Hundreds of Rats Overrun Wash. Women's Home

April 18, 2008

SECAUCUS, N.J. – In a case that is like nothing Thurston County, Wash., officials have ever seen, a cat, four snakes, five mice and hundreds of rats were found to be living with an elderly woman.

“It’s not hording at all,” said Susanne Beauregard, director of Thurston County Animal Services. “It’s a very different presentation; I don’t think that there is any format for this one.”

While animal services knew of the infestation for about a month, it took until Tuesday, April 8, for the agency to obtain a warrant for entering the home and seizing the animals belonging to Michelle Diller, 65.

“It had been going on for about three years,” said Beauregard, whose agency was alerted by the Area Agency on Aging. “But nobody could go in because either you have to be invited in, or you have to have a warrant, and to get a warrant you have to know what is going on.”

It was animal control investigator Erika Quinn-Ellenbecker who gained the trust of Diller to enter the home. Despite Diller being involved with other agencies, Quinn-Ellenbecker was the first county official who was ever given access to the home. It was a feat Beauregard chalks up to her “very experienced” officer’s trustworthy demeanor.

During her time in the home, Quinn-Ellenbecker immediately saw more than 50 rats sitting about the home -- an infestation that apparently developed from a couple rats getting loose from being fed to her snakes.

The snakes well-being highlighted another issue for the officer, where malnourishment was “just the tip of the iceberg.”

But once the officer offered care and safety advice for the reptiles, Diller’s disposition reportedly varied between pleasant to extremely angry and confrontational.

“Erika came back and spoke to me and that’s when I realized that it was way beyond us to be able to help,” said Beauregard, who conservatively estimated there to be several hundred rats contained within the home. “It wasn’t an animal control issue, but a public health one.

“I couldn’t sanction allowing the animals to remain there, but I couldn’t also think of letting her stay there,” continued Beauregard. “Humane is humane, and that extends to people too; the environment was not fit for the snakes, or the cat, the human or anything else there.”

Having contacted the county’s public health and social services department, and updated the Area Agency on Aging, a warrant was granted and a collaborative front of help entered Diller’s home on April 8.

“It’s an evolving case and we have a lot of people interested in it because they are concerned neighbors, or people concerned about Michelle,” said Art Starry, director of Environmental Health Division of Thurston County Public Health and Social Services. “So we are looking at all these issues, because obviously there are concerns, but Michelle has civil rights that can’t be intruded upon.”

Animal control removed the four severely malnourished snakes, including the two boas, a king snake and a corn snake, as well as five mice, two rats and a cat.

The condition of the impounded animals varied from well-cared for, to neglected.

The five mice, which are thought to have been bought as food for the domestic-born snakes, “are all boys, quite healthy and rather stinky and able to be placed,” said Beauregard, who would prefer not to place the mice in a “reptile owning household.”

Diller cared for her micro-chipped cat very well, with the feline being slightly on the plump side and current on all shots, according to Beauregard.

“Once she moves into a healthier environment then we will return her cat to her,” said Beauregard who reports the cat misses Diller. “But there will be an agreement made that she will not go out and purchase more snakes or rats.”

A stipulation being made due to the terrible conditions the snakes were exposed to.

“There was no electricity in the house, because the rats chewed through the wires,” said Beauregard. “And she kept the snakes in Rubbermaid containers, where there was no heat, or light or air.”

The inch and a half around, three-foot long king and corn snakes, who were caged in separate plastic tubs, were severely emaciated, but now are “eating like gangbusters.”

However, the boas, which were stored in one container, did not fare as well and remain in the care of Dr. Noreen Jeremiah in Steamboat Island, until they are deemed adoptable.

“One of boas had mouth rot, and has to now be hand-fed for the rest of its life,” said Beauregard of the snakes which were four and five feet long, weighing five pounds and six and a half pounds, respectively.

While on the surface it may not make much sense that the snakes were underfeed with so many options at their beckon call, Beauregard said it was actually blessing in disguise for the snakes to be kept away from the rats.

“A lethargic snake will be vulnerable to its prey,” she said of the snakes which were below 65F in body temperatures. “This means they were way too cold to move comfortably, and no way able to catch its prey, so those rats would have torn the boas to shreds.”

Beauregard said of the two rats they were able to capture, both had to be euthanized. It was not due to such poor health, but because the one-pound rats were not inclined to be handled or medicated for their severe upper respiratory infections.

Although rats have a reputation of being diseased, Beauregard contends that this was a fairly healthy population since it came from breeding stock and remained mostly within the confines of the home. Starry echoed this public health concern.

“As far as public health goes, there is no adverse risk,” said Art Starry, director of Environmental Health Division of Thurston County Public Health and Social Services. “The animals were contained, and our field staff saw no real runs or trails of animals going elsewhere.”

Yet, with so many rats inhabiting the home, what came of the rodents? According to Leann Boardman of Rats Pac Northwest Fanciers Club, their members came to set live traps to give the creatures a chance for adoption, but they arrived too late.

“By the time it hit the news, the exterminator had already been there,” said Boardman, whose group is attempting to capture some of the surviving rats.

But the evidence of the rampant population remains at the property, which Starry’s staff is still investigating for its health and building safety issues.

With all the county agencies collectively working the case, the intent is for the greater good to prevail, rather than for seeking punitive or criminal charges.

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