Animal Hoarding

Profile of an Animal Hoarder

The Victorville, California, hoarder is by no means an unusual case. Her particular case coincided with dozens more at the same time, all across the country.

In Pennsylvania, 200 animals, some already dead, were found at a woman's house on a farm in Westmoreland County. "We've had three cases in the last four months," said the director of Animal Friends, a local shelter.

At the same time, a judge in Boston, Massachusetts, banned a woman from living within the city limits if she wants to keep cats. Sixty cats had been found in her apartment - all dead.

When the authorities moved on a woman in Norwood, Ohio, they found a woman sleeping upright in a chair. The cats, more than 50 of them, had become so crazed that they had destroyed the rest of her furniture. "The devastation was overwhelming," said her daughter.

Dr. Gary Patronek, director of the Tufts University Center for Animals and Public Policy and the founder of the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium has done extensive research on hoarders. Below are some of his findings:

76% of the people involved were women.
85% were middle aged, and 46% were over 60.
Half of them live alone.
In 80% of the cases, the animals were found dead or seriously neglected.
And while many of the cases are prosecuted, the animal hoarder is usually able simply to move house and start the whole cycle over again.

Other facts:

Up to 2,000 cases of animal hoarding are discovered in the United States every year.
The homes of animal hoarders are sometimes in such filthy condition - ankle-deep in rotting waste - that the premises have to be burned down or bulldozed.
While hoarders protest their love for animals, the syndrome is considered by psychologists to be not about love, but about control, and is linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Hoarders are almost always in a state of complete denial. Typically they may say that "the house is just a little messy" and the animals are fine.

Basic definition of an animal hoarder:

It's not a question of the number of animals that defines hoarding, but the way they are kept. According to the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium:
Hoarders accumulate a large number of animals.
They fail to provide minimal standards of care and even sanitation
They fail to act on the deteriorating condition of the animals and their housing
They fail to act on the negative impact of their animal collecting on their own health and well-being

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