Pet Hoarding

Is it just me or are there more and more stories in the press recently of pet hoarders? There was a story in the papers the other week of a couple who had a 69 dogs in a cramped back garden. Most were huskies - such lovely dogs, but they need loads of attention and exercise. Amazing none of them died. Sounds like an attempt to make money breeding them that got out of hand.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ourished-disease-ridden-dogs-tiny-garden.html

The thread about the 35 Leeds rabbits prompted me to post. Also, I have been watching Confessions of an Animal Hoarder on the DMax channel - some incredible stories of people with 90 cats and so on.

On the Animal Hoarders show most of them are people who really love animals, yet somehow their rescuing gets completely out of hand and the creatures end up in the most deplorable conditions. They never seem to spey them either, so a few cats ends up being a lot of cats pretty quickly.

I'm not sure why it seems to be getting worse - maybe just that the newspapers are more interested. Maybe these people were coping previously but the increasing expense of pet food, vet care etc. means things that were just about manageable (and kept secret) have become a crisis.

I guess with rabbits, expense and ignorance is the main reason. People buy 2 rabbits, without knowing what neutering costs, and pretty soon they have a lot of rabbits. Also, it's probably easier to hide the poor conditions that rabbits are being kept in - they don't bark or drive the neighbours nuts like hundreds of cats and dogs would.

Anyway, check out Confessions of an Animal Hoarder on the DMax channel. It was a real eye-opener for me as to how some people view animals and into the psychology of the pet/owner relationship.

I was accused of being an animal hoarder by the RSPCA . A few years ago I went to an open day event at a cat's home and foolishly went to have a look at the many cats needing homes. There amongst all the lovely cats was an thin elderly cat (said to be 12) with hyperthyroidism. They were looking for someone who had knowledge of the illness and its effects. Having lost our lovely cat Thimble (14) who had also had hyperthyroidism but who had actually died of heart failure, I asked if they would consider me (and my family) as suitable.

All was fine. One of their home checkers knew me personally and visited my home frequently. I rang my vets there and then and they were happy to provide telephone references immediately and in writing if necessary later on. We discussed the cost of the ongoing medication for Rosie's treatment and it was something we were used to and could budget for having previously been in a very similar situation. I was told that Rosie the cat had seemingly landed on her paws with us - perfect set up and then I was asked how many other animals we had - my answer was 5 cats, 2 buns and an elderly dog we had already talked about - all neutered / speyed, vaccinated, micro chipped (buns were not chipped) and insured. The woman closed her book and said it was out of the question, we could not adopt Rosie as I was clearly hoarding animals!

I was mortified, complained there and then and also wrote to the charity all to no avail. I was told by phone it was an animal welfare issue and that animal hoarders caused so many problems for the RSPCA! The only response I had in writing was to say that a decision had been made to put Rosie to sleep due to her age and ongoing health problems - they never mentioned animal hoarding at all. Poor Rosie I really believed we could have given her a lovely home for whatever time she had left.

Thats a shame. I am surprised they considered that you had too many animals. I know that some rspca fosterers have a lot more than that. You would think they would be desperate to home a special needs animal.

I am just now watching Animal Hoarders with a lady with 30 cats and a guy with loads of chickens in the house. As with ordinary hoarders, they usually have a very sad life story which prompts the excessive collecting of animals. I must admit, if I didn't have a husband and kids I would be tempted to bring every PAH adoption centre rabbit home, but common sense stops me. The people in the show just don't have that sense of knowing when they have got their hands full.

Yes Tintin, that's very true, often people start off with good intentions and fall in to the trap of not being able to cope. The fact that we were able to discuss budgeting etc for Rosie's treatment and that all our others were looked after re vaccinated, insured, neutered etc you would think the RSPCA would see us as a good bet. As I said in the previous post, it was an open day and other people there who heard what was being said were shocked too.

I know what you mean when you say you would adopt all the buns.... what stops me taking anymore is that I have to make sure I can care fully for the ones we have got and if we take anymore we may get to a point where financially we would struggle. Currently although our 5 cats, dog and two eldest buns are insured, our other 7 buns are not - we just couldn't afford paying 7 more lots of insurance on top of vaccinations, minor health vet visits etc so this tells me we are at our limit. Instead we put a chunk of money into the 'animal account' every month but can then still afford the vaccinations and the type of vet visits that would fall under the excess amount. We also keep two credits cards just in case we ever need to pay out a lot of money fast. We don't use these for anything else.

You certainly need a plan b when it comes to looking after our lot! :wave: