The National Humane
Education Society
August 2009
What Is Hoarding?
Before the early 1990s, little was known about hoarding in general or
animal hoarding in particular. Even today, the disease is still not well
understood. Animal hoarding has been called the most egregious form of
animal cruelty. Unlike a single act of animal cruelty, animal hoarding
affects large numbers of animals for long periods of time. A single hoarder
may have hundreds of animals in his or her care, all living in squalor for
years. According to Randall Lockwood, PhD, senior vice president at the
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, "In terms of the
toll it takes, hoarders are a much more serious source of animal suffering.”
Randall further states, “Being kept by a hoarder is a slow kind of death for
the animal. Actually, it's a fate worse than death." Hoarders have a
pathological need to obtain and control animals; however, they fail to
recognize the suffering they are inflicting on the animals, on themselves,
or on anyone who lives with them.
"Historically, collecting animals was viewed as an animal lover who gets
in over his or her head, but the truth is that people who hoard are at a
total loss of insight,” says Lockwood. “They have no real perception of the
harm they're doing…."
Animal hoarding is often a symptom of greater mental illness. According
to the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium (HARC), “Because removing
animals from a hoarder does not resolve the problem, mental health
professionals must explore the relationship of the hoarder and the hoarded
animals.” Also, according to the Consortium, “With recidivism close to 100%,
animal hoarding has evidently not been mitigated by customary sentencing
that is limited to fines, forfeiture of some or all of the animals,
prohibiting future ownership, and (rarely) incarceration. …the motivation
and perpetuation of animal hoarding has psychological underpinnings which
are not lessened in their intensity by these sanctions alone.”
Researchers estimate between 3,000 and 7,000 new cases of animal hoarding
occur yearly, accounting for the suffering and death of over 250,000
animals. Dr. Gary Patronek and his colleagues on the HARC identified four
key characteristics of animal hoarders:
Not the Little Old Lady in Tennis Shoes
The image of the animal hoarder is often that of the little old lady,
sometimes referred to as eccentric, who has a few too many cats. She’s
someone who might be considered a little “odd” or “quirky” but certainly not
someone suffering from mental illness and definitely not someone who harms
animals.
In fact, many animal hoarders are intelligent, well-educated individuals
who do not appear the least bit odd on the surface. Because of their ability
to communicate well with the general public, they are often taken as
well-meaning and caring animal people. If their situation becomes known to
friends and family, they are often thought of as “in over their heads,” not
someone suffering from a mental disorder. Animal hoarders often believe:
Animal hoarders are able to manipulate others into believing they are
doing their utmost to protect the animals in their care. However, they are
incapable of seeing the harm they are doing the animals, that they and the
animals are living in extreme filth, and that they are inflicting great
suffering on these animals. They do not see piles of feces and areas of
dried urine in their home. They do not see the collection of other junk like
newspapers, empty food cans, clothing, and broken items piled high in their
homes and yards. They will often have dead and decomposing bodies on their
property or in freezers and think nothing of this practice.
Animal hoarders are often not identified until the situation has reached
a critical level. Odors emanating from the home cause neighbors to contact
authorities. Or members of the hoarder’s family or work unit begin to notice
the individual showing up late for work, distancing him or herself from
family events, having a foul odor about his or her clothing and hair. Even
then authorities need a reason to search a home and without probable cause
cannot simply barge into someone’s house and start removing animals.
Types of Hoarders
In Animal Hoarding: Structuring interdisciplinary responses to help
people, animals and communities at risk, written by a team from the
HARC, three types of hoarders were identified: overwhelmed caregivers,
rescue hoarders, and exploiter hoarders.
Overwhelmed caregivers initially are able to provide
appropriate care for the animals. But events in their lives (i.e., loss of
job, divorce, illness, death of family member) eventually take over causing
them to be unable to handle the animals’ care and unable to figure out ways
to correct the situation. They are often isolated individuals who have
strong attachments to the animals as family members. They tend to minimize
the problems in their homes rather than outright deny them. They are often
open to assistance by others to help them solve the problems confronting
them.
Rescue hoarders are on a mission to save animals, usually
from euthanasia at a shelter or possible death at the hands of the animals’
owners. They believe they are the only ones who can care for the animal.
They become compulsive about saving animals. They acquire animals actively
rather than passively the way the overwhelmed caregiver usually obtains
animals. The rescue hoarder often belongs to a network of those engaged in
rescuing animals. They avoid contact with authorities.
