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“[K]eeping a large number Information for Prosecutors, Judges, and Law Enforcement Agents of animals in ill health and unsanitary conditions is both a crime and symptomatic of an illness.”

—Randall Lockwood, Ph.D.

Animal Hoarders: Behavior, Consequences, and Appropriate Official Response

“An animal hoarder is not simply a harmless and well- “For the rest of your life, you’re going to have nothing to do with any animals. You have intentioned eccentric, but someone with a problem— some deep, deep problems, and part of the problem is that you don’t recognize it.”

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals a problem that results in the suffering of their animals.” —The Honorable Clint Judkins, judge of the First District Court, Utah, ordering a hoarder never to own animals again 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510 —Animal Protection Voters of New Mexico 757-622-PETA • HelpingAnimals.com PETA - Hoarder brochure.qxd 7/11/05 10:23 am Page 2

The Pathology of Animal Hoarding: The Consequences of Misjudging, Mishandling, and Contents Misunderstanding

The Pathology of Animal Hoarding 1 Animal hoarders exist in virtually every community. They were formerly Animal Hoarding Is Cruelty to Animals 2 referred to as “collectors” and thought of as well-intentioned people Hoarding Cases: Human and Animal Lives in Jeopardy 5 overwhelmed by the animal overpopulation crisis. However, current

Recidivism Among Animal Hoarders 8 research by the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium (HARC)— an interdisciplinary group of researchers established in 1997—to Your Response: Ensuring the Lasting Welfare of All Involved 9 investigate hoarding from angles including animal protection, law Model Sentences for Hoarders 12 enforcement, mental health, and social work indicates that collecting describes a “benign hobby.” Collecting fails to indicate what Dr. Randall Lockwood, a psychologist who has long studied issues affecting animals and advised agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has referred to as the “true pathology” that most hoarders’ behavior points to. The term also ignores the severity of hoarding’s consequences for the animals involved: The central issue is animal suffering, not the hoarder’s intentions.

Because the hoarding of animals is often misunderstood, otherwise capable law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and judges frequently mishandle such cases. The consequences for hoarders, their human dependents, animals, and the community are serious and may even be fatal for animals.

Only with an understanding of the complex disorder of hoarding—and all that is at stake for humans and animals when it occurs—can an effective, enduring intervention be implemented to ensure the safety and welfare of all involved.

With this publication, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals hopes to contribute to that understanding and to help craft and promote such interventions.

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Animal Hoarding Is Cruelty to Animals

