Animal Hoarding

Brittany, I hope you're not feeling like you need to defend yourself just because you have a lot of animals. I don't think that's what anyone was implying.

Oh gosh no, I didn't think that anyone was implying that I was a hoarder! I just thought that since I happened to have alot of animals, I would be a good example of someone who CAN and DOES take care of that many. I wanted to disprove the idea that "alot of animals + not exactly mainstream or social type of person = hoarder." I wasn't defending myself, just using me as an example.

I have only met one hoarder in my life, and sadly, she happened to work in rescue. In a single weekend, this person brought 20+ dogs into a breed specific rescue, without foster homes lined up and less than $2k in the rescue account to care for all of them plus the 10 or so dogs the rescue already had. A few of the dogs were not even mixes of the breed the rescue was for.

One of the dogs the rescue already had was Heartworm + and getting no treatment due to a lack of funds, and there were boarding bills that weren't paid at kennels that had some of the rescues' dogs (because there were no foster homes). 

When asked why she pulled so many dogs with no way to care for them, she said something along the lines of, "I couldn't leave them behind."

Meanwhile, she couldn't see that the dogs in the program were suffering, because she took them in without the means to care for them.

ETA: Wanted to post this as a real example. Some people have things get out of hands, and some people, like the person I referenced above, have no perception of what "out of control" is.

PS - Brittany, your house is so clean! Want to come organize mine? 

Oh yes......I remember those pictures when you posted them right after you moved in.....I thought to myself....her stove is almost identical to mine

Oh yes......I remember those pictures when you posted them right after you moved in.....I thought to myself....her stove is almost identical to mine

I've posted some of the picturs of the outside of my house before, and some of the other pictures of animals, but I've never posted the ones of the inside of my house before. Also, They were not taken right after we moved in- I'd have to be pretty fast at unpacking if that were the case! We moved in June 15th, and those were taken at the beginning of September or the end of August.

Yep, a quick search doesn't bring up any of the inside pictures. I did have a thread that showed alot of the outdoor stuff and my barn, though. You must be mistaken.

Moderator speaking,

Ladies, the dates of the pics are less important than the topic of this thread...but would make a delightful subject to PM each other about. This thread...needs to remain on topic. Thank you.

Sorry Gina. To keep things on topic, I found a really awesome website on hoarding that I've been reading all day.

http://www.tufts.edu/vet/cfa/hoarding/

Definitely a fascinating read.

edit by me, reason:without the rest of my post it doesn't make sense what I posted *discuss it in PM, please this thread will remain on topic*

Ratsicles

Sorry Gina. To keep things on topic, I found a really awesome website on hoarding that I've been reading all day.

http://www.tufts.edu/vet/cfa/hoarding/

Definitely a fascinating read.

 

The HARC site is one of the best on animal hoarding.  Patronek is one of the leading authorities on this.  I have met and chatted with Jane Nathanson multiple times, and find her very interesting.  A determined and thoughtful lady.   

This is a fascinating topic to me. So far the discussion has focused on "rescuers" who are animal hoarders, but I think that the term can appy to a certain type of breeder as well. I think there is an understandable tendency to assume that any breeder who keeps too many animals, and continues to allow them to reproduce does so out of greed. Certainly, that type of breeder exists in abundance, but I also think that there are breeders who produce too many animals out of the same sort of mental imbalance that causes some rescuers to become hoarders. A few years ago there was on fairly notorious case of a breeder whose 180 dogs were eventually confiscated in absolutely horrifying conditions. She was understandably soundly condemned, but I always felt she fit the profile of a hoarder more than the profile of someone who was operating out of greed. After all, profit motive doesn't explain keeping 70 or 80 intact males. She seemed to be genuinely convinced that her "line" of dogs was so extraordinary that they were absolutely essential to improving the quality of the breed. She was also extremely manipulative and skilled and avoiding responsibility for her actions, but although I never met her, I'm convinced she acted out of mental illness more than true malice. I only bring this up because I think that it is an important idea to explore in terms of how we deal with people who do breed grossly excessive numbers of animals. If we as a sociaety are mistaken about what the true cause of the out of control breeding is, we won't be able to address the problem effectively. On a personal level this topic interests me because I have an acquaintance that I think shows many of the signs of beginning down the path of breeder/hoarding. She clearly uses animals to fulfill needs that aren't met by the humans in her life, and has already gotten herself in over her head with more animals than she can adequately care for a couple times. Friends and family have acted as enablers, and I see the cycle continuing. It frustrates me, because I see yet another headline making raid on a filthy house filled neglected animals at some point in the future, but so far there seems to be nothing to stop her, and since she sees no problem herself, she refuses the counseling she needs. A sad case that is likely to get much sadder for everyone involved.

There have been some quite notable instances of breeders hoarding....most of the ones I know about are as mentioned, older to elderly many times infirm women who cannot let go and cannot see that their dogs are suffering.

