Animal Hoarding Essay

The word hoarding was originally used to describe the behavior of animals storing food for future use, and then moved into use as a descriptor of human behavior. There are also different types of hoarders. These include Clinical compulsive hoarding, OCD or perfectionist hoarding, animal

Thesis: Hoarding is seen as unhygienic and repulsive, but it is simply a disorder due to either genetics or as a coping mechanism to trauma. While it has been linked to other problems, researchers are still trying to find better treatments for the destructive habit causing emotional, physical, and legal effects.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder, also known as OCD, is an anxiety disorder in which people have unwanted and repeated thoughts, feelings, ideas, sensations, or behaviors that make them feel driven to do something. There are many different forms of OCD such as checking and contamination.. People affected by the many types of OCD have to contend with overcoming them to live a normal life, but they should not have to deal with society’s incorrect stereotypes as well.

Much less common, but possibly far more extreme than compulsive hoarding is the hoarding of animals. Hoarders may reside in their home with a strikingly high number of dogs or cats, in some cases reaching the hundreds. Caught up in the chaos of the disorder, they may continue to live in their home with rotting corpses of their deceased pets, unable to dispose of them in a proper fashion (Claiborn).

Hoarding has been associated with health risks, impairment in functioning, and economic burden (e.g. see Diefenbach, DiMauro, Frost, Steketee & Tolin, 2013). Hoarding has been related to increased occupational impairment, such as cluttered work environment, increased psychiatric work impairment days, and an elevated risk of employment termination (Tolin, Frost, Steketee, Gray & Fitch, 2008a). Hoarders and their family members are approximately three times as likely to be overweight or obese, more likely to report an increased range of chronic and severe medical issues, and used mental health services five times more often than the general population (Tolin et al., 2008a). Hoarding has also been linked with family distress, strained relationships, and dysfunction (Tolin, Frost, Steketee & Fitcha, 2008b). Moreover, non-hoarding children who experienced a severely cluttered environment during early childhood have been associated with increased childhood distress, such as difficulty making friends, reduced social contact in the home, less happiness, and embarrassment about the condition of the home (Tolin et al., 2008b). Furthermore, hoarding has been linked to increased risk of fire, falls, poor hygiene, infestation, and eviction (Diefenbach et al., 2013;

Hoarding has become a problem, but animal hoarding is a problem too. The animals are unkempt, malnourished, often have broken bones, and dead. There are many signs that a person is an animal hoarder. They have numerous animals and may not know the number of animals in their care. Their homes are deteriorating or deteriorated. Strong smell of ammonia and the floor may be covered

As children we learn to be wary of the lions, tigers, and bears we see on TV, read about in books, or watch at the zoo. What you may not know is that all three of these exotic animals and hundreds more are kept as pets in America. Private ownership of exotic animals should be banned because these animals are dangerous, diseased, and they belong in the wild. Multiple animal welfare organizations such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), The Humane Society, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) strongly oppose keeping wild animals as pets. This practice harms humans, the animals, and the environment.

Researchers have found that animal hoarding is a mental illness equivalent to schizophrenia. It can be characterized by having “more than the typical number of companion animals”, and “obsessive attempts to [ ] maintain a collection of animals in to face of deteriorating conditions” having an “inability to provide even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter, and veterinary care with this neglect often resulting in starvation, illness, and death” (Animal) (Castrodale). Animal hoarders also are in “denial of the inability to provide this minimum care and the impact of that failure on the animals, the household, and human occupants of the dwelling” (Animal).

Hoarding Disorder (HD) is an urged to store items, in this case animals, and have a hard time getting rid of these animals. “HD is estimated to be present in about 1.5% to 6% of the population” (Ung et al). That may not seem like a huge percentage but that’s roughly 4,875,000 to 19,500,000 people that have a hoarding disorder. “Previous research on animal hoarding suggests that individuals with animal hoarding problems tend to own 30 to 40 pets” (Ung et al). When we take the number of people that are animals hoarders plus how many animals they have the number comes out to be a lot of animals that are not being cared properly. With that many animals, care for them would be inadequate. That person must pay for food, veterinary bills, plus normal bills like electric, water, house payments. The list goes on and on and it sums up to be a lot of money that people do not usually have. Cleaning the house by itself is a difficult task, if the animals cannot go outside to do their business, which if not cleaned can cause health problems for everyone living in the house and the pets. In some cases, the animals could overflow the house and the neighborhood would have a lot these pets, who are not spayed or neutered, roaming

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a mental health disorder in which a person gets entangled in a chain reaction of obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are repeated thoughts, urges, or mental images that cause anxiety. (“Obsessive-compulsive disorder,” 2013) Compulsions are irresistible urges to behave in a certain way, especially against one 's conscious wishes to combat the obsessions. Common obsessions are contamination, losing control, harm, and perfectionism and are often associated with uncomfortable feelings, such as fear, disgust, and doubt. (Foundation & IOCDF, 2014) Obsessions hinder the person’s daily life as they cannot be controlled, they must be acted upon to even briefly relieve the severe anxiety it causes, and the person can often tell that these thoughts are excessive and unnecessary but can do nothing to stop them. “Compulsions are incredibly repetitive behaviors or thoughts that a person uses with the intention of neutralizing, counteracting, or making their obsessions go away”. (Foundation & IOCDF, 2014) Common compulsions are washing and/or cleaning, double-checking, repeating movements and/or activities, and mentally counting, reviewing, and praying. These compulsions are completely temporary and usually only relieve the anxiety from obsessions momentarily.