“Hoarders are by How Hoarders Hurt Animals her identity—is what should lead officials to supports the suspicion that hoarders may Hoarders’ abysmal failure to meet the most “Almost every definition oblivious to suspect that the person is hoarding animals suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder basic physical needs of animals in their There are three characteristics of hoarding conceivable type of and to respond accordingly. (OCD) or obsessive-compulsive personality charge has severe and often fatal the extreme suffering, behavior agreed upon by experts and seen disorder (OCPD), both of which may be consequences for the victims. A 1999 animal can be a victim obvious to the casual in nearly every case of hoarding: A 2002 study of animal hoarders found that manifested in the hoarding of inanimate study conducted by Dr. Gary Patronek of of hoarding.” observer, of their nearly 17 percent of the accused were men. Hoarders amass a large number of objects, according to the fourth edition of Tufts University and published in Public • More than 80 percent of the suspects for —The Hoarding of Animals animals.” animals. the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Health Reports found that animals were whom age was confirmed were younger Research Consortium Mental Disorders. found dead or suffering from “obvious —Gary J. Patronek, V.M.D., • Hoarders fail to meet the most basic than 65. disease or injury” in 80 percent of hoarding Ph.D., Hoarding of Animals physical and social needs of some or all Despite their mental condition and related The domestic animal overpopulation crisis cases reviewed. Among the more prevalent Research Consortium of the animals in their charge. Animals behavior, many hoarders function seemingly and the alarming rate at which animals are findings were the following: are usually deprived of adequate food, well in society. A Cincinnati Enquirer abandoned and the attendant millions left water, shelter, veterinary care, sanitary investigation found that animal addicts • Food and water are inadequate or homeless or unwanted enable hoarders to living conditions, and proper, if not all, “frequently manage to hold down jobs, pay altogether absent. Animals are left to suffer operate anywhere. Though their exact socialization. This neglect often causes their taxes and keep their lawns mowed— from malnourishment and dehydration. location may dictate the species they malnourishment and starvation; just enough normalcy to conceal the Many die as a result. In some cases, accumulate, hoarders can exist in any area dehydration; external and/or internal nightmare within” their homes. The survivors take to cannibalizing the remains of any jurisdiction. One study found that parasitic infestation; communicable combination of this competent appearance of the deceased animals. approximately 50 percent of hoarders lived illnesses such as respiratory infections, and what the New York State Humane • Animals are kept in overcrowded in urban settings, with the balance nearly mange, and parvo; antisocial behavior; Association calls hoarders’ “shrewd ability” conditions. The most common examples evenly distributed among suburban and and death. to garner sympathy and even support for include multiple dogs confined to small rural locations. • Hoarders offer excuses for or altogether their actions is often used to veil the kennels or pens and cats kept in carriers Animal Species Involved deny the conditions in which they and For whatever the reason, many who hoard nightmarish existence of animals in some or cages stacked on top of one another. in Hoarding Cases their dependents—animal and human— animals share a phobia of death. According so-called “no-kill” or “rescue” operations. The animals’ forced proximity to one languish and the severity of their to the Vermont Animal Cruelty Task Force— another facilitates the quick and Cats 81.7% widespread transmission of internal behavior’s consequences for all a statewide coalition of private and Any Animal Can Be a Victim Dogs 54.9% involved. According to Gary J. Patronek, governmental agencies that prevents and and external parasites, such as worms, A group of Massachusetts veterinarians, Birds 16.9% V.M.D., Ph.D., “Hoarders are by responds to cruelty to animals through fleas, and mites. medical doctors, sociologists, and law- definition oblivious to the extreme “communication, education, training, • Animals are deprived of veterinary care. Small mammals 11.3% enforcement agents who have studied suffering, obvious to the casual legislation and enforcement”—hoarders Injuries—including broken limbs and Cattle, sheep, animal hoarding, the Hoarding of Animals observer, of their animals.” “find the thought of death so abhorrent that wounds suffered in fights with other Research Consortium, concluded that or goats 5.6% they deem an inhumane life far preferable to animals—go untreated and lead to “almost every conceivable type of animal Horses 5.6% Anyone Can Be a Hoarder a humane death.” This aspect of hoarding infections. Highly contagious conditions can be a victim of hoarding.” Although behavior is most visible and destructive in such as upper respiratory infections, Reptiles 5.6% Though there is some limited statistical animals kept as companions—such as cats, some purported “no-kill” facilities, where anemia, mange, and parvo become Source: “Health Implications support of the stereotypical hoarder as an dogs, rodents, and birds—are the most animals are warehoused—sometimes for rampant. of Animal Hoarding,” Hoarding older woman accumulating animals in a common species involved, exotic animals years in deplorable conditions. The animals’ accumulated waste and of Animals Research suburban residence, hoarding knows no and wildlife are often victims of hoarding • filthy conditions of confinement give rise Consortium (HARC), Health & boundaries, including those based on age, Those who hoard animals often amass as well, as are “farmed” animals, including to feces-matted coats and urine burns on Social Work, Vol. 27, No. 2, gender, race, the species involved, or the inanimate objects also, such as horses, goats, and pigs. their undersides. May 2002, pp. 126-7. setting. The accused’s behavior—not his or newspapers, food, and garbage. This trend

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“They claim to have a special connection with animals, yet they are totally indifferent to their suffering.”

