Hoarding

Hoarding is a topic we all need to be knowledgeable about.
It needs to be a concern to all of us, especially since many hoarders may present themselves as animal rescuers.

Criteria used to define animal hoarding:

1. More than the typical number of companion animals

2. Inability to provide even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter, and veterinary care, with this neglect often resulting in starvation, illness, and death

3. Denial of the inability to provide this minimum care and the impact of that failure on the animals, the household, and human occupants of the dwelling

Click to expand...

(from http://www.pet-abuse.com/pages/animal_c ... arding.php)

The following are links to information to help you get started:

1. Animal Hoarding: http://www.pet-abuse.com/pages/animal_c ... arding.php

2. the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium:
Includes information on: Hoarding, Health Issues, Animal Welfare, Intervention, and Resources
http://www.tufts.edu/vet/cfa/hoarding/index.html

3. Compulsive Hoarding Website: http://www.ocfoundation.org/1005/index.html

4. Animal Hoarders: The Illness and the Crime fact sheet: http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=27

5. Animal Hoarders: Behaviour, Consequences, and Appropriate Official Response:
http://www.helpinganimals.com/pdfs/hoardingsingle72.pdf

This is a really good topic and something we should always keep at the back of our minds.
We have one such woman in my city. She's definitely a hoarder but she routinely "gets rid" of pets when she's had too much but quickly starts over again. At one point, she contacted smallvic looking to start a rat rescue. Smallvic recognized my city and so forwarded the email to me. I gently persuaded her not to start a rescue.

So yes, we should all be aware and be able to recognize who is hoarding and who is rescuing.

Very good info indeed. should be a sticky

I've never met someone yet to be that but have seen them on animal cops and so on.

i agree great topic ..it would seem to be dangerously much easier for someone with a hoarding personality to get into a bad 'groove' of hoarding with ratties or other small mammals than with dogs or cats ..they take up less space so more area to put more ratties, if they are caged they cant be seen as easily from the outside by anyone else because they wont bark or go to a window to look out, the litters are bigger so quicker to build up numbers of 'accidental litters' ..and its easy to use the excuse 'its harder to place a rat than a dog or cat, so its taking me a long time to find homes.. "

Rescues aside, it might be a good thing for some professed rat lovers to consider also .. loving the little guys is one thing - having so many that none of them are getting the attention and love they deserve on an individual basis (let alone nutrition and vetting, etc) is another great disservice to the animals u are trying to love and an example of good intentions gone bad

This topic is great but very scary. When I was volunteering at the SPCA there were often cases of hoarding and if it wasn't bad enought to look at the animals coming in the people were just as bad. Very sad situation to be in.

there is a show on A&E about hoarding, and one of the episodes was a women who had cats, that went in took out 72 cats, most of them were dead, and baby skeletons. it was vary sad. animal hording is serious.

Ew, I saw that episode DW. Sooo sad!

I had to leave the room when that one came on....

i seen that one too was so so sad

Just read this, brutally sad :sad3:
http://news.sympatico.cbc.ca/Canada/Con ... &date=True

wow 33 dogs in one apt! that's a lot of dogs i can not imagine having that here in my apt lol

im glad that all of the dogs were in good health though cept one due to old age; with hoarding you do not see that very often.

Yup, great topic. I hope that the more people who know what there is to be known about it the more heads will get together and find a way to understand it better and hopefully think of ways to open the eyes of those afflicted with it.
It's pretty obvious that most are good-hearted people who think they are doing right by the kids but don't understand when rescuing becomes wrecking.
I think this:
'Criteria used to define animal hoarding: 1. More than the typical number of companion animals' needs some elucidation in the standards cause 6 dogs or cats would be untypical for most people but not for ratties if their people can provide '2. even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter, and veterinary care'
I know people who want to follow those guidelines can read them to the critter's benefit, but for the people they are aimed at (the hoarders) 'typical' would be open to their interpretation for their emotional benefit, which is pretty much like giving border rules to a drug smuggler - the rules are only read to look for exemptions.

My mother-in-law has some 40 cats in and around the house. We've tried to get her to "scale" down but it's like talking to ourselves :wallbang:

The scariest thing about hoarding is how easy it can be to slip into.

I worry about it with myself, sometimes, and a friend of mine -- both of us have the same problem, of trying to "rescue" or "save" as many animals as cross our path that "need" us, when sometimes we can't even take care of ourselves. Every time an opportunity presents itself, I have to think long and hard about what I can handle. Luckily my boyfriend is very level-headed and helps a lot with it....but yeah. I can see all too easily how love and an honest desire to help can turn nasty reeeeeally fast.

That said, I can't even imagine having like 50 animals in one house. I'm having a hard enough time with three rats, a cat, a dog, and a rabbit.

Wow... can they be investigated?

Unless she comes through with pics at least, she sounds like she could just be spinning a ridiculously huge web of lies. Who the hell in the UK keeps marmosets and meerkats!?

There was a mid 50's lady in a nearby town who used to take in neighborhood strays. Someone noticed they hadn't seen her in a while and called the police who determined that she had gone into diabetic shock and passed away. The police found two dogs in the backyard who either didn't make it or had to be put to sleep, 15 sick cats, and my English Mastiff in a back room with a bag of barn cat food..

I know in her heart she was trying to do good but it was a clear example of rescue gone wrong/hoarding. You can be sure it didn't take a mere week or two for a big dog to starve within inches of her life.

Hoarders Season 3 finale covered a man who started with a female and 2 male rats, who got loose.
In the end they removed over 2500 loose pet rats from the man's home. He no longer lives in his home as the rats had taken over.

The show recruited the help from rat specialists who captured and adopted out, literally, a transport trailer full of cages each containing 3 or more rats, sadly due to the overcrowding some had to be put down.

Hoarders - 3x20 Glen / Lisa, for anyone interested in watching the episode

I personally wouldn't label the man as a hoarder. His house wasn't full of trash or debris, quite open aside from the uncontrollable breeding population.

There is some discussion about that situation here viewtopic.php?f=4&t=22575&hilit=hoarder

1037 pet mice among the animals seized (trigger warning)

http://calgaryherald.com/storyline/...-seen-3-dogs-3-cats-80-fish-and-1037-pet-mice