Research

What is Animal Hoarding?
Animal Hoarding is a complex and intricate public health community issue. The effect of it harms mental health, animal welfare, and public safety concerns. How can you define what animal hoarding is? Well, here are three points:
• The person has more than the average number of domesticated animals
• The person is not able to even provide the minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter and veterinary care, and with this taking place the animal could be experiencing starvation, illness, or death.
• They are denying that they do not have the minimum care and also the devastating impact upon the animals.
Basically, Animal Hoarding is the obsession of being in control of animals in large amounts.

Signs of an Animal Hoarder:
Deciding whether or not somebody is an animal hoarder may not always be so easy. Here are some clues that an animal hoarder is known to follow:
• Lack of food and water is the biggest sign of an animal hoarder. Hoarders aren’t able to provide enough food and water so the animals are not receiving proper nourishment or even the basic needs for survival.
• Improper shelter is another sign of an animal hoarder. Hoarders don’t provide proper shelter to the animals, (such as exposing the animals to harsh weather conditions) so they easily get stressed from this.
• Lack of veterinary attention is a huge factor, but this isn’t always as noticeable. The animals are at a higher risk of disease or injury in a hoarding situation since they’re often left in unsanitary conditions and neglected.
• Clean environments are absolutely necessary to the owner and animal for a healthy lifestyle. Disease can easily spread when there’s too much animal waste to deal with in a home.
• Exercise and Movement is required to allow the animals room to exercise with a lot of space. An animal hoarders home has little or no space due to the animals. Lack of exercise causes health issues, and can make animals angry or upset.
(The Top Five Signs of Animal Hoarding.)

3 Types of Hoarders:
Every animal hoarder falls into either one or more of the 3 categories of animal hoarding. Each type varies though by different characteristics.
• Overwhelmed Caregiver: This type of hoarder provides adequate care for the animals and have a strong attachment to them. Once they realize that there is a hoarding problem, they will try to minimize it. They have fewer issues with Authorities and can easily accept intervention.
• Rescuer Hoarder: This type of hoarder believes that they must save/help the animals they hoard in order to protect them from death or being euthanized. They try to avoid all authorities when possible.
• Exploiter Hoarder: This type of hoarder denies that there’s a problem of hoarding and rejects any authority figure. They’re skilled at presenting excuses to their hoarding and do not see how their living conditions are effecting the animals.
(How Animal Hoarding Develops.)

Effects on Animals and Humans:
Humans and animals are both being harmed in an animal hoarding situation. When a person hoards animals, it means they’re taking in animals they cannot properly take care of into their home. To formally take care of an animal you must have a proper household where the animal can get enough exercise, and is properly fed and groomed. When the animals aren’t getting these needs they often get weak, or sick. In some cases, animals are in such bad condition they are living in their own filth. Animals form packs and will kill other animals just to get food to survive. When authorities get involved in a case they find dead carcasses, animal feces everywhere, and “knee-deep” garbage and feces. Animals are being neglected, which means they aren’t getting enough food and water to survive, and they’re bodies are literally deteriorating to the point of death. When the rescue team comes animals are suffering and there’s practically no hope they will survive.
Humans that are the hoarders or anybody else that lives in a hoarder’s home is in as much danger as the animal being hoarded. Animal wastes builds up and produces high levels of ammonia, that can be extremely threatening to everybody in the household.

Laws Concerning Animal Hoarding:
Animal hoarding is covered indirectly by every state’s animal cruelty statute. Which state the owners of the animals to provide sufficient food and water, veterinary care and a clean environment. There are only two states that have a law directly addressing hoarding, Illinois and Hawaii. In Illinois the law mandates counseling for those convicted of animal cruelty and who meet the definition of an animal hoarder; it does not however outlaw animal hoarding. In Hawaii, the law outlaws animal hoarding, but it does not mandate psychological counseling for the convicted, or restrict animal ownership. (ASPCA, 2011)

Raising Awareness:
The perfect way to start awareness and get involved about Animal Hoarding is to first educate others about hoarding, tell people what hoarding is, the signs to tell someone is hoarding, have people aware and looking out for hoarders, then to finally deal with hoarders. Most people do not know what animal hoarding is because they only think about imamate objects being hoarded. The main idea that needs to be spread around is that animal cruelty is not the only problem with animals; it needs to be so that hoarding animals is also a problem in hoarding cases. This is because animal hoarding leads up to lots of deaths, because animals are being contained in huge amounts the hoarder neglects them and they end up dyeing from not being feed, not being in sanitary conditions, or deprived of medical care. Hoarders do not know that they are hurting the animals; they personally think that they are doing it to help them.
A way to stop hoarding is to for people like neighbors, friends and family that know of the hoarders to come out and tell the authorities. This is because if you do not tell there is no way the person can get help, because a hoarder needs your help. There are three stages of hoarding and ways for each to help them in certain ways that pertain to the stage their in. If you are afraid about the person losing their animal, just think that if you do not do something some of the animals will die. To help the hoarder and animals please be a hero and help to protect the animals not heard.

Interview with Lisa Starr, Public Relations Manager at the Austin Humane Society:
1) Have you come across a hoarding case yourself, and if so, what were the conditions?
Yes, the whole house smelled like urine and feces, trash was everywhere and dogs were everywhere.
2)What are the conditions most of these animals are in when they come to the shelter?
Malnourished, have never had medical care, a lot have heartworms, a lot have congenital issues because of inbreeding.
3)Have any hoarders surrendered their animals without police involvement?
Yes they do.
4)About what percent of animals that come from hoarders are able to be adopted?
We have had success adopting all of them.
5) What is your opinion on hoarding and what do you think should be done to prevent this?
This is a big question, animal hoarding is a mental illness and I’m not qualified to answer this question.

