Animal Welfare

In this post, I’ll continue my exploration of animal hoarding behavior. I’ll focus specifically on what the veterinary community can do to observe, prevent, and report such behavior.

If you want to stay vigilant about hoarding and contribute to solutions, here are some things to consider and inquire about before supporting an organization or a rescue client:

• How many animals are currently in the organization?
• How many animals have been adopted within the last year?
• What does the animal intake look like on a yearly / monthly basis?
• What are the average, median and longest length that animals in the organization stay?
• Do they have a 501c3 and/or a current 990 form?
• Do they have a Board of Directors and a clear mission statement?
• Is there a physical location associated with the rescue, and are visitors allowed?
• Is the rescue foster-based or shelter-based? If shelter, how many employees are there?
• How are members or fosters selected and screened?
• What are the adoption and intake processes like?
• How is their relationship with the local veterinarian and animal control organizations?

These questions can give you an insight into the legitimacy of the rescue and if there are any warnings concerning hoarding behavior or connections to clients who hoard.

Of course, the behavior of the owners isn’t the only giveaway. Seeing animals for the following reoccurring problems can be a sign that they aren’t being cared for properly:

• Matted hair with numerous ectoparasites (fleas and ticks)
• Overgrown nails
• Untreated wounds and scars
• Broken or ground down teeth
• Lesions from urine scalding
• Missing fur
• Ear infections
• Appearing very dirty and smelling foul

These symptoms can be manifestations of further complications including abscesses, respiratory diseases (often accompanied with coughing and discharge), feral or unsocial behavior, gastrointestinal problems caused by infectious parasites, and even more. All or some of these symptoms in tandem seen across multiple animals could be a clear giveaway to hoarding behavior.

After a few visits with clients bringing animals in under these conditions, there are a few extra observable conditions to look out for on their behalf:

• Their bills add up
• They keep bringing in animals once without ever following up
• Multiple animals seen for symptoms listed above
• Asks for extra medication for other animals in household
• Will take extreme measures to preserve the animal’s life, even removing from care
• Claims to have found or received multiple animals in their present condition
• Vague, avoidant answers

Staying vigilant to these signs can keep those in the veterinary community from enabling hoarding behavior and even actively halting it. The behavior of hoarding is harmful to both client and animal, and taking the time to ask these questions and train on the patterns of behavior help to keep animals happy and safe.

Over the past few months, I have been invited to speak at three national conferences: the Pacific Veterinary Conference in Long Beach, CA; the World Small Animal Veterinary Association Conference in Toronto, Canada; and the American Veterinary Medical Association Conference in Washington D.C. I covered a range of topics that I plan to outline in my upcoming blog posts, starting with the topic of animal hoarding.

In my series of lectures concerning the topic of animal hoarding, I explore several situational definitions and signs to identify and prevent animal hoarding. As veterinarians, we represent the first line of defense against this treatment of animals.

Beginning with how animal hoarding is defined, the situation isn’t always as simple as owning an atypical number of animals. To explore this definition further, we use the acronym FIDO:

• Failure to provide for the animals in question
• Inability to recognize this failure and its effects on animals, people, society
• Denial or minimization of the problem
• Obsessive persistence to continue to accumulate animals

Being cognizant of these factors will not only help to solve the problem, it’s important to remain vigilant so that we can support our patients, the animals, as well as our clients, especially when the client is not properly caring for their animals.

If encountering animal hoarders and treating their animals seems like an unlikely situation, it may be more likely than you think. A sample taken of 54 cases showed 32 repeat investigations into the owners. The hoarder in question may not seem obvious as well – up to 75% of this sample was shown to be unmarried women, generally well educated with at least some college, and many from caregiving backgrounds. There were a variety of income levels, but many of the sample subjects were on disability, retired, or unemployed. Concerning age, the study saw that most began hoarding in their 30’s, and nearly half were over 60. That said, we now have many cases of very well-educated people in animal hoarding situations.

As the study shows, the profile of a hoarder is not so obvious visually! Next, we will discuss which profile traits of a hoarder we can identify! A preoccupation with animals is a given, but this may take many different forms – usually this preoccupation takes up most of their time and money. There’s an element of companionship that comes with owning one or many pets, but a hoarder has little social contact with others, potentially relying on animal companions instead.

Some reasons as to why people commonly hoard include rescuing them from euthanasia, feeling a special ability to communicate with the animals they surround themselves with, and the traits of pathological altruism intersecting with an unconditional love of animals.

In many cases, these situations and reasons aren’t exclusive from one another. See the venn diagram below to understand how this can manifest:

Let’s explore some of the hoarder profiles listed above:

Overwhelmed Caregiver – Of the three profiles listed above, the overwhelmed caregiver is usually more firmly rooted in the reality of their situation – and has some awareness of the problem. They acquire animals more passively, and their situation is usually attributed to a change in their circumstance. They may have kept acquiring animals because they are unable to problem solve and are socially isolated and not receiving advice or feedback from others. However, this profile usually has fewer problems with authorities than other cases.

The Exploiter – This type of hoarder usually collects animals based on their use, not because of any empathy or compassion towards them. This can go hand in hand with sociopathic tendencies. They are indifferent to harm caused to the animals and tend to ignore other’s concerns about their behavior. In some cases, this can even be paired with manipulative or cunning behavior to cover up their actions, including a charismatic personality to deflect criticism. Some exploiters even claim to be experts to justify their actions to control the situation.

The Rescuer – This hoarding profile usually comes from a self-driven mission which eventually leads to unavoidable compulsion. The mindset that only they can provide care leads to active acquiring of animals that they are looking to save. In some cases this can be a sign of a bigger emotional disruption, such as a fear of death. As the number of animals acquired rises, they stop being able to rescue and follow up by adopting, leaving rescue only care. The illusion of proactive care in this situation can be enabled by networks of people in similar situations. The resulting echo chamber can fuel delusions and pathological altruism.

Above, we can see a shift in the trends of causation for these certain profiles of hoarders and where some symptoms of their hoarding hold greater weight comparatively.

In its first revision since 1994, the DSM-5, or Diagnostic Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders, ed. 5, hoarding behavior is now classified as a disorder. Recognizing hoarding is a big step in treating the disorder, as the DSM-5 is a standardized resource for licensed U.S. mental health specialists who can treat its symptoms consistently and at a deeper level. It also allows for comparison between the prevalence of cases, risk factors involved, and the results of different treatment methods.

In Part 2 of my blog series on animal hoarding, I will discuss what we can do as veterinarians to prevent and solve for this behavior.

 

References

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Patronek, G., Loar, L., & Nathanson, J. (Eds.) (2006). Animal hoarding: Structuring interdisciplinary responses to help people, animals and communities at risk. Boston, MA: Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium.

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