Facts On Animal Hoarding

[moosmom]

I found this on Yahoo and thought it might be of interest.

Pathological collectors of creatures believe they are rescuers
Animal hoarders are typically single females who live alone

Thursday, March 23, 2000

By Sally Kalson, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

There's a term for amassing so many pets that one's home becomes overrun, imperiling the life and health of creatures and humans alike.

Humane agents refer to it as animal hoarding, or the pathological collecting of animals to the point that many are sick, starving, dead or at risk for those outcomes. In recent months, the region has seen a rash of such cases.

The latest, and by far the worst, was Tuesday's discovery of 200 neglected and dead animals at a Westmoreland County farm owned by a woman in her 40s who lived alone. Two weeks earlier, humane agents found 48 dogs and cats at a home in Tarentum. And in December, 85 to 100 cats were removed from squalid conditions at a home in Richland.

"In the past we may have had one case of this a year," said David Swisher, director of Animal Friends, a no-kill shelter in the Strip District. "In the last four months we've had three cases. I think it's because the public is becoming more aware of the situation and reporting it more often to the proper authorities."

Dorothy Zewe, administrative assistant at the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society, said hoarders often see themselves as helping animals rather than hurting them.

"It's usually the older woman, living by herself, who thinks she's saving lives by taking all these animals in. Then they can't afford to feed or care for them properly. They don't see it as neglect or abuse."

Dr. Gary Patronek, director of the Center for Animals and Public Policy at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, studies animal hoarding and, in a recent article, described it as "an under-recognized public health problem in a difficult-to-study population."

Patronek, a veterinarian, was unavailable yesterday, but some of his findings were published in the January 1999 issue of Public Health Reports. The article summarized data from 54 case reports from 10 animal control agencies and humane societies across the nation. His study found:

76 percent of hoarders were female.

46 percent were 60 years of age or older.

About half lived alone.

The animals were most frequently cats, dogs, farm animals and birds.

The median number of animals per case was 39, but four cases involved more than 100 in a single household.

In 80 percent of the cases, animals were found dead or in poor condition.

Extrapolating from his data, the author estimated that 700 to 2,000 such cases occur in the United States annually.

The largest number of cases came to the attention of investigators via neighbors (31), social service agencies (12) and police (8).

Some cases were protracted and difficult to resolve, Patronek wrote, and even after animals were removed, it was common for hoarding to begin again. Sometimes, hoarders vanished and resurfaced later in neighboring areas. In one case, a woman bought a new home every few years after each residence became uninhabitable.

There is no diagnostic label for people who hoard animals, he noted. However, at least a quarter of those in his study were subsequently institutionalized, placed in guardianship or in a supervised living situation.

"Public health authorities should recognize that animal hoarding may be a sentinel for mental health problems or dementia, which merit serious assessment and prompt intervention," Patronek concluded.

[IttyBittyKitty]

I have heard of that happening in Australia, often what it is it is the "westies" or "rednecks" who collect both animals and offspring and keep all in appalling conditions. I've never heard of cases involving 100's of animals! That's quite disturbing! The worst thing is, unlike other forms of abuse from which the perpetrator derives pleasure and/or satisfaction, this is not deliberate and not an attempt to exploit the animal for their own aberrant tastes. These poor people believe they are doing the right thing. It must be upsetting in the extreme for them to see their animals become sick and die in their inept care.

I don't know that much can be done, except advising all animal shelters to a) watch how many animals each individual/family adopt and b) encourage "Serial Adopters" to go into the foster route - that way they will be exposed to "more" animals while having less on premises - and making them feel like they *are* making a difference! As many people in this forum know, it is extremely rewarding and I can't wait until I have my own home and can be a foster Meowmie too :D

[PayItForward]

I have just got off the phone from our local cat shelter, this morning.

They had just received 20 cats from one home, donated as the lady couldn't cope with the yearly vacs costs.

Surley as you adopt the cats, you have to consider the on going yearly costs. :mad:

But she did the right thing making sure the cats will be well looked after.

[Pam]

Originally posted by IttyBittyKitty
I don't know that much can be done, except advising all animal shelters to a) watch how many animals each individual/family adopt and b) encourage "Serial Adopters" to go into the foster route -:D

Yes we had a case here recently with 150 animals in one house! :eek: Unfortunately even though these people think they are "helping" they often don't provide adequate veterinary care or maybe even none at all. They are often sick and need to be PTS when they are finally found. :( I agree with IttyBitty's comments. Maybe there should be a network where shelters can plug in and check with each other to know in advance just how many pets a person already has before allowing an adoption. This is so sad and unfortunately just a case of misguided good intentions but the end result is very often tragic and the people involved have severe emotional problems and need help themselves. :(

[PayItForward]

The thing is how do you decide how many pets is unacceptable ? How can a shelter make that decision ?

For Example. Jen has 13 cats & mices !!! That is no problem for her but it would too many for me ? Think of the litter trays......

Jen...Sorry to use you as an example but you have loads of great pets. :)

I wouldn't like a shelter to turn to me and say. You have three cats, we don't think you could look after a fourth.

Surely we have to decide for ourselves, how many pets we need and can look after.

Also if the shelter start restricting adoption, won't that lead to more pets in Kill shelters, as the non-kill shelters will fill up fast.

[Ally Cat's Mommy]

Originally posted by PayItForward


Surely we have to decide for ourselves, how many pets we need and can look after.

Also if the shelter start restricting adoption, won't that lead to more pets in Kill shelters, as the non-kill shelters will fill up fast.

I totally agree. I think as responsible individuals and commited animal lovers (after all we would not be on PT if we were not!) it is up to us to decide how many animals we can be RESPONSIBLE for, and understand that the responsibility entails more than food and shelter - vet's bills and other expenses are an inevitable part of having a furry family. I have reluctantly concluded that, at this point in my rather unsettled life, I can do more by getting more involved with my local shelter - I was seriously considering getting another furkid, but have decided to put it on hold for the time being.