Exploiter hoarders seek animals to serve personal needs.
They are indifferent to the harm they cause the animals. They deny there is
a problem, and they reject authority figures. They have a need for extreme
control. Exploiter hoarders come across as articulate, charming people who
are good at manipulating situations and people to get what they want. They
tend to have sociopathic characteristics and/or personality disorders. They
will lie, cheat, and steal to get what they want. They show no remorse for
their actions.
“Perhaps the most prominent psychological feature of these individuals is
that pets (and other possessions) become central to the hoarder's core
identity," Patronek writes in Municipal Lawyer magazine. "The hoarder
develops a strong need for control, and just the thought of losing an animal
can produce an intense grief-like reaction. Preliminary HARC interviews also
suggest that hoarders grew up in chaotic households, with inconsistent
parenting, in which animals may have been the only stable feature."
Their mental illness often does not allow hoarders to see the situation
they are in or that they are approaching anything nearing a crisis. They do
not see the filth, smell the stench, or otherwise are aware of the animals
in their care who are suffering and dying. They often do not know how many
animals they actually have in their care. They do not see how their home has
deteriorated or how infested it and the animals are with fleas and vermin.
Hoarders are like addicts. They need intervention to help them cope with
their addiction. They will never be “cured” but they can be controlled. As
yet, there is no diagnosis established in the diagnostic manual used by
psychologists (DSM-IV-RT) on hoarding
Legal Issues
As mentioned above, the recidivism rate for animal hoarders is 100
percent. Therefore, a psychological assessment should be ordered for anyone
found guilty of animal hoarding. If the offender is found to suffer from a
mental health issue, then a combination of mental health therapy and
long-term monitoring is often the best approach. Jail time alone does not
compel the offender to change his or her behavior.
The longer a hoarder is on probation, the more likely through counseling
he or she will be able to handle the issues that turned him or her into a
hoarder in the first place. Often as part of a sentence, the individual is
not allowed to have contact with animals for a period of typically five
years, or if allowed to have animals may have only one or two pets who must
be spayed and neutered.
Along with laws to protect animals and adequate and appropriate
sentencing guidelines, educating the community, including law enforcement,
family members, social workers and others in helping professions,
veterinarians, medical professionals, etc., will eliminate much pain,
suffering, and death on the part of the hoarded animals and will help serve
the mental health needs of the hoarder more adequately.
When a social worker goes into a home that is cluttered and where there
are numerous animals housed in filthy conditions, a call to animal control
might be in order. If an animal control officer is called to check
conditions at a home and sees children in filthy conditions, a call to
social services might be in order. When doctors see children with flea
bites, scratches, and other examples of animal contact, a call to animal
control and social services might be in order. In other words, everyone has
to look out for signs and symptoms beyond just their immediate relationship
with the individual or family.
Side Effects of Animal Hoarding
There are numerous side effects to the act of animal hoarding. The
hoarders’ homes deteriorate and often have to be razed. Physical and
psychological problems often affect others living in the house with the
hoarder. The health risks to those living in the house include diseases that
can be transmitted from animals to humans, such as:
Others who are affected are the personnel from those agencies who come
into the home to remove the diseased, dying, and dead animals; those who
have to care for the animals still alive, many of whom are terrified; and
those who euthanize the animals who are too damaged or diseased to recover
from the experience of being kept by a hoarder. Much of the expense of going
into the homes; housing, caring for, and euthanizing the animals; and
prosecuting the hoarder is borne at taxpayer expense.
Then there is the disposition of the animals. Can any of them be
rehabilitated to be adopted or will they require long-term care? Animal
shelters normally stretched to their limits are often overwhelmed by the
presence of hundreds of additional animals who are in debilitated
conditions. Often a shelter cannot take in any other animals or winds up
euthanizing adoptable animals to make room for the hoarders’ animals while
legal action is being pursued.
A Side Note
If you are thinking about relinquishing an animal, please research the
person and/or group to whom you intend to surrender your animal. Are you
sure you are not putting your animal in harms’ way? Ask to visit the place
where your animal will be housed. If you are told you cannot see it, then
you do not want to leave your animal with that person/group. Be careful of
Internet sites that might look loving. They may be nothing more than a front
for a hoarder.
Take Action to Help Hoarders and the Animals in their Possession
What can we do to change what is happening to animals in the possession
of hoarders? First, we can report animal cruelty wherever and whenever we
see it. Other humane actions include: