Hoarding situations are bad enough even when the people with jurisdiction respond
AUSTIN, Texas; CASWELL, Alaska; RIVERSIDE, California––Among the first 49 animal hoarding cases coming to the notice of ANIMALS 24-7 during the first four months of 2026, three in particular stand out, not because they were among the biggest, though one was, but because of the delayed and inept responses of the people who should have been the first responders.
The alleged perpetrators, indeed, could scarcely have less in common: Nayzak Najm, 27, of Austin, Texas, of apparent Syrian Islamic descent; Alaskan sled dog musher Misty Rehder, 35; and Howard Berkowitz, a Jewish duck rescuer in Southern California known for, among other things, blaming his legal troubles on anti-semitism, even though his leading critic is also Jewish.
Abandoned 15 cats
Nayzak Najm, the first of the three to run into trouble with law enforcement, held a lease on her apartment in south Austin that expired on January 31, 2026, but left and allegedly “turned in her keys in mid-January,” recounted Tara Brolley for WOAI in San Antonio, Texas.
“Officers responded February 5, 2026 to a 911 call from a resident reporting multiple malnourished cats in a neighboring unit,” said Brolley.
“Management had entered the unit to begin restoration work after prior flooding when the animals were discovered,” Brolley continued. “Officers found conditions consistent with a hoarding environment, including debris, standing water, and animal waste.
“Of the 15 cats found inside, 12 were alive but malnourished. One was in critical condition and later euthanized. Two were found dead.”
Najm was charged with 13 counts of cruelty to animals.
Negligent management
Standard practice in the rental industry is for management to immediately inspect vacated apartments, to discover and promptly respond to common issues including animal abandonment; flooding from a leaking roof, pipes, broken window, or water heater; garbage left behind; food left in a refrigerator; insect or rodent infestation; and any possible fire hazards.
That the management and neighbors could have been unaware of the presence of the cats, even before Najm turned in her key, is surprising.
Neglecting inspection of a vacated apartment for what appears to have been at least two weeks may not be a criminally chargeable offense in Texas, but the reported circumstances suggest negligence by all parties, including the property management.
Directly contrary to teachings of Islam
Among the best-known hadiths, or sayings of Mohammed, the founding prophet of Islam, is one that specifically addressed that very situation.
Hadiths narrated by both Saheeh [disciple and witness] Muslim and Saheeh [disciple and witness] Al-Bukhari explain in older translations that, “A woman entered the Fire [hell] because of a cat which she kept and did not give food or water, nor did she set the cat free to eat of the vermin of the earth.”
Two later translations have it that the woman “was punished because she imprisoned a cat until the cat died,” or “entered Hell because of a cat she tied up and did not feed.”
It is difficult to imagine that Nayzak Najm did not know of those hadiths since early childhood.
(See What did the Prophet Mohammed really say about dogs?)
Comforted man whose dog died
A further twist appears in a blog posting apparently dating to April 24, 2019, by Austin portrait photographer Joe Van Wyk, who introduced Nayzak Najm as “a Muslim University of Texas at Austin student studying international relations and global studies and sustainability studies, seeking to pursue an international humanitarian aid career,” and a volunteer in a “campaign to provide psychological support for Syrian immigrants living in Jordanian refugee camps.”
Van Wyk mentioned Najm because she had been sympathetic toward him after his dog died.
Case detailed by prominent musher
Kathleen Frederick, of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources commissioner’s staff, describes herself on Facebook as “Just a girl from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, who turned into a dog musher when I’m not at my day job.”
Frederick since 2006 has owned and operated “a small sled dog racing kennel,” Shameless Huskies Kennel, “which has focused on mid-distance races, in addition to taking part in Iditarod in 2010, 2013-2014, 2017, 2021-2022, and 2024-25.”
Frederick, in Palmer, Alaska, 180 miles from the scene of the alleged crimes in Caswell, Alaska, on April 24, 2026 posted to Facebook “a rough timeline of the tragedy in Caswell leading to the avoidable death of 25 blue heeler/husky dogs,” beginning on December 21, 2025, she said, when “Mark Walker learned from others that Misty Rehder, his partner for almost a decade, according to his Facebook page, had been living a double life and had a fiancé in nearby Talkeetna. Mark reputedly was devastated.