But also remember that these hoarders have doubtless got some underlying psycological problem - and unfortunately hoarding more animals than they can care for is their "outlet" for this problem.

[marysmerrycats]

Donna I am printing out the article, I don't have time to read the post now, have to leave the house soon, but had to check out pt first.. just by seeing the title, I wonder, do you mean ME? LOL

:eek:

[wolfsoul]

Sounds like my grandma :eek: She has litterally atleast fifty cats, two dogs, a whole lotta geese and ducks and chickens, and she thinks she's helping them all, even though they're all diseased :( I feel sooo bad for the poor things :mad:

[moosmom]

Mary,

Absolutely not! I was not in anyway referring to anyone on this site. You, yourself know how many cats you can care for. I am not one to judge. I believe that every individual knows how many cats they are able to care for. Be it 2 or 22. I have a friend who has 26 cats, and she takes really good care of them and has impeccable vet records for each and every cat. I hope you don't think I meant you. If I offended you, I apologize. It was not meant point a finger at ayone. The one thing that really bothered me about the article is that they state tye "typical" hoarder is a single woman who lives alone. I resented that stereotype.

[catland]

I don't think that the shelters could help stop this because there are so many free pets available. These people have a mental illness. It sounds so sad. Wolfsoul - it sounds like your Grandma needs help if her pets are sick and she is unable or unwilling to do anything to help them.

It reminds me a little of Munchausen by proxy - where the person keeps injuring their children so that they can feel important. Could a person with this problem actually want to have sick animals because they then think they have some kind of purpose in life?

So sad.:(

[marysmerrycats]

:) :) Donna
no hard feeling, I was a little sensitive this morning... and I have more to post but since I just got home, I will wait til later.. I have checked on the cats. well.. I'll update later tonight!

[Pam]

Originally posted by moosmom
The one thing that really bothered me about the article is that they state tye "typical" hoarder is a single woman who lives alone. I resented that stereotype.

Moosmom I don't think it's a stereotype as much as a statistic. I think it is probably because women as a whole are more nurturing than men. After all, we think of our furkids as our kids, right? and the desire to 'mother' probably factors in. Add to that the fact that if one lives alone there is no one to answer to, so if someone wanted to cart in 100 animals there would be total freedom with no complaints by other family members.

I think it's just knowing one's own limit. For me the limit is 4. For others it may be much higher. I think if someone has the space and the financial ability to provide for more and, very importantly, the time to spend with their pets the "correct amount" can certainly be different for each person. I do believe that the cases we have been talking about go above and beyond 'reasonable' and the animals are usually sick and ill cared for.

[wolfsoul]

Originally posted by catland
Wolfsoul - it sounds like your Grandma needs help if her pets are sick and she is unable or unwilling to do anything to help them.


I know :rolleyes: She thinks she's "saving them." Technically she is sparing their lives, the Spca would put them down in a second, which is probably why they haven't taken them. The spca is always going up there because of calls of cruelty, but they don't do anything about it. They say it's fine because they have food and shelter. They don't care that they are sick and reproducing like nothing else. They say that my grandma is getting them all fixed, which she is, and that's good, but she's been doing it for years, why don't they just take the males away??? :mad:

My mom is sick and tired of her BS, and having to go up to her house and pick her up so she can take her pets to the vet. (Atleast she takes them) My mom would easily say "forget it, I'm not driving you !$&%#" but she knows there's no point because my aunt would just drive her anyways :rolleyes: My mom has told my aunt that she should give my grandma the ultimatem of "ride or pets" but she won't. I don't mean to sound cruel, but her animals would be better off put down. They are suffering :(

[krazyaboutkatz]

I agree that the people that hoard animals are usually mentally ill.
I've seen some of this on Animal Precinct and Animal Cops. It's just so sad because they usually have to put all of the animals to sleep since they're either very sick or extremely feral. :( BTW one of the people that was doing this was a man. He had taken in a pregnant stray cat and before he knew it he had about 300 cats. :eek: He couldn't even live in his house any more so he had moved into his shed in the back yard. The investigators think that he had serious mental problems. Needless to say all of the cats had to be put to sleep. :(

[IttyBittyKitty]

300 cats! That is just so depressing - I hope each and every one of you beautiful darlings is having fun at RB .. that is SO sad, it just makes me want to cry!

As to all the comments about "How much is too much?" ... I just think they should monitor homes with, say, more than 10 cats - in the case of caring people like Jen and Kim, they will see that all cats are being cared for. In the case of "hoarders" they would catch the problem before it becomes too serious. The animal shelters just don't have the manpower for that sort of malarkey, let along the touchy legal issues!

Sigh!

[PayItForward]

I don't think it adopting a large number of cats is the problem.

As krazyaboutkatz said that man only adopted one pregnant cat and ended up with 300 ???

So it is a ' How you look after them' problem. Are they well looked after and altered.

[IttyBittyKitty]

But it is probably the one way that most of the hoarders get their pets.

I still can't believe that - one pregnant cat ending up with 300 cats in total! That is crazy!

[smokey the elder]

One cat leading to 300-the genetic damage!!

I'm not a psychologist by any means, but I have a fascination with something called "obsessive-compulsion disorder". In its non-pathological form I'm convinced it makes good accountants and analytical chemists.;) In extreme form it results in bizarre behavior, like hand washing, fear of germs, etc. Collecting may be one version of this. There are meds to treat OCD and they may help cat hoarders.

Just a thought.

Rescue groups have to be careful; sometimes a foster mom/dad will go overboard and start keeping everybody.