Victory?

I have followed this case for quite some time. I empathise with those who may be mentally ill, but that does not explain where thousands of dollars worth of chip-ins have gone.

MommyOfMany said:

I guess I'm having a very difficult time sympathizing with her (as I often do with people who harm animals). I'm not necessarily concerned with her feelings after such a long time of neglect and mysterious projects.

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You don't need to sympathize with her, but if you can't at least understand how she probably perceives the situation (mentally ill or not), and you're looking at her animals being seized as a 'victory' or thinking you're accomplishing anything by posting on her wall something she already knows or is going to take as an insult, a dig, whatever, you aren't really doing anything to accomplish the goal of increasing her willingness to relinquish the animals ... Evidenced by the fact that she removed many animals in her care before they could be removed by authorities.

I'm not saying it's wrong to comment or make snide remarks about her, I'm just saying that if you put people in a defensive position they are going to respond in kind and in the case of a person who has the means to move the animals to other places so they can't be seized, contributing to her feeling attacked and responding in that way doesn't help your cause. Unless of course the goal was just to see her "lose," in which case you most surely do have a victory, I guess ... I may have mistakenly thought that getting the animals she's taken in/on to better places was the end goal?

As for her being a scam artist, yes, I certainly understand that line of thinking, but I think that CanadianComforts is right to suggest that the people responsible who should ultimately be held accountable for that portion would be the people continuing to support and enable her. It's exceedingly unlikely that a person would take in this many animals, neglect them to this degree, have the authorities catch on and then start over again once, much less twice. She didn't do this all by herself or without help.

I don't know the whole story, this is actually the first time I've heard of this, so I apologize if I missed this somewhere but has this woman actually been classified/diagnosed or whatever the process may be as a "hoarder" or is it a personal opinion from observations of others?

Actually it is very plausible that a person would collect animals, neglect animals, get in trouble, and later start all over again. Just recently there was a woman and her husband who were charged, and he was convicted, of animal neglect in one state. He was ordered to never own animals again. Less than 2 years later, they popped up in another state, in trouble again, with as many as 100+ animals. Now they are in a third state, and let's just see what they start up again. There are some serious problems with animal welfare laws and how they are enforced.

madrae said:

Actually it is very plausible that a person would collect animals, neglect animals, get in trouble, and later start all over again. Just recently there was a woman and her husband who were charged, and he was convicted, of animal neglect in one state. He was ordered to never own animals again. Less than 2 years later, they popped up in another state, in trouble again, with as many as 100+ animals. Now they are in a third state, and let's just see what they start up again. There are some serious problems with animal welfare laws and how they are enforced.

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I didn't really clarify what I meant by that, my apologies. Yes, it's plausible, but not terribly possible without the aid and assistance of others. The problem is very likely the people enabling her. She may have the desire to do what she's doing, but without help, it's not terribly likely she could do it on this scale so many times.

I never posted anything suspicious on her wall-I contacted one of her followers after her post was deleted and asked about when her new cage pictures were taken.

Besides, anything we could have done to back her further into a corner was sort of overshadowed by the NJSPCA's post. That is why I think she is relocating all of her animals.

My concern is for the animals. They are the innocent victims in this mess. Whatever happens to Corson after the animals are in a safe clean healthy environment is up to the state. Stashing animals across 5 states to unsupervised fosters is a crap shoot at best as to if these animals will get the care they deserve. Unfortunately, unless Ms Corson is held accountable in some way, the safety and welfare of the animals is unsure.

Yeah, I've never posted anything on that wall either. I don't see the point - I'd get banned in 3 minutes anyway.

You are absolutely right Paula, nothing on a scale like this could be done with out some help and serious enabling. I guess the point of all I've had to say here is that I am waking up to how much all of this (money and support from thousands) is possible because of Facebook. A good lesson for all of us in "Buyer Beware", I guess.

She is being rewarded for hoarding animals by the people posting on her facebook about how she is "helping", and that what she is doing is "wonderful".
If we try force her to get help, she will not seek it.

Carissa6729 said:

I don't know the whole story, this is actually the first time I've heard of this, so I apologize if I missed this somewhere but has this woman actually been classified/diagnosed or whatever the process may be as a "hoarder" or is it a personal opinion from observations of others?

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I doubt she has been officially diagnosed with hoarding, that would mean recognizing the issue and seeking help. If you read the following on Animal hoarding it fits her very well: Compulsive hoarding - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Keep in mind she has 20 or so "pets" in her home on top of the numbers at the rescue, and has refused to get help from other rescues because they just want to steal her animals (her words not mine). A normal rescue who is over capacity would gladly take help from other rescues because its the animals who are important not the people running it. She on the other hand see's all these animals as "hers" and that anyone who offers help with them are trying to "take them". A friend of mine adopted some animals from her years ago and it took a while for her to contact my friend and set up the adoption and I don't mean a few days, we are talking over a week after paying the adoption fee.

