How many animals are too many for someone to have? Animal hoarding is defined by “four characteristics: the failure or inability to provide animals [with] minimal standards of sanitation, space, nutrition, and veterinary care; the inability to recognize the effects of this failure on the welfare of the animals, human members of the household, and the environment; the obsessive attempts to accumulate or maintain a collection of animals in the face of deteriorating conditions; and then the denial or minimization of the problems and living conditions for people and animals” (Castrodale 2010). People may start out with one or two pets, but for some people, they may adopt or collect a couple more animals here and there until they have twenty or so animals living on their property. Then the person(s) may get to the point where they become overwhelmed with all of the animals that they have. If the person cannot stop their collecting habits of bringing more and more animals home, then they would be considered animal-hoarders. Even though they may believe that they were doing it for the right reasons, it can be seen as animal cruelty if the animals are found to be living in horrible conditions or the animals have been malnourished.
Some animal hoarders believe that what they are doing is positive because they are saving the lives of animals by taking them off the street and bringing them into their own homes to take care of them. “Hoarders often house one type of animal, most commonly dogs or cats, but they can just as easily
own birds, fowl, goats, sheep, horses or combinations of all the above – the numbers of animals involved can range from 10 to over 1000” (Campbell 2006). In cities and counties all over North America, they have established a legal limit to the number of animals one can own. If a person is found with a number of animals that is over the legal limit that they are allowed to have, then they have to sign over the animals to an animal control agency. If the animals are found in deplorable conditions that are effecting the livelihood of each of the animals lives, an animal control agency can have the right to temporarily remove most or all of the animals at the residence, with police presence, until a judge can decide whether or not to release all of the animals back into the custody of the owners or reward custody of the animals with the confiscating animal agency. After that custody trial has occurred, it may also lead to a criminal trial because if a person's animals were taken away from them based on animal cruelty, that person may be fined or jailed as animal cruelty is a crime.
“As hoarders tend to be very secretive, many can lead a double life with a successful professional career - hoarding behavior has been discovered among doctors, nurses, public officials, college professors, and veterinarians, as well as among a broad spectrum of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals” (Patronek 2001). Anyone can become an animal-hoarder if they cannot control their means of collecting or saving animals when they cannot possibly take care of all of them. Some people go so far as to let the inside of their homes become the animals bathroom and living area, even though the house is theirs, they let the animals overtake their home because the animal-hoarder believes it is for the best of the animals. About “3,500 cases involving 250,000 animals are uncovered every year, mostly by complaints to local animal control officers and rescue shelters” (Strauss 2010). Even though animal-hoarding is illegal, the hoarder does not believe that what they are doing is illegal, but overall, the hoarding becomes harmful for the lives of both the animals and the animal-hoarder.
References
Campbell, L. (2006). Animal hoarding: the who, what, where, and how of it? Humane Society of Missouri. Retrieved from http://wvc.omnibooksonline.com/data/papers/2006_ST2A.pdf.
Castrodale, L., Bellay, Y. M., Brown, C. M., Cantor, F. L., Gibbins, J. D., Headrick, M. L., & Yu, D. T. (2010). General public health considerations for responding to animal hoarding cases. (Cover story). Journal of Environmental Health, 72(7), 14-18. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Cat Picture. Photo courtesy of the internet. Retrieved from http://www.petanim.com/6594/jlbenton/animal-hoarder/.
Patronek, G. (2001). The problem of animal hoarding. Municipal Lawyer, 6-9, 19. Retrieved from http://www.tufts.edu/vet/hoarding/pubs/municipalawyer.pdf.
Patronek, G. & Nathanson, J. (2009). A theoretical perspective to inform assessment and treatment strategies for animal hoarders. Clinical Psychology Review, 29(3), 274-281. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Strauss, G. (2010). Hoarding behavior takes on a four-legged twist. USA Today. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
