Dogs hoarded in Tucson

            When Barbara Rabe, co-founder and president of the Arizona Chihuahua Rescue received a call asking if her group could accept over 100 dogs – she thought it was a cruel joke.

Hardly a joke – in all, over 800 animals, mostly small dogs as well as 82 parrots were confiscated from a single triple-wide mobile home on March 12 in Tucson.

The Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania SCPA orchestrated a raid on March 13 to recover about 1,000 cats from Tiger Ranch in Tarentum (near Pittsburgh), a place that local officials referred to as ‘a death camp for cats.’

On March 11 police donned hazardous material suits to rescue 117 starving and diseased dogs from a “shelter” in Sand Springs, KY - including 40 dogs who were either dying or already dead.

Cats at Tiger Ranch

So, what’s going on? It’s a psychological illness called animal hoarding. And some say it’s on the rise – though no one knows that for sure. While these three dramatic cases made national news, Dr. Gary Patronek, vice president animal welfare for the Animal Rescue League of Boston, and an author of many papers about animal hoarding, says five or six hoarding cases cross his desk daily.

“Historically, collecting animals was viewed as an animal lover who gets in over his or her head,” says Randy Lockwood, senior vice president for anticruelty initiatives and legislative services at the ASPCA. “One popular press story (in the late 1980’s) referred to the person who kept almost 1,000 animals, including hundreds of starving mange-infested dogs crowded together behind locked doors in dark, airless barns as ‘Dr. Doolittle.”

Later the term animal hoarding was used to describe what was called a mental illness, thought to be a kind of obsessive compulsive behavior. That explanation is no longer favored, according Patronek. “We’re talking about various multiple contributing factors, potentially including attachment disorders, addictive behavior patterns and compulsive care giving. Typically there was something missing in childhood which animals filled a void for. Then as an adult a trigger occurs, perhaps economic hardship, a major health issue, the loss of a loved one or serious illness – and seeking comfort, they look to animals as a mechanism which to help cope.”

“These are often competent people – at least they are when they first begin hoarding,” adds Stephanie LaFarge, a psychologist and senior director counseling services at ASPCA.  “They don’t see what they’re doing for what it is. I’ve stood in homes with hoarders and there are 50 cats around us. But when I ask the hoarder, she will say, ‘I currently I have 10 cats.’ They have no real perception of the harm they’re doing to the animals.”

In the case of the 800 animals in the mobile home in Arizona, Rabe says dogs were mostly kept piled on top of one another in cages, many had broken teeth (presumably in attempt to bite their way out of cages), others had ingrown toenails, and some had a range of serious medical conditions. Several dead dogs were found rotting in cages side by side with live dogs.

A fate worse than death

“Being kept by a hoarder is a slow kind of death,” says Lockwood. “Actually, it’s a fate worse than death.”

Rabe says, “There wasn’t a one of us involved in the rescue who didn’t cry.”

 “While older women are often identified, hoarders come in all shapes and sizes, and from different economic backgrounds,” says Lockwood. “It’s a mental disorder – they truly can’t help themselves.”

LaFarge agrees, but adds that hoarders rarely succumb to gentle interventions of family members or friends.

The best approach is not enable these folks in the first place. In Arizona, the older couple with over 800 animals called themselves “breeders,” and often sold their presumably (but not likely) pedigreed dogs. However, most hoarders identify themselves as rescue groups; some appear to be legitimate, even holding 5013C not-for-profit status. Hoarders can have glitzy websites; they seem to be reasonable people to speak with. Hoarders may articulately express their love for animals and willingness to take sick and special needs pets.

Beware of Saints. “Legitimate shelters just can’t take in all sick and special needs pets,” says Patronek. “Most important, don’t settle for purchasing a pet or giving up one at an off site (or neutral) location; absolutely see the facility where you want to either buy the pet from or give-up the pet to. Hoarders simply have too many animals. While numbers like 800 or 1,000 are extreme cases, if it seems like too many pets for the space – it probably is.”

            Lockwood adds that hoarders also tend to view legitimate shelters and rescue organizations as the enemy. 

Patronek is an advocate of a community wide multi-agency approach to deal with hoarders. If police and/or animal control officials can’t manage to procure a warrant, perhaps the fire department can declare a home or facility a fire hazard, or adult services can intervene, he suggests. What works will vary from community to community. Some cities have created an animal hoarding task force which creates a planned protocol on how to deal with the hoarders.

“The reality is that there are thousands of hoarding cases a year, affecting about a quarter of a million animals,” adds Patronek. “Truthfully, right now officials are in a better position to intervene on behalf of the animals than the hoarders who often refuse help.”

Meanwhile, the public can help by tipping off authorities when hoarding is suspected and by encouraging their communities to create a hoarding task force.