Animal hoarding an illness ending in heartbreak

By: Brandon Stahl

It started with a few animals at her rural Duluth home. Then Carol said she began having money problems, became depressed, and wasn’t able to care for herself, let alone her animals. Then she started acquiring more animals.

For fear of falling back into the depression, she won’t say how many animals she had or the condition the animals were found in, only that “they weren’t getting the care and they needed and deserved.”

She said she felt too embarrassed to get help.

“I felt overwhelmed and alone,” she said.

Carol is not the woman’s real name, but because she fears for her safety from people angry about her hoarding, the News Tribune has agreed to withhold her identity.

When Duluth Animal Control Officer Carrie Lane came to Carol’s property about five years ago, she said, she found about 50 animals — many cats, some dogs and some goats — too many for one person to care for. Some of those that died had been left to rot.

The animals had probably died of natural causes, Lane said, but it was a symptom of Carol’s depression that they weren’t moved or taken to a veterinarian before they died.

“She told me she left them there as a daily reminder of what a bad person she was,” Lane said.

Carol is one of dozens of animal hoarders Lane has worked with since she started the job in the early 1990s. Lane says she now works with about 10 hoarders who are either getting rid of their animals or working to stop the compulsion.

But unlike the case of Todd Stoehr, who faces up to 69 counts of animal cruelty charges after more than 100 cats were seized March 18 from his Duluth Township and Two Harbors properties, Lane has never sought to press charges against hoarders. Instead she prefers to work with them to get the animals to a safe place and prevent them from hoarding again.

“If I felt there was intention, I would charge,” said Lane, who is a member of the Duluth Police Department. “I wouldn’t hesitate. It’s the difference between neglect and abuse. It’s that’s intention piece.”

Lane said she’s discovered numerous horrific hoarding situations in Duluth: people keeping dozens of cats and dogs and other animals in filth and unbearable stench. Once she found a house where cats were tied up and separated by gender so they wouldn’t mate. Another time she found a house where a woman kept mummified cats in shoeboxes.

Still, having worked with hoarders for so many years, Lane said she’s developed empathy for them.

“It’s not logical, but it’s understandable,” she said. “It’s not forgivable, but it can be worked with if they ask for help.”

Hoarders are severely punished by their communities. Carol, for example, said she has received death threats from her neighbors. She also worries about losing her job.

“People think the person is no longer a human,” Lane said. “It’s like they forfeited their human rights in that respect.”

And many hoarders punish themselves during and after the hoarding is discovered, Lane said. Carol’s explanation of leaving the dead animals as self-punishment explained why she couldn’t ask for help, Lane said.

“How can you ask for help when you’re that bad a person in your mind?” she said. “She was really, deeply ashamed.”

Hoarders often start with good intentions: They’re animal lovers who want to save the animals they take in. But researchers say hoarders often have deep-seated psychological problems that can stem from childhood abuse and neglect, and rescuing animals gives way to a goal of using the animals to feel better about themselves.

“It’s about them, their need to feel secure and their crazy way of doing it,” said Dr. Mary Lou Randour, a psychologist and professional outreach coordinator for the Humane Society of the United States. “What they’re really trying to do is control the animals, which becomes an object to them. … Some of the creatures that they profess to love are suffering and dying, but that doesn’t penetrate them because of their greater need.”

The psychological problem also explains how they can tolerate the filth and odor that come from hoarding, Randour said, comparing the disorder to the anorexia.

“Someone can be near death, but [anorexics] can look in the mirror and believe they’re fat,” she said. “They don’t recognize reality.”

But hoarders also at least subconsciously recognize that what they’re doing is wrong. They’ll shut their curtains and drapes, and close the windows to keep the smell from getting outside, Lane said. They’ll no longer let people inside their home even as it deteriorates and the number of animals increases, either through breeding or collecting.

Dr. Gary Patronek, who founded the Tufts University Hoarding Animals Research Consortium and has studied the disorder since the mid-1990s, said for a hoarder to be discovered would “cause their whole world view to come crashing down.”

“They cope with stress by clutching to animals even tighter,” he said. “They need to believe that their animals are there for them. Any threat to remove their animals is a very deep threat.”

A strong distrust of people also makes working with hoarders difficult, Patronek said. But if intensive intervention isn’t given, the chances of falling back into hoarding “are almost 100 percent.”

Todd Stoehr, for example, probably hoarded cats in the past. In 1997, a fire destroyed a trailer on his Duluth Township property that killed 73 cats and four dogs.

The best way of preventing animal hoarding, argues Jim Filby Williams, executive director of the Duluth Animal Allies Humane Society, is to catch it early. He says the system in Duluth isn’t set up to do that.

“We have law enforcement, social service agencies and animal shelters acting on their own to address hoarding cases, and they cannot succeed,” he said. “We have no formal connection between entities to facilitate interagency cooperation. Each is left to improvise those connections on a last-minute basis.”

With the animals seized from Stoehr’s properties focusing attention on hoarding, Williams said he sees it as a good opportunity for Animal Allies to bring the disparate agencies together for a forum on hoarding on Wednesday, from 5-5:45 p.m. at its office at 4006 Airport Road.

As for Carol, Lane said she often talks with her to ensure she’s not going back into hoarding.

