New Hampshire shelter faces massive mouse problem after man surrenders nearly 1,000 rodents

STRATHAM, NH – A group of mice is called a nest, but what do you call 1,000 mice in one animal shelter?

“It’s crippling,” said Lisa Dennison, executive director of the New Hampshire Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which is trying to handle the huge influx. rodents reproduce quickly.

It all started on Monday, when a man came and said he wanted to give away 150 mice. But then he clarified: 150 containers of mice, not individual animals. He had 73 mice with him that day, and by Friday morning about 450 mice had been transferred to the shelter. Another 500 or so were on the way.

And that number is growing thanks to some basic biology. Many mice arrived pregnant.

“One of the challenges is that gestation is short and breeding starts early,” Dennison said. “This is a huge problem. It’s something that’s gotten way out of control.”

Part of the shelter’s cat pavilion has been turned into a mouse hospital and hotel, with dozens of containers lined up on the floor, on several tables and stacked on shelves. That’s a lot of work for a facility that once took in as many as 125 animals in a single day.

“That’s what happens when you take a large number, but even when we took 54 goats or 39 cats, I mean, those are still big numbers, but much more manageable, as you can imagine, than hundreds and hundreds of mice, Dennison said.

Other shelters have agreed to accept some of the mice, and some are sent to foster families. At least four were accepted on Friday.