IS YOUR CLIENT A HOARDER?
Many years ago, a local newspaper reported a story about a lady whose home had been raided by animal welfare authorities. She was an elderly woman, whom the paper described as a hoarder.
A neighbor had phoned about a house with an overwhelming smell drifting down the street.
The medium-sized home, located in a large subdivision, was overrun with cats. The walls, draperies floors, and furniture were shredded and covered with urine. Cat waste had accumulated everywhere.
While none of the cats had died, many of them had ear mites, fleas and untreated sores. The woman herself, was too ill to care for them.
The cats were removed and brought to local shelters. The home was condemned, and the owner was taken into long term care.
The story was gut-wrenching, especially since I knew the woman. She had been a of client of mine many years earlier.
Animal hoarding is a sad topic. It’s also on the rise according to some experts. Hoarding is something that cat sitters may have encountered in the past or will encounter in the future. For that reason, I think it’s a topic that needs to be addressed.
Animal hoarding causes immense suffering to animals, and cats are frequently its victims.
I’m going to tell you a little bit more of my experience with a hoarder in a minute.
But first, let's look at what cat hoarding is and what it isn’t.
I like to be very clear on what I’m talking about before using terms that can easily be misinterpreted. Hoarding can mean different things to different people.
The word hoarder is used to describe a range of behaviors. And it’s important to note that experts who study hoarders categorize them into different groups:
What I’m talking about here is the officially accepted definition of animal hoarder.
And it does not mean anyone who keeps multiple cats.
Just because someone has multiple cats, doesn’t make them a hoarder. At one time my husband and I had 12 cats in our house. Mostly fosters with some of our own.
All our cats were well cared for. We had the means to care for them. And had no problem returning cats once ready for adoption.
Although we did adopt a couple of them over the years, mostly special needs cats.
We knew our limits. And I’m aware of how age can affect one’s ability to provide proper care. I no longer foster but I do support the cat shelter in other ways.
Currently, we have 6 healthy senior cats living with us.
So, what is the “official” definition then?
HARC: THE HOARDING OF ANIMALS RESEARCH CONSORTIUM
HARC is a group of researchers, joined to study the problem of animal hoarding and how it affects both animals and people from 1997 through 2000.
The task of raising awareness of this complex disorder is being continued by veterinary epidemiologist, Dr. Gary Patronek and social worker Jane N. Nathanson.
If you’re interested in reading more about HARC and their research, you will find the link to the Cummings School of Veterinary medicine at Tufts University below.
https://vet.tufts.edu/hoarding/
As this is where much of the information in this blog comes from.
HARC provides a definition of an animal hoarder as:
- Having more than the typical number of companion animals.
So basically, a hoarder is someone who has more animals than they can care for, denies that fact while continuing to acquire more.
There are hoarders who accumulate inanimate objects. Often what others consider junk, which is by far the most common type of hoarding. These collectors are often found living in conditions that make it impossible to move around inside their homes.
People who hoard animals share similar traits with other types of hoarders. But what they do causes much suffering. Animal hoarders and the cats they are housing often end up living in perilous squalor.
Early in my business, and this was a long time ago, I knew little about people who hoarded pets.
I didn’t know the typical signs of hoarding. There were few people that did since this is an extremely difficult segment of the population to study.
I’ve heard estimates of more than 3 million compulsive hoarders in the US. Not taking into account Canada and other parts of the world where this is also a growing problem.
The three types that Dr. Patronek identifies are: Rescue hoarders, exploitive hoarders and overwhelmed caregiver hoarders. And they come in all genders, income levels, races, and cultures.
The secretiveness of animal hoarders makes them difficult to study. Despite that, Dr. Patronek was able to put together an analysis of 54 hoarding cases documented through various animal rescue organizations.
46% were 60 years or older
59% of hoarding cases were repeat investigations
The recidivism rate is the scariest thing of all. Many hoarders move on to repeat this behavior.
This is concerning to those of us who love animals and are interested in preventing this kind of animal cruelty from happening.
The most frequent species hoarded were cats, dogs, farm animals and birds.
He also put the possible number of animal hoarding cases at somewhere between 700 and 2000 cases per year in the USA. But I’ve read higher estimates from other studies.
So, when you figure in Canada and other areas around the world, you can see the numbers are staggering.
The expense of intervention when these severe cases are discovered is extremely high. Overwhelming local shelters, like the one where I volunteered for years.
