[music playing]
I'm Hanna, and I'm a cotton-picking ridge-runner,
stump-jumper and damn proud of it.
[crowing]
I raise chicken--
[chirping]
--ducks, geese, turkeys, goats, and sheep.
All right.
I'm coming now.
Yeah, I hear you.
LaWanda, I'll slap you if you don't listen.
Down, daggone you.
It's almost four and a half acres,
and so I guess you would count it a little farm.
I don't throw away anything that I can use later.
I don't call it a hoarder.
I call it keeping what you need to-- by gosh--
and when you don't have money to go buy it later.
I'm Linda, and I'm Hanna's daughter.
Mom's been living in the single wide for about two years
now with chickens.
Mom's got about 50 head of baby chickens
and has grown chickens in the tubs.
Damn.
She's got chick manure all over, garbage all over.
It is bad, really bad.
Mom does not have heat in the single wide.
She doesn't have anything to cook on but a hot plate.
Mom can't even get to her kitchen sink.
HANNA: It's important to me to get out
of that old raggedy-eggedy trailer and back into my house
where I don't freeze my baheegies off all winter long.
My name is Becky, and I'm Hanna's oldest daughter.
I get so pissed at my mother, the way she's living
and letting these animals live.
The animals are suffering.
But I can't sit there and tell mom that they're suffering,
because if I tell her that, then she's going to get mad at me
and tell me, no, they're not suffering.
The animals are being more than tortured.
They're not having a life.
These animals are in prison.
HANNA: They're all in OK shape as far as I know.
If there's any of them that's something wrong with them,
it's more than I know about.
BECKY: She treats those animals the way she treated us kids,
and I can't stand that.
[sobs] There was many times that the cops were called.
BECKY: I was 16 years old when the state of Illinois
removed us.
I only tolerate her because she is my mother.
I don't have to punish her.
God will.
I had 16 kids, and 10 of them are still living.
If they don't want to have nothing to do with me, fine.
If they do, fine.
I was living before they was born, and I'll live till I die.
[music playing]
[birds chirping]
Who the hell ever heard of hoarding an animal?
You can't hoard an animal.
An animal will go where they damn well please.
LINDA: I don't understand why she just doesn't say,
OK, I give up on the animals--
I'm going to get rid of those--
I give up on collecting things and live a better life.
I don't understand that.
The way she lives, I can't be around her.
I can't see mom live like this anymore.
Something has to be done.
[music playing]
My name is Dr. Robin Zasio.
I am a licensed clinical psychologist,
and I specialize in OCD and compulsive hoarding.
HANNA: Right now, I ain't happy to see nobody.
ROBIN ZASIO: It's quite clear that Hanna is an angry woman,
and she wasn't even interested in walking me around
and showing me the things that were troubling her
and where she was needing help.
You want to enter in here where my mom lives?
I do. I do.
OK.
Be careful because you'll step--
you'll fall through the floor there.
OK.
When I walked in the trailer, I was almost speechless.
The condition was so bad in this trailer.
LINDA: There's chickens all in these containers.
The air quality was overwhelming.
That's manure. LINDA: That's manure.
ROBIN ZASIO: It's up this high.
LINDA: Yes, that's manure.
Wow.
It's all in this house.
Nothing works in this place.
I mean, this isn't fit for anything to live in.
LINDA: No.
These are two--
ROBIN ZASIO: Hanna's denial allows her to live in there
and say that everything's fine.
No one is going to make it through the winter in here.
There's no way. - I told her that.
I told her that.
And she says, well, I'll just have to put
an electric heater in here.
And it's going to go up in flames.
Exactly.
That's what I told her.
Hanna's children were taken away from her,
and they've been gone for several years now.
And so they're watching her deterioration from afar.
I know that the impact has been very, very hard on them.
This is not healthy.
This is disgusting, gross.
I can't see my mom live like this.
It's got to be hard.
[sobs]
The prognosis for Hanna is very poor.
She lacks any insight into the problem of her hoarding,
of the abuse and the neglect, and her current health
conditions.
She has all these health issues--
heart, lung, back.
I know.
She can't walk.
And, look, she complains about walking in here.
Well, she complains about her health.
But she completely defends that this is
a completely safe environment.
Yes.
I don't know what's going to happen to Hanna.
- Good morning, everybody. - Good morning.
Good morning.
We have got a lot of work to do today.
My name is Matt Paxton.
I'm an extreme cleaning specialist.
If we don't know already, Hanna is in charge, OK?
And nothing gets thrown into the dump trucks
unless I tell them to.
MATT PAXTON: Loud and clear.
This is our animal safety team.
[music playing]
Well, I imagine I've worked with livestock
before you was ever born.
Hanna is very comfortable with who she is.