—Dr. Gary Patronek, Tufts University

Hoarders in So-Called ‘Rescues’ and ‘Shelters’: Causing, Not Preventing, ‘Farmed’ and Exotic Animals Are Hoarded Helping or Hurting Animals? Misery The remains of nearly 100 cows, horses, goats, and pigs were Missouri’s Gloria Sutter pleaded guilty to eight counts of cruelty to animals HARC reports that “one of the most • reportedly found on the California ranch of Paul Keller in 2004. disturbing trends in animal hoarding after investigators reportedly found 198 ill cats and dogs at her Vanovia cases is that of a person hoarding under Animal Sanctuary in 2004. Sutter’s reported history of amassing large Authorities allegedly found 32 exotic animals of at least 11 species the guise of being a legitimate animal numbers of animals evidently included the 1984 and 1986 discoveries, languishing in Angela Ancampora’s West Virginia mobile home. shelter, sanctuary, adoption agency, or respectively, of 524 and 770 animals in poor health at the filthy facility. rescue group.” A number of suspected After pleading guilty to cruelty charges stemming from his alleged hoarders operating large facilities, even • North Carolina officials reported finding hundreds of dogs and cats deprived of neglect of goats in Vermont, Christopher Weathersbee was accused some supported by caring but misinformed proper food, water, shelter, and veterinary treatments at All Creatures Great and of taking the same animals to Kentucky and then to Ohio, where members of the public, have been Small, a turn-away facility, in 2004. Animals were found tethered outside authorities reportedly found more than 200 parasite-ridden, ill, and convicted of cruelty to animals. In such without shelter or shade, and dogs were kept in airline crates so small that they malnourished goats—along with the remains of 80 others—on his settings, as Ronald Ulfohn, D.V.M., states, the purported “savior … becomes could not stand up, with no access to food or water. property. Presented with a warrant ordering the survivors’ rescue, the oppressor.” Weathersbee evidently fled with 15 of them to a Jackson County, • Wild animals reportedly died in extremely crowded enclosures after being W.Va., property, from which the goats were said to have been seized Bona fide animal protection agencies and deprived of veterinary care in California’s Stanislaus Wildlife Care Center. Birds by agents and determined to be in urgent need of veterinary care. efforts meet the needs of the animals first were said to have died of starvation and dehydration, and coyote pups suffering and foremost. Hoarding is “not about the from parvo and mange were apparently deprived of food and water for days and animals at all, it’s about fulfilling a human need,” states Patronek. kept inside waste-strewn pet carriers. Barn owls, rats, and raptors were allegedly housed in filthy enclosures amid the remains of their cagemates. Officials should suspect that hoarding behaviors are at play in facilities if any of the following occurs: Dead and Obviously Animals’ social needs are equally ignored. Dogs, who are pack animals, are often kept • Operators refuse to allow visitors to Sick or Injured Animals chained or in pens for years, developing tour the grounds of their operations. Hoarding Cases: Human and Animal Lives in Jeopardy A 1999 study conducted antisocial behaviors and often becoming • Operators refuse to disclose the aggressive as a result. Felines deprived of by Dr. Gary Patronek of number of animals in their custody. contact with humans can become fearful The Implications of Hoarding for the and their families” as well as their neighbors. • Operators are actively soliciting animals Tufts University and and skittish, and when allowed to Defendant, Family, and Community The same organization concluded in a 2002 and not merely accepting found or published in Public reproduce, their kittens are often feral. paper that “in the majority, if not all, of the surrendered animals. Though the jeopardy that hoarders place Health Reports found that cases [examined], there was compelling animal lives in is clear, the dangers for the The severity of the physical and emotional • Operators do not refuse to accept any evidence of self-neglect by the animal hoarder, animals were found dead hoarder and other humans involved are also neglect that hoarders’ animal victims animals, regardless of the population and when dependent family members were or suffering from “obvious urgent. Every official intervention in these endure is such that, even if they survive at their facilities. present, neglect of them as well.” disease or injury” in 80 cases must consider, as HARC does, that and are rescued, their chances of being A facility’s rate of acquiring animals • “animal hoarding has serious consequences Though animal hoarding has yet to be percent of hoarding cases rehabilitated and adopted are slim to exceeds the rate of placing or for the physical and mental health of hoarders definitively linked to a specific mental reviewed. none. For many, euthanasia is the most euthanizing animals. humane choice. 4 5 PETA - Hoarder brochure.qxd 7/11/05 10:23 am Page 6

