Posted February 4, 2011 by Rachelle Owen
Many of us have had a peek into the bizarre world of hoarding courtesy of reality TV. Collecting piles and piles of household junk is bad enough, but when hoarders collect living animals, the results are extreme neglect, suffering, and death.
According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), “It is likely that up to a quarter million animals—250,000 per year—are victims of hoarders. What’s more, records kept by ALDF indicate that in the last four years, the number of reported hoarding cases has more than doubled.”
Alarmingly, as a result of public pressure to avoid euthanasia at all costs, the hoarding mentality has infiltrated animal shelters. MSNBC.com reports that groups calling themselves “rescues” and “shelters” currently account for one-fourth of the estimated 6,000 new hoarding cases annually reported in the U.S. This is just one more way that trying to become “no-kill” before becoming “no-birth” hurts animals.
When animal shelters and rescue groups—such as South Carolina’s terribly inaccurately named Sacred Vision Animal Sanctuary—aren’t themselves hoarding animals, they sometimes farm out animals to anyone who will take them, including hoarders, in order to reduce the number of animals they euthanize.
Here are just two examples:
If you want to help keep animals out of hoarders’ hands, volunteer at your local shelter and note how the shelter screens potential fosters, placement partners, rescue groups and adopters. If something looks wrong, it probably is. Please also spay and neuter all your animal companions—it’s the only real way to prevent animals from being born only to end up homeless or hoarded.
peta2 Street Team Coordinator + lover of vegan food, cats, animal rights, Dawson's Creek, and Harry Potter.
Hello! My name is Nina, and I am a musician-in-training, and I play 7 instruments. I am a liberal, an LGBT activist, avid reader, composer, singer, and poi spinner. I am vegan, and a strong supporter of animal rights.
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849 days ago
0
Thank you,PETA for publicizing this issue. I hope you will continue to do so.We are a nontraditional “rescue” group which provides low cost spay/neuter,education,and transportation for low income cat owners in Baltimore city and surrounding counties.We average close to 1000 cats a year,that we return to their owners”fixed”.They are more likely to stay in their homes and are healthier.I am quite familiar with the practices at BARCS, the semi private branch of the city shelter. She has for several years put out cats,kittens and dogs unaltered,and has farmed out huge numbers of cats to “rescue” groups and fosters and in addition solicits anyone to become a foster,all in the name of”rescue,no kill and adoption”.On several occasions the cats which I picked up for s/n came from BARCS,and fosters from BARCS (documented on the vaccination record of one FVRCP vaccine)and with the remark from the owner “they had lots of cats and the house really smelled and was filthy”.I have learned a lot about the practices of rescue groups and the perpetuation and exploitation of overpopulation by these groups.Unfortunately there are no standards, no oversight and they are getting away with murder,and a brainwashed public loves it because it wants “NOTHING KILLED”,while millions suffer, are killed and die outdoors! ALL SPAY/NEUTER HAS TO COME BEFORE NO KILL! Educate yourself,help someone get her cat fixed who is low income,become a spay/neuter fanatic,don’t be a “rescue,no kill,adoption” fanatic—it’s killing and producing millions more who will have to suffer”. Rose Bauman “THE EDUCATED CAT INC.”
859 days ago
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I think many hoarders start off with good intentions but it just gets out of hand.