No footprints
“Shortly after Christmas, Misty and Chad Smith [her fiancé] jaunted off to Patagonia on vacation. They returned on January 9, 2026 to Chad’s place in Talkeetna,” about 28 miles north.
Walker on that same day, Frederick recounted, left Alaska for Montana, “leaving the dogs alone and, by default, under Misty’s care, despite telling others she would not take care of the dogs and they would probably starve.”
“Three days later,” Frederick narrated, “several people become concerned after seeing no activity at the cabin and dog yard in Caswell.”
After a snowfall, “there were no tracks into or on the property and the dog houses had not been dug out.
“Two concerned individuals who knew that Misty had moved into Chad’s house drove out to the cabin in Caswell and observed that there were no footprints,” leading them to file a complaint with Matanuska-Susitna Borough animal control officer Joe Dickenson.
(Posted by Katheen Frederick)
No roof on dog house, either
Five days after that, Frederick said, “concerned mushers went to the property and filmed the dog yard: there were no dog bowls visible and one dog house had no roof.”
Again, complaints were made to Dickenson.
“Calls by neighbors and concerned mushers were made to animal control through February,” Frederick continued. “Officer Dickenson brushed off the concerns, telling callers that the matter was being investigated and that he would not let the dogs starve.
“Two organizations offered rehoming assistance,” Frederick added, “which Mark and Misty declined, and one rescue organization offered food, which Misty declined.”
Meanwhile, Fredericks said, Rehder’s landlord began “serving her with eviction notices. Chad and Misty dragged one concerned individual into court to get a restraining order to keep her off the property because she was allegedly stalking and harassing them.”
Animal control allegedly told musher/rescuer not to feed the dogs
That case, Fredericks continued, went to court “in mid-March 2026. Although the judge rejected the request for a restraint order, it had the desired effect of deterring this individual from going to the property to check on the dogs.
“Another concerned individual showed up with food and straw,” Fredericks mentioned, but “animal control instructed the individual not to feed the dogs because the matter was under investigation and threatened [the person] with criminal trespass.”
Anchorage Daily News reporter Zachariah Hughes identified the “concerned individual” as “Shantle Wiley, another musher in the Talkeetna area.”
“Officer Dickenson also instructed other concerned individuals to stop calling and/or failed to return their calls,” Frederick charged. “The dogs were still alive on March 7 or 8, when the landlord served the second eviction notice,” seeing them from a distance and hearing them barking.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Two dogs survived
Only one dog, Woody, appeared to be still alive by April 2, 2026, when the landlord posted his third eviction notice.
Notified by the landlord of the situation on April 8, 2026, Alaska Icefields Expeditions musher Mike Dolinar on April 14, 2026 visited the scene, discovering “a horrific situation with dogs dead in their houses, in the cabin, and one frozen to the ground, with only Woody alive,” summarized Frederick.
Dolinar rescued Woody and called the Alaska state troopers.
The troopers discovered a second surviving dog, Birdie, inside the house on the property.
(Hiland Correctional Center photo)
Only Rehder is charged, so far
“Essentially, Officer Dickenson had neglected the situation for more than EIGHT weeks,” alleged Frederick, “after assuring others it was being handled, instructing concerned individuals not to call, and closing the case.
“Officer Dickenson should be fired and criminal charges filed against him. Misty Rehder, fiancé Chad Smith, and Mark Walker should be charged criminally,” Frederick posted.
Rehder was on April 22, 2026 arraigned on 26 counts of Class C felony cruelty to animals.
“Matanuska-Susitna Borough plans to appoint an investigator within the week,” Mat-Su Sentinel editor Amy Bushatz reported, also on April 22, 2026, “with the review expected to be completed in about 60 days,” but the borough assembly [council] “voted not to place the animal control officer overseeing the case on administrative leave following concerns raised by the borough attorney and manager,” Mike Brown.
“Mark Walker still has not been charged,” updated Frederick on April 27, 2026.
Oh @#$%! 480 ducks!
In Riverside, California, meanwhile, “The Riverside County Department of Animal Services is under fire from animal activists for its handling of nearly 500 ducks surrendered by an animal rescue in Anza,” opened Rachel Fobar for the Southern California News Group on April 26, 2026.