“It’s very common that people who [hoard] animals have mental health issues very similar to what a substance abuse addict would undergo.”

—Mary Stanton, Misdemeanor Division chief, Lake County (Ill.) State Attorney’s Office

Veterinarian Karen illness, the hoarding of inanimate objects believes that dementia is among dangerous household gases, such as study—are brought to authorities’ attention Hoarding Affects has long been recognized as symptomatic “a spectrum of psychological disorders” heating or cooking fuels. by neighbors makes clear that hoarding is Kemper found 10 Humans in the Home of psychological disorders. The mental state that hoarders may be afflicted with. a community issue. Neighbors’ complaints behavioral parallels The close quarters that hoarders share of hoarders is the root cause of behaviors often cite the unsanitary conditions, odors, between animal • Hoarders as suffering from focal with many sick animals may facilitate the Six children were that compromise their own physical well- noise (e.g., barking), and rodent and insect delusional disorder: One expert has transmission of disease between the removed from a filthy hoarders and being and those of the others involved in populations associated with animal hoarding. suggested that animal hoarders’ animals and the hoarder. These illnesses— substance abusers; hoarding cases. Animal hoarding cases Hoarders’ tendencies to live in filth and Virginia home that they incapability to acknowledge their known as zoonotic diseases—include the following are are no exception to that fact. violate health codes frequently result in the were sharing with their animals’ poor living and physical toxoplasmosis and psittacosis, originating in among them: condemning of their properties as unfit for parents and at least 16 As mental health experts have learned more conditions may stem from this condition. cats and birds, respectively, and sarcoptic habitation. Community members whose cats and dogs in 2004, about the hoarding of animals, they have • Hoarders as suffering from other mange, which affects many species. • Repetition or cycling physical well-being and patience have been proposed models to explain this behavior. disorders, including schizophrenia and Additionally, birds, reptiles, and “farmed” according to news of the addictive taxed by a hoarder’s behavior for years may Tourette’s syndrome: A University of Iowa animals may be carriers of salmonellosis. sources. Hoarders as “animal addicts”: According be left living next to an uninhabited structure behavior • neurologist suggested that pathological The risk of zoonotic disease sharply spikes to California Lawyer’s feature on the and an accumulation of junk. • Neglect of personal, collecting behavior can be symptomatic when exotic animals are involved. prosecution of animal hoarders, “Some of these disorders. physical, and psychologists believe that hoarders are The danger presented by zoonotic diseases A Fate Worse Than Death environmental actually addicted to their animals, just as Of course, more than one of the above is heightened for those with underdeveloped An animal hoarder’s behavior translates into conditions substance abusers are addicted to drugs models—and the illnesses they are tied or compromised immune systems, such as filthy, cramped, extremely crowded conditions or alcohol” Houston veterinarian