities is essential , hundreds of animals have been rescued thanks to them, although it involves a significant economic cost , as they do not receive help from the municipalities with which they collaborate.
As for these people, effective protocols are rarely applied so that they receive adequate and effective treatment . In practically 100% of the cases they are repeat offenders , again they accumulate and overcrowd a large number of animals , returning to the initial problem.
Some cases
- A 75-year-old man, he lived in an old van surrounded by sick dogs that he picked up from the street “because of a promise to God.” At the age of 10, two dogs saved him from a bull attack in Salamanca. He promised that when he retired he would save all as many stray dogs as he could.That promise turned into a nightmare for the 140 dogs that were living in a fence full of rubble , scrap metal and waste .
He barely had the means to survive himself , he shared the little food he had with his dogs, it was impossible for him to take care of all of them . They were so hungry that when the dogs gave birth , they all threw themselves to eat the puppies , some terrifying scenes , but they define reality very well.
All the dogs were rescued by protective associations, and the man was transferred to a center for the elderly . The bond with his animals was so great that for a long time he had contact with the people who rescued them to hear from them. It was very hard for him and during the rescue he did not stop crying .
- A 60-year-old woman who accumulated more than 100 dogs , living between excrement and urine, she fed them with chicken offal that they gave her in the markets. When they were rescued, some were already dead , they had scabies , practically no hair on their bodies. She hugged them and gave them kisses saying “ You will say that I have bad dogs ”, for her they were all in perfect health and sanitation.
- A 52-year-old woman, she accumulated more than 150 cats on a small farm where she lived. In a room he had 15 of them locked up , no one had entered that place for more than 6 years . He fed them through a small window . She did it to protect them and to prevent the rest of the cats from infecting them with diseases , but the reality is that they lived a nightmare , they were mad , years of terror practically living in the dark . Her daughter desperately asked the authorities for help , but those who helped were protectors who rescued all the cats with many complications because this lady was opposed to it .
We must understand that it is very hard for these people to see how they take their animals , many times they are the only thing they have in life , they consider them part of their family . They are completely sunk , that is why it is so important that they have psychological support and psychiatric treatment, they are also victims .
Sources:
https://www.parcdesalutmar.cat/media/upload/pdf/NP_sindrome_NoeCAST_editora_35_379_1.pdf