​Animal Hoarding

Animals are good friends of human beings, especially for those who live alone. Raising small animals can not only improve their own coefficients, but also accompany their owners all the time and relieve their depression. Nowadays, people are paying more and more attention to pets. They not only feed them special food but also go to special hospitals. But liking small animals is one thing, and hoarding a large number of animals is a tendency towards animal hoarding disorder. What is animal hoarding disorder?

Animal hoarding is a type of hoarding disorder and falls into the category of mental illness. Patients like to adopt pets, so they hoard an unreasonable number of pets but are unable to provide them with proper care. Animal hoarders are mainly single, elderly women, living alone, and those of low socioeconomic status.

Animal hoarding is the accumulation of an excessive number of animals within a given area without the ability to house and care for the animals. The word "hoarding" is used instead of "collecting" because the latter behavior is based on interest, while the former behavior has pathological elements. This type of hoarding is an act of animal cruelty, but can more accurately be considered a symptom of a mental illness. Patients become intensely attached to their animals and simply cannot tolerate having them go. They often fail to understand that they are harming animals by failing to provide them with adequate care. Patients tend to believe that they are providing adequate care for these animals. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has established a "Hoarding Prevention Group" to work with patients. Its goal is to help patients establish the correct concept and only care for an appropriate number of animals to ensure that these animals can live a healthy life.

People with animal hoarding disorder accumulate an unreasonable number of pets and are unable to provide them with adequate care. Statistics from the Animal Hoarding Research Association indicate that most animal hoarders are single, elderly women, living alone, and of low socioeconomic status.

1. The number of animal companions is beyond common sense.

2. Failure to provide animals with even the minimum standards of nutrition, hygiene, shelter, and medical care, resulting in the animals starving, becoming sick, or dying.

3. Deny that you are unable to provide the minimum care for the animals and deny that this behavior has a negative impact on the animals, families, and residents.

In addition to hoarding behavior, DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition) also lists it as related to obsessive-compulsive disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Additionally, animal hoarding may be linked to addiction, dementia, and even paranoia.