What exactly is animal hoarding?
Animal hoarding/hoarders can be defined in three main points:
…. the accumulation of a large number of animals of which the person doesn’t have the ability to provide minimum amounts of care for
Failure to recognize the horrible conditions of the animal
Do not acknowledge or understand the repercussions of the collection on their health, the other house members’ health, and the animal’s health
(Patronek, 2001)
Of course, all instances of animal hoarding are different but there are significant similarities across the board :
- Majority of animal hoarders are female
- Almost half of all hoarders are 60+ years of age
- Often unemployed, retired, or on disability
- Mostly single, divorced, or widowed
- Most animals are accumulated due to unintentional breeding, bought from the public, or brought in from the street as strays
- Cats are the most hoarded animal
How big is the problem?
In British Columbia in 2018, over 8,000 cruelty cases were investigated by the BCSPCA.
In the United States, 250,000 animals are victims of animal hoarding every year.