Dr. Karen to—may be at play in any animal hoarding children and dependent adults, especially • Claims of for many animals, who are deprived—for Kemper told the Houston Chronicle that case. Dr. Randall Lockwood states, “These the elderly. Experts have found that these years, in many cases—of basic needs such persecution hoarders are “like alcoholics” and pointed models are not mutually exclusive; several individuals share residences with animal as sustenance, shelter, socialization, and • Denial that the to 10 behavioral traits that animal may apply to a single individual.” hoarders in as many as 53 percent of veterinary care for their illnesses and injuries. hoarders share with substance abusers. hoarding cases. They also face the health addiction exists Regardless of the type of animals or objects These crimes are almost always fatal for the risks associated with high levels of ammonia • Isolation from • Hoarders as suffering from obsessive- that they hoard, all hoarders’ behavior animals. If they do not die at the scene, most compulsive disorder (OCD) or obsessive- in a hoarder’s household. society, except those compromises the cleanliness of their are made so ill or “unadoptable”—having compulsive personality disorder (OCPD): residence and their physical health. “But Because, as the Fairfax County, Va., gone mad from confinement and deprivation who enable the Diagnostic and The fourth edition of the the stakes are even higher when animals Department of Public Works and of minimum care—that the most humane addiction Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders are involved because of the vastly greater Environmental Services states, “Animal option for them is euthanasia. Many animals characterizes the hoarding of inanimate potential for grossly unsanitary conditions hoarding poses a serious health hazard who go undiscovered by authorities languish objects as symptomatic of both OCD and to develop,” states HARC. to a home’s occupants,” a number of for months, even years, on hoarders’ Health OCPD. A 2002 study published in communities have created interagency task properties, dying slow and agonizing & Social Work Typically present in concentrated levels in found that “objects, in forces to ensure the welfare of all parties deaths—a far worse fate than euthanasia animal hoarders’ homes, ammonia—from addition to animals, were hoarded” in all involved in hoarding situations. Such forces administered by caring shelter workers. animals’ accumulated urine—is identified 71 cases examined. Another survey of allow adult and child protective services, as a “high health hazard” by the federal animal hoarding found that 77.6 percent animal control authorities, and health Occupational Safety and Health of inspected premises were described as departments to work cooperatively and Administration, or OSHA, “because it is “heavily cluttered.” exist in Fairfax County, Va.; New York City; corrosive to the skin, eyes, and lungs.” • Hoarders as suffering from dementia: Seattle; and Dane County, Wis. Some experts worry that longtime animal A 2004 Knight Ridder wire story on hoarders’ acclimatization to ammonia could animal hoarders reported that HARC The fact that a majority of animal hoarding jeopardize their capacity to smell other cases—at least 57 percent, according to one 6 7 PETA - Hoarder brochure.qxd 7/11/05 10:23 am Page 8

