How to Help People Who Collect Cats & Dogs (Animal Hoarders)

• Introduction
• Animals Have Needs
• The Five Freedoms
• Building Shelters in Shanghai and/or China
• The Cat Fancier's Association's Definition of a Hoarder
• Excerpt From the PETA Fact Sheet About Hoarders
• If You Want to SCAA to Help a Hoarder and/or Support a Local Animal Rescue Project

Second Chance Animal Aid (SCAA) follows the guidelines of the UK RSPCA (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), the world’s oldest animal welfare organization (and to which SCAA is an Associate Member). There are basic animal needs and rights that must be considered when attempting to help an animal in need that is in the care of others or to take an animal in one's own possession to a rescue organization.

Animals Have Needs

All animals must carry out basic life processes and therefore have basic needs. Human and non-human animals share these basic needs, which can be grouped into five areas:

1. Physiological Needs: For example, food and water, appropriate temperature/humidity, air and light conditions, etc.
   
   
2. Social Needs: Preference for living in solitude, in pair bonds or groups.
   
   
3. Psychological Needs: Appropriate stimulation and activity to prevent boredom.
   
   
4. Environmental Needs: Suitable home, space and territory.
   
   
5. Behavioral Needs: For example, Hibernation, nest building, burrowing.

The Five Freedoms

The UK RSPCA believes that the welfare of animals must take into account five essential “freedoms.” These Five Freedoms form the basis of the RSPCA’s policy on animal welfare. They were first developed by the UK government’s independent advisory body on farm animals, the Farm Animal Welfare Council, but they provide a useful benchmark for the welfare of animals in shelters too.

Freedom from Hunger and Thirst: By providing ready access to fresh water and a balance diet that maintains health and vigor.

Freedom from Pain, Injury and Disease: By prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.

Freedom from Fear and Distress: By ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.

Freedom from Discomfort: By providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting and sleeping area.

Freedom to Express Normal Behavior: By providing sufficient space, proper facilities and appropriate company of the animal’s own kind.

Building Shelters in Shanghai and/or China

SCAA believes that building any kind of shelter in Shanghai, or for that matter China in general is a lose-lose situation. The moment you build a physical facility that has an address, even with the intention of limiting the number intake of dogs and cats that will betaken in, it is simply impossible to avoid animal dumping. At best, a shelter will start out planning to take in 30 dogs or cats, but when word gets around that there is a place to leave unwanted or sick pets and newborn puppies/kittens and annoying neighborhood strays, most shelters will end up with hundreds if not thousands of animals thrown over their wall or left at the front door in boxes or plastic bags or even have animals thrown over the wall.

In terms of hoarders (people who cannot stop “collecting” or “saving” dogs and cats), having a physical facility is even worse because they will collect hundreds/thousands of their own animals as well as agree to take in any animals dumped at their front door. This type of situation is almost impossible to deal with unless the hoarder makes a conscious decision to change their life and address their collecting “disease”.

Shelters and hoarders simply cannot fulfill even the basic needs and rights that are due to all animals, as outlined above in the RSPCA guidelines. We urge anyone who wants to assist tragic emergency situations with hoarders or to providelong-term assistance to hoarders to NOT start their own shelter. There is not one successful shelter in all of China, and even those that do have sufficient room to house animals currently, face the ongoing dumping of animals to the point where their capacity to provide proper animal care to the animals they already have is severely threatened.

The RSPCA has singled out SCAA as a case study of how to create a successful rescue, healing, fostering and adoption system for abandoned and homeless companion animals without using extremely problematic traditional animal shelters. Download the RSPCA International Shelter Guidelines

To better understand the psychological make-up of a hoarder, we have sited definitions from two organizations:

The Cat Fancier's Association Definition of a Hoarder

Hoarding is an illness which is characterized by the excessive accumulation and retention of things and/or animals until they interfere with day-to-day living, such as the care of home, health, family, work and social life. In a study conducted by the Association, the median number of animals a hoarder had was 39, but four of the cases had more than 100 animals living in the household. In 80 percent of the cases, animals were reportedly found dead or in poor condition. In 60% of the cases, the hoarder would not acknowledge the problem. Finally, 60 percent of the hoarders studied were repeat offenders. The rate of recidivism is nearly 100 percent. Even after counseling, hoarders often simply move and start again.

For more information about this article, see http://www.cfainc.org/articles/hoarding.html

From the PETA Fact Sheet About Hoarders

(More information at http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=27)
Animal hoarders-once described as "collectors" whose good intentions had gone awry-are now recognized as individuals whose mental illness or compulsion can cause criminal behavior with horrific consequences for animals, the hoarders' families, and their communities.

