How can we deal with intolerable situations?

As is so often the case in the Valley, this week we were faced with yet another question regarding the limits of personal freedom.

Cat rescue groups and city firefighters were sent to a Houston home Sunday and Monday to corral 27 or more cats left behind when a bank foreclosed on a home in the Enchanted Forest subdivision.

The state of the home was, in a word, shocking. Garbage was piled up five feet or higher. Animal waste coated the floor inside the place. This isn’t the first time we’ve been shocked by this kind of thing. That the story has become a familiar one makes us think something needs to change.

First and most obviously is a point most people will agree with — animal cruelty is wrong. Allowing cats to starve, as these cats did, to the point of not being able to sit up is cruel on.

Not only were the cats mistreated, but gathering them up and restoring them to health is now beginning to soak up community resources in the form of volunteer time and donated goods.

If the past is any prologue, the Valley’s generosity will likely keep that stream of resources flowing. But while we applaud and celebrate our neighbors’ generosity, we can’t help but wish it wasn’t needed, that people would act reasonably and not collect more animals than they can tend to.

The parties responsible for this current herd of starving animals should face criminal charges and, luckily, the state has proven itself more than capable of leveling and following through with those charges. Intelligent minds can disagree on the appropriate accompanying penalties. We would argue that stiffer penalties are appropriate for people found to have treated this many animals this cruelly.

And then there’s the trash.

It might be an unpopular stance to take, but we think penalties should also be stiffer for the trash. We can hear the counter arguments already. Who’s business is this trash other than the people who chose to live amongst it?

Well, for one thing, it’s his neighbors’ business.

Have you ever lived next door to a person who was careless with his or her trash? Bags of garbage attract wildlife. Garbage is a notable bear magnet. Once bears have learned they can forage in local garbage it’s a hard — and sometimes fatal for the bear — habit to break.

Ravens also develop bad habits when humans leave their garbage around. It’s surprising how big a mess these birds can make out of even just one bag of garbage. And when those familiar Matanuska winds pick up, all of a sudden that trash is spread over multiple neighboring yards.

The city of Houston and the Mat-Su Borough both have sections of their codes dealing with junk and trash that has come to be a public nuisance.

The problem is that with government chronically understaffed and neither of those governments employing anything like a uniformed police department those rules tend to be all bark and no bite.

Yes, the borough and the city can assess fines against homeowners. The borough has been known to even drag a few folks into court. Each time that happens it seems like the case file is filled with accounts from our neighbors dating back months and years.

We have out doubts about whether people who have allowed their homes to deteriorate this badly are really going to be deterred by a fine or a lawsuit. When you have multiple mountains of garbage to clean up, how would you even begin to address a more complicated problem like a civil suit, let alone the potential to create a public health hazard?

We’re stymied as to what stiffer legal penalties might end animal hoarding or lead people to dispose of their trash in timely ways that respect their immediate neighbors and broader community.

At the heart of this problem is a solution our mothers’ taught us: treat people — and animals — as you would like people to treat you.