Is my Neighbor a Hoarder?
The Federation of Humane Organizations
of West Virginia
Presented by:
Lisa Starr
Community Initiatives Director
Community Outreach
ASPCA
[email protected]
www.aspcapro.org
1
Is My Neighbor a Hoarder?
2
3
Looks Can Be Deceiving
4
A Closer Look
5
The Interior
6
The Interior
7
Is My Neighbor a Hoarder?
8
Doddridge County - January 2014
•104 cats
•19 dogs
•1 ferret
•55 birds
9
Teagan
Kanawha County – THIS WEEK!
10
Defining “Animal Hoarder”
Someone who accumulates a large number of animals and
•Fails to provide minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, and
veterinary care
•Fails to act on the deteriorating condition of the animals – (including
disease, starvation, and even death) or the environment (severe
overcrowding, extremely unsanitary conditions)
•Fails to recognize the negative effect of the collection on their own
health and wellbeing and on that of other household members
Dr. Gary Patroneck in Public Health Reports (114), 1999
11
12
Demographics of “Animal Hoarders”
•Majority (over 2/3) are women
•Majority (about 2/3) are unmarried
•Most begin hoarding in their 30’s
•Generally well educated,
with some college
•All income levels are represented
13
Incidence and Impact of Hoarding
•Recent studies put the prevalence rate between 2-5% of the
population; the majority are single women over 65.
•6-15 million Americans suffer with some form of hoarding that
causes them distress or interferes with their ability to live
•Costs of inspections, animal removal, medical and mental health
care, clean up or ultimate demolition of the home and transitional
costs of feeding, clothing, and housing can total over $100,000
per incident.
•This doesn’t take into account the impact to local animal
shelters…
14
Characteristics of Animal Hoarders
1. Preoccupation with Their Animals:
Animals take up most of their time
•Animals take up most of their money
•Little contact with others not involved in maintaining the animals
15
Characteristics of Animal Hoarders
2. Presence of Enablers who
Help Perpetuate the Problem:
•Relatives/Friends
•Staff and/or volunteers
•Public officials
•Other shelters or animal
agencies
•Society at large
16
Characteristics of Animal Hoarders
3. Neglect of Personal, Physical and Environmental
Conditions:
• Neglect of personal health and hygiene
• Neglect of animal health and hygiene
• Presence of masses of other accumulated items, e.g. bottles,
newspapers, debris
• General decay and disrepair of household
17
Characteristics of Animal Hoarders
4. Claims of Persecution:
18
•
Local animal control or humane society is seen as the enemy
•
Little or no attempt to adopt or otherwise place animals
•
Assistance from outside groups usually unwanted or futile
•
Legal assistance is often rejected
Characteristics of Animal Hoarders
5. Denial and Alibis for Behavior:
•Serious health problems are
minimized
•Environmental problems are
minimized
•Dead animals are ignored or
treat as if alive
•Short term excuses are given
for long term problems
•Many hoarders think of
themselves as rescuers
19
Characteristics of Animal Hoarders
6. Repetition or Cycling of Addictive Behavior:
• Without supervision – VIRTUALLY ALL hoarders resume their
activities
• Without ties to the community, many hoarders leave the area
and begin again elsewhere
• Lifelong monitoring is essential
20
Psychology of Hoarding
•Early childhood experience: psychosocial/environmental
•Relationships an inadequate buffer for stress
• Emotional pain
• Loneliness, fear or abandonment
•Reliance on ‘unconditional love’ of animals
• Acceptance
• Dependability
•Self reparative efforts via relationships with animals
21
Psychology of Hoarding
•Compulsive, excessive care-giving
•Heightened self esteem
•Triggering event
• Trauma
• Crisis
•Insufficient coping skills
•Care giving capacity exceeded
•Failure to meet needs of animals
•Animal Neglect
22
General Types of Animal Hoarders
• Breeder Hoarders
• Exploiter Hoarders
• Incipient Hoarders
• Overwhelmed
Caregivers
• Rescue Hoarders
23
Breeder Hoarder
•Initially breeds for show/sale but breeding continues and
conditions worsen as animals are not dispersed
•Animals more likely to be kenneled – less impact on human living
conditions