I think she's been a fighter all of her life.
We are not going to change Hanna.
We're not going to change who she is.
We're here to help the animals.
We're here to get Hanna a safe place to live.
All right. Everybody ready to go?
Ready.
All right, let's do it.
We can make some space over here for things she
wants to keep out of the house.
That is all feces.
[music playing]
I need to get more space for these goats,
and this is a great opportunity.
It's enough space for them for now.
I'll get the rest of it done myself later on.
We got a bunch of guys with a bunch of trucks that are free.
That's why I want--
There ain't nothing going out of here!
I'm telling you half of this is trash.
I don't care what you're telling me!
I'm telling you. I own it.
You don't.
Correct.
She's a rattlesnake.
She just let you know that you're bugging her.
She makes a lot of noise and tries to get you to go away.
I'd like to get this out of here.
It's going to stay right where it is.
OK.
So we want to get--
the goal was to give your goats more space.
You're saying this is not the way to do it.
HANNA: No, that stuff stays there.
What about if we just reshuffled it to here and here?
No!
I said it stays there.
How many times do I have to tell you that?
It's difficult to do a hoarding
cleanup when the hoarder doesn't want to touch anything.
Mom.
Oh, [bleep].
There are animals on this property that are suffering.
And we can't allow them to continue to suffer like that.
Well, I'll tell you one thing.
When you start out messing with, I'll sue every damn one of you.
WOMAN: You know, Hanna--
Now, by God, there's so damn sense
in you getting out here, sticking your [bleep]
nose in my business!
It's none of your business!
Well, we were called here, and we were called here
for a reason, Hanna, and that was to make
your life better, right?
Yes, and taking my animals sure as hell
won't make it better.
OK, but also, we need to make the animal's
life better as well.
I have been battling this [bleep] bull [bleep] for years.
Somebody else got their damn nose stuck
where they got no business.
[music playing]
Whoa. Whoa.
Whoa. - No, don't start with me.
Don't start with me. - Whoa.
Whoa.
Whoa. Whoa.
- No. - Wait.
You guys was supposed to come up here and help her.
- We are. - Not--
Whoa. Whoa.
Whoa.
I'm not supposed to get phone calls while I'm at work--
- Calm down. - --and she's upset.
WOMAN: Calm down.
You know she's got [bleep] heart-- no.
WOMAN: Calm down.
My mother is-- nobody's going to start [bleep] with her.
Who started [bleep] with her?
Calm down.
ROBIN ZASIO: One of the grandchildren
was apparently calling Hanna's daughter
and saying things that weren't even happening.
I get phone calls while I'm at work.
OK, calm down.
Calm down.
I don't know who you--
Everybody's calling me here!
I'm not going to deal with my mother getting upset
and having a heart attack!
- She's fine. - No!
That ain't what I got!
MATT PAXTON: Timeout.
I don't give a [bleep] what you say.
MATT PAXTON: Timeout! Bart.
- Hey, calm down. - Bart, please go that way.
- I'm going to see my mother. - She's right here.
- Calm down. - We're going to do something.
Robin and I were able to stop her,
but she still ended up getting in a fight with her brother.
Everything was going fine until her [bleep] shows up.
MATT PAXTON: Bart.
- Shut your [bleep] mouth, Bart. - Please.
MATT PAXTON: Get over here.
Hey, watch out, Bart.
MATT PAXTON: Jesus Christ.
Don't do it, Bart. - Hey.
Hey. Hey.
Hey. - Step off!
Hey. Hey.
Hey.
She'll knock the hell out of him and flatten him out.
These children that she has raised
don't have ability to communicate without yelling.
Your mouth--
WOMAN: This isn't helping.
This family is probably the largest family I've ever seen,
and it is, by far, the most dysfunctional
family I have ever seen.
[music playing]
We did get Hanna to agree to let some of the goats go,
some of the ducks go, the rabbit,
and a really, really sick turkey.
[music playing]
Before we leave today, we will make sure all the animals have
food, that they have adequate water, that they are
in the best condition and the cleanest cages
that we can get for them.
And then we will be contacting the state officials on Monday
morning at 8 o'clock.
It's trash.
Trash?
MATT PAXTON: This family decided that they were
going to do whatever it takes to get
this house safe for their mom.
And they've done that.
But the reality is this house will be full very quickly.
If you let it get this far, man, it's
a real hard thing to change, a really hard thing to change.
Got it.
Here, toss.
ROBIN ZASIO: We have offered aftercare services for Hanna.
She does not think that she has a compulsive hoarding problem.
She does not, by any means, see anything wrong with
the treatment of these animals.
And she's refusing all help at this point.
Hanna's prognosis is extremely poor,
probably the worst of any hoarder I've ever worked with.
[music playing]