What is Animal Hoarding?

What is Animal Hoarding?
Animal hoarding. Having many pets does not seem like abuse, does it? But this is. Animal hoarding is having too many pets, and not being able to take proper care of them.
"Animal hoarding or collecting is an obsessive/compulsive disorder in which an individual amasses a large number of animals (sometimes more than a 100); fails to provide for the animals' most basic physical and social needs, including food, water, shelter, veterinary care, and sanitary living."

So, Why do People Hoard?
This is pretty tough to answer. There are some studies that are leading toward attachment disorders related to personality disorders, depression, paranoia, or other mental illnesses. Many people think they are rescuing these animals from a hard life on the street, while in reality they are creating as bad an environment as being a stray because their many pets still do not have adequate food, water, shelter, or veterinary care.

Is Hoarding a Common Problem?
There are around 900-1200 new cases of animal hoarding every year, and the animals that are hoarded vary greatly and include dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, rodents, exotic animals, and even farm animals. Imagine having 100 cows in your backyard..Or walking into someone's house and seeing hundreds of birds flying everywhere. That's what it would hoarding would look like.

People who hoard often do not want to give up their many pets. They feel like they have made an attachment with each individual animal, and sometimes even name each of their pets. If a neighbor or friend calls animal control or someone else to come take the animals, the hoarder would hate to give up all of their pets.