Ceiling Cat is Watching Your Registry

While I'm definitely not a PETA activist by any means, I've pondered this notion before.

I was at a Thanksgiving celebration a few years ago at a friend's aunt's home. She was definitely a "cat lady" - she had 15 cats! Because I have very bad cat allergies, she locked them all into her medium sized bedroom while we all ate at the dinner table. Needless to say, the cats rebelled and eventually opened the door and out they all came. It's a good thing I took Benadryl before I came and brought eye drops with, but I was still miserable.

I also saw a segment a few months ago on ABC's "20/20" about cat people and why they do it, which reminded me of my thought from the Thanksgiving dinner. In the summer of 2009, 47 cats were pulled from a mobile home.

I love animals as much as the next person, but seriously, how many is too many? It just seems like so much work to feed and clean up after that many animals. And then, especially with active animals (dogs, for instance), you have to walk them. Animals, by and large, need quite a bit of general living space, and if you don't have the resources for that, your pet probably won't be as healthy as it could be. This animal hoarding seems downright cruel to me.

Do you think that an animal abuse registry would be a worthwhile investment, or a waste of time and resources? Could it help mitigate other potential crimes?