More threads by David Baxter PhD

David Baxter PhD

Late Founder
Animal hoarding: The crazy cat lady explained
March 14, 2008

An expert illuminates the interesting psychology behind this odd behavior

Shocking but true: Earlier this week, 800 small dogs were seized from a filthy triple-wide trailer in Tucson, Ariz., where the elderly residents were overwhelmed trying to care for the animals. Also this week, Kentucky police found 117 starving and diseased dogs during a raid of a local animal shelter.

What explains behavior like this? Is there malicious intent involved, or are these cases of well-meaning people simply getting overwhelmed? Dr. Gary Patronic of the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium helps explain this unusual behavior.

Q: Why do people hoard animals?
We do not fully understand why people hoard animals. It is quite common for animal hoarders to report very dysfunctional childhoods, characterized by inconsistent and unstable parenting if not outright abuse, during which animals were the only stable fixtures.

A dysfunctional childhood is correlated with a disordered attachment style. This can result in a controlling pattern of relationships, such as compulsive caregiving, as an adult. In this behavior pattern, a person selects someone with a sad or difficult life, and provides care obsessively, irrespective of whether the care is wanted or needed. This kind of behavior often characterizes the caregiving style of animal hoarders.

Other forms of control in hoarding include refusal to adopt, rejection of expert opinion about proper animal care, and sometimes the saving of dead bodies. Animals are unable to judge, criticize, or give advice; and can?t disagree with a person?s interpretation of how they feel or what they need. Thus, they are ideally suited as victims to control for a person?s own reasons.

Q: Why do some animal hoarders believe they are actually helping animals?
Although they claim to be helping, animal hoarders accumulate large numbers of animals to their detriment. All too often, animal hoarders are unable to provide even minimal standards of care and lack the insight to understand that their actions often result in severe neglect, suffering and death. This debilitating behavior can be devastating to families, put elders and children at risk, and incur significant cost to communities for cleanup or demolition.

Animal hoarding crosses all socioeconomic boundaries, although statistically it is more frequent in older, isolated, socioeconomically disadvantaged women. Hoarders sometimes masquerade as legitimate animal sheltering, sanctuary, or rescue groups. It is important to distinguish them from these legitimate and commendable efforts, which put the needs of animals first.

Q: What might trigger animal hoarding?
Animal hoarding in adulthood often begins after triggering events such as a loss of a stabilizing relationship, economic hardship, major health issues or other trauma. Often it results from a complex interaction of disordered attachment, addictive behavior patterns, compulsive caregiving, other problems arising out of early childhood experiences, and adult coping styles after loss or trauma. Therefore, intervention and treatment require a highly individualized approach.

Q: What are the symptoms of an animal hoarder?
Hoarders often have major dysfunction in work, social and daily activities, reduced awareness of surroundings, and impaired ability to form close relationships with people. Contrary to what we originally thought, animal hoarding does not seem to be strongly associated with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and it is not yet defined as an independent psychological condition. Clinical evaluations indicate that it is often associated with a wide variety of psychological disorders, including borderline personality disorder.

Q: How does one ?treat? hoarding?
Some animal hoarders are more likely to respond to a softer, more therapeutically oriented approach. These hoarders have greater insight that the situation is out of control, and may actually find relief at the prospect of outside help and downsizing. At the opposite end of the spectrum are hoarders who are in extreme denial, resist any attempts to intervene and are likely to be hostile.

For additional information on intervention in animal hoarding, please see this report from The Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium. :acrobat:
 

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Banned

Banned
Member
It sounds like this is basically an obsessive behaviour, and part of me can understand the hoarder's perspective.

A girl that used to work for me lived in a basement apartment and had 18 dogs, nine cats, and an assortment of caged animals (ferrets, guinea pigs, fish, etc).

We used to joke that she was our resident animal hoarder, but I know she didn't see herself that way. She had more of the "saviour complex" - taking in animals that were sick or needed a home, providing care, she often said she'd find them a good home once they were "stabilized" (healthy, trained, etc) but I don't recall her ever finding a new home for one of them.

Interesting...
 

braveheart

Member
Although I've had the kind of childhood spoken about in the article, I've never hoarded animals. The whole idea feels totally overwhelming for me! I did have a cat, who in her last 5 years was diabetic, and that took so much care. I also put a whole lot of my energies into trying to teach children, especially troubled ones, and was soon enmeshed in failure and feeling out of control and being in the exact same situations as my childhood.
 
I think sometimes its well meaning people who are ashamed to asked for help or put off by others judgements on the fact they cannot cope who then try to carry on, and it just gets out of control and into the mess that we see in the news. Its so easy to take in animals with the view to rehoming them when they are better and then you get attached and keep them, then it happens again and again till you have too many, and then the animals care start to suffer,, sometimes if you have to give them up you feel a failure, society makes you feel that way with their comments. Luckily I have never experince this, I have had many more birds than I have now and was told once it was too many and that I had a problem but I disagreed all mine where well cared for and I could cope.
 
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