Animal hoarding is a compulsive disorder. Usually the problem starts off with a harmless one or two animals, but with the failure of spaying and neutering the new pets turns into a quickly growing problem. But why do people let it get so bad before getting the help the need? Many people are very fearful of being convicted of a crime so they suffer in silence. Other people like to hide behind the label of a rescuer and live in denial.
The true difference between a hoarder and a rescuer is that a rescuer helps an animal for a short period and then readopt it out as soon as possible so they can help more animals in need. Rescuers also set reasonable limits to the number of animals that they are able to physically and financially take care of. A hoarder on the other hand will help an animal and become so attached that readopting the animal is out of the question. Hoarders do not set a limit on the number of animals until it is too late and can no longer be managed. They find many of their animals as strays or offer to take a friends pet that can no longer care for it. Many hoarders begin to struggle financially and physically. They will pay for ivory coat puppy before they feed themselves. Many times they cannot even pay for the gas to get to work without asking for assistance from family and friends. The result in having so many animals leads to the decline in health and the environment they live. If the animals toilet indoors, it can lead to unhealthy levels of ammonia in the air and to the floor being disintegrated. If the animals are crated and the crate is not cleaned everyday then the animal would be better off as a stray then being forced to breathe and live in its own filth. Animals need love and exercise, not just food and water. Animals that are crated all day get very board and become unsocialized, which means they can never find a new home since they become highly reactive. The reason that rescuers set a limit in the number animals they are willing to take in is that every once in a while they will accept an animal without knowing it has a contagious illness. Mammals are contagious twenty-four hours before they show any symptoms. If this new animal gives the illness to half the other animals, it is regrettable but manageable since a reasonable limit was set early on. It is when a hoarder has an outrageous number of animals and brings a new ill pet home that things financially spiral out of control. Lets say there are fifty cats that are introduced to the one new ill pet and half the cats get sick as a result. Also, since there are fifty cats, it is even harder to notice that one is not acting itself. Twenty-five cats now have to be taken to the vet. One hundred dollars each means two thousand five hundred dollars. This is why it is very important to set a limit very early on. What causes many people to become hoarders? There are a variety of reasons why but it is usually to fill a void or a broken heart. Sometimes the hoarder belonged to a family that moved frequently growing up, which forced the family pets to be left behind. Sometimes the individual has had such bad luck with finding a mate that they turn to pets, since pets do not judge or break a heart. Sometimes the parents died leaving the oldest child in control. Later on in life when the younger children no longer need the ivory coat puppyof the older sibling, they turn to caring for animals to fill the void.
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