Currently, there are 69 million homes with dogs and 45.3 million with cats in the United States. They are loved and lovable.  However, some people become so attracted to dogs and cats that they often have more than they can care for.  Many times, it is because of the need for companionship or because they feel that others won’t take as good care of these pets as they will. So, instead of one or two, they end up with 10 – 20 or more.  They become overwhelmed with the care of these pets and often those pets are not spayed or neutered, thus continuing the increasing population of their pets. 

And so, because of so many pets, their food, excrement, and housing become an issue. It is difficult to take care of so many pets alone.  Another issue is a disease, which can spread rapidly throughout the area. Many times, these animals develop respiratory diseases because of exposure to feces and urine. Because there are so many pets,  it becomes unaffordable to take them to the vet to be treated. This has now become animal hoarding. 

This then becomes a biohazardous situation because the exposure to the urine and feces of the animals, along with any disease they may have, is not only dangerous to the animals, it is now dangerous to the owner. The owner themselves may be affected as they are continuing to live in this environment.  They may not have adequate resources or transportation to go to the doctor.

Once the Humane Society or relatives have come in to remove the animals,  it is necessary for our technicians to wear full personal protective equipment and respirators to protect them from these biohazardous conditions. Some homes have had feces 3 – 4 inches thick because there were so many animals there was no other place for them to defecate and it just continued to accumulate  Urine has been so bad at times that it has pooled on the floors and into the sub-floors. CleanScene enters the area, emitting an EPA-registered anti-microbial to make the area safer for our technicians to work.  Then we use additional EPA-registered antimicrobials and enzymes to remediate the areas where feces and urine have been removed.  This process can be very time-consuming, depending on the area the number of animals that were housed as well as the materials that are also contaminated. 

We recently remediated a hoarder house that had 15 dogs.  The Humane Society removed them, but along with remediating the feces and urine, we also had to remediate and disinfect the entire dwelling.

As one can see, this situation is not for a company that is untrained in biohazardous remediation.   Without the proper training and chemicals, remediation will not be effective and the areas can not be decontaminated. CleanScene is the only company in Central Ohio that is certified by the American BioRecovery Association.  Remediations completed by CleanScene are done according to  OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Standards, EPA-registered chemicals, our 15 years of experience, and our training by the American BioRecovery Association.  Once we have remediated the situation, it is safely habitable again.