“It is far better and less costly to make early interventions that get [hoarders] the help they need than to let the problem grow and grow for years.”

—The Honorable Karen Olson, district attorney, Polk County, Wis.

Recidivism Among Animal Hoarders Your Response: Ensuring the Lasting Welfare of All Involved

According to Dr. Gail Steketee of Boston An inadequate sentence for convicted As already outlined, animal hoarders’ 100 percent relapse rate of hoarders, “These people are University’s School of Social Work, the animal hoarders—or one that is not proclivity for engaging in such behavior law enforcement officers, prosecutors, animal addicts.” relapse rate for animal hoarders is near enforced via regular official visits to ensure again and again makes an appropriate and judges must ensure that a lengthy 100 percent. This fact exacerbates all that compliance—virtually guarantees a response from the judicial system vital. ban is ordered for such individuals and —Karen Kemper, D.V.M. is at stake in hoarding cases—for the hoarder’s return to his or her ways, along Hoarders who have been cited or charged that compliance is monitored. hoarders’ physical and mental welfare, that with the disastrous consequences for and brought before the court may have A prohibition on all contact with animals of their dependents, the animals, and the humans and animals. “The old adage,” lengthy histories of ignoring attempts at includes the following: community—and must dictate the form and says Patronek, is that hoarders “have education and intervention, if not prior promptness of every official response to another cat by the time they’re home from convictions. Regardless, a prosecutor and • Animals whose conditions were the such cases, especially the sentencing of the courthouse” after being sentenced. In judge’s shared duty—to the hoarder, his basis of official intervention. They must hoarders convicted of cruelty to animals. 1999, Patronek found that nearly 60 or her dependents, the community, and not be returned to the hoarder’s custody. percent of a sampling of animal hoarding the animals—is to secure a solution in the • All animals who remain in a hoarder’s cases that he reviewed involved recidivism. best interests of those parties. The proper charge following an agreement with adjudication of animal hoarders is an authorities or a plea or conviction. investment in those parties, and anything They must be seized. less virtually guarantees more illness, complaints, suffering, and death. • Hoarders cannot be allowed to own or harbor in any fashion any animals for Inhumane Deaths Hoarders Typically Have a History of Animal hoarding cases are complex a period of time. A lifetime ban on matters that cannot be solved with slaps ownership is explicitly allowed by Such Behavior Edward Mattison of Cochecton, N.Y., was charged after authorities on the wrist. “Take a [hoarder’s] animals statutes in some states. away without any other interventions,” allegedly found 47 dogs at his unlicensed “shelter.” Sources As many as 100 emaciated animals wrote Geoffrey Handy in Shelter Sense, When adjudicating an animal-hoarding indicated that the animals—11 of whom had to be euthanized were found on Juliana Bennett-Blue’s published by The Humane Society of the case, the most helpful behavioral model of because of their dire condition—included emaciated and sore- New York farm in 2004. Her reported United States for animal care and control covered dogs who, deprived of food, had taken to eating the frozen criminal history included several officers, “and he or she will likely remains of 10 dogs found wrapped in plastic bags. convictions on cruelty charges and accumulate the same number of animals a 1994 arrest following the reported within a short period of time. … A one- St. Croix Falls, Wis., residents Dorothy Weinhardt and Jean and time rescue or a prosecution and a fine seizure of 148 animals from the Wayne Bloomquist were charged after authorities reported the are rarely, if ever, permanent solutions.” same property. discovery of 397 cats—some dead, others missing eyes and covered in open sores—inside their shared, feces-strewn residence in Dr. Janis Walder’s feces-ridden Implementing and Enforcing a Ban on November 2004. All the surviving animals were reportedly Louisiana property reportedly housed the Hoarder’s Contact With Animals euthanized. 170 animals of three different species The likelihood of repeat offenses among in 2004. Six years earlier, officials all cruelty offenders—animal abusers, Marlene Kess, of East Orange, N.J., was charged after authorities allegedly removed 121 neglected neglectors, and fighters included— reported finding 38 sick cats languishing inside her home and the demands that they be barred from contact animals from the same property. maggot-covered remains of some 210 additional cats behind her home. with animals for at least as long as the law specifically allows. Given the close to

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“Once their animals are taken away, many animal hoarders simply start replacing them until they again come to the attention of the legal system.”

