Handling hoarders
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:
Handling hoarders
by Vicky Crosetti, Executive director
Humane Society of the Tennessee Valley
The January/February 1999
ANIMAL PEOPLE feature “Animals
in bondage: the minds of hoarders”
reminded me of years ago attending a
talk on the same subject at a humane
conference.
Trying to describe why we so
often find huge numbers of animals
kept in filth and misery by people who
claim to “love” them, the presenter discussed
“good intentions gone bad” and
“obsessive/compulsive behavior.”
I learned to use her phrases,
when pressed for explanation––but as
the years and cases pass, I’ve decided
that I don’t know why people hoard
animals. Neither am I certain that
motive matters, except as a possible
predictor of who might become a
hoarder.