Experts tell us that animal hoarding is a mental health disorder related to obsessive-compulsive disorder. Most hoarders are middle-aged or older women living alone. Often the animal of choice is the cat it s easier to keep cats indoors, out of the prying eyes of neighbors. Usually by the time others are alerted to a bad situation, there can be hundreds of cats crammed into a house or trailer. Gradually the animals lose their identities, becoming objects to be collected like old magazines, tin foil, or balls of string.
Some animal hoarders start with the best of intentions.
But gradually the animals lose their identities, becoming objects to be collected just as some eccentric people collect old magazines or tin foil or balls of string. Not everyone who ends up with too many animals is a hoarder. There is a big difference between a rescuer whose situation is getting out of control and an animal hoarder who is mentally ill and using animals to feed her compulsion. I have met numerous caring animal lovers who have rescued more animals than they can cope with at home and who have found themselves in trouble. They are not sick people.