Animal hoarding is a phenomenon that involves the accumulation of a large number of pets or animals without providing adequate care for them. It is a complex issue that often stems from various underlying factors, such as trauma, attachment disorders, and mental health challenges.
The Transformation from Pet Owner to Animal Hoarder:
While most pet owners have genuine love and care for their animals, some individuals develop a compulsive need to accumulate more pets than they can adequately care for. The reasons for this transformation are multifaceted and can include a lack of understanding of pet care responsibilities, emotional attachment to animals, and underlying mental health issues.
Trauma and Attachment Disorders:
Animal hoarders frequently have a background of trauma or attachment disorders. Traumatic experiences, such as neglect, abuse, or loss, can disrupt the development of healthy relationships, leading to an increased attachment to animals. The presence of attachment disorders further intensifies the need for emotional connection, resulting in excessive pet acquisition.
Older Women and Animal Hoarding:
Studies have indicated that older women are more likely to engage in animal hoarding behaviours. Several factors contribute to this phenomenon, including the presence of loneliness, a desire for companionship, and the loss of social connections or family members. Animals often become substitutes for the lack of human companionship, leading to the accumulation of pets beyond a manageable number.
The Cycle of Hoarding:
Even when authorities intervene and remove animals from a hoarding situation, the behaviour often resumes if given the opportunity. Hoarders may experience intense distress and emotional turmoil due to the separation from their pets. This distress, combined with the underlying psychological factors that drive hoarding behaviours, contributes to a relapse in hoarding behaviour when the circumstances allow.
Motivational Interviewing as a Potential Solution:
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a client-centered counselling approach that has shown promise in addressing animal hoarding behaviours. MI aims to evoke and strengthen an individual’s motivation for change by exploring and resolving ambivalence towards hoarding tendencies.
Through a collaborative and empathetic approach, MI can help hoarders recognize the negative impact of their actions on both themselves and their animals, leading to behaviour change.
Animal hoarding is a complex issue with deep-rooted psychological factors. Understanding the underlying causes, such as trauma, attachment disorders, and the emotional connection to animals, is crucial for addressing this problem effectively.
Additionally, interventions like Motivational Interviewing offer hope in facilitating behaviour change and preventing relapse. By recognising the multifaceted nature of animal hoarding, we can work towards creating strategies and support systems to mitigate its impact on both humans and animals.
What to do if you identify that an animal hoarder needs help
Are any of the Animal Welfare 5 freedoms not present?
- Freedom from hunger and thirst: by ready access to fresh water and a healthy diet.
- Freedom from discomfort: by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.
- Freedom from pain, injury or disease: by prevention through rapid diagnosis and treatment.
- Freedom to express normal behaviour: by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind.
- Freedom from fear and distress: by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.
Next, try to find out the following:
Does the person have a background of trauma or attachment disorder?
Are some of them foster animals? Or does the person own them all from breeding that occurred at home?
Find out the maximum quantity of pets allowed in the hoarder’s Council area. Any more pets than 2 or 3 may break Council Laws.
Find out what is the long term care plan for the animals. Will they be surrendered to an Animal Rescue?
If they are fostering excessive pets from multiple Animal Rescues and upon a home visit – they are obviously overwhelmed with mess and clutter and not able to adequately care for the quantity of pets and themselves in a hygienic manner, you then should inform the Animal Rescue that the Participant has a mental health condition and is not suitable for Foster care & they need to return the pets or pickup should be arranged.
The Foster group should potentially unsubscribe the person from their Fostering newsletters to stop recurrence.
There are still ways that recovering Animal Hoarders can have contact with animals;
1. Through trauma-focussed animal therapy,
2. Through NDIS funded pet-focussed community, social and recreation support organisations, and
3. Through a supervised volunteer animal rescue program.
Animals can be a wonderful way through the healing process.