“For a lot of people that hoard, if you don’t keep an open door ongoing, they can start hoarding again,” Lane said. “I would say she’ll be fine as long as she keeps communicating.”.." More

Animal hoarding: How it affects animals

By: Michele Gwynn

Stories abound about animal hoarders in the news. Sometimes hundreds of cats and/or dogs are removed from a residence at once by animal control. The conditions in which these animals are found are typically filthy, completely unsanitary, causing disease and infection in the animals. In addition, these animals never know the loving touch of a responsible pet owner. They exist in an environment where it's survival of the fittest.

The hoarders wrongfully believe they are helping the animals by keeping them indoors. In their mind, the cats and dogs are much better off with them than if they were unclaimed outdoors. The problem is that the animals, because of their sheer number, lack proper socialization skills. In short, they're feral. Between the lack of sociability and the fact that these animals are not house-broken (defecating and urinating on the floors and furniture), the possibility of any of these animals being a candidate for adoption after rescue is nil. "It is likely that up to a quarter million animals - 250,000 /year - are victims." (According to Tufts.edu)

The sad fact is that animals who are rescued from a hoarder are almost always humanely euthanized.

The ASPCA believes there is a dire need for coordinating efforts between animal control, mental health and social workers, and public health organizations to help combat the problem of animal hoarding. This problem also requires the assistance of family members and neighbors to step up andreport suspicions of animal hoarding...." More

OCD: Dog genes may hold secrets to human disease

By Carolyn Y. Johnson

Scientists scouring the genome to better understand complex human diseases are looking to an unlikely ally for guidance: our pets.

Dogs have been an integral part of human life for centuries. It is precisely because of that intertwined history that dogs are a potentially powerful tool for researchers seeking the genetic roots of everything from psychiatric disorders to cancer - just two of the ailments that are similar in both humans and dogs.

Last month, scientists studying Doberman pinschers with a compulsive behavior disorder similar to human obsessive-compulsive disorder found a gene associated with the condition. The genetic hit is now being followed by other researchers, who are studying the same gene in human patients with OCD, in hopes the clue from man’s best friend may help explain the disease in people..." More

Jan 6, 2009: Canine compulsive disorder gene identified in dogs

A canine chromosome 7 locus that confers a high risk of compulsive disorder susceptibility has been identified through a collaboration between the Behavior Service at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, the Program in Medical Genetics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Broad Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The findings are published in the January 2010 edition of Molecular Psychiatry.

Obsessive compulsive disorder is characterized by time consuming, repetitive behaviors and affects about 2 percent of humans, while the equally distressing canine equivalent, canine compulsive disorder, or CCD, seems to target certain dog breeds, especially Dobermans and Bull Terriers. For over a decade, behaviorists Drs. Dodman and Moon-Fanelli, at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine collected blood samples from carefully characterized Doberman patients exhibiting flank- and/or blanket-sucking compulsive behaviors, as well as healthy, unaffected Doberman. In 2001, Edward Ginns, PhD, MD, head of the Program in Medical Genetics at UMass Medical School, joined the effort, enabling genetic studies that culminated in the genome wide association study that began in 2007 using the canine Affymetrix genotyping array at the Broad Institute..." More

Too many best friends: animal hoarding

BY ALEX CARRIER

The old woman who lived in the shoe with all those children and Old Mother Hubbard whose bare cupboard held no bones for her dog are nursery rhyme examples of too much and too little. In real life, an unusual disorder joins too much and too little in a condition known as animal hoarding.

Although having pets is known to be good for your health and your mental well-being, two much of a good thing can be bad even deadly. When the number of pets exceeds your ability to adequately care for each one; the situation becomes hazardous for both pets and people.

Common hoarding is fairly well-known by both medical professionals and the average lay-person. It can be associated with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) but some hoarders do not exhibit other symptoms of OCD.

A hoarder collects but does not discard items that are either useless, of no value or possess little value in large numbers. Living spaces are so cluttered with these items; the space can no longer be used for its original purpose. The amount of items causes distress to the owner.

Scientists have not determined what causes hoarding and there is no definitive cure. Most medical sources indicate a belief that there is a genetic link and that the disorder may be more biological than psychological. Hoarding is very difficult to treat.

Animal hoarding is an even less understood type of hoarding. Even the psychiatric journals list little research and credit animal protection agencies for recognizing the severity of the problem and getting information out to the public and the scientific community.

In the case of animal hoarding, Tufts University evaluates the condition by several criteria. Does the person have more companion animals than would be considered normal? ..." More

A Theoretical Perspective to Inform Assessment and Treatment

By:  Gary J. Patronek & Jane N. Nathanson 

Abstract:  Animal hoarding is a poorly understood, maladaptive,destructive behavior whose etiology and pathology are only beginning to emerge.  We compare and contrast animal hoarding to the compulsive hoarding of objects and proceed to draw upon attachment of objects and proceed to draw upon attachment trauma, and our own clinical experience to propose a developmental trajectory. Throughout life, there is a persistent struggle to form a functional attachment style and achieve positive social integration.  For some people, particularly those affected by a dysfunctional primary attachment experience in childhood, a protective, comforting relationship with animals may form an indelible imprint.  In adulthood, when human attachment has been chronically problematic, compulsive caregiving of animals can become the primary means of maintaining or building a sense of self.  Improving assessment and treatment of animal hoarders requires attention to contributing psychosocial conditions, while taking into account the centrality of the animals to the hoarder’s identity, self-esteem and sense of control. It is our hope that the information presented will provide a basis upon which clinicians can focus their own counseling style, assessment, and methods of treatment.  More