User:Bovineone/Animal hoarding draft

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Animal hoarding involves keeping higher than usual numbers of animals as pets without having the ability to properly house or care for them, while at the same time denying this inability. Compulsive hoarding can be characterized as a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder rather than deliberate cruelty towards animals. Hoarders are deeply attached to their pets, and find it extremely difficult to let the pets go. They typically cannot comprehend that they are harming their pets by failing to provide them with proper care. Hoarders tend to believe that they provide the right amount of care for their pets. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals provides a "Hoarding Prevention Team", which works with hoarders to help them attain a manageable and healthy number of pets.^[1] The derogatory term "cat lady" is commonly used in the media to refer to a specific type of animal hoarding among women.

Contents 1 Characteristics of a hoarder 2 Behavior 3 Case study 4 Related conditions 5 Treatment 6 Dangers of hoarding animals 7 Legal solutions 8 In Popular Culture 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Characteristics of a hoarder

An animal hoarder is distinguished from a person who keeps an unusually large number of pets, but who cares for them properly. A hoarder is distinguished from an animal breeder, who would have a large number of animals as a result of their business. According to one study, the distinguishing feature is that a hoarder "fails to provide the animals with adequate food, water, sanitation, and veterinary care, and ... is in denial about this inability to provide adequate care."^[2] Along with other compulsive hoarding behaviours, it is linked in the DSM-IV to obsessive-compulsive disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.^[3] Alternatively, animal hoarding could be related to addiction, dementia, or even focal delusion.^[2]

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Cat hoarders are well known for their “love of animals” and particularly cats. ^[4] They usually have an excessive number of cats that exceed the amount for which they can adequately care. They are advocates for animal rights and have many cats because they do not want to see the cats harmed or put to sleep. However, because of the lack of care provided for the cats they can do more harm than good. “As a form of passive cruelty, animal hoarders keep large numbers of neglected companion animals in inappropriate, inadequate, and over-crowded conditions that cause starvation, disease, behavioral problems, or death.” ^[5] They attempt to prevent suffering and yet create more suffering. Eventually they are able to ignore the signs that their cats might be suffering because of something they have done and they try to justify the condition of the cat. They believe that they are doing what’s best for their cats and they have an “unrealistic perception of the well-being” of their cats. ^[6] Cat ladies have a “compulsion to hold onto or, in their eyes save the animal…It’s something of an obsession. They probably devote a lot of time, energy and money toward the animals.” Because it may be a form of an obsessive-compulsive disorder they are resistant to intervention and help from others. It is a need for control that causes them to hoard cats because it creates stability in their lives. ^[6]

A cat hoarder is typically a “single, older, socioeconomically disadvantaged female who lives alone.” ^[7] She has a secretive nature and usually stays inside with her animals. She may grow to be ashamed of her actions and specifically of the disarray of her house and the conditions in which she lives. Generally a cat hoarder “starts with what are apparently good intentions. She loves animals and starts taking them in. She’s trying to fill an important need.” ^[6] However, as time goes on her intentions may shift and instead of taking cats in because of their needs, she will take them in to fulfill her need for control.

She does not always clean up after the cats and they defecate wherever they please because litter boxes are not provided for their use. The cat hoarder becomes used to the smell and cannot see a problem with the situation in her home. She does not clean the house of either cat feces or clutter and many times a cat hoarder is a compulsive hoarder as well as a cat hoarder. The clutter she accumulates in her home could pose a harmful threat to her and her cats. ^[8]

[edit] Behavior

A group of mental health, social service, veterinary and animal welfare experts called the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium (HARC) defines an animal hoarder as someone who “accumulates a large number of animals, fails to provide even minimal standards of husbandry and veterinary care, fails to act on the deteriorating conditions of the animals or environment—even if the animals are starving, diseased, or dying—fails to act on the negative impact of the hoarding on his or her own health and well-being and that of other household members, and denies the extent of deterioration.” ^[7]

Animal hoarding is “a pathological human behavior that involves a compulsive need to obtain and control animals, coupled with a failure to recognize their suffering.”^[7] The animal hoarder may accumulate animals without recognizing the suffering of the animals.

