Mrs. MacLaren Morrison - once a noted cat and dog breeder and exhibitor - was also an animal hoarder. Even in her breeding days her cattery was ramshackle in comparison with others, and she collected different breeds of cat. Judging by stud books and registrations, she also bred huge numbers of kittens. Once widowed, this seemed to go out of control.

The Times, 18th June 1920 reports her out-of-control menagerie in London. “A LADY’S PRIVATE ‘ZOO.’ 21 DOGS, 19 CATS, 29 BIRDS, AND A LEMUR. At the Marylebone Police Court yesterday, before Mr. d’Eyncourt, the Hon. Mrs. McLaren Morrison, president of the Japanese Chin Club and a member of the Ladies Kennel Club, residing at Westboume-gardens, W., was summoned by the Paddington Borough Council for permitting a nuisance in improperly keeping dogs and birds and failing to comply with a notice to remove the animals and cleanse the premises. Mr. E. .T. Polten. the chief sanitary inspector for Paddington, said that when he visited Mrs. Morrison’s house on May 5 he found animals and birds in every room except the front dining room and two bed rooms. There were 10 dogs, 14 cats and kittens, 17 birds, and a lemur. On June 1 he found six more dogs and four puppies, another cat, three more kittens, and 11 more birds. On a third visit he discovered another dog, cat, and a bird. The animals and birds were kept dean, but the smell was very bad.

At this time, she was still exhibiting dogs with the Ladies Kennel Association. Her husband was still alive at this time, but evidently not living under the same roof. Perhaps they were estranged from each other.

The Indianapolis Star, Saturday, March 16, 1935 (11 years after her husband’s death) tells us: “HUNDREDS OF PETS KEPT IN HOME BY DAUGHTER OF PEER BROMLEY, Kent, England, March 15. UP) The story of a "surprising menagerie," including dogs "as bald as billiard balls," which was kept in a mansion by the daughter of a peer, was disclosed today In Police Court. Mrs. Alice McLaren Morrison, elderly daughter of the late Baron Pirbright, was convicted on a summons alleging she caused unnecessary suffering to forty-eight dogs, seventeen monkeys, twenty-seven cats and 100 birds and was fined £IO (about $50) and costs. The prosecutor for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which brought the case, said Inspectors found the animals, including goats, guinea pigs and rabbits, living in bedrooms of Mrs. Morrison's house. “ The house in question was Kemnel Warren, Chislehurst, Kent.

The Salt Lake Tribune of the same date reported: ANIMALS DWELL IN LONDON MANSION. .(By Tribune Lease Wire) , LONDON, March 15 - Forty eight dogs, 27 cats, hundreds of birds, 17 monkeys, a goat, numerous- guinea pigs and rabbits and a few other animals have occupied the bedrooms and living-rooms of a fine home in Kent. Their owner, Mrs. Alice McLaren Morrison, daughter of the late Baron Pirbright, was fined $50 in court today at Bromley Kent, on a charge of cruelty to animals.”

STRANGE MENAGERIE OF PEER'S DAUGHTER - Western Daily Press - Saturday 16 March 1935 - "Dogs, Cats and Monkeys in Rooms. The Hon. Mrs Alice Mclaren Morrison, of Chislehurst, Kent, was fined £10 with five guineas costs at Bromley yesterday for causing unnecessary suffering to 48 dogs, 27 cats, 17 monkeys and 100 birds by neglecting to provide them with proper care and attention. Mr Gordon Jones (prosecuting on behalf the R.S.P.C A.) said he was not suggesting that she was a woman who had cruel instincts or was deliberately cruel, but she was a woman of extraordinary views regarding the treatment of animals and had very fixed self opinion. She had deliberately flouted the attempts of the R.S.PC.A. to advise her in the way these animals should kept. On January 4 a visit was paid to the house by inspectors of the Society in consequence of complaints made by a kennel maid employed at the house. in various rooms of the house they found 50 dogs, 27 cats, 100 foreign birds. 17 monkeys, a goat, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits and other animals.

"This is a somewhat surprising menagerie find in a private house," continued Mr Jones. " The animals were occupying bedrooms and living rooms and were apparently in a grossly neglected condition. Some the dogs were almost hairless and had inflamed patcheson their body. The cats appeared to be thoroughly miserable and the same applied to the monkey The doors and windows of the rooms were closed and some hermetically sealed. Coal and electric fires were kept lighted night and day, and the atmosphere of the house was almost unbearable. The stench was abominable and almost indescribable. There was no suggestion of underfeeding, in fact many the animals were overfed, and in one case a roast chicken was provided for some of the cats. The condition under which the animals were kept were unnatural and not conducive to good health. "