Part of the issue is that neither the Riverside County Department of Animal Services nor any other animal welfare agencies with relevant jurisdiction did anything decisive to keep Duck Sanctuary founder Howard Berkowitz, also known as Dave Berks, from collecting hundreds of ducks, dozens of turkeys, and miscellaneous other fowl, while frequently relocating, allegedly leaving unpaid debts and damaged premises behind time and again.
High-profile rescues
Berkowitz attracted favorable publicity, plus donations and volunteer help, with high-profile rescues.
In July 2024, for instance, he took in “600 to 800 hatched ducklings,” reported Amanda Palacios for KABC in Los Angeles, from fertilized eggs that “had been sitting in a warehouse and were initially intended for balut, a street food in the Philippines, Vietnam and other Asian countries made by boiling fertilized eggs. The eggs are usually cooked around two to three weeks after laying,” Palacios explained.
Then, in August 2024, Berkowitz took in 56 turkeys who were reportedly impounded from “a hoarding situation in San Bernardino,” in San Bernardino County, neighboring Riverside County.
Animal control sent “rescued” ducks to slaughter
But even as Berkowitz developed a positive public reputation, an ever-growing coterie of former volunteers and donors, former landlords, and neighbors tried to draw attention to rapidly deteriorating conditions at multiple sites, to little evident avail.
Social media postings to pages entitled “The Duck Sanctuary Exposed,” maintained by actress and bird rehabilitator Sascha Knopf, detailed the running saga.
The second part of the issue, Fober of the Southern California News Group continued, is that, “As sanctuaries were lining up to adopt the ducks, activists say,” the Riverside Department of Animal Services “instead decided to make them available for adoption,” the day after impoundment, on a ‘first-come, first-served basis’ at the agency’s San Jacinto Valley shelter. Adoption fees were waived.
“More than half of the 480 animals were immediately turned over to a livestock business in Norco that began selling them on Facebook, ostensibly to some people who planned to eat them,” Fobar alleged.
(From Channel 3 News video)
“I’ve raised those ducks for years”
Said Berkowitz, who voluntarily relinquished the ducks to the Riverside Department of Animal Services, “The only way that I would ever relinquish any ducks was that I knew that they were going to a safe place. I’ve raised those ducks for years. I spent my entire life savings taking care of these ducks, and they all went for food.”
The hasty duck “adoptions,” responded Riverside Department of Animal Services public information officer Veronica Perez, were “in the best interest of the animals.
“Given our inability to provide long-term care for that many animals,” Perez emailed to Fobar, “we urgently acted to secure placement through rescue and adoption, leaning on the public to give the animals a different outcome than the overcrowded conditions they came from.”
Suspected cockfighter got some ducks, too
Continued Fobar, “Within hours of adoptions opening, a business named Matt’s Livestock had taken 270 birds and began selling them on Facebook for $15 each. A man who identified himself as Matt said he didn’t have information about who was buying his ducks.
“’I do not do any screenings,” he said. “I run a livestock business.’”
That was not all. Added Fobar, “On April 16, 2026, Riverside County Animal Services announced on Facebook that all of the animals had been adopted. One Facebook user, whose profile contained numerous references to cockfighting, commented that he took 11 birds.”
Said Perez about that, “We follow a barrier-free adoption model that places trust in our community to act in the best interest of the animals leaving our shelters.”
Apparently this, in Riverside County Animal Services estimation, includes flipping ducks out of the Southern California desert heat into frying pans.
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Absolutely the first perpetrator should have known and if she was unable to care for the cats in her care, at least seen to it that they were taken in to ACC as a last resort. This is inexcusable and if she is a person of Faith, she must be in turmoil as a result.
I am no dog lover, but I cannot wrap my mind around the kind of complete and utter lack of any moral compass it would take to let living beings of any species suffer. The morally bankrupt perpetrators should be charged for each and every life lost, at the least.
And yes, having lived near Riverside County in the past, I am well aware of the laxity and lack of care so many living beings receive there. Again, the perpetrators should be charged and convicted of each and every case causing suffering and harm to these innocent birds.
