Animal hoarding in Ontario
By Connie Mallory, Senior Inspector - Eastern Region

Animal hoarding occurs in communities across the province. A complex disorder, it affects both human and animal welfare, is responsible for substantial animal suffering and property damage, and is frequently misunderstood and under-recognized. Thousands of animals in Ontario are affected each year, yet due to the nature of animal hoarding, countless cases remain undetected and unreported. Animal hoarding should not be confused with legitimate efforts to assist animals, including animal sheltering, sanctuary and rescue.

According to the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium, it is defined by four characteristics:

(1) Failure to provide minimal standards of sanitation, space, nutrition and veterinary care for the animals.

Poor sanitation practices are characteristic of hoarding households and pose many health risks to inhabitants, both animal and human. In typical hoarding residences the Ontario SPCA investigates animal waste is found everywhere - on floors, walls, beds, countertops, and cupboards.

Oftentimes the Ontario SPCA is contacted after severe odours (indicative of a build up of urine and fecal waste) pose a nuisance to neighbours and alert them to the fact that a problem exists. Animal waste poses serious health risks in both the spread of parasites and the presence of noxious ammonia levels. In many hoarding cases the atmospheric ammonia level in the housing space approaches 300 parts per million - the amount the United States agency regulating air quality standards in work-related environments has identified as life-threatening for humans! As a result, the use of protective clothing and breathing apparatus are often necessary during inspections.

Overcrowding is an acute animal health problem in hoarding situations. The animals are confined to houses, apartments, or even trailer-homes, and in addition to lack of living space, face extreme overcrowding which facilitates the spread of diseases. In cases where more than one species are confined to the same living space, the animals can pose a danger to each other due to inter-species aggression. In one Ontario SPCA investigation the dogs were tied to two-foot chains in the home so that they would not chase the cats (causing them severe distress and forcing them to lay on feces and urine).

The hoarder's failure to provide sufficient food and water constitutes one of the principal health risks to hoarded animals and is a common symptom of hoarding situations. Malnourishment leads to increased susceptibility to diseases, and hoarded animals are often in advanced stages of sickness. When there is a limited food supply, animals may resort to aggressive behaviour to compete for the few scraps available, killing and sometimes even eating other animals. If the hoarding remains undetected, the animals face starvation and death.

Various other health problems arise from a hoarder's neglect and inability to provide basic care for animals. Lack of veterinary attention is among these. Hoarders, refusing to acknowledge the deteriorating health conditions of their animals (or lacking the financial means), often refuse to bring their animals to veterinary clinics for fear they may be forced to give up their animals. As a result, diseases are left untreated and allowed to become more severe.

(2) Inability to recognize the effects of this failure on the welfare of the animals, human members of the household, and the environment.

The difference between a person who keeps an unusually large number of pets and cares for them properly, and the animal hoarder, is that the hoarder is typically in denial about their inability to provide proper food, water, sanitation and veterinary care.

Basic animal waste management is absent in virtually all animal hoarding situations. Animals are generally found filthy and infected with internal and external parasites. The presence of animal waste also prevents sanitary means of food storage and preparation, which puts residents at risk of contracting food-related illnesses and parasites. Insect and rodent infestation can both follow and worsen hoarding conditions, and can potentially spread to the surrounding environment, including nearby buildings.

Animal hoarders are also subject to severe zoonotic diseases (any disease transferred from animals to people) spread by the abundance of animals in a crowded environment. This is a serious public health concern and potentially lethal. Examples of zoonotic diseases include influenza, rabies, cat scratch fever, hookworm and ringworm. Toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease, can be transmitted to humans through cat feces and is known to cause severe birth defects or stillbirth in the case of infected pregnant women.

Animal hoarders will tell you and everyone around them that they love their pets and would never hurt them. The fact is that thousands of animals will suffer and possibly die in horrific conditions from lack of veterinary care and poor nutrition. In one of the many cases of animal hoarding that our investigators have been involved in, I witnessed an owner (standing in several inches of feces) scream that her cat was fine that morning and "was up and about eating" with "nothing wrong with it." Officers were barely able to breath from the ammonia in the air and were assisting an emaciated cat that was dying in agony.

(3) Obsessive attempts to accumulate or maintain a collection of animals in the face of progressively deteriorating conditions.

Hoarders frequently collect large numbers of inanimate objects in addition to animals. In a number of cases investigators find boxes piled ceiling high giving rise to extreme clutter. Hoarded objects can include newspapers, trash, clothing and food. The clutter inhibits normal movement around the house, limiting household maintenance and sanitary food preparation, and heightening risks of accidents to both humans and animals.

Many hoarders have a lack of functioning utilities, such as toilets, sinks, electricity, or proper heating (often for non-payment of bills, a common theme in cluttering, though poor maintenance may also be a cause). This further exacerbates the problem.

Fire hazards are a health and safety issue to animal hoarders and their animals due to the enormous amount of clutter and non-functioning heaters. Fire escape routes are blocked and often gas or kerosene heaters are used as an alternative source of heat in areas covered in flammable materials - serving as fuel for fires should an animal accidentally knock a gas heater over.

(4) Denial or minimization of problems and living conditions for people and animals.

Although animal hoarding has not been conclusively linked to any specific psychological disorder, evidence suggests that there is a strong mental health component in animal hoarding. Models that have been projected to explain animal hoarding include delusional disorder, attachment disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and various others, but more study is required before definitive explanations or diagnoses can be made.

What is clear is that hoarding is very often a symptom of a greater mental illness. For most hoarders, it is likely that their actions are the result of a true pathology, even though they are still usually able to function quite well in society, and are often well-educated, possessing excellent communication skills and an uncanny ability to attract sympathy for themselves (which is how hoarders often manage to convince others the situation is under control).

The investigations challenge

Most Ontario SPCA investigators have come across cases of animal hoarding during their careers and many find hoarding cases to be among the most horrific they encounter due to the amount of suffering involved. In addition to their physical deterioration, many of the animals suffer behaviorally from a lack of socialization caused by an absence of normal interaction with humans and other animals.

Success in preventing large numbers of animals from suffering comes from early intervention. Education and assisting animal hoarders by getting them involved in reducing the number of animals that they can manage is the best method that the Ontario SPCA tries to adopt. However, sometimes we are not made aware of these cases until conditions are horrific.

Because of the suffering involved, criminal animal cruelty charges are often filed in hoarding cases. Yet, because animal hoarding is linked to mental illness, the most appropriate resolution is still being debated. A combination of therapy and long-term monitoring is often considered the best approach by those studying this area of concern, partly because of the high recidivism rate (most hoarders revert to old behaviours unless they receive ongoing mental health assistance and monitoring). Yet, this is still a relatively unexplored area in Ontario and much work needs to be done.

How to help

Most offenders deny family and friends access to their home. Consequently, oftentimes family and friends will unknowingly enable hoarders to continue by providing them with food or money. Family and community members can help hoarders get the help they need, while protecting animals, by notifying the Ontario SPCA or local police if they suspect someone is hoarding animals. In addition, anyone who is considering relinquishing an animal to a private rescue group should first visit the property and ask to see where the animals are kept.

Learn more:

Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium www.tufts.edu/vet/cfa/hoarding/