Animal Hoarding

I was interested in hoarding, I had heard of it before and had even seen a couple shows about it, but it never really hit me that it was so bad. I decided to look more into hoarding, specifically, I was curious about the different types of hoarding. In the video we saw in class, the lady had a problem hoarding stuff. She just kept all this useless stuff in her house, collecting dust and just sitting there. To her, it had a use, it had a home, it was a part of her, but to anyone else it was just useless junk. I was interested the most in food hoarding and animal hoarding. Food hoarding from my understanding is pretty much when someone does not believe in expiration dates and never wants to give up food because they think it is wasteful and just can't bear to give it up. Animal hoarding is one type of hoarding that I think would be so unbearable to live with. I went on a website www.animalhoarding.com and found out that these people keep many many animals under terrible conditions but they think that they are loving them and helping these animals. One lady, the website says, kept 522 dogs!!!! That is disgusting! Not only is it sad for the poor animals, but wouldn't the house and the people living in it be smelly? it is impossible to be clean and hygienic with that many animals! An excerpt from the Animal Hoarding website: Thousands of animals suffer and some die in squalid surroundings, devoid of adequate food and water, yet, the owners insist nothing is wrong. Standing in three inches of feces, breathing acrid ammonia in the air, and in plain view of dead and dying dogs, one woman said, “I never hurt any dogs, I love my babies. The fact is I protect them.”

Obviously, this can get extremely out of hand and keeping that many animals is unhealthy for both the animals and the humans. THese people need help.