•Only moderate insight into condition of animals and capacity to
provide care
•Psychological role of animals becomes more important than their
economic value
24
Exploiter Hoarder
•Acquire animals for own psychological needs
•True sociopathic or personality disorders
•Little empathy for people or harm to animals
•Extreme denial of situation
•Rejects outsider authority; believes his/her knowledge
and ability is superior
•Manipulative, cunning, lies, cheats, steals
•Actively plans to evade laws
25
Incipient Hoarder
•Achieves minimum legal standards of care, but situation is
deteriorating
•Shows awareness of problems, seeks to provide care
•At risk for having situation worsen unless circumstances change
26
Overwhelmed Caregiver
•Some awareness of problems
•Problem triggered by change in circumstance – health, financial
•Strong attachment to animals as family
•Passive acquisition of population
•Does not deny problems, but minimizes them
•Less secretive, more likely to comply with agencies
•May involve psychological disorders
27
Rescue Hoarders
•Sense of mission to save produces unavoidable compulsion
•Fear of death –opposes euthanasia
•Active acquisition of animals, sometimes surreptitiously
•Believes he/she has a unique ability to care – little or no adoption
•Avoids authorities, impedes access, argumentative!!
•Usually has a network of enablers
28
Rescue Hoarders
Special Concerns in Responding to Rescue Hoarders:
•Usually intelligent, articulate, media savvy and ligious
•Often have current support from local agencies and organiations
•May have had prior support from agencies that are now
investigating them
•Large numbers of animals present housing, veterinary and
zoonotic challenges to responders
•Social services does not view them as a threat to self of others
•Prosecutors unwilling to pursue charges without solid evidence of
cruelty
•Judges insensitive to the severity of the problem
•Little prospect of restitution
29
Legitimate Rescue Groups vs. Rescue Hoarders
30
Intervention Strategies
31
Classic Approaches Don’t Work
•For years, agencies have attempted
to:
•Ignore the problem
•Wait until the problem becomes a
crime before getting involved
•Surrender VS. prosecution
•Responsibility falls to Animal
Control
•Address the initial problem without
follow-up visits
32
So What Does Work?
•Some agencies have been employing new and innovative
ways to approach the problem.
•Some of the most successful resolutions to the problem
involve a multi-agency, multi-disciplinary approach.
•As we now know, animal hoarding has just as much to do
with Mental Health as it does Animal Control.
•In order to achieve resolution in these cases, agencies must
work together within their respective fields of expertise.
33
So What Does Work?
34
Working Together
•Cruelty Investigators
•Animal Control/Shelters
•Veterinarians
•Law Enforcement
•Housing Authority
•Health Department
•Protective Services (adult/child/elderly)
•Social worker/Public Health Nurses
•Mental Health Agencies
35
Outcome Goals for Hoarding Cases
•Care for and/or removal of animals at risk
•Possible prohibition of human occupancy
•Care for people at risk – elderly, children, handicapped
•Relapse Prevention
•Psychiatric assessment/counseling
•Long term probation
•Include no=contact order
•Unannounced monitoring of home
•Restitution to agencies providing care for animals
•Possible jail time, as a deterrent to re-offense
36
Outcome Goals for Hoarding Cases
Teagan saying “Thank You”
37
What Resources Are Available in Your
Community?
•The US Department of Housing and
Urban Development (USDHUD)
•Community Block Grant Funds
•Housing and Human Services or Human Services
Department is the recipient of annual funding for the
rehabilitation of homes in the communities they serve
38
Other Resources
•United Way
•http://www.211.org/
•Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium (HARC)
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.tufts.edu/vet/cfa/hoarding/
•Listing of Community Hoarding Task Forces
Website: http://www.hoardingtaskforce.com
•ASPCA Professional
Website: http://www.aspcapro.org/
39
40
Lisa Starr
Community Initiative Director
Community Outreach
ASPCA
[email protected]
512.627.9897 cell
41