The Animal Hoarder: A Profile
According to Dr. Gary J. Patronek, V.M.D., Ph.D., "Hoarders are by definition oblivious to the extreme suffering, obvious to the causal observer, of their animals."
There are three characteristics indicative of hoarding behavior:

• Hoarders amass a large number of animals.
• Hoarders fail to provide for animals' most basic physical and social needs, including food, water, shelter, veterinary care, and sanitary living conditions.
• Hoarders offer excuses for, or deny, the abysmal living conditions of their animals and, in some cases, their children.

A Fate Worse than Death
Every hoarder's behavior translates into severe, even fatal, neglect for animals in their custody. Overcrowded and filthy conditions make for easy transmission of worms, fleas, mange, ear mites, upper respiratory infections, parvo virus, distemper, and other diseases and can lead to feces-matted coats and urine burns. Hoarded animals are commonly deprived of basic veterinary care, including spaying and neutering, which causes the numbers of animals to increase, and/or results in the separation of animals by sex and their confinement to small cages or bathrooms. Injuries including broken limbs and wounds suffered in fights with other animals go untreated and lead to infections. According to news sources, most of the 61 cats found in a Michigan woman's truck were suffering from everything from skin parasites to respiratory problems, and the majority of them had to be euthanized. A 1999 study conducted by Dr. Patronek found that animals were reportedly found dead or suffering from "obvious disease or injury" in 80 percent of hoarding cases reviewed.

Animals' social needs are equally ignored by hoarders. Cats deprived of human contact become skittish and if allowed to reproduce, produce feral offspring.

The behavioral problems caused by physical and psychological neglect virtually eliminate animals' chances of being rehabilitated and adopted. For many, euthanasia is the most humane option.

The Threat to Human Lives
Though the jeopardy that hoarders place animals in is clear, The Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium states, "Animal hoarding has serious consequences for the physical and mental health of hoarders and their families," as well as their neighbors.

As mental-health experts have learned more about hoarding, they have proposed at least three behavioral models to explain the phenomenon:

• Hoarders as "animal addicts": Houston veterinarian Dr. Karen Kemper believes that hoarders are "like alcoholics" and points to 10 behavioral traits that animal hoarders share with substance abusers, including recidivism, "denial that the addiction exists," and "neglect of personal, physical, and environmental conditions."
• Hoarders as suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD): The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) characterizes the hoarding of inanimate objects as a symptom of both OCD and OCPD.(16) One study found that more than 77 percent of hoarders' premises were described as "heavily cluttered" and that an "extensive accumulation" of non-animal-related objects such as newspapers was present in nearly 75 percent of the cases.
• Hoarders as suffering from dementia: The Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium believes that dementia is among "the spectrum of psychological disorders" that hoarders may suffer from.

The close quarter's common in hoarding situations may facilitate the transmission of diseases from animals to humans, such as toxoplasmosis, psittacosis, and salmonellosis. These diseases also threaten a hoarder's human dependents, especially children and the elderly, who were present in more than half of hoarding cases surveyed in one recent study. For example, six children reportedly were removed from a filthy Virginia home that they were sharing with their parents and at least 16 cats and dogs in 2004. High levels of ammonia may also be present in hoarder's homes resulting from accumulated animal urine.

Because of these potential health hazards, some cities, including New York City and Seattle, have created interagency task forces that allow for adult and child protective services, animal control authorities, and health departments to work cooperatively on solutions in hoarding cases. (Note: this is exactly the type of official organizations SCAA would like to see created here in Shanghai to work together in implementing animal welfare protection laws that would benefit both humans and animals.)

If You Want to SCAA to Help a Hoarder and/or Support a Local Animal Rescue Project

(In red, guidelines for individuals to help a hoarder/support a local animal rescue project)

Below are SCAA’s Project Terms & Conditions. These are the guidelines we follow when we are asked to assist any project in Shanghai. They are very strict but it is the only way to ensure proper animal welfare protocols are implemented and enforced. You need to think of the long-term happiness and welfare of the animals you are trying to assist. “Rescuing” is one thing, but how you handle the animal’s short- and long-term welfare after a rescue if even more important Please keep these guidelines in mind even as an individual whenever you wish to help someone in an actual facility or if you wish to take an animal, or many animals, to a new location to care for. Within these guidelines below, we have made notes in red to explain why we have the specific guideline and how it pertains to you wanting to help a project as an individual.

