Hi, I’m PJ and I am a Packrat, indeed I am.
I grew up in small towns where people realized “normal” was a broad range and respected people’s choices and decisions so long as it didn’t harm others. In a small town, it’s tough not to be aware of what other people are “up to” but, more and more, we’ve narrowed what is acceptable as “normal” and I find it sad, especially when it’s enforced by laws that infringe fundamental rights.
When I entered law school, a private law school, they sought a diverse student body. The diversity in age, race, religion, and background made for a wonderful learning environment and encouraged tolerance. The entering class as I was graduating looked like cookie cutter clones and I felt sorry for them, for what I knew they wouldn’t experience and learn.
I am a packrat and my son is a Borrower. We annoy each other. I use as little as possible, save what I don’t use for later. Borrowers come in the night and take things but never return them. In my son’s case, he “borrows”, often without asking, and rarely returns the borrowed items. I call that theft and waste. He’s been know to treat clothing, linens, and housewares as throwaway items. He is a product of modernity. It’s all cheap so use it and toss it; pick up more when needed. I object on so many levels, starting with what that thinking does to the environment by filling waste dumps AND it annoys me to know that he tosses out what could be readily used by those in desperate need. Do I need to spell out that taking without permission and with no real intent to return is THEFT. My son’s response is that stuff belongs to “the family” and I respond like Mr. Huxtable: We (the parents) are wealthy (and own the “stuff”); you kids are PAUPERS (admittedly paraphrased and with liberties taken :). My point is that there is a range of “normal” behaviors and he and I represent a couple of points along that continuum.
As I started to write this, I looked up the term “packrat” on Wikipedia and my jaw dropped as I was redirected to “Compulsive hoarding”. WHAT? Oh, well, my topic for today is really about compulsive animal hoarding so I’ll get on with that for now.
What is “animal hoarding”?
- More than the typical number of companion aniamls [sic]
- Inability to provide even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter, and veterinary care, with this neglect often resulting in starvation, illness, and death
- Denial of the inability to provide this minimum care and the impact of that failure on the animals, the household, and human occupants of the dwelling
I take issue with the first of those. What is typical and for whom or under what circumstances? Obviously, a wealthy widow can afford (in time and money) to properly care for more cats than a struggling employee who’s working 60+ hours/week. Isn’t it easier to care for 10 cats than 10 Great Danes? Certainly so if space is part of the consideration. Far too vague to be useful in my opinion.
The other 2 criteria seem appropriate to me. Even so, I have deep concerns about the government or, worse, non-profit organizations with the authority to seize animals getting to set the “minimal standards”. All too often, minimum standards are set as one size fits all and that can be quite detrimental.
For example, the dog who has an anaphylactic reaction to a rabies vaccine but for whom no exception is made to mandatory vaccination laws. Part of immunity is community or herd immunity. It says the minority of unvaccinated are protected by the majority being vaccinated. With that and an owner being aware so as to little wildlife rabies exposure, an allergic dog could easily live out a full and healthy life without a rabies vaccine and with virtually no risk to others (certainly less risk than running across a wild animal). To those of you who want to live in a society with ZERO risk, I suggest you focus on the ability to get to another planet because this one has many risks and the small number of dogs that would exempted like this would be very far down on a list of potential hazards.
In the effort to control animal hoarding, many places are imposing limits on the number of animals one can have. But how many is too many? Of course, they set limits in absolute terms, regardless of circumstances. And they seem to be doing so without any idea of how many pets per household is really typical and without regard to how many will have to be euthanized to meet the limitations, regardless of the fact they were being properly cared for. But let’s look at some serious hoarders so we know why there is concern at all.
The Collyer Brothers have become the typical example of extreme hoarding of “stuff”. It seems clear to me that the brothers started off life in a dysfunctional family. After their parents died, they continued to live in their parents’ former home in Harlem, acquired when Harlem was an upscale neighborhood. The neighborhood declined, there were multiple break ins, increasing harassment from the neighborhood. They were eccentric to start with and grew more so and became reclusive and fearful, set up booby traps. They had moved in their parents belongs after they died and, for many, those are difficult items to let go of if there are still outstanding issues (and I suspect there were). They were “odd” and they hoarded. The older brother went blind. The younger started to collect daily newspapers for him, for when his sight returned. The sighted brother was found dead, victim of one of his own booby traps. His older brother died later, trapped in the home. 130 tons of garbage was removed from the home. 8 live cats were found. I’ve always wondered what became of them. A slightly kinder version of the story is here.
The Collyer story should provoke many emotions; not just horror and disgust. To me, it is a sad story, a sad statement on societal intolerance then. And I don’t think we’ve learned a darned thing since. In fact, I think our intolerance is leading to more and increasing hoarding today. Periodically, it’s in the news or featured on programs. A while back, 20/20 did a show on Cat Ladies. You can watch it here.
This morning, it was on NBC. “An estimated 2 million people in the U.S. suffer from compulsive hoarding”. I’ll bet the real number is higher than that. I look at those pictures and obviously there’s a problem, multiple problems.
Any time you look at hoarder pictures and see feces covering everything, you can expect they were hoarding animals too. And, or course, the typical societal response is, to my mind, nearly ass backward. Obviously, the animals may need immediate assistance but that should be balanced with the rights of the owner. All too often, the animals are snatched up, the owner’s home is cleaned up and/or they are fined; their home may even be condemned. And then society walks away. This person was already in distress, already in a perfect storm. How does inflicting a hurricane on them help anyone? Especially if it leaves them shoved more in the direction they were already headed. It may serve SOME of the animals rescued but there will now probably be more and it may be many, many more the next time around.
“Single. Female. Three Cats. Red flag!” it screams out on the 20/20 page about Cat Ladies and that’s where the intolerance starts. How about we accept that some people like cats or dogs or ferrets and not begin to alienate them the moment they go over that magic number “2”. I’d have trouble with 1 Great Dane but someone else might be comfortable with and able to care for a large pack of them. 3 cats I can handle. I’m a cat lady and proud of it but I’ve learned from experience that 4 cats is my MAX and I learned that partly because I didn’t grow up in intolerance but with support. 4 cats is MY max but that’s just me. And it’s with or without other pets/animals. I had 2 dogs and I thought that was my max. I now have 4 and am discovering that 4 is easier than 2 was. And I have 3 cats currently. So, 7 pets altogether that I can afford and have time to care for and love. I cook for the dogs and may find time to cook for the cats too. Some would instantly call me an “animal hoarder” just from that number of 7 pets. Some will call me crazy for fixing food for the dogs. Frankly, I don’t care because I have sufficient support to know I haven’t gone off the deep end and to keep me from going there.
The best thing we can all do to improve animal hoarding problems is to reach out to those who are headed over the cliff but you must do it appropriately or you will drive them off the ledge and they will cut you out. That will not help them or you and it certainly won’t help the animals. Start by not jumping to conclusions or escalating language (like Wikipedia equating packratting with compulsive hoarding).
Hoarding, including animal hoarding, is a mental health issue and a societal tolerance issue, NOT an animal rights issue not even primarily an animal welfare issue. Get your information on this from appropriate sources. Here’s one to start with. Although it is primarily for the NY community, there’s some good information and links there. Few who read this will be qualified to use their “Assessment Tool” but a read through of it might help you to know what to look for if you think someone you know might be in need of help. Use the same type of neutral language when you begin that attempt to help.
If we are more tolerant of each other, life improves for us and our animals.