—The Washington Post, Dec. 12, 2000

hoarding to consider may be that of such argues that effective court orders authorize Incarceration for Hoarders: Insufficient individuals as “animal addicts.” Barring an officials to “monitor the [hoarder] on Its Own, Sometimes Necessary animal hoarder from owning animals may indefinitely …, including specific provisions Although incarcerating an animal hoarder be as central to such cases as provisions for for home inspections … to prevent the without providing for his or her mental sobriety and treatment in those of drug and [hoarder] from starting the collection anew. health will fail to address the root cause of alcohol abusers. … Failure to follow up on a court order can the problem, imprisonment may be a useful have disastrous consequences.” Drawing on Kemper’s model, allowing an facet of sentences for some hoarders. animal hoarder to own or harbor even a In the face of a limit or ban on their owning Holding hoarders in custody may facilitate single animal is akin to providing a drink animals, some hoarders may move rather their access to mental health professionals to an alcoholic and warning him or her not than stop hoarding. Efforts must thus be and thus improve their well-being. Further, to consume a second. Should a hoarder made to stay informed of a hoarder’s jail time may be the only means by which be allowed to own animals, those animals whereabouts and notify the appropriate law hoarders with a history of violating orders must be spayed or neutered. Samantha enforcement and humane agencies should against owning animals or whose Mullen, formerly of the New York State a hoarder move to another jurisdiction. compliance with new orders is unlikely Humane Association, states that giving can be kept away from their victims. And unaltered animals back to hoarders is “like Finding and Treating the Root of the in some cases, the magnitude and severity giving [them] their seed crop.” Indeed, one Hoarder’s Behavior: Psychiatric of the suffering is such that imprisonment analysis of hoarding cases found that Intervention is a vital part of a just punishment. “accidental breeding” was the most common manner by which hoarders According to the New York State Humane accumulated animals. Association, “Unless expert psychiatric help is obtained, hoarders almost invariably Barring animal hoarders from contact return” to their behavior. The proper response Jailing Animal Hoarders Merry Bane, of Arizona, was sentenced to with animals must also preclude them to animal hoarders includes ordering that six months in jail after she pleaded guilty from performing community service around they undergo a psychiatric or psychological Pennsylvania’s Debbie Jarvis was animals, especially in an animal shelter. to charges stemming from authorities’ In 2001, Illinois evaluation and any subsequent treatment sentenced to more than three years in A facility likely at capacity with homeless reported discovery of 121 diseased and deemed necessary by the examining jail after authorities found dozens of became the first state animals facing euthanasia presents a malnourished cats, dogs, and birds caged professional or court. An intervention lacking dead dogs and 20 surviving ones in her to specifically address multitude of temptations for an animal a mental health component fails to identify or inside mobile homes on her property. feces-strewn home. Jarvis had animal hoarding in its hoarder. “Requiring a [hoarder] to work in address what causes hoarding and opens the statutes. The law a shelter for community service,” says door for relapses. apparently posed as an animal rescuer. New Jersey’s Kelly Long was sentenced defines hoarding as a Susan McDonough, a New York State to five months in jail after repeatedly Police investigator, “is akin to requiring “We … agree that strict probation Karen McCann, of Indiana, was sent to crime and makes a owning animals in violation of two court an alcoholic to work as a bartender.” conditions, including psychological prison for nearly three years after psychological or orders not to have contact with them. counseling, are needed to prevent the repeatedly owning animals in violation psychiatric evaluation A court-ordered limit or prohibition on After being granted early release, Long owning animals must be enforced with typical animal hoarder from repeating of her probation. Her three and appropriate was again found with animals in regular, unannounced visits from law the offense.” grandchildren and 27 cats had been treatment mandatory violation of her probation and was jailed enforcement or humane agents. The —Terry Spitz, chief assistant district attorney, found in her urine-soaked home. for animal hoarders. for more than three additional months. Humane Society of the United States Monterey County, Calif.

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Model Sentences for Hoarders

A lifelong ban on contact with animals A lifelong ban on owning animals: enforced by property inspections: Utah’s Sydney McDonald had 59 sick New Jersey’s John Mariner left nearly cats in her trailer. Most of the animals 50 malnourished and parasite-ridden were euthanized. dogs to languish inside his house and A four-year ban on contact with animals a feces-filled pen. and 90 days in jail: A lifelong ban on owning animals: Nearly 100 cats and the rotting remains of Barry Kennedy of Maine was found with others were found in Larry Schaff’s filthy 24 dead animals and more than 200 Georgia mobile home. survivors of at least 11 different species A two-year ban on owning animals: languishing in conditions a judge called At least 67 cats and dogs were removed “atrocious.” from Victoria Lovvorn’s Oregon home after A lifelong ban on owning animals: six months of officials’ failed attempts to William Walsh pleaded guilty to cruelty to resolve complaints of odor, noise, and animals after authorities found 65 sick and disease-ridden conditions. dehydrated animals in his filthy Illinois home.

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