News & Events
The behavior appears to be increasing, particularly among elders. The pack-rat mentality can be carried to extremes, and it’s tricky to address.
When an elderly Chicago couple were found buried alive in their debris-filled home recently, their plight became a public example of a poignant situation that faces millions of people: the inability to sort through and discard possessions, some of them truly just garbage.
When most people hear animal hoarding, they recall shocking news stories or imagine the “crazy cat lady.” They immediately side with the plight of the rescued animals, but rarely do they imagine what the lives of the hoarder must be like, or what led to the hoarding. The tragedy of animal hoarding is that most animal hoarders suffer the same fate as object hoarders—they fall victim to their good intentions and end up emotionally overwhelmed, socially isolated and ultimately alienated from family and friends. The problem of animal hoarding causes great suffering for both the animals and humans. When discovered, it also poses great expense for local animal shelters and may even necessitate regional and national efforts to find homes for a large number of animals.