Sharing with gratitude and so much more.
These sad outcomes were preventable if people were doing their jobs and acting in the best interest of the animals; but these failures seem to be all too common.
As for those barrier-free adoption models, there is an unfortunate naivete in placing trust in communities to act in the best interest of the animals leaving shelters – because we know there are always those nefarious individuals who are just looking for that open door.
Why make it so easy for them?
It is on reading a host of similar reports of scores of people targeting hapless dependent sentient animals wild, farmed or domestic in these unimaginably cruel ways, that I often despair of our worth.
I am aware that there are caring, compassionate persons who do all they can to help and mitigate such a myriad of vicious and destructive behaviors and for them I am deeply grateful.
Nonetheless, I am constantly sickened by man’s failure to be what he/she needs to be in so many walks of life and have the courage and decency to do ‘the right thing’ by, not only our own species, but all those others of earth, our oceans and air with whom we share this precious planet.
What some apparently suspect regarding livestock-flippers has been going on for decades, and the large “no kill” rescue groups are often complicit. It’s not a big secret that some bird and squirrel “rescuers” and nuisance trappers are also reptile breeders who are looking for free live food. On top of the live feed, they often receive donations for “rescuing” those ducks and/or fees for trapping them.
Many of the leaders at individual humane societies and the large animal orgs know about these reptile breeders and livestock-flippers.
The “open rescue” activists who take dozens of poultry and lab mice to so-called sanctuaries have been specifically warned for years. I don’t mean general rumors on the subject that have been posted in large groups but perhaps were missed by leaders. Names have been named and the plausible deniability has eroded.
There have been many specific interactions such as, “Hello John Smith at XYZ Activist Group, those ducks you’re sending to Green Mountain Sanctuary are being fed to the owner Jane Doe’s snakes.” And John Smith acknowledges your tip yet is posting selfies there with new batch of ducks with Jane Doe the following week. Evidently, some nonprofits and activists just want to make it to appear to the donors and media that these mass rescues ended up with vague happy endings.
In my view, your “open rescue” activist group or humane society has no right to pat itself on the back if you’re not briefly investigating and providing the general longer-term outcomes of these animals. If all you’re doing is posting immediate photos to the public with the caption, “We just brought a dozen ducks to this sanctuary to live out the rest of their lives,” but you don’t plan to check how or where they are a year later, get out of the rescue or activism business.
In addition to receiving explicit written and verbal tips for years, these individual rescuers and activists simply can’t be that stupid. They can perform basic math.
If you’ve personally taken dozens of rescued ducks per trip to the same “sanctuary” and you’ve been there several times in the past year, you should see hundreds of ducks there just from your own transports.
Then, when you see announcements of other rescue orgs also transferring large groups of animals there, but you fail to ask what’s happening? And then you personally continue taking more animals there?
You know those hundreds of ducks from your own individual trips weren’t all adopted out when you don’t see any listings on Petfinder, there were no advertised adoption events, and you’ve never see anyone on social media mentioning adopting from there.
Why isn’t a supposedly dedicated animal advocate asking the sanctuary owner where and how all those ducks are? Especially when the facility claims to be only a last-stop sanctuary for animals – not an adoption group.
Don’t you care about those ducks from your last trip to see how they are doing? Aren’t you at least curious in a detached way? And when you see notice dozens of snakes in cages or a sign in front advertising Komodo dragons for sale but apparently there are no ducks around, you know what’s going on – even if nobody verbally warned you about it.
I’d like to see the press take the initiative a year later to investigate the long-term outcome of these large groups of animals that supposedly went to sanctuaries. It’s not the media’s ethical burden, but it would be good if they’d shine some light on this.
It’s understandable for low-paid reporters to buy into the vague “happy ending” narrative and quickly move on to the next story, but it would be helpful if a few dug deeper. Maybe the shelter and sanctuary industries would be less likely to pull these deadly sleight-of-hands if there was the risk that a reporter or donor would call a year later for followup.
“We follow a barrier-free adoption model that places trust in our community to act in the best interest of the animals leaving our shelters.”
Wow. WOW. “Ok, Mr. Dogfighter, we place our trust in you that you will act in the best interest of these animals you just adopted! Have a nice day!”