Woman explains why she kept 100 dead cats in her freezer. No, that's the headline.

[Dark]

http://www.weau.com/home/headlines/96593824.html

A Jackson county couple is accused of keeping at least 100 dead cats in a freezer that didn't work. Now, they say they're being targeted because of their religion.

Gabriella Bernabei says she kept the cats in the freezer because she hadn't found the right time to bury the cats. She says she's Wiccan and in her religion you honor the animal by returning it to Mother Earth. She believes it's her Wiccan beliefs that got her in trouble with the law. But, the sheriff says she and her boyfriend were mistreating their cats.

It was in an un-working freezer in the back of a garage that the Jackson County Sheriff's Department says it found 100 dead cats accumulated over a year and half. The woman who put them there says that number is closer to 50 and says the freezer was working. Bernabei says she brought some of the cats with her from Illinois when her family moved to Jackson County. She says others weren't necessarily theirs, but every animal deserves a burial and she was just waiting for the right moment to return them to the earth.

"That's what you do with a dead animal waiting for a burial. (It was) just proper storage until then. That was responsible," says Bernabei.



Now I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that Wiccans don't normally do this sort of thing.

[cliffordu]

1. WTF.

:grr:

[mrcheerful]

2. What now crazy people are claiming they are Wiccans? What will they call this, the Wiccan defense?

[Warren DeMontague]

3. "100 Dead Cats In A Freezer"

If that's not a band name, I don't know what is.

[muffin1]

4. That's pretty fucking weird,

but not really any weirder than what people of other religions believe...:shrug:

[foxfeet]

5. You are correct; this is not a part of Wiccan practice.

[Ken Burch]

6. She brought some of the dead casts with her from Illinois?

That's one woman who will NEVER be allowed to rent another U-Haul van.

[Ken Burch]

22. Damn, that should have been "Dead CATS".

n/t.

[H2O Man]

7. It happens.

Before retiring, I met a woman who kept tiny dead dogs in a freezer. She had originally planned to bury the first of them "in the spring," but soon years had passed, and a number of dogs accumulated. We were able to get some assistance to help transition the dead dogs into the ground, and she put up a bunch of "grave-markers." In that case, I don't think legal charges would have been justified. Her thinking wasn't orderly; she was confused. But not "bad."

[JBoy]

8. How does one "accumulate" 100 dead cats?

[KittyWampus]

17. strange manifestation of the hoarding tendency some have?

[theHandpuppet]

9. What I want to know is...

How some 100 cats died within the space of a year and a half. My partner and I have always had multiple cats and in the last five years we lost two, one at the age of eighteen. I don't see how it is possible to lose, under any normal circumstance, 100 cats in 18 months.

[Chellee]

11. She said some of them were not hers,

but that all animals deserve burial.

I think she might have been picking up road kill.

[undeterred]

10. Its a good thing the cats weren't Jewish or Muslim.

A quick burial is very important.

[Tailormyst]

12. As a Wiccan Priestess, I will say nothing that woman did had to do with being Wiccan

I'm pretty sure there is some mental illness at work. Harming animals is not in our system of beliefs.

[Dark]

15. It sounds to me like she's just trying to justify it with something most people don't understand

so they won't be sure if she's right or not.

[Solly Mack]

13. ...and not one of them bounced

[Ilsa]

14. She should be featured on that reality tv show about hoarders!

I bet hoarding dead cats has a special axis of OCD and mental illness assigned to it.

[Withywindle]

16. No, we don't do that.

What exactly is supposed to be respectful about keeping dead animals piled on top of each other rotting in a freezer? (working or not - hell, cats don't like to be cold, now do they?) What's respectful about waiting for the right moment to dig a giant mass grave? I'm Wiccan, and I had my previous feline companion cremated, and that was just fine.

Mental illness off the scale. She needs help, and she needs to not be in a position of responsibility for any animals (alive or dead) under AFTER her treatment.

[kestrel91316]

19. None of my Wiccan clients would EVER treat their familiars that way.

The woman's batshit insane. She may also think she is Wiccan, but she's definitely a few bricks shy.

[Withywindle]

20. Hell no. I'd go hungry so mine could eat if it came to that.

And letting go is part of that bond. It's very, very hard to let go, but it's important.

Sounds just like hoarding to me. Except cat hoarders usually collect living animals, and this is even more disturbing in a way. Were those cats loved? Named? Well-cared-for? Played with? Honored? Given a chance to contribute? I seriously doubt it, and it's upsetting. But the cats themselves can't be harmed anymore - it's the people who disturb me. What is her issue? What needs healing in her? What can be done to make sure she doesn't feel compelled to do this ever again?

[kestrel91316]

25. She needs to be on whatever medication they put OCD types or psychotic types on, lol.

Talk therapy won't help.

[kestrel91316]

18. They are cat collectors, and are overwhelmed by the responsibility,

resulting in huge problems with neglected health issues and unnecessary death. They keep the remains at home because if they brought 100 dead cats to their vet (or had 100 euthanized) in the course of 18 months, somebody would start asking SERIOUS questions. And they don't want anyone to know about their collection.

I see all the signs. These sorts turn up in Los Angeles avery few years. I have known a few, but none THAT severe.

[AnnieBW]

21. Oh, bullshit!

:wtf:

I'm a Wiccan. I've been a Wiccan for over 20 years now. I've heard of people rescuing roadkill, and removing wings, etc. But I have NEVER heard of anyone keeping dead cats to "return them to the Earth". Seriously. When my two late cats were ill, I took them to the vet, had them humanely put to sleep, got their ashes, and THEN buried them in the backyard.

This kind of shit is why we'll never be taken seriously.

:argh:

[Initech]

23. 100 dead cats? I can barely fit a package of frozen pizzas in mine.

[Berry Cool]

24. One hundred dead cats in the freezer, one hundred dead cats...

...You take one down and pass it around, 99 dead cats in the freezer...

But seriously...this sounds like a manifestation of hoarding, pure and simple. And scary.