Obsessive compulsive disorder, abbreviated as OCD, is defined by irrational thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead you to do repetitive behaviors (compulsions). It is possible to have only obsessions or only compulsions and still have OCD. Obsessions are thoughts that intrude repeatedly into awareness and are experienced as irrational, unwanted, and difficult to control or stop. Common obsessive thoughts can include: fear of being contaminated by germs or dirt, fear of causing harm to yourself or others, excessive focus on religious or moral ideas, order and symmetry: the idea that everything must line up “just right”, superstitions; excessive attention to something considered lucky or unlucky (Robinson). Compulsions are actions that one is compelled to perform; they are also experienced as irrational and difficult to control. Common compulsive behaviors can include: excessive double-checking of things, repeatedly checking in on loved ones to make sure they’re safe, counting, tapping, repeating certain words, or doing other senseless things to reduce anxiety, ordering or arranging things, praying excessively or engaging in rituals triggered by religious fear (Robinson). Obsessions and compulsions are time consuming, inhabiting at least one hour per day, but often much longer periods. Individuals with OCD don’t always realize that their actions are unreasonable. OCD often focuses on a theme; an example would be a fear of getting contaminated by germs, the result would be

While there are many forms of conditions of OCD here are a few. One form of condition OCD has is checking, People who have OCD constantly check themselves to make sure everything is fine because they fear that there might be something they can prevent, For example they might check their memory (checking one’s memory to ‘make sure’ an intrusive thought is just a thought and didn't really happen.) Another form of condition is Intrusive thoughts, intrusive thoughts are obsessive thoughts that are repetitive or disturbing that makes that person often act in an unusual nature. For example, thoughts of causing violence or sexual harm to loved ones. Hoarding is one condition also, it is an obsession where that person has an inability to discard useless or worn out possessions.

In most cases, a hoarder has good intentions. Hoarders want to save animals, but they end up multiplying the animals instead. Michelle Welch writes, “We have learned over the years to let hoarders keep two or three of the animals so they can have the companionship they seek” (Welch, 65). These cases are especially sad because of the emotional component with hoarders and effected animals, and how important it is for individuals with hoarding issues to get the proper psychiatric care. Welch also states, “It is critical that the hoarders get psychiatric treatment. In one particular case, the hoarder was standing barefoot in inches of feces” (Welch, 65). Although it is obvious that hoarders are generally mentally unstable, they, too, should lose their rights to own animals. After all, owning an animal is a big responsibility that some just cannot take on. Pet owning ethics should be primarily be focused on the owner meeting the needs of his or her pet, rather than centered around the emotional health of the owner. While the companionship of an animal could positively impact a person in this situation, the potential neglect and abuse to be suffered by these animals is unacceptable. Animal owners have a responsibility to care for and maintain the overall well-being of their pets.

Animal hoarding has become a large problem. It has been estimated that there are nine-hundred to two-thousand new cases every year of animal hoarding in the United States, with two-thousand and fifty thousand animals falling victims. Another case of animal abuse is animal hoarding, animal hoarding impacts communities across the United States on a daily basis with approximately three thousand five hundred reported new cases discovered each

One reason why animal abuse occurs is because people often receive awards from the mistreating of animals, or it is a way to for them to deal with certain situations that happen in their life. According to an article from the ASPCA, people who watch 2 or more dogs fight receive a great amount of money. Dogs are made to fight each other for the benefit of the people. The people watching the fight either receive money or just do it for entertainment, “It is not unusual to see $20,000-30,000 change hands during a single fight—major dog fight raids have resulted in seizures of more than $500,000.” ("What Is Dog Fighting, and What Can You Do To Stop It?") One of the main reasons for dog fighting is the award for the amount of money they would obtain for a dog. One of the reasons people are involved in dog fighting is because they receive money, more than $20,000 per dog. With dog fighting comes a greed where people want to come out on top and leave with the most amount money. Others may take advantage of animals without even knowing they are hurting the animal, according to Jared Newnam, people with anxiety tend to hoard animals because it is a way to deal with their stress, “Hoarding is part of an anxiety disorder in which people, for a variety of reasons, feel they are incapable of forming lasting relationships with people, so they substitute them.” (Newnam) People who hoard animals try to fill a void by collecting various objects or animals. They can’t make the same