The animals rescued from these situations are frequently sick and unsocialized.
So back to my story from years ago.
A woman I will call Janice, not her real name, contacted me. She said she ran an animal rescue and was looking for cat care when she went to hospital for a medical procedure.
I was just starting out in business and involved in cat rescue myself. So, I wanted to help her as much as I could.
Our conversations were friendly. But she wouldn’t tell me exactly how many cats she had. She told me the number varied due to adoptions and intake.
In hindsight, I now recognize her reluctance to be upfront as the first red flag.
She also wouldn’t let me come to her house for a visit. She was getting new floors put in and wanted to wait until everything was in order. Second red flag.
Janice said she was worried about getting help. She told me she had “a few more” cats in her house than the city allows, and was afraid she would be turned in. Third red flag.
As someone with foster cats myself, the story seemed plausible.
She needed cat care twice a day while she was in the hospital for a week. Then another week during her recovery.
I spoke with Janice over the phone several times before we met. We talked about our mutual love of cats and exchanged stories about the cats we had cared for.
BY THE TIME SHE ALLOWED ME TO SEE THE CATS, I HAD PRETTY MUCH AGREED TO DO THE JOB FOR HER
Since my business was new and not busy, I could afford the time.
I still didn’t know exactly how many cats she had.
When I arrived, I found a very normal looking home. All seemed well both inside and out.
I was expecting to see maybe a dozen cats.
As I walked through the house, more cats appeared. There were cats in every room. I counted approximately 22. I worried about the cats’ stress level living in the same space together.
But the house was relatively clean and organized so I was not overly alarmed. There was no overpowering smell.
Their fur was brushed and healthy. There was medication for those that needed it. And all the cats were adults who were spayed/neutered and vaccinated.
The cats were not fighting. But of course, we know that cats are very good at hiding their stress.
There were clean litter boxes in appropriate places throughout. Everything seemed so organized and in control.
I asked Janice about litter disposal. She had a friend who came once a week to take the litter to the landfill.
The garage where the used litter was kept, was completely empty except for one garbage bag in the corner, as the friend had just done a pickup the day before.
While I was concerned about the number of cats, I was still buying the story they were being fostered for the purpose of adoption.
The cats I could see were in healthy and clean condition.
Janice even had a small outdoor enclosure so the cats could have access to fresh air.
But cats are notorious for hiding stress. And there were undoubtably cats in that house that I couldn’t see probably hiding from us and the other cats.
I had no idea that Janice was not adopting these cats out to good homes. Or that she had no intention of doing so. Even if someone suitable showed interest in one.
She believed that she was the only one who could care for them. A classic trait of someone who hoards animals.
As you’ll see, this experience completely changed my policies for my cat sitting business.
ANIMAL RESCUE GROUPS HAVE LEARNED HOW CATS SHOULD BE HOUSED TO MAXIMIZE THEIR WELLBEING
Great improvement in cat care has been done due to new research in cat health and behavior.
But the study of the hoarders themselves was largely neglected for a long time. Dr. Petronek’s research suggests a strong tendency of hoarders to alienate friends and family.
While Janice had people around her when I was hired, it was obvious that she’d isolated herself from everyone who tried to intervene in the end.
Hoarders are typically suspicious of others. They shut people out of their lives, concealing details of their situation. All in fear of being reported to authorities.
They strongly believe they are helping the cats and no one else can look after them. They won’t tell you the number of animals they have. And they often don’t know themselves.
There is no doubt in my mind that Janice loved these cats and believed she was giving them the best chance.
HOARDING: A MENTAL ILLNESS HIGHLY RESISTANT TO REASON
You can not simply talk someone out of a mental illness.
A search of YouTube produces a long list of videos showing horrendous examples of extreme animal hoarding.
Animal Rescue groups are shown removing cages of sick and terrified animals. And in the most severe cases, deceased animals are found.
The house owner is often in denial and can even seem downright belligerent. Insisting the animals are cared for when they’re clearly not.
I saw none of that Janice’s home.
I didn’t like that she had so many cats housed together but I didn’t want to leave her without help because I had promised.
Like many cat sitters, I have a strong desire to help people and their cats. Ours is a nurturing profession.
Janice seemed to have many family and friends who could help and was in regular contact with them.
She also had help from another lady who brought her litter, food and other supplies for the cats. At that point, she was able to afford medications and vet care for all the cats.