SCAA Project Terms & Conditions

The Terms & Conditions below are minimum requirements by SCAA to support any local domestic companion animal shelter/rescue/foster/adoption project. Each project will be handled on a case-by-case basis and may require further conditions for SCAA cooperation after onsite inspection of a project and at any necessary time in the future. Please note that before requesting any assistance or support from SCAA, the project manager MUST agree to ALL conditions listed below:

• Allow SCAA management and veterinarian access to the project site at any time.
  (Before you make any decisions on how to assist a local animal rescue project, you must visit the site and be aware of your own limitations, both in terms of financial assistance and how you can physically help any animals you take into your care. If you know that you only have space in a different facility or your own home for two cats, you must force yourself to ONLY take out that many animals, otherwise you risk the welfare of the animals you take out, or you own pets at home if you cannot isolate the animals to check for potential disease.)
• Agree to allow SCAA to euthanize all animals that our veterinarian recommends.*
  (For animals that are seriously injured or have a chronic disease that cannot be cured, you need to understand that euthanizing the animals is an act of kindness and the most humane way to assist the animal. If one animal is going to cost RMB 10,000 to try to cure, and the guarantee is not certain, it is not practical to save one animal when this amount of funding can save many animals that are not as ill. It is also not humane to let an animal suffer just because it can breathe; if the animal is in severe pain and cannot be cured, euthanizing the animal will quietly and gently end its suffering.)
• Agree to a limited number of animals in the facility, with the expectation to continually lower this number through adoption; only when there are fewer animals than the agreed capacity limit will new animals be allowed in.
  (Whether you have arranged a facility to take in animals, or you take animals into your home, you must decide the capacity that is possible and not exceed this. The facility needs to keep the animals contained without any way for them to escape and the individuals must be separated from each other until veterinary assessment and treatment is completed. It is best if you can keep the animals separated until they can be spayed neutered.)
• Isolation of all new incoming animals for a minimum of ten days observation.
  (Newly rescued animals MUST be isolated from any already established population of animals, especially if the established population is already healthy and vaccinated. There are a variety of contagious diseases that animals can transfer to each other and that can also be transferable to humans. Animals must be tested for these before being allowed to mix with already tested and healthy animals and your family members. If taking animals into your home, they must be isolated for at least ten days, and receive veterinary treatment for basic medical care plus for cats, FIV and FELV which can be passed on to your own pet cats from saliva, biting, litter sharing, etc. The following diseases are transferable to humans and some to other cats so it is a concern if you are releasing cats into local communities, putting them in a facility with other cats or mixing them with your own pets: malnutrition, dehydration, fleas, lice, ringworm (fungal skin infection), bacterial skin infection, ear mites, tapeworms, roundworms, Calici Virus, Rhinotracheitis Virus, Panleukopaenia Virus, Chlamydia, FIP, severe behavioral issues from mental trauma leading to uncontrolled urination, defecation, anorexia, or adypsia (not drinking)
• Check-up with SCAA veterinarian of all new incoming animals.*
  (Immediate veterinary assessment and care is crucial to save any rescued animals. Putting animals into a room and not providing veterinary care is not saving them.)
• Isolation of any sick animals with animal brought to SCAA veterinary for medical care.*
  (Animals that are diagnosed with any sickness need to be isolated from healthy or other sick animals.)
• Separation/isolation of mother/litter until the kittens/puppies are weaned.
  (Kittens/puppies are often killed by dominant or competing animals in contained areas. For their safety, mothers and their litters need to be separated from the general population.)
• Proper hygienic conditions maintained.*
  (The facility in which animals are kept needs to be cleaned daily with disinfectants that are not harmful to the animals. If kept in cages for safety, isolation or illness, the cages need to be cleaned daily as well.)
• Proper nutrition provided to animals.*
  (Nutritious animal appropriate food—not human food, needs to be fed daily, as well as having clean water needs to always be available for all animals. If kept in one large area, there needs to be enough food, and potentially monitoring when animals are fed to ensure all animals have the opportunity to eat. If kept in cages, food and water need to be changed once or twice daily and always ensure there is water available in the cage.)
• Cat litter used and cleaned twice daily.*
  (Keep cat litter separate from food and if kept in cages, ensure that the cats have enough space to comfortably move/lie down away from the cat litter. If possible clean out the urine/feces from the litter several times each day, but at least twice per day. Change cat litter when necessary.)
• SCAA allowed to provide foster care and adopt out facility animals.
  (Anyone taking rescue animals into their care should have an exit strategy before beginning. Saving and healing an animal is of no use if there is nowhere to put the animal for safe and loving long-term care. If the animals are feral cats, they are not likely to be rehomeable and euthanizing them must be an option. If these cats are not tested for contagious diseases but are released into local communities that already have feral cats, which are tamer and more stable communities of cats, it is possible for newly released feral cats to quickly spread disease and also breed if not neutered.)
• All accounting in project must be financially transparent. Bank account records, product receipts must be available for review by SCAA at any time requested. If the project leader has sufficient funding to carry out the project, SCAA will not provide funding but will offer advisory and management services.
  (Make certain you have sufficient funding to care for rescued animals as long as necessary, but be equally certain that the person/people you are assisting is/are not able to care for the animals financially themselves.)
  

*Depending on the conditions agreed, SCAA will potentially provide funding for these requirements.

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