Solution
To stop the problem of animal hoarding as it is of today and to prevent it from happening anywhere again. A law of animal hoarding is being established to the prevention of un-needed cruelty of hoarding on the animals of any resident or private property. This law is going to be put in place, for any person in these areas that are not shelter or animals rescue centers. Since farmers need a lot of animals for various reasons around the farm and these reasons are not harming the animals, so they are also excluded. If they have an animal limit that exceeds a number of fifteen they need to get a licensed permit for those animals and need to check in and update their permit for any additional animals that are added after the fifteen animal limit. For any baby newborns of any kind of animal that are not excluded already have up to their first year of age to be sold, given away, or if wanting to be kept should be added by this time. The only animal that is excluded from the fifteen animal limit is fish and this is for the fact that fish’s are always in large amount kept in tanks. For the people who are in the fifteen animal range they have an inspection by an inspector that will check every year to check for any problems or violations of the animals living conditions, ability to acquire food and water, also the appearance of the treatment of the animals, the square foot of the space the animals have to live and have room to run, a background check to look for any hoarding cases that might in your name, and then a salary evaluation to see if you can provide the right resources for the animals. The dogs or animals as big as a German Sheppard or a greyhound should have a four foot by two foot place to sleep, and for smaller dogs, cats, and other animals the same size should have half the size room as the big dogs. For running space outside the animals need to have an adequate size yard that will be approved by an inspector when the inspection is done. Doing these inspections and evaluations will help stop any hoarding cases now and will prevent any form happening again, due to the attention that will be closely payed to the care of /the animals. If a hoarder finds a way to obtain animals again in a hoarding situation they will be severely punished with a fine of $3000 and if it cannot be paid they will be sent to prison for a year. When the hoarder gets out of prison they will still have to pay the full fine alluded so that it is sure the animals are paid for to be cared for. The second offender will be then limited to a five animal limit and not to be given any unauthorized animals. Then finally for a third time offender the offender will be stripped of all animals then sent to jail for three years and pay a $5000 fine when they get out. This applies to hoarders that have been convicted of three hoarding cases.

City Ordinace written to be passed in the cities of Taylor and Hutto

An Ordinance Establishing Animal Hoarding Regulations for the Town of Taylor
The Board of Supervisors of the Town of Taylor ordains:
SECTIONS 1: The purpose of this ordinance is to regulate the number of animals so a hoarding case does not evolve.
SECTION 2: For the purpose of this ordinance, the following terms shall have the meaning given:
a. Animal Hoarder – someone who owns a higher than usual numbers of animals as pet and cannot give the proper care to these animals and will deny this inability.
SECTION 3: Unless otherwise provided, this ordinance shall be interpreted by the general rules of interpretation as provided by and for state law. Except as otherwise provided or required by context, the following specific rules of interpretation shall apply:
a. Gender. Words denoting the masculine gender shall be deemed to include the feminine and neuter genders, and vice-versa
b. Singular and plural. Words in their singular form shall include the plural and words in their plural form shall include the singular.
c. Tenses. Words denoting the present tense shall also include the future tense.
SECTOIN 4: It is resolved that the practice animal hoarding cases should be prevented.
SECTION 5: If an owner has 15 or more animals on their property, they are required to buy a permit for owning these animals. The permit is to be renewed every year and when they receive another animal over the 15 number limit. They are to have a yearly inspection to see if the conditions for the animals are livable and safe for both the animals and the owners.
SECTION 6: First time offenders will receive a $1000 fine, if not paid then they recieve a year in jail and another inspection given at the half year mark. Second time offenders will pay a $3000 fine, and will receive one year in jail and still have to pay the $3000 fine. They will also have an animal limit of owning only 5 animals, excluding fish. Third time offenders will pay a $5000 fine and receive 3 years in jail. They will no longer be able to own animals on their property or in their name.
SECTION 7: If any portion of this ordinance shall be found unconstitutional or otherwise invalid by a court of proper jurisdiction, all remaining provisions shall remain in effect and shall not be affected by the ruling on the invalid section.
SECTION 8: This ordinance shall become effective and enforced on the day following publication.

This plan does not need any additional money for it to go into action, this means that if we get the approval that we need as a group then we can get started and not have to wait for any money problems. The inspections that are needed to be provided the animal control already does and only a couple different aspects need to applied for the inspections to be exactly what we need. For the permits we already have example cards made to show you that can be used and also on the cards they will have the number of animals that the person has.

Bibliography

“Animal Hoarding.” ASPCA: We Are Their Voice. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2011. <www.aspca.org/fight-animal-cruelty/animal-hoarding.aspx.>.

“Animal hoarding: The crazy cat lady, explained – TODAY Pets & Animals – TODAY.com.” TODAY.com: Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Ann Curry, Al Roker, Natalie Morales – TODAY show video, news, recipes, health, pets. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2011. <http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23612118/ns/today-today_pets_and_animals/>.

“Animal Hoarding: When Pet Care Becomes an Obsessive Disorder.” Popular | Environmental Graffiti. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2011. <http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-animal-hoarding-%E2%80%93-when-love-animals-turns-disease>.

” Hoarding : The Humane Society of the United States .” The Humane Society of the United States : The Humane Society of the United States . N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2011. <http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/abuse_neglect/facts/hoarding.html>.

“How Animal Hoarding Develops.” Animal Hoarding. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2011. <http://www.animalhoarding.com/How-Animal-Hoarding-Develops.html>.

“The Top Five Signs of Animal Hoarding.” List My Five. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2011. <http://listmyfive.com/599d3e54/The-Top-Five-Signs-of-Animal-Hoarding.html>.