I’m not sure when it all changed.
As far as the work went, I’ve learned that any job caring for multiple cats is going to take you longer than you think. At any given time, someone could become sick.
Obviously, this was a concern for timing my visits and maintaining cleaning standards to prevent spread of disease to my other cats. For that reason alone, I would turn the job down now.
I got through the two weeks without incident. I got into a comfortable routine of cleaning boxes, changing food and water and giving medications.
But it was time-consuming. I was glad to see it come to an end.
Again, it’s not just the number.
EVEN SOMEONE WITH ONE CAT CAN BE NEGLECTFUL
The question is can the person provide care for the cats in their care, and in Janice’s case, in the foreseeable future? As they get older, what will happen to their cats?
It’s now accepted that animal hoarding is a mental illness produced by both genetic and developmental variables.
Hoarders frequently hold the misbelief that only they can help the cats they’ve acquired. And will demonstrate extreme anxiety at the thought of having their animals removed.
Hoarders do not admit the harm they’re doing and even deny the suffering the animals are enduring.
To the outside observer, the animals are obviously neglected and malnourished. They have fleas, open sores and severe matting.
In rare cases, animals have died in these homes. Astonishingly, this is not recognized by the hoarder.
THESE LIVING CONDITIONS CAN LEAD TO BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS EVEN AFTER THE CATS ARE RESCUED AND REHOMED
A situation that adds huge financial strain to the cat shelters who must scramble to provide care and rehabilitation for them. Most shelters operate at maximum capacity with little resources to take on these large numbers of cats.
None of these signs were present in Janice’s home at the time I worked for her. But I was concerned about the future. How is this situation sustainable? What are things going to look like down the road?
Janice’s house and situation were seemingly under control. But somewhere between the last time I saw her and the raid years later, all had changed.
I hadn’t heard from her in a long time. Although she did call me occasionally to keep in touch.
EVERYTHING SEEMED UNDER CONTROL. BUT IT WASN’T.
Experts in animal hoarding have also found that there’s a difference between types of hoarders
There are hoarders who actively seek and collect more animals, and a type that passively accumulates cats. Passive accumulation is often a slower process. And that’s what I believe occurred in Janice’s case.
Another type of hoarder recognized by researchers is what they call the “exploiter”. This hoarder accumulates animals without empathy for them and doesn’t care about the suffering they cause. These can be found in cases of “backyard” breeders.
As I said before, Janice undoubtedly believed she was doing good for the cats. I know she loved them. But cats need more than love and a desire to help.
In the years since I knew her, she had accumulated a lot more cats. And with her declining health, things spiraled out of control. Thankfully, none of the cats died but it breaks my heart to think of how their living conditions must have deteriorated.
Janice had apparently pushed everyone away. She became ill and had ran out of money to care for the cats.
Heartbroken, I drove past her house. It looked nothing like it once did.
The manicured garden was overgrown. The windows were yellow and the upholstered chair in the window was shredded. The blinds were torn and broken. And the door was boarded up and bore a sign saying, “Condemned.”
Sometimes I wonder, what if I’d called the authorities back then? But I honestly think given the good condition at that time that they wouldn’t have done anything.
Since that time, I have set a limit on the number of cats I will care for in any one house. I must complete a detailed cat care plan for every cat I’ll be caring for before service.
And I require a preliminary meeting to establish if we’re all a good fit.
But what about situations where a client mental state deteriorates over time? What if each time you come there are more animals?
Where do you draw the line?
IT HELPS TO KEEP IN MIND THE “FIVE FREEDOMS” OF ANIMAL CARE ADOPTED BY MANY ORGANIZATIONS
- Freedom from Hunger and Thirst– there should always be fresh food and water available.
Ask questions and be upfront about the number of cats your policy allows. Don’t be afraid to tell a client when conditions in the home are getting out of control or detrimental to the cats.
Know what your local laws are and identify who exactly needs to be notified in case of hoarding situations.
Be prepared to contact relatives or others known to the client and could help.
We should all look out for our neighbors. And be aware that these situations can crop up anywhere and our ultimate responsibility is to the welfare of cats.
Well, that’s it for this episode.
Let me know if you’ve encountered any situations like this.
If you would like to talk to me about cats and the cat care business, reach out to me at Procatsitter.com, or on Facebook @cathyhamm.
I’m also on Instagram @procatsittercathy.