On the other side, I do agree that she is a con artist as well. 1000s of dollars have been donated and there is nothing to show for it.

Regardless of if she is officially diagnosed or not, she has issues, many of them. She needs help, those animals need help and those are the main issues.

Honestly, I really don't care about Kristie Corson's mental health. She is abusing animals-that that is where my concern for her begins and ends. Those rabbits need help. Yes, I've dealt with mentally ill people before, and still I can say this.

Lol, I wasn't saying what she was doing was right or giving her an excuse, was just curious if she had actually been diagnosed since I had seen the word "hoarder" thrown around a few times by a few different people.

Obviously the rabbits need help, didn't think it needed to be stated again in my original question.

Of course, I wasn't really relating to your question, sorry. I was just saying in general, I don't care about her. Obviously I don't want her to die in a fire, but she should be punished for her deeds.

MommyOfMany said:

Honestly, I really don't care about Kristie Corson's mental health. She is abusing animals-that that is where my concern for her begins and ends. Those rabbits need help. Yes, I've dealt with mentally ill people before, and still I can say this.

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One of the issues is that a lot of people charged with dealing with the issue seem to lack the perspective that would lead to a holistic understanding and approach, as you do - abusing the animals is a symptom of the problem, not the root cause. It's impossible to approach an insane person displaying irrational behavior from a sane and rational perspective - to that measure, it can never add up. Yes, she needs to be responsible for her actions and choices, same is true for those who have helped and enabled and done the same. If she's forced to address her mental deficiency/illness/whatever you want to call it, that's the only way she's going to address the issue and stop exhibiting the symptom (animal hoarding and abusing are symptoms, not the root cause of the symptom). As to your dealing with mental illness, I have a hard time believing you've had extensive experience, or any that might give you true perspective on this or a similar matter, which I'd say of any teenager, no matter the life experience or the goals and ideals in life or ability to communicate maturely.

Paula said:

I didn't really clarify what I meant by that, my apologies. Yes, it's plausible, but not terribly possible without the aid and assistance of others. The problem is very likely the people enabling her. She may have the desire to do what she's doing, but without help, it's not terribly likely she could do it on this scale so many times.

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I have to agree with you on this Paula, despite what help this woman needs personally I think there is a HUGE problem with the people enabling this woman to carry on for years. Herself having a problem is one thing, but for others to think this is okay and then to support her in continuing to do this, is just asinine.

@Paula really? My dad was mentally ill for most of his life, he was so disconnected I would have to ask him a question three or four times before he would answer. Sometimes he wouldn't answer, just stare blankly. It was very difficult to communicate with him, and he ended up killing himself when I was twelve years old. Please don't say I have no experience with mentally ill people. Don't just assume.

And I'm saying that I don't personally care about her. I don't think that's a huge problem.

Having a mentally ill parent or family member is tough - I sympathize because I had the same. Both of my parents were mentally ill and for me personally, it's only now, in my 30s and both long and far removed from the situation, that I can stand back and recognize that for what it was - some of the things that happened to me growing up were terrible but as much as I want to and did for many years, my parents themselves are not to blame. They had problems that were never addressed and those problems are the issue that needed to be dealt with.

However, that experience still didn't give me the perspective I'd need to be able to recognize the distinction there is to be made between a person choosing to do terrible things to animals and be so obviously manipulative of the people in her life and a person who has a compulsive problem that needs to be addressed before a real solution can be found. Saying so doesn't negate your experience with your father, I'm just pointing out that even that, difficult as I'm sure it was, isn't the experience you'd need to approach this situation for what it is - a person who needs intervention to stop and to be forced to seek help for her problem in addition to facing the consequences for her actions ... And a group of people who are enabling her and ignoring the reality of her condition, either intentionally or not.

I didn't say you have no experience, I said that I have a hard time believing a teenager could have the experience that would lead to the perspective needed to see this situation for what it is, and I say that having been a teenager who dealt with mental illness in a limited capacity and now as a professional who deals with mental illness and its far reaching effects on families and communities day in and day out.

How you feel about her personally is not of any consequence at all. 

I'm going to add my two cents here, as a teenager who is dealing with insane amounts of mental illness. What people don't realize is that she will perceive things differently. I can tell you first hand how frustraiting it is. I bet you she doesn't see what she is doing as wrong, she genuinely wants to help the animals. Having them taken away will probably give her intense amount of anxiety and panic, and recollecting them will calm her down. It seems to me like it is a coping strategy, and to have everyone bash her, because that is what's going on, will not help. It's not easy to just magically be okay. If she is doing this as a compulsion, it's a serious issue that won't be fixed by taking her animals away because it will happen again. With or without the help of others around her.

I'm sure this whole situation has her extremely on edge and I can relate to how she must be feeling, having people continue to celebrate that her animals are being seized must be confusing and really frustraiting. Because remember, she probably doesn't see what she's doing as wrong. She doesn't realize what's going on, or who she is hurting in the process.

Without understanding the psychological effects, and how she really feels, you can not judge her or her actions.