Confessions of an Animal Hoarder?

Has anyone watched this show? OMG! I have seen some really strange people on this show! I've seen people who had literally hundreds of cats and one guy even had I would say thousands of rats! Eeewww gives me the willies just thinking about it! LOL

Anyway, what is really strange is that after I started watching this show a friend of ours started dating this woman who I suspect might an animal hoarder. I'm not sure what to do about it without alienating our friend.

 

I have not seen the show, but I am actually doing a project on animal hoarding for a course that I am taking right now related to animal welfare. We have discussed the problem and it is very disturbing. I feel so bad for the animals because they are not getting nearly as much attention as they need, nor are they getting the conditions that they deserve to live in. I may have to check out that show before doing the paper that I am working on. It could be a valuable resource, but I didn't realize there was one. Thanks for bringing it up!

 

Start by doing a little investgating by asking your friend non-offensive questions. Does the person own any pets? I'd love to come by and see them sometime....things like that. If they are hoarding, try to be sensitive to the reason that a person may hoard animals in the first place. They love animals too just need some guidance in why it's not really helping the animal under conditions like that. Hope that helps!

 

It would definitely be a very good resource to use! I watch it all the time and it is so sad to see the conditions some of the animals are living in.

 

I haven't seen it but I think it might make me feel a bit better about having 6 cats by the sound of it..... But as the fridge magnet my mum gace me for Christmas says "Cats are like chocolates, it's difficult to have just one"

 

Animal hoarders? I suppose that means they are different from people who just keep a lot of cats or dogs. So what is the dividing line between an animal lover and an animal hoarder?

 

I haven't seen it. I imagine that would be dreadful to watch. It's no good for people or animals to have so many animals around in one space. There is a limit to what's OK and what isn't.

 

I imagine an animal lover keeps would not keep more animals than was suitable or that they could afford to properly care for, whereas an animal hoarder would just get more and more animals, regardless of conditions.

 

I see. So the animal hoarders suffer from some kind of compulsive behavior quite beyond their control. I wonder what kind of circumstances would make a person turn into an animal hoarder. I mean, excluding animal hoarders like Cruella de Vil.

 

I have watched this show several times, it is very sad. These people really do have love for the animals, and does not want to let go of them, but in the long run they are hurting the animals and themself.

 

I wish I had the means to be an animal hoarder! I have 3 cats and already want 10 more. If I hit the lotto I am going to built a cat shelter in my house. I think cats are so much fun and majestic.

 

To me, the dividing line is the living conditions and health of the animals. On some of these animal hoarder episodes, the animals look sick, the litterboxes are dirty and there are piles of feces everywhere. At times the people that come to intervene even find dead cats.

If you live in a huge, sprawling house and you can devote 8 hours a day to cleaning litter boxes and putting out fresh food and water and keep an immaculate house, then you can have 20 cats.

If you live in a one bedroom house and you have 20 sick cats that are living in 6 inches of feces, then you are an animal hoarder and you and your animals need help.

I'm sure animal hoarders do love animals and think they're saving them from the streets, but by having more animals than they can care for properly, they are making the animals suffer.

 

Thank you, ACSAPA, for the information. From your description, then animal hoarders, themselves, need treatment. There must be something wrong with them to want to live like that.

 

Yes, animal hoarders would benefit from therapy because they are disconnected from reality. A healthy person would say "I know I don't have the time, living space, money and resources to take care of this many animals so I should find a no-kill shelter for some of the animals and only keep the amount that can comfortably live in my space, and that I can take care of properly."

An animal hoarder just thinks "I love them all. I can't let them go, something bad might happen to them out there."

Except something bad is happening inside the animal hoarder's home that is worse than what would happen to them "out there".

Again, it's completely different from just taking in a lot of cats. I know an older woman that has 6 cats, but she's also retired and spends all her time taking care of them ,so they have a good quality of life and a sanitary living environment.

 

The show is quite disturbing. Just like the show hoarders, same concept kind of only hoarders is a bunch of junk and animal hoarders is animals. I think they are 2 different situations tho. A hoarder refuses to throw anything out because "they may need it one day" and animal hoarders just keep getting the animals because they love animals and do not see that their desire for all the animals is not healthy for them or for the animals.

My old neighbor was an animal hoarder. She would not have admitted to it, but in a one bedroom apartment she had 3 dogs and at one point 10 cats. She finally started to give kittens away when she was told by her landlord that she could not keep all the animals there and would have to move if she didn't lessen the amount of animals. Cleaning up her apartment after she left was disgusting too.

 

So what became of her animals? Did she take them with her to be hoarded somewhere else?

 

I have a friend who's typically got anywhere from 15-20 cats in her house at any given time. I know she loves animals and all, but she shouldn't be trying to run her house like a cat shelter. She does not have the time, resources, or staff to help maintain her place. The cats are living in unhealthy conditions, and are not receiving the proper veterinary care - they would be much better off at a cat shelter, plus they would have a chance at being adopted. In her house, they are just trapped.

 

Are they sick, or does she do a decent job of keeping them healthy and well fed? Are the cats fixed? There's a fine line between animal hoarding and just having a lot of cats. Is her place reasonably clean or is it just a pile of cats?
She might need therapy if she's hoarding animals.

 

I've only watched one episode of this show, and I must say I think those people lead some of the saddest lives ever... most of them can't help it at all. I know a lot people think this is animal abuse, but those people suffer from a type of OCD and that's why they do what they do. I do suffer from OCD, so I know what is like... I'm no animal hoarder tho, my OCD is a totally different type... I'm more focused on cleaning things and so on.

OP: I'm afraid there isn't much you can do. After all is your friend the one who is dating this woman, if he finds nothing odd about her... then there is nothing you guys can do.