Chief Inspector Finn, of the R.S.PC.A., said the majority of the dogs were Japanese Spaniels, and there were a few Pekingese. In a statement to him, Mrs Morrison said: "The great trouble is, I cannot get these rooms warm enough. These animals are all from warm climates and if they went out at this time of the year it would kill them.” Mrs Morrison, giving evidence, said she had 40 years' experience with animals, was the original exhibitor in this country of Japanese Spaniels, and was club judge. She founded the Ladies' Kennel Association, and had been working with the Dumb Friends League. She denied that conditions were such described by the prosecution and said the majority of the animals were kept healthy. She agreed that some of the rooms were dirty, but said that was because she had been unable to obtain assistance.2

RELUCTANT DECISION TO DISMISS CASE- Derby Daily Telegraph, 9 November 1938 – “ALLEGED NEGLECT OF DOGS. The discovery of eight dogs and two monkeys in an "indescribable state of filth" was alleged at Hailsham, Sussex, to-day, when the Hon. Alice McLaren Morrison, of Aberdare-gardens, London, N.W., and Stanley Hattersley, alleged to be accused. Mrs. Morrison was summoned as the owner of the dogs for permitting them to be caused unnecessary suffering by omitting to provide necessary carw and attention, and Hattersley was accused of causing unnecessary suffering to the animals. There were also summonses against Mrs. Morrison alleging that she kept dogs without licences.

The summonses with regard to cruelty against both Mrs. Morrison and Hattersley were dismissed. The chairman said that the magistrates had reluctantly come to the conclusion to dismiss them, as a deplorable state of affairs had been revealed. Mrs. Morrison was fined £20 on the summonses for having unlicensed dogs. Inspector Edward Winn, of the R.S.P.C.A., spoke of a visit to the Old Brewhouse, Hurstmonceaux, Sussex, and said that he found four Japanese spaniels in a very nervous condition. One was dirty and unbalanced, and was going round in circles.

In another room a spaniel bitch was almost hairless. When taken out of a tea chest, it reeled and fell about like a drunken person. He found in another room a brown Pekingese poor condition, and a black and white Japanese dog with skin disease and bad eyes. In the garden were 31 dogs "in stables, runs, pens and all sorts of places.” The dogs' condition was fair and good. On a table in a separate room were two cages with a monkey each. They were in good condition, but there was filth in the cages, and there was no room for the monkeys to exercise with their legs and arms outstretched.

Inspector Winn said that Hattersley stated that he took no responsibility apart from finding food. Miss Margaret Doyle said that she was employed to look after the animals. Hattersley had had a serious operation, and she had to manage the dogs herself. She crould not do this adequately, and she wrote to Mrs. Morrison. Inspector Charles Boyle, of the R.S.P.C.A., London, said that Mrs. Morrison stated that Mr. Hattersley had acted as her agent for some time, and she had employed Miss Doyle for about 11 years. “I have not been down to see the dogs lately, because I have been looking after the dogs in London and have not been well lam old lady now," she was alleged to have added.”

When she moved from London to Chislehurst, Kent. Her retinue included more than 100 pets (according to the Brownsville Herald, Feb 20, 1944), including seven dogs, 30 cats, 50 birds, several monkeys, and “a large number of pet mice which had to be trapped on moving day.”

Thirteen years later, aged 83, she was again hoarding animals, as we can read in the Reuters report published in The Singapore Free Press of 5 May, 1948: “MENAGERIE IN 20-ROOMED HOUSE. London, Monday. Because she kept a menagerie" in her 20-roomed house, in which mice ran freely among cats and fed in the birds' cages, the Hon. Mrs. A. McLaren Morrison, 83-year-old daughter of the late Baron Pirbright, was summoned In a London police court today. Stated to be the possessor of 25 birds, 16 cats, eight dogs and 13 guinea pigs, Mrs. McLaren Morrison was charged under a Public Health Act ‘for keeping animals and birds in such state as to cause serious infestation of mice and nuisance from flies.’" An Inspector of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Quoted to the court Mrs. Morrison’s repeated statement: ‘If you take my animals away. I will commit suicide.’ The court ordered Mrs Morrison to remove the causes of complaint within 14 days.”

The Associate Press version (Ottowa Journal and others) read: “Ordered to Dispose Of Domestic Menagerie. LONDON, May 4. - (AP) - A court today gave Hon. Mrs. A. McLaren Morrison, daughter of the late Baron Pirbright, 14 days to dispose of a domestic menagerie including 62 birds and animals. Investigators said that the 83-year-old woman lives alone in three of her dwelling's 20 rooms. The other 17 contain: Eight dogs, 16 cats, 25 birds, 13 hamsters (cousin to the guinea pig) and so many friendly mice that it is ‘difficult to distinguish between the so-called pets and the mice.’ Neighbors complained the menagerie violated the Public Health Act.”