In any venue where animals are concerned....it is possible to find hoarders. From the "cat lady" who doesn't rescue..just started out with 2 and they all inbred and now she has 30+ but "loves the all and won't part with even 1"...to the Westminster winning show breeder who just cannot accept their health and mental decline, and continues to think they are doing right by their dogs. And every area in between.

There was a breeder-hoarder in my breed a few years back.  I think over 200 basenjis hit rescue and some of the dogs could not be removed from the home b/c they were owned by the breeder's other daughter.  This was a mother-daughter (daughter wasd in her 50's) set up.  The 30 cats on the property had to be euthanized b/c they were in such bad shape.  I fostered one of those dogs; she had some really interesting behaviors and my heart ached for her, but I also felt so sorry for the breeder.  The breeder used to show her dogs (30 years ago), but had fallen out of that and kept breeding without placing any of her dogs.  very sad all the way around  (I do have to add that for the dogs that went into rescue, almost all had happy endings.)

 

Ratsicles-  I envy your organizational skills!  Really.  I only have 4 dogs and can always manage to find something other to do instead of cleaning house.  Like reading posts on Idog.    Everytime I try to organize my life, I get overwhelmed. 

Actually, I have met a hoarder before.  I completely forgot about it until now.  I used to work at a vet clinic a few years back as a receptionist and there was a client there who was notorious for setting up appointments and then never showing up.  One night she actually did show up for an appointment with a dog.  When this woman came in to sign in, I could tell she was not normal.  She was very unkempt looking and had a strange look in her eyes...and the way she talked...  she kept repeating things over and over again and her thoughts seemed disjointed.  She asked me how I was about 5 times in the first few minutes.  Eventually she got it out that her dog couldn't walk and that the vet needed to go out and see him in the car, so he followed her outside.  He came storming in a few minutes later, beet red in the face, carrying the most malnourished dog I have ever seen.  The poor thing looked like he was straight out of that animal cops show on Animal Planet...nothing but skin and bone.  They had to euthanize him right then and there he was so bad. The vet was so mad...he was downright fuming.  The vet techs told me that they've been having a lot of trouble with this woman and that animal control has been to her house to remove like 30+ cats before.  I don't know why she hasn't been prohibited from owning animals... but right before she left she set up an appointment in two weeks for two new kittens (which she never showed up to).

 I also knew an older woman once...I don't think she was exactly a hoarder, but most certainly a poor owner.  She was a neighbor of mine for a few years out in the sticks of northern MA and lived in a very small ramshackle little house.  She had 12 pomeranians in that tiny house and they never once saw the light of day.  They yapped constantly and you could see them in the windows...but I never once saw them outside.  We peeked in her windows once and saw her floor - absolutely covered in newspapers and poop.  It was so disgusting...you could smell that house down the driveway it was that bad.  Luckily she wasn't getting any more dogs though as far as I know, unless she was breeding them.  My parents were somewhat friendly with her (mostly because she was a horrible person to live next to if you weren't friendly - she had a TEMPER) and I think had some conversations about the dogs.  I think she had a ton of them when we first moved in next door and by the time she moved out she was down to 12 or less.  I don't know why we never called animal control on her...I was too young at that time to even have thought about it as a possibility, and I think my parents just didn't want to cause trouble...probably mostly because we wouldn't put it past her to do something awful if we got on her bad side...
 

I don't think it is the number really, but moreso the care.

The women who owned my house before me was a hoarder. I bought the house at foreclosure and it was condemned. The bank sold it for $100k less then the people had bought it for because it was in such bad shape.

She was an elderly women in a wheel chair and she had 30+ cats and 8 dogs living in a 3 bedroom house that is on the small side. The cats just kept breeding so she had more and more of them all the time.

The house was horrendous when we bought it. You could smell the urine from outside and we had to basically gut it down to the floor boards to get the smell and rot out. We actually had to replace a few floor boards. The doors were also almost paper thin from the dogs scratching them up to try to get outside. The house took us over a year to get it to the point we could move in, but it is very nice now because it is basically new.

When the bank forclosed on her she let all of the animals go outside. We still have stray cats living in the woods, but we had a lab rescue come for 4 of the dogs who never strayed far from the house after she kicked them out. We don't know what happened to the rest of them. I can only hope neighbors took them in. Other neighbors have called animal control on the cats, but I still see 5+ on a regular basis. They seem to be pretty well taken care of from community handouts. We have a lot of elderly people in the neighborhood who put out cat food. I put out cat food for awhile but racoons kept coming for it and I was afraid of Salem getting hurt by one so I stopped.

This was a very interesting read!

And I have no personal experience with animal hoarding but I do not believe any one of you guys here are so dont worry!

All I know of animal hoarding are those I see in episodes of Animal Cops (I love the happy endings...).

On there, the cases they feature have people who think they are doing a good thing by keeping that many animals. They figure, better than being out on the street. But like you all said, its far too many for them to take care of. They live in filth. Most of them are walking over each other with the amount of animals in a small house (usually in the city too!) Poop is everywhere and the animals are sick.

I feel so bad for some of them because, as some have mentioned too, is that they dont realize they are doing more harm than good.