Pet owners with hoarding tendencies may take toll on health of animals in care

Animal lovers who strive to care for many pets—and have personal hoarding tendencies—may risk the quality of their own wellbeing and that of those under their care, a recent US collaborative study has found.

The paper by has been published in a recent online edition of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

“Although most folks with hoarding disorder collect objects, for some folks their main struggle is having more animals than they can care for,” A/Prof Dozier said.

“Most research on animal hoarding has focused on extreme cases. We wanted to look at what normative patterns of animal ownership look like, particularly in a rural setting, and if there were any trends we could discover related to animal health.”

A/Prof Dozier and A/Prof Ben Porter examined a decade’s worth of records from the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine Community Veterinary Services, looking for number of canine and feline animals per household and indicators of animal health, both positive—such as dental visits—and negative—such as hydration problems.

A/Prof Dozier said individuals with animal hoarding disorder may not recognise how their hoarding tendencies interfere with the health of their pets because they often feel they are “saving” the animals and are unable to recognise the toll on both the animals and on themselves.

Their research revealed animals from households with eight or more animals were associated with worse health, likely stemming from owners possessing more animals than they have the capacity to adequately handle.

“One of my goals is to find ways to identify people who might need help,” A/Prof Dozier said.  

“This research project was the first step toward finding ways to screen for animal hoarding and then connect those individuals with mental health services in the community.”