(www.meowbarkblog.com) — If you think we have a lot of pets at our house, prepare to have your mind blown. This isn’t quite as bad as the 800+ small dogs and parrots found in an Arizona home early last year, but it’s still pretty bad.
Police in Chester Township, New Jersey (just about 30 minutes from my hometown), found 80 cats and 1 dog in a million-dollar home that was full of animal feces up to 2 feet deep in some parts of the house. And in a similar story, police in Plano, Texas, found 21 cats holed up in a motel room with a man who faced previous animal cruelty charges and had stored dead cats in his fridge and freezer.
Animal hoarding is a serious problem, and AnimalHoarding.com reports that about 1,500 new cases are discovered each year in the US. If you suspect a case of animal hoarding, contact your local police, animal control, or SPCA.
Contents Copyright © 2009 Kristen King
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I post daily on animal hoarding info & news as well as large scale animal cruelty. http://animalhoarding.tumblr.com
Those who hoard are mentally ill and need intervention & monitoring – they should never be allowed to have pets – it is their drug. Hoarders do not “reform” easily. You cannot simply go in and clean up – that could just send them over the edge – and certainly does not solve the problem.
If you are aware of a hoarder, find out if your community has a Hoarding Task Force. Many communities have realized that dealing with a hoarder involves multiple agencies, fire, code complience, social services, animal control, health dept and so on. By forming a Task Force they can better plan and “rescue” all those involved.
Erickson’s book is fascinating, I’ve read all but 20pages. The first 3/4 of the book is all about Erickson, the last 1/4 is by Arluke who covers the psychology of hoarding. If you have ever encountered a hoarder (animal or otherwise) this book is a MUST READ.
There is also another website out that can be extremely helpful for “stuff” hoarders called Children of Hoarders. It has great resources, links, support blogs etc.
Dear fellow animal lovers,
I work for the A&E television show HOARDERS, and in this upcoming season we are focusing on helping animal hoarders, the animals as well as the hoarder. If you or someone you know is hoarding animals (or anything else for that matter) please click on the website I’ve provided and then click on “casting.” We can help.