Animal hoarding can be health issue for pets, people

Todd Nix has clear memories of entering the homes.

"The first thing that happens when the door is opened is the smell hits you like a ton of bricks," said Nix, community service director for the city of Florence. "It's that ammonia smell of cat urine or just the nasty smell of feces and dog urine.

"We've seen dead animals in the house, and animals eating other animals just to stay alive."

Colbert County Animal Control Director Tommy Morson has had the same experiences.

"We've actually had to go in wearing hazardous-materials uniforms," Morson said.

They are talking about cases of animal hoarding. The cases typically involve someone with a mental condition that causes them to take in dozens of dogs and cats to the detriment of living conditions for the person and the pets.

Most recently, local officials removed 47 Chihuahuas on Dec. 31 from the home of a woman who had become too sick to care for them. Many of the dogs were adopted out afterward. About a dozen dogs had various disabilities and ailments, so they couldn't be adopted. An animal hospice group in New York state has taken them in.

Morson said hoarding is dangerous to the health of the pets and the hoarder.

"After a while, it becomes a health problem because you can't keep up with the waste the animals are producing, and you end up living in feces," Morson said. "When we see a situation like that, we immediately contact health care professionals. We also get the animals checked.

"Usually, we find the animals are parasite infested and just have not had care taken, whatsoever. Many have teeth and gum problems, cataracts or blindness or lost an eye from where they were fighting with other animals in the house."

He said the person living in the house often has little to eat because he or she has dedicated much or all of their income to feeding the pets.

"It gets to where you know the people have a sickness," Morson said. "They're always defensive and say they are taking care of the animals and love the animals. They're like an addict in that they won't admit they have a problem until someone is able to lift them up and help them out."

Morson said he's had about five or six such cases during his career.

"Sometimes, the owner will tell us they see an animal on the side of the road and pick it up," he said. "In their minds, they're trying to save them all, but it turns out bad for the individual and the animals."

Nix, who oversees various city agencies including the animal control office, said such cases usually are discovered by neighbors who have complaints about odors coming from the house or from relatives of the hoarder.

Nix recalls a case in the city of a man who had 44 dogs, and another involving a woman with about as many cats.

He said the typical hoarder is an older person who has depression issues yet usually is well educated and has had success in the past.

The hoarder often sacrifices family relations and personal finances for the sake of the pets.

"What starts out as thinking you're being a good Samaritan by taking in strays snowballs to where it's out of control," Nix said. "In their mind, they can't get rid of them because of fear of the animals being euthanized, or they just can't bear to part with them.

"It's heartbreaking because in that situation, eventually the animals and the person lose because we have to come in with a warrant for animal cruelty."

He said the owner usually isn't prosecuted because they are not intentionally being cruel. One reason for issuing a warrant is it gives animal control officers authority to go into the house and take the animals. Warrants such as these often rescue the person from conditions that are unsanitary and hazardous to their health, as well.

"It seems that, whenever you find animal hoarders, you will find people who hoard in general," Nix said. "Everything - garbage, books, magazines - is all over the place. I know of one case in Florence where the whole house had to be gutted afterward."

Animal hoarding is a subject Dr. Gary Patronek, director of Boston's Tufts University Center for Animals and Public Policy, has spent countless hours researching.

Patronek, who founded the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium, said there are about 700 cases of animal hoarding every year in the United States.

He agrees the conditions are hazardous to pets and hoarders alike.

"It's ironic that, in America, human adults can choose to live in conditions that are actually illegal for animals to live in," Patronek said.

He said some hoarders start out trying to help animals and simply get overwhelmed, but it's not always that simple.

"There are others in which, while the hoarders don't recognize it, there's a deliberate component to what they're doing," Patronek said.

He said many hoarders take in animals, not just passively, such as getting a dog from the side of the road, but also actively by seeking out pets through such means as the Internet and bulletin boards.

"While there's not a deliberate intent to harm them, the animals are not necessarily being kept for the animals' sake," he said. "There's a human component to this.

"It's about fulfilling a person's need to sort of acquire and control. The animals may be the only things they have, their only sense of closeness, the only area where they have any control."

He doesn't compare a hoarder's intent to that of someone who, for example, purposely tortures a cat.

"They don't have the motivation of torturing the cat," Patronek said. He adds, however, "If you're the cat, it doesn't make much of a difference.

"If you're killing it with presumed kindness, it doesn't matter to the cat that's starving to death."

Patronek said every case is unique, but 76 percent of hoarders are women, and 46 percent are at least 60 years old.

Dead or sick animals are found in 80 percent of the cases. In 60 percent of those cases, the hoarder doesn't acknowledge there's a problem, he said.

Animal feces and urine are found in living areas 69 percent of the time, and in the hoarder's bed 25 percent of the time.

Patronek said hoarders often alienate themselves from their families.

"We get calls a lot of times from family who ask, 'What do I do? I can't bring my children over to see their grandmother because of the conditions in the house.'

"Often, they're in extreme denial and it's the family members who try to help them."

Bernie Delinski can be reached at 740-5739 or bernie.delinski@TimesDaily.com.