Animal hoarders obtain their pets through any means possible, such as by adopt animals from a shelter or Humane Society, or by luring stray and feral animals with food. Animal hoarders were once thought of as collectors who had good intentions but became disillusioned. However, they “are now recognized as individuals whose mental illness or compulsion can cause criminal behavior with horrific consequences for animals, hoarders’ families and their communities.” ^[9]

They do not clean up after their cats and create unsanitary conditions in which to live. There is usually “self-neglect by the animal hoarder, and when dependent family members were present, neglect of them as well.” ^[10]

For those with dependents or others living with them these conditions can create greater problems such as respiratory diseases. At times the house can be so cluttered that they cannot use bathrooms, kitchens, or bedrooms but instead must find other places to sleep, eat, and go to the bathroom.

There is also neglect of cleaning and the condition of the house which creates danger to her, the cats, and even her neighbors. She may have fire hazards and bacteria may abound in her house causing great risk to her health and others present.

[edit] Case study

There are numerous instances of animal hoarding. This (edited) account is taken from a published account of a "cat house" that involved a woman suffering from an extreme example animal hoarding.

Although generally tolerant of differences in personal taste, S says she was relieved when the infamous P cat house—where 126 emaciated cats, 117 decaying feline corpses and the body of an outnumbered dog were discovered June 15—was demolished on July 27. “I’m delighted,” she says. “The cat poop was a meter high in places. Even my dog was violently ill the day the story broke-probably from eating diseased feces.”

The entire residence-bedrooms and kitchen included-was a swamp of fecal matter, rotting clothes and maggots, according to B, a special constable with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). The surviving animals, B says, were emaciated, unfed and in distress. Many suffered from feline infectious peritonitis, a fatal blood disease equivalent to AIDS in humans, while others consumed their own offspring. Although the house’s stench was not apparent from the sidewalk, B is baffled that the problem was not detected earlier. “Feces was leaking out of the foundation of the house,” she points out. “You’d think the mailman would have noticed.”

Two sisters were charged under the Animal Protection Act for causing and permitting distress to cats. They will appear in court. The couple was evicted, along with their mother from the rental home. Six weeks later, contractors were hired to demolish the building under the supervision of a Capital Health inspector.

– Wittmeier, Carmen, "Cat Houses of Truly Ill Repute."

[edit] Related conditions

The causes of animal hoarding may be influence in part by existing psychological problems or mental disorders. ^[11] “Compulsive hoarding is a prominent and distressing symptom in up to 20% of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It can also occur in people with schizophrenia, dementia, eating disorders, head injuries, and certain personality disorders.” ^[12] “Some believe [animal hoarding is] a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder and other mental health experts believe there may be something else to blame.” ^[6] Hoarding can be “a sign of psychopathology. But it can also be a sign of loneliness, worry, or fear.” ^[13]

[edit] Treatment

It can be difficult to treat animal hoarding in part because the causes are not yet known. The animal hoarder may not be willing to part with the animals and may refuse to acknowledge that there is a problem. In a survey of animal hoarders being treated “only a half acknowledged the lack of sanitation in their home, and less than a third willingly co-operated to solve the hoarding problem.” ^[14] New methods are being tested to determine the best way to treat an animal hoarder although it is agreed that “most need professional therapeutic help.” ^[15]

When determining how to treat animal hoarding, reviewing the origins can be helpful because it may not be a mental disorder but rather a way of assuring attention. The animal hoarding may have arisen in desire for companionship or as a way to escape loneliness resulting from solitary living.^{[citation needed]}

One possible treatment includes cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) but that is still being evaluated for its effectiveness. ^[16] Unfortunately, some experts believe “that the animal hoarder, even if the situation is remedied once, will likely do it again” particularly if the underlying psychological reasoning for hoarding remains unresolved.^[6]

[edit] Dangers of hoarding animals

Main article: Health Issues in Animal Hoarding

The presence of so many animals is dangerous both for the animals and the hoarders. At the very least, because hoarders, by definition, fail to clean up after the animals, urine and feces accumulate. Feces are a vector for a number of diseases. Ammonia from the urine rises to unhealthy concentrations in the air. OSHA set the permissible exposure limit for ammonia at 50 parts per million; 300 is life-threatening.^[17] In a particularly noteworthy case, the ammonia concentration of the air in one hoarder's house (even after ventilation) was still 152 ppm. ^[2]

Animal hoarding is also a serious animal welfare issue, affecting up to 250,000 animals—mostly dogs and cats—in communities throughout the United States.^[1] Hoarders keep abnormally large numbers of animals for which they may not provide even the most basic care. The sometimes hundreds of dogs or cats kept by a single hoarder generally show signs of neglect such as severe malnutrition, untreated medical conditions including open sores, cancers, and advanced dental and eye diseases, and severe psychological distress. In 80 percent of the cases studied, authorities found either dead or severely ill animals in hoarders' homes.^[18] Animal hoarding is also a public health threat, as hoarding creates highly unsanitary conditions on the properties of hoarders.

