Animal hoarding is a mental illness recognized as a psychological condition. It is considered a variant of obsessive-compulsive disorder rather than deliberate cruelty towards animals. 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. 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.
Animal hoarding is also a serious animal welfare issue, cats – in communities throughout the United States. 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. Animal hoarding is also a public health threat, as hoarding creates highly unsanitary conditions on the properties of hoarders.
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.
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