Sad topic, rescuer to hoarder?

Awe what a sweet little cutie pie

Rescuing an animal is mutually beneficial. While the animal finds a person as a caretaker, the rescuer feels good inside.Everytime I rescued one I felt elated and found a purpose. It gets tricky for some people as they become addicted to feeling good about it and go overboard, then are overwhelmed by too much responsibility. And I have heard some horror stories of abuse too.Some take in animals no body wanted,just to abuse them.So yeah,not everything is done out of kindness.

Update

I have settled in to increasing my monthly donation to the foundation I mentioned before. The foundation and other rescue groups also have an agreement with a pet shop where you can buy food by the kilo and the shop delivers it to the rescues monthly. So, when I can, I send them a few kilos.

I saw on social media the rescuer is finally being more active to go to adoption events. I hope those go well for her. guess I will see if she immediately gets in over her head again or not.

Hey rechu!

She's an animal hoarder. The psychology behind the cause of animal hoarding is that the person suffers from OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), and develops strong emotional attachments to other living beings, such as animals.

Animal Hoarding | Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA

This is a great blog written by Karen L. Cassiday, PhD, is Clinical Director and Owner, The Anxiety Treatment Center, Deerfield & Chicago, Illinois; Clinical Assistant Professor, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Sciences; and Clinical Director for Rogers Behavioral Health Chicago.

I agree with Dr Cassiday and Dr Franklin about treatment options for people like your neighbor. Unless they want to be helped...they won't accept outside intervention.

I think you're at the point where you could call the local authorities there to report her animal hoarding. Those animals aren't safe under her care; the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Although this woman loves animals, she is mentally ill and needs treatment. Unless she accepts treatment, I know I would report her and have the animals removed to other animal shelters (who were willing to take on the animals).

Do what's best for those poor animals at her house. She's clearly not able to care for them or herself.

I hope she doesnt get too picky about who can adopt from her, like deciding that they have the wrong colour of curtains (for example) and rules them out based on her personal preferences for house decoration etc

I just read your update after I posted my comment. I think it is commendable of you to donate. However, I would also caution you to think about involving the local animal control authorities if the animal hoarding situation is as bad as you describe.

I realize that my tone may sound mean, but I'm concerned for those animals welfare. I have no sympathy for animal hoarders especially knowing a couple here, stateside.

One woman I knew years ago, who rescued cats, had an anxiety/OCD disorder, and she rescued cats. She'd leave food on her kitchen counter to rot, her car was full of garbage, her living room, kitchen and bedroom were full of garbage and she never regularly cleaned her cat litterboxes which overflowed with poop. When you entered her home, your eyes would sting from the strong urine ammonia smell of cat urine all over her walls.

Another woman, also hoarded animals she rescued. They were all emaciated dogs and cats because she rarely fed them regularly and rarely cleaned their cages. She was reported to the local animal control (not by me, actually) and her house was raided and her rescuing days came to an end. She was in her 60s and on disability. I knew her through the other woman, when I thought about rescuing cats (not anymore).

I love animals. Like you, I know my limits. And while I commend those who rescue animals I also worry for those strays welfare when the person(s) aren't reliable or responsible (and like your friend, won't control their hoarding or need to collect/rescue animals).

That is 100% the problem with the people who run animal rescues. Their adoption processes are random and based on their own biases. I tried to adopt a kitten from an animal rescue but she didn't like where I went to college, so she rejected my application.

As I mentioned in the first page of the thread, I live in a developing country and there is no SPCA or Animal Control to report to. In addition, I don't have her exact address if I could make a report.

We have an animal cruelty law, but it doesn't cover things like this situation. The main thing that could be an Animal Control issue elsewhere is the number of animals she has in a small apartment. From her posts online, it seems like she gets enough donations to keep them fed and I don't think they are being abused. The animal cruelty law gets the PDI (sort of like the FBI) involved.

Anyways, I closely followed the development of this law and the regulations that implement it. There was discussion of limiting how many pets you can have in a space, to avoid these sort of situations. Something along the lines of if your home is 100 square meters you can have three pets, etc. That proposal was pretty controversial. It was considered discriminatory against lower-income households since their homes tend to be smaller. In the end, it wasn't included in the final law or regulations.


I know in some cases, the municipal health department has gotten involved in cases where people have excessive animals, usually in an apartment, due to noise, smell, etc. But, her neighbors would probably have to be the ones to complain. I am kind of surprised they haven't.