A cat lady creates danger for many different people. It is dangerous to her health first and foremost as she lives in the unsanitary conditions. There are also risks because she might hoard other objects which could be dangerous to her. A hoarder might “be threatened with a fire hazard, falling, unsanitary conditions, and the inability to prepare food.” ^[19] She creates danger for the cats because she does not recognize their needs and does not clean up and dispose of their feces. The cats hoarded by the cat lady are victims of abuse and “are often subjected to severe lack of sanitation, disease, crowding, confinement, and starvation, and they often die—all of which go unrecognized by the hoarder.” ^[7]

There is danger for anyone living with her. Although many people think that all cat ladies live alone because of the stereotype that is not always the case. Cat ladies frequently have mothers, sisters, husbands, or children living with them. The conditions of the house create great danger for the dependents and member of the household. They can develop respiratory infections and there are many accounts of children unable to attend classes because of infections they contracted from the conditions in which they live.

It is unsafe for the community because the house, aside from unsanitary conditions, can pose a fire threat to the community thus endangering the lives of firemen, policemen, and citizens. Cat ladies houses are “less sanitary, cause more of a public health risk, and more difficulties for the board of health office.” ^[20]

[edit] Legal solutions

Many states have no legal definition for animal hoarding (though localities may have a limit of the number and types of pets), and many people are unaware of the severity of neglect in typical hoarding situations. Animals rescued from hoarders must often be cared for at the rescuer's expense, and the high cost of doing this can also act as a disincentive for prosecuting hoarding cases. These factors can make it a lengthy and challenging legal process to secure a verdict against an animal hoarder charged with animal cruelty.

In 2005, the Animal Legal Defense Fund won a significant legal victory in the Sanford, North Carolina case ALDF v. Woodley.^[21][22] A unique North Carolina state law allows any person or organization to sue an animal abuser.^[23] In April 2005, the judge in the case granted an injunction allowing ALDF and county authorities to remove more than 300 diseased, neglected and abused dogs from the home of a Sanford couple. ALDF was granted custody of the animals, and the hoarders were found guilty of animal cruelty charges. ALDF subsequently won the right to restrict the hoarders' visitation rights while the dogs remained in custody during ongoing appeals.^[21]

There is little regulation for animal hoarders and it can, therefore, be difficult to prosecute an animal hoarder. The first barrier to a solution is a lack of recognition and awareness to hoarding. Authorities may not recognize that there is a problem because she may convince them that she is helping the animals and running a shelter. However, “animal care in shelters, sanctuaries, rescue operations, foster care settings, and hospices is largely unregulated.” ^[7] Until there are laws created regarding the health and safety of animals little can be done to protect them and the animal hoarder. There is “no single agency responsible for investigating or resolving hoarding cases” although there are more studies being done to indicate the need for change. ^[24]

A veterinarian can be one of the first to recognize the signs of a animal hoarder and begin the process necessary for an investigation. However, veterinarians must be careful not to accept or make excuses for suspected hoarders, since animal hoarders are often in denial that their housing conditions have led to the harm of their pets.

Other legal situations are created when the house and yard become a problem for the community. Neighbors may complain of noise from the animals or they may be attacked when walking by the house. In situation such as these legal action can be taken to ensure that they are safe and that the animal hoarder upholds the cleanliness standards of the community.

[edit] In Popular Culture

• Farley Mowat's novel The Dog Who Wouldn't Be briefly mentions a woman who has several dozen cats in her house, which gives out an unpleasant aroma when the windows are opened. She lets them out at nights to air out on the roof. That is until Mutt (The Dog Who Wouldn't Be) chances upon this. He chases the cats off the roof.
• In the animated television show The Simpsons the Crazy Cat Lady as a mentally ill cat hoarder who talks only in gibberish and throws cats at other people who was at one time a brilliant lawyer and doctor, who burnt out and went insane.

[edit] See also

• Health Issues in Animal Hoarding
• Toxoplasmosis

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• People Who Hoard Animals, Psychiatric Times
• Behind Closed Doors: The Horrors of Animal Hoarding, Humane Society of the United States
• The Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium, Tufts University
• Animal Hoarding, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
• Animal Legal Defense Fund

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